Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
2
THE DEMAND FOR RECREATION AND
TOURISM
Understanding why human beings engage in recreational and tourism activities is an
increasingly important and complex area of research for social scientists. Historically,
geographers have played only a limited part in developing the literature on the
behavioural aspects of recreational and tourists' use of free time (Jackson 1988), tending
to have a predisposition towards the analysis of aggregate patterns of demand using
quantitative measures and statistical sources. In only a few cases have theoretical and
qualitative approaches been used (e.g. Stokowski 2002) which embody notions of leisure
and place. This almost rigid demarcation of research activity has, with a few exceptions
(e.g. Goodall 1990; Mansfeld 1992), meant that behavioural research in recreation and
tourism has only since the early 1990s made any impact on the wider research
community (see e.g. Walmesley and Lewis 1993 on the geographer's approach to
behavioural research), with notable studies (e.g. Walmesley and Jenkins 1992; Jenkins
and Walmesley 1993) applying spatial principles to the analysis of recreational and
tourism behaviour. Since the early 1990s, geographers have begun to identify how the
demand for leisure and tourism has resulted in
geographies
of leisure and tourism
specific to certain social, ethnic, gendered and marginalised groups (e.g. disabled people)
and the meanings they attach to the spaces they consume in their leisure time, or are
unable to consume due to barriers and constraints. As McAvoy's (2002) work
demonstrates, there are distinct place meanings attached to the ways that Native
American Indians and white Americans value and use leisure resources. The results are a
series of leisure and tourism landscapes, socially, culturally and politically constructed
for different groups of people (Aitchison et al. 2000).
GEOGRAPHERS AND DEMAND: HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES
Even historians of tourism and recreation, such as Durie (2003:1), note: There has been in
the last few years a major sea change in the literature on tourism'. Quite a number of
substantial studies have been published on the history of tourism, many of which have
described the evolution of tourism and recreation in different eras, typically as
monographs (e.g. Walton 1983; Gold and Gold 1995) among new texts such as Durie's
(2003)
Scotland for the Holidays: Tourism in Scotland 1780-1939
. These types of
