Some destinations, especially those that were planned and explicitly designed as tourism destinations, are compact in nature. The majority of accommodations, attractions, and other tourism services are spatially concentrated in a central tourism district (CTD). This makes it easy for tourists to comfortably move around the destination and limits their need to travel outside of the tourist zone. However, other destinations, such as major cities where attractions are scattered throughout the urban area and tourist districts may be established in multiple neighborhoods, are much more complicated. Tourists’ range of movement will be much greater, as they seek to visit each of the attractions. Drifters and explorers might choose to navigate this widespread area on foot or by public transit systems, while mass tourists may be more comfortable with specialized tourism transport services (e.g., hop-on hop-off sightseeing buses).
Box 11.1. Experience: The Back Regions of Russia
My major is Russian history. As part of my university curriculum, I had the opportunity to do a semester study abroad at the Russian State University for the Humanities in Moscow. I spent most of my time in the city and occasionally took day trips to some of the small towns nearby. I took classes on the Russian language and worked on a project called Cities in Transition that took me north to St. Petersburg and south to Volgograd. On both of these trips, I went on my own. It really gave me the opportunity to see more of Russia and also to put my language skills to the test.
The trip to St. Petersburg took place over a long weekend. It wasn’t exactly a normal trip. Before I left, I glanced at a map but didn’t bring it with me. I didn’t make any reservations. I bought a train ticket on Thursday night, arrived on Friday morning, and just started walking. I have a pretty good sense of direction, and I went with my instincts. I didn’t use the tourist information office because I wasn’t interested in the “tourist” offerings, things like river cruises. I wanted to try to blend in and do more local things. I found an area that looked like there would be some hostels and used what language I knew to ask a few people for directions to find one. I spent most of my time walking around, visiting sites such as the Peter and Paul Fortress, the Hermitage, and even the mall. This used to be a state mall with each storefront offering a different state-issued product to meet peoples’ basic needs; now it is filled with high-end international name brand products from Nike to Gucci.
I didn’t need a map to see what I wanted, and because I wasn’t tied to a preplanned itinerary, I was able to experience some things I hadn’t expected. One of my roommates at the hostel was Russian. He was actually from St. Petersburg, but he was staying in the hostel during this time when he didn’t have a place to live. We talked a bit, and one night he took me out for a local event. There are hundreds of drawbridges over the river system all over the city, and for a five-hour-long period in the middle of the night, they are opened in succession. It’s quite a sight to see the bridges up and the boats streaming through at once, and it’s something that people go out to watch (figure 11.3).
Figure 11.3. Watching the nighttime bridge opening in St. Petersburg, Russia, is a popular activity shared by locals and visitors. (Source: Isaac Watson)
When I went to Volgograd, I had a holiday with five days off from classes. For this trip, I did a bit more research and planning before I left. Because Volgograd doesn’t get as much tourist traffic, and almost no international tourists, there weren’t any hostels. I ended up staying in a fairly nice hotel that only had a handful of people staying there, all of whom were Russian. It was dark by the time I arrived, so I decided to stay close for the night and eat at the hotel’s restaurant until I could get my bearings the next day. Restaurants in Russia can be very expensive. When you’re at home, you’re often better off to cook on your own. As a college student on a budget, when I was traveling I tried to stick to the cheaper kiosks, small fast food restaurants, or bar-restaurants. But this restaurant turned out to be a great experience, as I spent the better part of the night talking with the server, who had lived in New York for a while, and the bartender. They even offered to let me try an absinthe—the Russian way—on the employee discount.
Volgograd is a smaller city, and my trip here was probably the best, most authentic experience of my entire stay in Russia. I visited sites such as Mamayev Kurgan, a memorial at the site of a World War II battle that is considered one of the bloodiest battles in the world. I was the only foreign visitor. I really had to rely on my Russian skills, but this earned me one of the best compliments I could have imagined: in Volgograd, a woman asked me for directions. I had to explain to her that I was just a visitor, so I couldn’t tell her where she needed to go. She was surprised and told me how good my Russian was.
On the twenty-hour train trip home, I shared a coupe with a family who had a young daughter. They had brought their dinner with them to eat on the train, mostly traditional items like bread, chicken, vegetables, et cetera. I had brought a granola bar. They were very welcoming, and it’s custom to share what you have, which goes back to the hard times they’ve experienced over the years. They insisted I eat with them and wouldn’t let me take just one thing. When we weren’t sleeping, we spent most of the trip talking about everything from the differences between Russia and the United States to life in general. The parents didn’t speak English, so I used my Russian. The daughter was just starting to learn English at her elementary school, so she knew some words. The parents would quiz her on what she knew and ask me if she was right. For a while, she was using her parents’ cell phone, with its Russian-English dictionary, to “cheat.” Finally, they took it away from her to see how much she really knew. When they asked her a word that she had no idea about, she looked to me for help. At that moment, I didn’t feel like a stranger or a foreigner but a family friend.
