Search

One of the most discussed paradigms in the literature on destination development is the lifecycle model. Although varieties of lifecycle paths have been described, they have been drawn up without consideration of the underlying generation processes. This article examines the time path of tourist growth patterns that could give rise to such a cycle and in doing so, permits the exact demarcation of the five stages of the lifecycle. The model is tested using long run time series and the overall conclusion is that the restrictions imposed by the aggregation process limit the resort cycle paradigm, in a quantitative context, to being no more than a statistical caricature of the real world.

The growing interest in community tourism development is paralleled within the European Union by a switch of emphasis away from large automatic grants to attract inward investment projects, towards small firms, and indigenous development. The promotion of small and medium enterprises by the union is on the basis that these firms provide the community underpinnings for entrepreneurship and job creation. Taking the experience of Wales as an example, the full-time equivalent employment out-turns from 216 projects are analyzed to assess job creation performance against targets. On the whole, the small and medium tourism enterprises in question were either in line with or better than their employment targets.