Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
understanding tourism. This chapter will outline some of the key concepts of landscape
signifi cant in the study of tourism, including the construction of tourism places, tourism
representations and tourist landscape experience, as well as developing trends in tourism land-
scape research.
Tourism landscape research trends
Within the specifi c fi eld of tourism landscape research, several threads have been pursued.
Tourism landscapes are not simply naively given, even in the most obvious tourist locales.
Landscape theory affords a way to assess the production of tourist landscapes, from the phys-
ical as well as the perceptual aspect. Even when dealing with a physical space which appears
to all intents and purposes as a wild natural place, socioculturally bound norms inform
the ways in which we perceive places. Tourism sites do not simply spring from the ground
whole cloth, but rather they are chosen, crafted and shaped. In some cases this entails the
manipulation of the physical environment, the trucking in of sand for beaches suffering from
erosion, or the creation of nicely landscaped parks in downtown areas. In other cases, this
manipulation is of the perceptions about a place, what one sees in the careful crafting of
tourism advertisements for places not high on the list of must-see destinations.
Landscapes of tourism - physical spaces of tourism
Tourism sites are fi rst and foremost developed around an attraction. Attractions can be natural
or cultural (Williams, 2009), but are always tied to the landscape of a place - as either a
physical feature of the landscape or as symbolically represented within it. Tourism developers,
entrepreneurs and marketers work from the point of the attraction to create tourism places.
This involves the development of tourism infrastructure (transportation links, hospitality
services etc.), as well as the development of destination 'brands' and accompanying slogans.
Thus, while tourism occurs
in
places, it also involves the
creation
of places (see also Chang,
Chapter 17
and Lew,
Chapter 23
of this volume).
Perhaps the most well-known tourism developments, in terms of the confl uence of phys-
ical environment and image manipulation, are enclaves and resorts. Traditionally, these have
tended to be based on a physical attribute, such as a beach, hot springs or alpine views, and
usually involve a high degree of foreign investment. Development of lodging, hospitality and
transit infrastructure can result in rather isolated places, leading to the segregation of tourists
from local populations and businesses. Likewise such developments employ sophisticated
marketing campaigns to sell these constructions as paradises. The manipulation of landscape
for tourism enclaves and resorts occurs at multiple scales, from highlighting the physical
attribute that inspired its development, to its division into tourist spaces and local spaces, and
even the staging of place uniqueness based on local stereotypes.
Touristed landscapes are different from enclaves and resorts in that they are
lived
spaces in
which large tourist populations gather. Cartier and Lew (2005: 3), in writing about the geog-
raphies of 'touristed landscapes', argue that 'tourists signifi cantly patronise these landscapes
but that their formation [is] not fundamentally owed to the culture and economy of those
who pass through'.
Touristed landscapes include both rural and urban locations and are based on physical and/
or cultural attractions. Heritage tourism is the most prominent type of tourism associated
with rural touristed landscapes. Interpretations of histories of ethnicity and bygone lifestyles
in picturesque scenery fuel much rural heritage tourism (see Timothy,
Chapter 20
in this
