Just a friendly advance warning: there’s quite a bit of reading for this Topic so you will need to spend more time reading this week.
Let’s move on to some spatial aspects of the Whole Tourism System: places.
This topic examines three elements of whole tourism systems – tourist generating regions, transit routes and tourist destination regions. This topic also introduces you to another seminal (very influential) tourism model – the destination lifecycle model (Butler 1980).
As you may have realised from the content for the last topic, the complexity with regard to the theories and content of the topics is increasing as we work through the unit. Ensure you allow adequate time to work through the content within this topic. Take notes and critically think about the theories and models and their practical relevance.
Before we really get started, it would be a great idea if you revisited pp. 32–40 of your textbook and refreshed your understanding of origin region, transit region and destination region.
Tourist Generating Region: this is where the demand for tourism occurs (at least within the simplified model, but can you think of any examples where a tourist already on holiday is motivated to travel to another destination in the future?)
Tourist Transit Region: this links the origin region with the destination region/s through transportation. So here we need to consider the transit routes, whether there are multiple or single; length of time in transit; type of transportation being used. And again I can think of an example that complicates the model: where do cruise ships fit in the WTO model?
Tourist Destination Region: this is where most of the tourism stuff happens, yeah? Although of course, for many people, travelling to a destination, the actual journey, can be equally or even more important than the destination itself.
Now some more reading …
Textbook reading
Now read Chapter 4 of your textbook: Destinations.
Ensure that you understand the concept of ‘pull factors’ that operate at destinations (and what push factors are that operate in TGRs).
You also need to have a good understanding of regional patterns of tourism – where are the most significant tourism destinations situated? What are the flows of tourists within the various regions and between these regions?
Web activity
Practice: Tourism & Events Queensland
Access the Tourism & Event Queensland (TQ) corporate website, choose a Destination that interests you and explore its Hero Experiences (Hint: click on ‘Experiences’. You will see their definition of the ‘tourism experience’ – do you agree with it? From a visitor perspective think about why experiences are important.
As with other websites that you are referred to, explore the whole TQ site.
Web activity
Practice: Singapore
Visit the Official Singapore Tourism website. You will see Singapore also promotes a range of tourism products and experiences.
Reading 5.2
Plog, S. (2001), ‘Why destination areas rise and fall in popularity …’.
This journal article by Stanley Plog (2001) discusses his concept of a psychographic scale that can be used to differentiate traveller types and where many destinations fit into the destination lifecycle chart. We looked at Plog’s theory of psychographic types of tourists in Topic 4 (pages 172–174 in 5th edition or 167–168 in 4th edition of the text book). This reading is useful because it links tourist types to destination popularity. You will notice when you read this article that it is written in a different style to other more academic journals. This is because it appears in the Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, which would have both an academic and industry audience. It is also quite useful for our purposes because it’s an example of research from which a theory has been generated that Plog is then using to demonstrate to industry professionals that their own practice (i.e. how they market destinations and to what types of tourists) can be improved by using Plog’s theory.
HOWEVER – remember to read critically and effectively. Do you agree with this theory? Can you think of examples where this theory does not apply?
As I pointed out in Topic 1, there is often debate and disagreement between academic researchers and scholars concerning various theories and models. I’d like you to have a quick read, you don’t have to read it in detail, of the following academic journal article, written by another prominent tourism researcher, Professor Bob McKercher, who is based at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. In this (short) article, Bob presents some arguments which provide a critique and criticism of Plog’s paper that you have just finished reading.
The reason I would like you to read this is because it is a good example of how one researcher (McKercher) questions the validity of another academic’s theory. This kind of debate and critique is crucial, of course, in the production of knowledge, and happens in every discipline. There was, for example, a lot of discussion and debate in the literature when Neil Leiper’s WTS model was first published. One last thing, Bob writes in a formal academic style because the article was published in an academic journal and the ‘audience’ to whom he is writing to, is largely an academic audience. Plog’s style of writing was less formal because of his readership audience comprising both academics and industry professionals.
Textbook Reading
I know there has been a lot of reading in this topic, but we still have one more chapter to go. This time it’s Chapter 10 of the textbook: Destination Development.
This is an IMPORTANT chapter to read because it introduces you to another important conceptual model in tourism, Butler’s Destination Life Cycle Model. Professor Richard Butler developed what is variously called the Tourism Area Life Cycle or the Destination Life Cycle Model.
This is the model:
In a nut-shell, this model portrays the changes that occur over time to a tourist destination.
The first phase or stage is called Exploration. There are very low numbers of ‘tourists’ who are attracted to destinations which have no tourism infrastructure, so ‘authenticity’ is very high. They are prepared to adapt to the local conditions, eat local food and stay in spare rooms with local people. As more time passes and more tourists are beginning to be attracted to the destination, it enters the Involvement phase, during which some infrastructure is created to serve the needs of tourists. There are still low numbers of tourists and development is small scale.
The next phase is Development and it is during this phase that there is a greater pace of growth and development of tourism infrastructure such as commercial accommodation, purpose-built attractions, greater access provided, cafes and restaurants in response to growing tourist demand.
Consolidation occurs next which is characterised by a decline in the rate of growth, although growth is still occurring. The destination is fully-mature and is now part of the global tourism system. The ‘social breaking point’ is likely to be reached with antagonism between tourists and host communities evident. Evidence also of environmental impacts, although these have been in existence well before this phase has been reached. Stagnation occurs next and it is during this phase that peak tourist numbers are reached. Surplus capacity becomes a problem and the industry responds by offering discounts on travel and accommodation. Less capable of attracting new tourist demand.
Finally, the destination can then enter either decline, whereby it experiences a sustained downturn in tourist numbers and investment or, alternatively, it can enter a period of rejuvenation. Please read pages 287–295 of the textbook for a more detailed account of the Destination Lifecycle Model.
And pages 286–295 describe the model and explain what it is telling us.
Note when reading this chapter, pages 296–301 in the section titled ‘Application and Critique of the Butler sequence’ critically discusses the application and criticisms of the destination lifecycle theory. Ensure you read and understand this section.
