Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
GEOGRAPHY AND THE
Alan A. Lew
Introduction
Geography has frequently been defi ned as the study of space and place (Tuan, 1977). Simply
put, place studies focus on understanding characteristics that make one location distinct from
another, while space studies emphasise the relationships between and among places.
Geographic place and geographic space provide two fundamental ways of examining how
diverse phenomena interact and relate in a three-dimensional world. Marketing research, on
the other hand, is concerned with enhancing the relationship between consumers and prod-
ucts (Kotler and Armstrong, 1989). Marketing studies generally focus on either the consumer
(e.g. demand and experience) or on the product (e.g. supply and qualities) (Gronroos, 2006).
The consumer and the product are closely interrelated (one would not exist without the
other) and managing that relationship has become the emphasis of much contemporary
m arket ing. Th is is seen, for exa mple, in
market segmentation
studies that identify which versions
of a product are best suited to different types of consumers (Dickson and Ginter, 1987).
Figure 23.1
provides a conceptual image of the disciplinary relationship between geog-
raphy and marketing based on fundamental themes that underlie each area of research. The
difference between a product orientation and a consumer orientation in marketing is familiar
to most economic geographers and tourism researchers as having a direct correlation with the
demand side and the supply side in product development (Hall and Lew, 2009). As an
economic concept, supply and demand refer, respectively, to the typical amount of a product
Figure 23.1
Relationship between the fundamental areas of focus in geography and marketing as they
relate to tourism research
