Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
regional and spatial dimensions of tourism labour markets and their policy and planning
implications (e.g. Chhetri
et al.
, 2008; Lundmark, 2005, 2006; Liu and Wall, 2006). In fact
several recent critiques of sustainable tourism and the evolution of the fi eld, particularly
the contribution made by different disciplines to this evolving fi eld of study since the 1960s,
highlight major contributions made by geographers to this critical area of research (Page and
Connell, 2008; Saarinen, 2006).
Urban tourism has been a focal point of geographical research since the 1980s (Ashworth,
1992; Law, 1992; Page, 1995; Selby,
Chapter 30
of this volume), primarily as a result of
economic restructuring and change and associated place marketing, but also in connection
with specifi c tourism products such as hallmark events (Ashworth and Tunbridge, 2000;
Cartier and Lew, 2005; Judd and Fainstein, 1999; Page and Hall, 2003; Pearce, 2001;
Richards, 2001). More recent research developments include particular attention to ethnic
and heritage precincts (e.g. Chang, 2000; Timothy, 2002), their gateway function (Page,
2001) as well as the continuing relationship of tourism to broader processes of urban change,
especially in inner city or waterfront areas. One of the most signifi cant developments with
respect to research on tourism's role in urban development and place marketing has been its
role within the notion of creative industries, regions or cities (Bayliss, 2004, 2007; Gibson
and Connell, 2003, 2005, 2007; Wilson,
Chapter 16
of this volume), whereby creativity is
regarded as being an important element of place competitiveness and development (Richards
and Wilson, 2006, 2007a, 2007b). However, the notion of creative cities and industries and
their capacities for innovation is by no means uncontested (e.g. Gibson and Klocker, 2004;
Hall and Williams, 2008; Richards and Wilson, 2007a). Indeed, within much of the litera-
ture on regional studies and tourism, which views tourism as a form of regional development,
it has been described as a 'low-road approach of serial reproduction rather than a 'high road'
approach that utilises tourism as a means to an end in terms of accessibility, enabling functions
and quality of life (Hall, 2007b; Hall and Williams, 2008; Malecki, 2004). In this respect,
tourism is the supporting infrastructure rather than the driver of change in the local economic
landscape, a feature which has led to the downshifting of tourism as a principal architect of
urban regeneration to one where mixed uses now dominate the public sector's encourage-
ment of cultural quarters and sectors in regional regeneration (see also Wilson and Tallon,
Chapter 13
of this volume).
The relationship between tourism and place change is clearly not isolated to urban envi-
ronments. Rural areas and the countryside have also long been an area of interest to tourism
geographers (Robinson, 1999; Sharpley, 2004; Hall
et al.
, 2003, 2005a, 2005b; Roberts and
Hall, 2001; Robinson, 1999; Saxena,
Chapter 29
of this volume; Sharpley, 2004), particularly
given their role as an urban recreational hinterland and playground of many urbanites
(Patmore, 1983), especially in national parks (Connell and Page, 2008; Frost and Hall, 2009).
Farm tourism continues to be an object of interest (e.g. Gössling and Mattson, 2002), although
this has also been developed into a more thorough examination of the role of tourism in the
development of new distribution channels such as farmers' markets and other forms of direct
marketing, sometimes described as food and wine tourism (for reviews of this fi eld see Hall
and Mitchell, 2008; Hall and Sharples, 2008; Hjalager and Richards, 2002; Mitchell and
Hall, 2006; Nummedal and Hall, 2006). However, the development of the post-productivist
countryside in some developed countries also provides opportunities for the study of tourism
and rurality as well as confl ict between different rural users. The role of second homes in the
countryside has been a signifi cant theme addressed by geographers (Hall and Müller, 2004),
with several publications noting the extent to which a myth of displacement exists (Marjavaara,
2007a, 2007b) as well as myths of rurality (Pitkänen, 2008).
