Tourism, economic development and the global-local nexus: Theory embracing complexity

In this paper we review the complex links that exist between the tourism industry and processes of economic development. A brief overview of the industry's economic role at the international and national scale leads us into a discussion of local and regional involvement in the tourism industry. We emphasize the need to develop a more rigorous understanding of the evolving tourism industry and how it influences processes of local economic development. Following a review of the major theoretical frameworks that have been applied to help us understand these processes, we highlight the ways in which current attempts to understand the links between tourism and economic development are embracing the complexity of the industry and its influence on everyday lives. We advocate 'new' ways of seeing and studying the economics of tourism geography, ways that reflect the cultural turn in the 'new' economic geography, and the increasing significance of networks and new information and communication technologies. We argue that a willingness to embrace complexity is essential if we are to unpack the 'glocal' nature of tourism development processes.

[1]  Stephen Wanhill,et al.  Small and medium tourism enterprises , 2000 .

[2]  G. K. Priestley,et al.  The post-stagnation phase of the resort cycle. , 1998 .

[3]  Trevor Haywood,et al.  Global networks and the myth of equality: trickle down or trickle away? , 1998 .

[4]  A. Walle,et al.  Tourism and the Internet , 1996 .

[5]  Mike Featherstone,et al.  Undoing Culture: Globalization, Postmodernism and Identity , 1995 .

[6]  C. Aitchison.  New cultural geographies: the spatiality of leisure, gender and sexuality , 1999 .

[7]  Nigel Thrift,et al.  Modernity, Urbanism, and Modern Consumption , 1992 .

[8]  Timothy Koschmann,et al.  The Cultural Turn , 1999 .

[9]  Theodore Zeldin,et al.  An intimate history of humanity , 1994 .

[10]  P. Sheldon.  Tourism Information Technology , 1997 .

[11]  A. Pred.  Interfusions: Consumption, Identity and the Practices and Power Relations of Everyday Life , 1996 .

[12]  M..  Misrepresenting Communities : The Politics of Community-Based Rural Ecotourism in Gales Point Manatee , Belize 1 , 2022 .

[13]  Jean‐Michel Dewailly,et al.  Sustainable tourist space: From reality to virtual reality? , 1999 .

[14]  N. Thrift,et al.  What Kind of Economic Theory for what Kind of Economic Geography , 2000 .

[15]  Richard Peet,et al.  Theories of Development , 1999 .

[16]  W. Galston.  Trust: The Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity , 1996 .

[17]  D. Harvey.  Globalization in Question , 1995 .

[18]  S. J. Squire,et al.  Accounting for cultural meanings: the interface between geography and tourism studies re-examined , 1994 .

[19]  N. Wrigley,et al.  Consuming Geographies: A Review Essay@@@Consumption and Identity at Work@@@The Time of the Tribes. The Decline of Individualism in Mass Society@@@Acknowledging Consumption. A Review of New Studies@@@Retailing, Consumption and Capital: Towards the New Retail Geography , 1996 .

[20]  R. Butler.  The concept of a tourist area cycle of evolution: implications for management of resources. , 1980 .

[21]  M. Gurstein.  Community Informatics: Enabling Community Uses of Information and Communications Technology , 2000 .

[22]  M. Castells.  The rise of the network society , 1996 .

[23]  A. Sayer.  Critical and uncritical cultural turns , 2018, Cultural Turns/Geographical Turns.

[24]  Allen J. Scott,et al.  New Industrial Spaces: Flexible Production Organization and Regional Development in North America and Western Europe , 1989 .

[25]  J. Marcus,et al.  Strategic Alliances , 1986, Bio/Technology.

[26]  V. Kinnaird,et al.  Tourism: a gender analysis. , 1996 .

[27]  Dimitri Ioannides,et al.  Strengthening the Ties Between Tourism and Economic Geography: A Theoretical Agenda* , 1995, The Professional Geographer.

[28]  P. Crang.  Cultural turns and the (re) constitution of economic geography , 1997 .

[29]  S. Britton,et al.  The political economy of tourism in the third world , 1982 .

[30]  M. Crang.  Magic kingdom or a quixotic quest for authenticity , 1996 .

[31]  Peter Jackson,et al.  Multiple Meanings: Shopping and the Cultural Politics of Identity , 1995 .

[32]  D. J. Wardell.  The impact of electronic distribution on travel agents. , 1998 .

[33]  Ash Amin,et al.  FLEXIBLE SPECIALISATION AND SMALL FIRMS IN ITALY: MYTHS AND REALITIES , 1989 .

[34]  P. Knox.  The Restless Urban Landscape: Economic and Sociocultural Change and the Transformation of Metropolitan Washington, DC , 1991 .

[35]  John Brohman.  New directions in tourism for third world development , 1996 .

[36]  Adam Tickell,et al.  Accumulation, regulation and the geographies of post-Fordism: missing links in regulationist research , 1992 .

