The Economic Geography of the Tourist Industry : A Supply-Side Analysis

The Economic Geography of the Tourist Industry bridges the gap between tourism research and economic geography by bringing together leading academics in geography, planning and tourism. The authors explain tourism's definitions and examine whether tourism can be categorized as an industry. They provide detailed analyses of key sectors, such as tour operators, airlines and the hotel industry from a broad international perspective. The book also explores issues such as business cycles, labour dynamics, entrepreneurship and the role of the state in tourism and concludes that the production of tourism-related services has characteristics commonly associated with 'harder' production sectors, such manufacturing and producer services. Agriculture, Geography & Environmental Sciences BOOK COVER 1 DEDICATION 2 TITLE 3 COPYRIGHT 4 CONTENTS 5 ILLUSTRATIONS 7 TABLES 9 NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS 11 FOREWORD 15 PREFACE 17 1 INTRODUCTION: EXPLORING THE ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY AND TOURISM NEXUS 20 Background 20 Geographic research in travel and tourism 22 The silence of economic geographers 23 Reasons behind the silence 24 The economic geography of tourism: towards a specialist approach 25 The book’s structure and themes 28 Part A CONCEPTUAL AND DEFINITIONAL ISSUES: BARRIERS TO THEORY 34 2 THE TOURIST INDUSTRY AND ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY 36 The tourism sector: an invisible industry? 36 Services definition and classification 38 The tourism-tourist-travel conundrum 40 Economic base theory: theoretical challenges for the tourist industry 45 Conclusion 49 3 TOURISM AS AN INDUSTRY 50 Conceptualizing the supply-side of tourism 50 Towards a new view of tourism 54 Key definitions 55 Structure of a tourism satellite account (TSA) 58 An empirical example 62 Limitations and challenges of TSAs 65 Closing observations 68 4 THE TOURISM PRODUCTION SYSTEM 72 Introduction 72 Tourism geography and the economic geography of tourism 72 Tourism and the logic of industrial classification 74 NAFTA and SIC codes—the NAICS 79 Using SIC codes to understand changes in the tourism production system 84 Summary, conclusions, and the future 91 Part B THE DEMAND-SIDE 96 5 THE DETERMINANTS OF TOURISM DEMAND 98 Introduction 98 Spatial interaction between demand and supply 98 Measures of demand for tourism 103 Tourism demand determinants 105 Income 107 Price 107 Exchange rate 108 Trade volume 109 Marketing variables 109 Supply factors 109 Use of dummy variables 110 Concluding comments 110 Notes 112 Part C NEO-FORDISM AND FLEXIBILITY: A SECTORAL APPROACH 114 6 NEO-FORDISM AND FLEXIBLE SPECIALIZATION IN THE TRAVEL INDUSTRY 116 Introduction 116 Flexible production 118 The travel industry polyglot 123 Pre-Fordist travel industry 125 Labor characteristics 125 The role of information technology 126 Fordist travel industry 127 Economies of scale 128 Industrial concentration and globalization 128 Product differentiation and brand super-segmentation 130 Information technologies 131 ‘Neo-Fordist’ travel industry? 132 Outsourcing 133 Strategic network alliances 135 Conclusions 136 Acknowledgement 138 Notes 138 7 DISTRIBUTION TECHNOLOGIES AND DESTINATION DEVELOPMENT 140 Introduction 140 Computer reservation systems—a review 141 Hotel CRS 143 Regional reservation systems 144 Ticketing agencies 145 The implications of CRS development 145 CRS and corporate competitiveness 146 Flexibility and small/local firms 147 Alliance formation and networking 149 Labour impacts 150 Destinations and sustainable development 151 The future of CRS? 152 Conclusions 153 Acknowledgements 155 8 TOUR OPERATORS: THE GATEKEEPERS OF TOURISM 156 Introduction 156 Evolution of the package tour industry 158 The behavior and activities of tour operators 160 Choosing new products and/or destinations 160 Marketing the inclusive tour package 163 Interaction of tour operators with receiving area government/institutions 164 Market concentration in the tour-operating industry 165 The US specialist tour-operating industry 168 General findings 168 Reliance on technology 171 Challenges facing the tour-operating industry 172 Conclusions: implications for destination areas 173 Acknowledgments 175 Notes 175 9 THE AIRLINE INDUSTRY AND TOURISM 176 Introduction 176 Travel and tourism—the big picture 176 Air travel and tourism 177 The liberalization of aviation regulation 181 The objectives of tourism policy 184 The costs of protectionist aviation policies 185 Some lessons from aviation policies 187 Liberalization successes 187 Continuing protectionism 188 Charter booms 189 Charter bans 189 Continuing debates about aviation and tourism policies 191 Air services and tourism planning 194 10 CONTINUITY AND CHANGE IN THE HOTEL SECTOR 196 Introduction 196 The importance of the hotel industry 198 The evolving competitive environment 199 Consumer demand 200 Market saturation and ownership concentration 201 Hotel restructuring 202 The labour dimension 202 Technology, sub-contracting and lay-offs 203 Labour flexibility 205 The gender dimension 206 Unionization 206 Product development and computer reservation systems 207 Alliances and networking 208 Conclusions 210 Acknowledgments 212 Part D GLOBAL-LOCAL NEXUS: PLACE COMMODIFICATION, ENTREPRENEURSHIP, AND LABOR 214 11 THE INSTITUTIONAL SETTING—TOURISM AND THE STATE 216 The nature of the state 216 Coordination 217 Tourism and the institutions of the state 218 Tourism and the local state 225 Conclusions 234 Acknowledgments 236 12 TOURISM AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT POLICY IN US URBAN AREAS 238 Introduction 238 Tourism’s absence 239 Tourism’s ascendance 242 Tourism’s new status 247 Conclusions 251 13 ENTREPRENEURSHIP, SMALL BUSINESS CULTURE AND TOURISM DEVELOPMENT 254 Introduction 254 The concept of entrepreneurship in tourism studies 255 Entrepreneurial processes in developing economies 257 Entrepreneurship and the small business culture—findings from British resorts 265 Conclusion 272 14 TOURISM IN THE THIRD ITALY 276 Introduction 276 The Third Italy 276 The tourism labor market 280 Tourism in the Province of Rimini 283 The tourism labor market in the Province of Rimini: data and analysis 285 Discussion and conclusion 289 Acknowledgments 290 Part E CYCLES AND INNOVATIONS 292 15 ECONOMIC BUSINESS CYCLES AND THE TOURISM LIFE-CYCLE CONCEPT 294 Boom-bust cycles and tourism 294 Tourist area life-cycle model 295 Demand system 297 Supply systems 297 Operating tourism environment 298 Tourism’s life cycles and broader economic cycles 298 Economic cycles in the lodging industry 300 Innovation and discontinuity 303 Conclusion 304 Part F SYNTHESIS AND NEW DIRECTIONS 306 16 CONCLUSION: THE COMMODIFICATION OF TOURISM 308 The machinery of tourist production 308 New research opportunities 311 BIBLIOGRAPHY 314 INDEX 344 The Economic Geography of the Tourist Industry explores how tourism is defined and examines whether or not tourism can be conceptualized as an industry. Detailed analyses of key sectors of the travel and tourism industry, such as tour operators, airlines and the hotel industry, are backed by a broad range of international case studies. The book also investigates issues such as business cycles, labour dynamics, entrepreneurship, and the role of the state in tourism and concludes that the production of tourism-related services has characteristics commonly associated with 'harder' production sectors, such as manufacturing and producer services.