Geographic referencing of public policies in tourism

Abstract

While the tourism industry has been busy responding to the demand for tourism facilities and amenities which seems determined by inexorable progression to achieve the projections that tourism will become the largest single component of international trade by the year 2000 (WTO, 1987), those researchers and administrators with the responsibility to devise and pursue rational processes of decision‐making, resource allocation and impact assessment have been challenged by a recent plethora of publications which have sought to explore the finer points of detail in research, analysis and practice. Those challenges have emenated from compendia of research techniques (Ritchie and Goeldner, 1987), from revisions to standard texts on tourism planning (Gunn, 1988A and 1988B), and not least from overviews of tourism planning (Inskeep, 1988) and tourism models (Getz, 1986). In a tradition traceable to previous standard works (e.g. Baud‐Bovy and Lawson, 1977; Kaiser and Helber, 1978; Mcintosh and Goeldner, 1984 et seq.; Mill and Morrison, 1985; Murphy, 1985) it is evident that “tourism requires systematic planning so that it is developed properly, responsive to market demands, and integrated into the total development pattern of the area” (Inskeep, 1988, p. 361). Despite the heritage of such advocacy it is possible to compose compendious inventories of examples where systematic planning and integration with other forms of development have not been evident (Baud‐Bovy, 1982). The reason for this may be the ascendacy of industry pragmatism over tourism planning (Gunn, 1977).

Citation

Fagence, M. (1991), "Geographic referencing of public policies in tourism", The Tourist Review, Vol. 46 No. 3, pp. 8-19. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb058068