Regional Science Perspectives on Tourism and Hospitality

510 Pages·2021·12.027 MB·English

by  Mauro Ferrante, Oliver Fritz, Özge Öner

Advances in Spatial Science
Mauro Ferrante
Oliver Fritz
Özge Öner   Editors
Regional Science
Perspectives
on Tourism and
Hospitality
Advances in Spatial Science
The Regional Science Series
SeriesEditors
ManfredM.Fischer,ViennaUniversityofEconomicsandBusiness,Wien,Austria
Jean-ClaudeThill,UniversityofNorthCarolina,Charlotte,NC,USA
JoukevanDijk,UniversityofGroningen,Groningen,TheNetherlands
HansWestlund,JönköpingUniversity,Jönköping,Sweden
AdvisoryEditors
GeoffreyJ.D.Hewings,UniversityofIllinois,Urbana,IL,USA
PeterNijkamp,FreeUniversity,Amsterdam,TheNetherlands
FolkeSnickars,EditorialBoard,Heidelberg,Baden-Württemberg,Germany
This series contains scientific studies focusing on spatial phenomena, utilising
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· ·
Mauro Ferrante Oliver Fritz Özge Öner
Editors
Regional Science
Perspectives on Tourism
and Hospitality
Editors
MauroFerrante OliverFritz
UniversityofPalermo WIFO—AustrianInstituteofEconomic
Palermo,Italy Research
Wien,Austria
ÖzgeÖner
UniversityofCambridge
Cambridge,UK
ISSN1430-9602 ISSN2197-9375 (electronic)
AdvancesinSpatialScience
ISBN978-3-030-61273-3 ISBN978-3-030-61274-0 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-61274-0
©SpringerNatureSwitzerlandAG2021
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Thisbookisdedicatedtoourdearfriendand
mentor,“Ilpadrino” Prof.GeoffreyJ.D.
Hewings,founderanderstwhileDirectorof
theRegionalEconomicsApplications
LaboratoryattheUniversityofIllinois,
Urbana-Champaign. Overmanyyears,Geoff
inspirednumerousstudentsandscholarsall
aroundtheworld.Ourdebttohimis
considerable:notonlyinencouragingour
devotiontothepursuitofknowledgebutalso
ininculcatingateamspirit.Whilstspending
partsoftheiracademiclivesatREALin
differentperiodsoftime,thethreeCo-editors
ofthisbookhavebeenabletoforgea
friendshipwhichhasnurturedalong-lasting
collaborativeeffort: thededicationofatrue
mentor.
Foreword
Regional science (RS) has evolved and developed into a rigorous area since the
seminalstudybyIsard(1956)thatisoftencitedasoneofthefoundationstonesupon
the area was built. From a geographical perspective, Tomaney (2020: 231) high-
lightedthechangingfeaturesofRSinthelate1960sandearly1970s,particularly
inresponsetothecriticismsofthepositivismtraditionposedbybehaviouralscien-
tists(JohnstonandSidaway 2015).Vaz (2020) described thesedistinctive features
of RS arguing that ‘as a positivist approach, regional science uses spatial analysis
as a proxy to validate spatial findings’ (Vaz 2020: 359). Yet the unifying focus
of RS—the region, is no longer just the preserve of geographers and economists,
despitetherichhistoryofscholarlyendeavour sinceantiquityfocusedonregional
descriptionandanalysis(JohnstonandSidaway2015).RS’focusontheregionhasa
preoccupationwithadministrativeboundariesandtheuseofdataatdifferentspatial
scalestoaddressspatialproblemsinaregionalsettingalthoughwemustalsorecog-
nizethatmanyboundariesareexogenouslydeterminedandsotheresearcherhasto
workwiththedatageneratedforthispurpose.Theanalysisofspatialphenomenaat
differentscaleswithintheregionhasimplicitlymeant‘regionalscienceispositivist
in its epistemological orientation, mathematical and statistical in its methods, and
displays a proclivity to model and forecast data to better understand spatial inter-
actions, locational dynamics and regional processes and trends’ (Vaz 2020: 358).
