MASS TOURISM, CULTURE AND THE HISTORIC CITY: THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES

1
MASS TOURISM, CULTURE AND THE HISTORIC CITY
THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES

• Allan Williams
• London Metropolitan University

2
INTRODUCTION

• The challenges of tourism in historic cities
• The challenges of mass tourism
• Policy innovation

3
1 THE CHALLENGES OF TOURISM IN HISTORIC CITIES

• Tourism has distinctive features of
  production and consumption, which stem from
• The nature of tourism activities
• The embedding of tourism in wider social and
  cultural systems
• The symbiotic relationship between tourism and
  culture

4
PRE MASS TOURISM
PRODUCTION FRAGMENTED PUBLIC GOODS
SPATIALITY POLARIZATION
COMPOSITE EXPERIENCE
TOURISM HISTORIC CITY
TEMPORALITY CO-PRESENCE TOURIST MINORITY
CONSUMPTION MULTI-DIMENSION BUT RELATIVELY UNIFORM
5
2 THE CHALLENGES OF MASS TOURISM IN THE HISTORIC
CITY

• Urry (1990, 14) defines mass consumption as
• purchase of commodities produced under conditions
  of mass production a high and growing rate of
  expenditure on consumer products individual
  producers tending to dominate particular
  industrial markets producer rather than consumer
  as dominant commodities little differentiated
  from each other by fashion, season, and specific
  market segments relatively limited market choice
  - what there is tends to reflect producer
  interests, either publicly or privately owned.

6
Features

• Scale standardisation and economies of scale
• But - mass tourism or high volume tourism
  production (Shaw Williams 2004)?
• Conditions of production and consumption
  including control
• Differences in temporality (seasonality,
  duration) and spatiality
• Question - are there tipping points eg in
  host-guest relationships, labour markets etc

7
PRODUCTION FRAGMENTED PUBLIC GOODS COMMODIFICATION
STANDARDIZATION CONTROL
MASS TOURISM
SPATIALITY POLARIZATION INCD POLZ. DUAL LABOR MKT
COMPOSITE EXPERIENCE SELECTIVE CONTROLLED
TOURISM HISTORIC CITY
TEMPORALITY CO-PRESENCE EXTEND SEASON
CONSUMPTION MULTI-DIMENSIONS SPECIALIZATION INTERP
ELLATION
8
3. INNOVATION CHALLENGES

• Innovation instead of policy focus
• Regulation (including urban planning) shapes
  innovation - not only a constraint
• Differentiation v reproduction public goods and
  protection of innovations
• Absorption capacity and carrying capacity

9
PRODUCTION PATENTING LIMITS SERIAL
REPRODUCTION VALUE EXTRACTION CONTROL OF
DEMAND SOCIAL DISTRIBUTION
INNOVATION CHALLENGES
SPATIALITY SEGREGATION v DIFFUSION ENVIRONMENT
COMPOSITE EXPERIENCE FRAGMENTATION LOCALS ENGAGED
TOURISM HISTORIC CITY
TEMPORALITY MANAGING COPRESENCE
CONSUMPTION CONFLICTING TOURIST
INTERESTS AUTHENTICITY
10
INNOVATION RESPONSES

• Path dependency versus tipping points
• Radical versus incremental innovation
• The need for co-production of the tourism (and
  residential) experience
• Tourists Tourism firms
• Local population Voluntary bodies
• State (multi-level)

11
INNOVATION RESPONSES
PRODUCTION CO-PRODUCTION ECONOMIC
SUSTAINABILITY IT-LED
SPATIALITY TRANSPORT MULTI-FOCUS ENVIRONMENTAL SUS
TAINABILITY
COMPOSITE EXPERIENCE PARTNERSHIP SOCIAL
REDISTRIBUTION
TOURISM HISTORIC CITY
TEMPORALITY TEMPORAL MANAGEMENT
CONSUMPTION AWARENESS SEMI-VIRTUAL
12
CONCLUSIONS

• The importance of a theoretical perspective
• Focus on 5 key aspects
• Conditions of production Spatiality
• Consumption features Temporality
• Composite experience
• Embedded in local and external relationships the
  space of flows (Massey)
• Future innovation

13
INNOVATION TYPES
MARKET LED
RADICAL
ARCHITECTURAL Cross-tourism or cross city
NICHE MARKET DEVELOPMENT
INCREMENTAL
RADICAL
REVOLUTIONARY Sub-sector
SERIAL REPRODUCTION
KNOWLEDGE LED
INCREMENTAL
Source after Hall and Williams (2008), after
Abernathy and Clark 1988
14
TIPPING POINTS

• The law of the few
• Connectors, mavens, salesmen
• The stickiness factor
• Memorable, spur to action
• The power of context
• People are more sensitive to their environment
  than they may seem at first. Look at the world
  around you. It may seem like an immovable,
  implacable place. It is not. With the slightest
  push in just the right place it can be tipped
  
• (M Gladstone, The Tipping Point 2001)