—Isaac
Similarly, the nature of the destination’s attractions will shape patterns of movement. As discussed in chapter 3, top-tier attractions exert a tremendous pull force. Tourists will make a point to visit these attractions, even if they have to travel out of their way to do so. Because secondary attractions exert less of a pull force, tourists will make decisions and prioritize which attractions they want to see most. To maximize the experience, those that are more expensive, difficult, or time consuming to reach may be dropped from the itinerary in favor of those that are more easily accessible. Tertiary attractions are the most substitutable. Because tourists do not have a strong motivation to visit these attractions, they may only choose those that can be reached most easily and cheaply, or possibly even en route to another, higher-level attraction.
Some tourists’ movement may be limited to the area immediately surrounding the accommodation due to the tourism product. For example, tourists traveling to participate in a specific event or activity may have limited time to generally explore the destination. Conference or congress tourists may have a desire to experience more of the destination while they’re there. However, because the majority of their time is spent in meetings, they may only have free time in the evenings or a day before or after the event. Most find that it’s simply not worth the cost of renting a car and paying to keep it parked, often in premium space and pricey downtown lots or garages. As a result, they are most likely to visit attractions, shop, and go to restaurants or nightclubs that can be reached relatively easily from the hotel and/or conference site either by walking or taking taxis.
The extent of movement will also vary with the type of tourist. The most adventurous explorers and drifters may place few restrictions on their own movement because they are willing to do whatever it takes to have the experience they want, be it renting a car or using public transportation. Mass tourists may feel more uncertain about themselves in a new place and about the destination; therefore, they may initially choose to stick to places in the CTD near their hotel. As they become more comfortable, they may begin to travel farther and beyond the destination’s front regions.
In addition, there are other factors that have the p
otential to shape patterns of movement. For example, aging populations often face declining personal mobility. This not only plays a role in what places they have the opportunity to experience but also in how they experience them. Some seniors may still be interested in traveling to new places, but due to health conditions, they may not be physically able to experience the destination in certain ways. As a result, they might need to take a coach tour of the destination instead of a walking tour, even though they will not be able to experience the sights, sounds, and smells of place as viscerally. Likewise, persons with disabilities face various constraints to their experience of place. Tourists’ ethnicity may also present a constraint to patterns of movement. This is particularly the case when they are traveling in a place where they are not part of the majority population and there are visible “markers” that would identify them as outsiders (e.g., appearance or pattern of dress). Because they are uncomfortable receiving undue attention, or because they fear potential harassment or crime, they will adjust their travel accordingly. Similarly, female travelers, especially those traveling alone, may also be subject to both physical/logistical and perceptual constraints. This will be discussed in greater depth in chapter 13.
Developing and Managing Destinations
Good planning and management are essential in minimizing the negative and maximizing the positive effects of tourism discussed in part III. Many strategies, borrowed from the topical branches of geography and other fields, have been adapted and proposed as means of developing the spaces of tourism in ways that will achieve this goal. Among others, some of these include construction regulations, land management, codes of conduct, and sustainable development.
Box 11.2. In-Depth: Enclave Tourism
Enclave tourism refers to geographically isolated and spatially concentrated tourism facilities and activities. We tend to associate enclave tourism with large-scale, all-inclusive resorts catering to the S tourism market. Indeed, the Dominican Republic—the Caribbean’s largest destination—is often cited as a primary example of enclave tourism, where foreign tourists spend their entire vacation inside the walls of a resort compound. In fact, these resorts have been described as “concentration camps of leisure.”1 However, enclave tourism can be associated with other tourism products as well. These facilities can be located in remote rural areas based on different, primarily physical, resources.
Enclave tourism most commonly emerges in less developed countries that are using tourism as an economic development strategy. The almost exclusively foreign-owned facilities may develop as a function of constraints in the local infrastructure. Small, poor, rural communities will not have the extent of infrastructure—whether it is good-quality roads, reliable sources of power, or access to clean water—that is necessary to provide the base for tourism. A multinational company may come in and develop what they need within a specific geographic area. These self-contained spaces are separate and closed off from any existing communities in the area. This creates a form of spatial segregation. Local people will not receive the benefits of the newly developed infrastructure, and they will no longer have access to any resources that exist in that area. The company will also typically import food, equipment, and even personnel; therefore, economic leakages are high, and the local people receive few benefits from the newly developed industry. As a result, they may come to resent, and possibly even undermine, tourism. In addition, the resort will have standardized facilities and appearance that has little relation to the wider characteristics of the place in which it is situated.