Despitetheshiftsinthe1970sawayfrompositivisminspatialresearchasadomi-
nantparadigm,theacademy maintained anactivecommitmenttoregionalscience
scholarship in journals such as Papers in Regional Science (which is the official
journal of the Regional Science Association International that published its first
issue in 1955), Regional Studies, the Journal of Regional Science and the Annals
ofRegionalScience.Anumberofnewerjournalshavealsobeenestablishedillus-
trating the continued academic health of the subject. But how has this tradition of
RSresearchimpactedupontourismandhospitality?
AsustainedinterestinRSwithinthebroaderdomainofleisureandtourismcan
be discovered from the 1970s onwards, with reference to Tourism in the journal
Regional Studies in the very early issues in the late 1960s and early 1970s, for
example.Asageographer,IhavealwaystakentheRSperspectiveforgrantedinover
20 years of tracing the evolution of the geography of tourism and recreation (Hall
vii
viii Foreword
and Page 1999, 2014). When one looks at the seminal studies such as Coppock’s
(1977) edited collection—Tourism: A Tool for Regional Development, it was an
importantmilestoneasweretheearlytextsontourismgeography(e.g.Pearce1981;
MathiesonandWall1982)whichdemonstratedtherichtraditionofregionalspatial
analysis of tourism and recreation. These studies embraced the regional analytical
approach,usingspatialdatatodepicttourismandleisurephenomenaandtoderive
generalisationsfromthefindings.Indeed,thisbookrepresentstheongoingtrajectory
ofRSapplicationstotourismandhospitality,whichisevidentinthetop-ratedtourism
journals (e.g. Tourism Management, Annals of Tourism Research and Journal of
TravelResearch).Newtheoreticalperspectiveshavealsogiventhesubjectaboost
togetherwithgreatermultidisciplinaryteamcontributionswithinaRSparadigm.In
geography,thishasbeenfacilitatedbythegrowthofgeographicalinformationsystem
(GIS)researchsincethe1970s,pioneeredintourismbyCoppockandlatterlywiththe
growingavailabilityofGISsoftwaremakingitmoreaccessibletoawideraudience.
Alongside,thishasbeenthewideruseofGISinthepublicandprivatesector,giving
RS a renewed focus in planning to address spatial problems. Vaz (2020) reviewed
these new directions with the emergence of Regional Science 2.0, facilitated by
theriseofnewopportunitiestointegratebigdataintoresearchactivitiesalongside
artificialintelligence(e.g.withtheapplicationofneuralnetworks)alongsidethemore
conventionalapproachesofthegeographer(e.g.landusechange,gravitymodelsand
spatialinteractions)andeconomist(e.g.input/outputanalysis,generalequilibrium
modelsandstochasticmodelling).
Manyofthecontributionsinthisbookdemonstratethattheongoingrelevanceof
aRSparadigmtotourismandhospitalityremainsacentralstrandofunderstanding
thedynamicsandeffectsoftourismphenomena.Touristtraveloccurswithinaspatial
context,andtouristactivitiesatadestinationaretypicallyregionalinfocus;therefore,
theirinteractionsandimpactshavearegionallycontingenteffectatvariousspatial
scales. Similarly, the wider visitor economy within which the hospitality sector is
located is associated with spatial fixity of supply (i.e. it tends to be fixed at given
points in time and space). The editors have assembled a wide range of examples
of the RS application to tourism and hospitality in this volume that demonstrates
theprinciplesandpracticeofregionalanalysis.Theeditorsaretobecongratulated
on demonstrating that RS is alive and well in the regional analysis of the visitor
economy.Thefieldhascomealongwaysincethecontributionsofscholarsinthe
1950s,1960sand1970s.Iamsurethisbookwillbecomeawelcomedresourcefor
the academy and continue the advocacy role of RS in the analysis of tourism and
hospitalityphenomena.
StephenJ.Page
HertfordshireBusinessSchool,Hatfield,UK
e-mail:[email protected]
Foreword ix
References
Coppock, J. T. (Ed.) (1977). Tourism: A tool for regional development, tourism and recreation
researchunit.LeisureStudiesAssociation:UniversityofEdinburgh.
