Tourism and Regional Development Issues - Tourism and Development: Concepts and Issues - page 145

Table 5.1 Differences between 'old' and 'new' regionalism

'Old' regionalism 'New' regionalism

Formed in bipolar Cold War context Formed in a multipolar world order in

the context of globalisation

Created from above More of a voluntary process where there

was an imperative to cooperate

In economic terms more inward-oriented
and protectionist

Open in terms of economics and
compatible with interdependent
world economy

More specifi c in terms of objectives
whether economic or security focused

New objectives are a result of
more comprehensive and multi-
dimensional societal process

Concerned with relations of
neighbouring nation-states

Part of globalisation where variety of
non-state actors are operating at
several levels of the global system

Source: After Hettne (2003: 23-24).

context of emerging global city-regions. These global city-regions are the
sites of new experiments in local participation and reorganisation as different
social groups in these regions deal with stresses and strains of globalisation
and at the same time these global city-regions are becoming economic forces
and political actors with a definite identity on the world stage. These global
city-regions compete with each other trying to attract investment and tour-
ists. As will be illustrated later in the chapter, there is an increasing trend
towards greater collaboration in tourism at many levels.

Regional Economic Development Models and
Concepts

The processes of economic development of a region have been studied
from a variety of different approaches. Blair (1995) outlines a variety of fun-
damental theories of regional growth, a few of which are discussed here.

(1) Stage models describe key stages that a city or region passes through; as
a region develops, it is able to replace imports and develops additional
products for exports.
(2) The export-base theory of growth is based on the idea that for a local
economy to grow it must increase its monetary inflow and the only way
to do this is through an increase in exports. This model is usually dis-
cussed in terms of income or employment. The income, which is earned