[37]  Anthony Giddens,et al.  On the Edge: Living With Global Capitalism , 2000 .

[38]  N. Thrift.  Taking Aim at the Heart of the Region , 1994 .

[39]  E. Swyngedouw,et al.  “Elite Power, Global Forces, and the Political-Economy of ‘Glocal’ Development: Brussels’s Conundrum” , 2000 .

[40]  I. Ateljevic.  Circuits of tourism: Stepping beyond the 'production/consumption' dichotomy , 2000 .

[41]  P. Knox.  The Restless Urban Landscape , 1992 .

[42]  Mike Featherstone,et al.  Lifestyle and Consumer Culture , 1987 .

[43]  A. Lipietz.  Mirages and miracles : the crisis of global Fordism , 1987 .

[44]  A. Sayer.  Postfordism in question , 1989 .

[45]  M. Storper.  Industrialization and the regional question in the third world: lessons of postimperialism; prospects of post‐Fordism , 1990 .

[46]  Chris Rojek,et al.  Touring Cultures: Transformations of Travel and Theory , 2002 .

[47]  J. Burgess.  The Production and Consumption of Environmental Meanings in the Mass Media: A Research Agenda for the 1990s , 1990 .

[48]  L. McNeill.  Travel in the digital age. , 1997 .

[49]  Amitai Etzioni.  The Spirit Of Community , 1994 .

[50]  D. Hindman.  The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier , 1996 .

[51]  M. Storper.  The Regional World: Territorial Development in a Global Economy , 1997 .

[52]  Sharon Zukin,et al.  Landscapes of power , 1991 .

[53]  Greg Ringer.  Destinations : Cultural Landscapes of Tourism , 1998 .

[54]  Auliana Poon,et al.  Competitive Strategies for a "New Tourism" , 1989 .

[55]  Andrew Sayer,et al.  Radical Political Economy: A Critique , 1996 .

[56]  L. McDowell.  The Transformation of Cultural Geography , 1994 .

[57]  K. Preister.  The Theory and Management of Tourism Impacts , 1989 .

[58]  A. Lipietz.  The Local and the Global: Regional Individuality or Interregionalism? , 1993 .

[59]  Martin Mowforth,et al.  Tourism and Sustainability: New Tourism in the Third World , 1997 .

[60]  Michael Wells,et al.  People and Parks: Linking Protected Area Management With Local Communities , 1992 .

[61]  J. Urry.  The Tourist Gaze: Leisure and Travel in Contemporary Societies , 1990 .

[62]  Economist Uk.  Package tour prices fly back to the future. , 1986 .

[63]  C. Sabel,et al.  The Second Industrial Divide: Possibilities for Prosperity , 1984 .

[64]  Philip Curry,et al.  The impact of the Internet on the information search process and tourism decision making. , 1999 .

[65]  P. Teague.  The Political Economy of the Regulation School and the Flexible Specialisation Scenario , 1990 .

[66]  Niles Hansen,et al.  Competition, trust, and reciprocity in the development of innovative regional milieux , 1992 .

[67]  Theresa N. Westover,et al.  TOURISM: A COMMUNITY APPROACH , 1987, Landscape Journal.

[68]  W. Schertler.  Tourism as an information business: The Strategic Consequences of e-Commerce for Business Travel , 1999 .

[69]  R. Heron.  Retailing, Consumption and Capital. Towards the New Retail Geography , 1998 .

[70]  Andrew J. Frew.  Information Technology and Tourism: A Research Agenda , 2000, J. Inf. Technol. Tour..

[71]  David Mason,et al.  Tourism, Web-Raising and Community Development , 2001, ENTER.

[72]  Michael J. Baker,et al.  The future for direct retailing of travel and tourism products: the influence of information technology , 1998 .

[73]  Hirst Paul,et al.  Flexible specialization versus post-Fordism: theory, evidence and policy implications , 1991 .

[74]  G. Taylor.  The community approach: does it really work? , 1995 .

[75]  Philip Crang,et al.  It's Showtime: On the Workplace Geographies of Display in a Restaurant in Southeast England , 1994 .

[76]  T. Oakes.  The Cultural Space of Modernity: Ethnic Tourism and Place Identity in China , 1993 .

[77]  P. Cloke,et al.  “Cracking the Canyon with the Awesome Foursome”: Representations of Adventure Tourism in New Zealand , 1998 .

[78]  A. Poon.  Tourism, Technology and Competitive Strategies , 1993 .

[79]  G. F. Rohrlich.  A glimpse of father becker in action in a government setting , 1991 .

[80]  Dimitrios Buhalis.  Marketing the competitive destination of the future. , 2000 .

[81]  Amitai Etzioni,et al.  THE NEW GOLDEN RULE Community and Morality in a Democratic Society , 1997 .