Hall,C.M.&Page,S.J.(1999).Thegeographyoftourismandrecreation:Environment,placeand
space.Routledge:London.
Hall,C.M.&Page,S.J.(2014).Thegeographyoftourismandrecreation:Environment,placeand
space(4thed.).Taylor&Francis:Abingdon.
Isard,W.(1956).Locationandspaceeconomy:Ageneraltheoryrelatingtoindustriallocation,
marketareas,landuse,trade,andurbanstructure.MITPress:Cambridge,MA.
Johnston, R. & Sidaway, J. D. (2015). Geography and geographers: Anglo-American human
geographysince1945.Taylor&Francis:Abingdon.
Mathieson, A. & Wall, G. (1982). Tourism: Economic, physical, and social impacts. Harlow:
LongmanScientific&Technical.
Pearce,D.G.(1981).Touristdevelopment.Harlow:LongmanScientific&Technical.
Tomaney,J.(2020).Region.InA.Kobayashi(Ed.),Internationalencyclopediaofhumangeography
(2nded.,pp.229–241).Oxford:Elsevier.
Vaz, E. (2020). Regional science. In A. Kobayashi (Ed.), International encyclopedia of human
geography(2nded.,pp.357–361).Oxford:Elsevier.
StephenJ.Page is Associate Dean (Research) and Professor of Business and Management in
HertfordshireBusinessSchool,UniversityofHertfordshire.HeiseditoroftheJournalTourism
Management.Heisauthorandeditorof46booksontourism,leisureandevents.
Preface
More than 20 years after the publication of the book The Economic Geography of
theTouristIndustry:ASupply-SideAnalysisbyIoannidesandDebbage(1998),the
stronglinkbetweenthefieldoftourismandregionalscienceiswellacceptedinthe
researchcommunity.Nowadays,almostallregionalscienceconferencesincludeat
least one session dedicated to tourism and tourism-related topics, acknowledging
theimportantroletourismplaysinregionaldevelopment.Atthesametime,tourism
scholarsincreasinglymakeuseofregionalsciencemethodstounderstandandanalyse
thedynamicsoftheindustryinagivenregionalcontext.
FromthemomentwhenChristalleranalysedtourismthroughthelensofregional
science(Christaller1964),dramaticstructuralchanges,mainlyinducedbytechno-
logical innovations, have greatly influenced the characteristics of the tourism and
hospitality industries, but also of tourist behaviour in space. Consequently, adding
a spatial dimension to the analysis of tourism and the tourism industry and thus
explicitly recognizing the locations where tourism-related activities are produced
andconsumedoffersignificantaddedvaluetobothbranchesofeconomicresearch.
The aim of this book is to reinforce the interface between regional science and
tourism research by collating diverse contributions which all focus on new chal-
lengesforthetourismandhospitalityindustryfromaregionalscienceperspective,
makinguseofappropriatemethodologicalapproaches.Thiscompilationofstudies
relatingtohospitalityandtourismnotonlycontributestothetourismandregional
scienceliteraturejointlybutwillalsoassisttourismexpertsandpolicy-makersalike
in enhancing their understanding of the impact and dynamics of current develop-
mentsinthefield.Challenges,frombothascientificandpolicyperspective,suchas
migration,newtypesofaccommodation,segmentationoftourismdemandandthe
potentialderivedfromtrackingtechnologyintourismresearchareonlyafewofthe
topicsaddressedinthisbook.
The book comprises five parts and 22 chapters. In the first part, Firms in the
Tourism Industry, Power, Doran and Ryan analyse the impact of agglomeration
economies on the dynamics of births and deaths or firms in the tourism sector.
The impact of location on the survival of tourism firms is analysed in the chapter
writtenbyCracolici,Espa,GiulianiandPiacentino,whereasthechapterbyÖnerand
Larssonconsidersthedeterminantsofrestaurantlocationatasub-citylevel.Allthese
xi