Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
by the emergence of the so-called 'new tourists' (Poon, 1989), who desire individualised and
tailored holidays (Meethan,
Chapter 7 i
n this volume), in contrast to the standardised mass
package holidays previously demanded (Butcher, 2003; Urry, 2001). Such a trend has certainly
not seen the demise of mass tourism (see Anton Clavé,
Chapter 28
) or indeed the package
holiday which primarily involves the coastal resort and its three key components - the sea,
sun and sand. Furthermore, according to Meyer (2003) and Mintel (2001), there has been an
above average growth in tourist travel to long-haul destinations, with the top 20 offering
beach holidays. It therefore appears that instead there has been a shift to what Ritzer and Liska
(1997) term 'McDonaldisation' or 'neo-Fordism'. This entails a process of mass customisation
made possible in part by innovations surrounding the internet (Buhalis, 2006), along with the
widespread availability of credit cards for online booking and the growth of social network
sites via Web 2.0.
In addition, another identifi able broad trend is the creation of a dominance of fi rms from
developed Western economies, which according to Truong (1990) control the fl ow of knowl-
edge and competencies in the global market. Such control is exercised through a variety of agen-
cies, some of which very little is known about, particularly in the context of tourism. For
example, in Europe a few large tour operators still dominate mass tourism markets, which are
still mainly focused on coastal resorts as their main tourism product (Cavlec, 2000; Mosedale,
2007). The major economic agents controlling international tourism are airlines, tour operators,
travel agents (including e-tourism sites), global hotel chains and cruise lines. In turn, there is an
increasing amount of integration involving management, services, fi nancial institutions, research
and development agencies and governments. Whilst much of the tourism infrastructure relates
to the inclusive package the situation is changing rapidly due to the internet and e-tourism.
These agents of coastal development wield signifi cant economic power, which often
produces unequal relationships within destination areas, notably within the so-called
pleasure-periphery. This term was fi rst coined by Turner and Ash (1975) and was later
re-developed by King (2001), and refers to the tourism economies in the less developed coun-
tries of South-East Asia, East Africa, Latin America and the Pacifi c. Indeed, this inequality
was recognised by the UNCTAD (1998: 3), who stated that 'many suppliers of tourism serv-
ices in developing countries (hotels, tourist guides, land-transport providers) are hampered by
their weak bargaining position . . . which often results in unfavourable contractual condi-
tions'. Such inequalities in power relationships, together with intense competition with other
trans-national corporations, result in what the OECD (1999) and Souty (2002) have described
as an abuse of buying power operated by predatory pricing strategies (OECD, 1993). Given
this occurrence, the second part of this chapter focuses on the role that development agents
(see also Palomino-Schalscha,
Chapter 24)
and related processes play in the global pleasure-
periphery, and relates primarily to purpose-built coastal resorts, and to large coastal hotel
complexes and hotel villages (Shaw and Agarwal, 2007).
The resort development process in the pleasure-periphery
The globalisation of the resort into virtually all types of beach environment is a recognisable
feature of tourism development in the 'pleasure-periphery'. This has in part been achieved
through increased segmentation in response to market demand, combined with the retention of
key common elements (Ayala, 1991; Bramwell, 2004a). Honey and Krantz (2007), in their
discussion of global trends operating in coastal resorts, conclude that the picture of development
is complex and often varies regionally. Nevertheless they highlight some major decision-making
pathways of resort development.