These places are almost exclusively visited by foreign tourists. Enclave tourism typically reflects a package purchase, where visitors pay a single fee for everything from transportation to accommodation, meals, drinks, sightseeing excursions, and more. This fee is paid up-front to an agent located in the tourists’ country of origin. For mass tourists, this is considered an attractive option because it is easy. The agent has already done the research, negotiation, and logistical arrangements of the trip. For certain demographics of tourists, such as families with small children or senior citizens, it may also be considered attractive because it reduces or eliminates any potential hassles associated with patterns of movement at the destination. For example, the package may include dedicated transportation from the airport to the resort so that tourists won’t have to deal with things like navigating unfamiliar roads, negotiating with potentially unscrupulous drivers, physically managing luggage, and so on.
Especially in the case of less developed nations, enclave tourism can present an attractive option for foreign tourists who have a demand for certain places but doubts or concerns about the actual experience. These enclaves are predicated on providing the expected level of quality in accommodations in otherwise materially poor areas and assurances that standards of sanitation and hygiene are at the level tourists demand. They provide reliable transportation services to/from the resort and activities outside of the resort, as well as whatever security is deemed necessary to ensure that tourists are safe, even in potentially volatile environments.
The S tourism enclave resorts are designed to be autonomous; nearly all of the facilities and/or services that tourists might desire are included in the initial price paid and can be obtained on site. Tourists visiting these resorts have little need or incentive to leave. They see little of the wider destination that they have traveled to, and there is little interaction with local people. Moreover, little additional money is spent at the destination and virtually none
of it outside the resort. However, enclave tourism based on other products, such as nature tourism, will experience a slightly different variation on this pattern. These tourists will leave a clearly demarcated spatial area to have the intended experience, such as wildlife viewing, but the structure of the package keeps them isolated from the place nonetheless.
For example, the Okavango Delta in Botswana is one of the country’s most important tourism destinations, as it is recognized as a wetland and wildlife habitat of international significance. There are approximately 122,000 people living in this area, which receives an average of 50,000 foreign tourists a year. This number has been growing in recent years as the Delta has come to be known as one of the world’s new and exotic destinations. Yet, the tourism infrastructure remains poorly developed in Botswana. Thus, a form of enclave tourism was developed to meet the specific demands of international tourism without developing a comprehensive tourism infrastructure. These tourists arrive in the country’s primate city (the city that is larger than all others in the country, usually in less developed countries) and are transported by the tour company directly to their resort. The tourists have virtually no interaction with the local population.
The majority of the resorts and tour companies operating in the Delta are foreign owned, and few of the goods and/or services used by these companies are obtained from the local population. Poverty levels among this population have been high, and it has only increased since tourism has come to the area. These people were not included in decisions about tourism, and they have received few benefits from the industry. Moreover, they no longer have access to certain areas, and they feel increasingly disconnected from the place. Given these factors, the local population has come to resent both foreign tourists and the tourism industry. According to one study, “interviews with community leaders and household representatives in the Okavango indicate that there is a general assumption that the Delta has been taken from them by government and given to foreign tour operators. . . . They believe that their resources have been usurped from them by foreign tourism investors.”2
Notes
1. Alastair Reid, “Reflections: Waiting for Columbus,” New Yorker, February 24, 1992, 75.
2. Joseph E. Mbaiwa, “Enclave Tourism and Its Socio-Economic Impacts in the Okavango Delta, Botswana,” Tourism Management 26 (2005), 163.
Sources
Anderson, Wineaster. “Enclave Tourism and Its Socio-Economic Impact in Emerging Destinations.” A
natolia—An International Journal of Tourism and Hospitality Research 22, no. 3 (2011): 361–77.
Ceballos-Lascuráin, Héctor. Tourism, Ecotourism, and Protected Areas. Gland, Switzerland: IUCN Publication, 1996.
Construction regulations may be used to limit the extent or to shape the character of tourism development. For example, regulations on many island destinations around the world mandate that buildings must be no taller than or even shorter than the height of surrounding vegetation, typically palm trees (figure 11.4). This typically equates to two or three stories. This type of regulation seeks to restrict the potential negative impacts of mass tourism development. Essentially, it prevents the development of the high-rise megaresorts that dominate the coastal landscape of many popular S destinations. This effectively places limits on the numbers of tourists in that space, as well as the amount of resources used and waste generated by those tourists. Similarly, development companies may be required to submit architectural designs for tourism infrastructure to ensure that it doesn’t conflict with local styles and become a source of visual pollution.
Figure 11.4. This luxury resort in Barbados was constructed with only two stories. Being lower than the surrounding palm trees, these buildings blend into the environment instead of dominating it like other resorts’ high-rise beachfront buildings. (Source: Velvet Nelson)
An Introduction to the Geography of Tourism Page 33
