Tourism in transitions recovering decline, managing change

The Commission for the Geography of Tourism, Leisure and Global Change withinthe International Geographical Union IGU has a tradition dating back to the 1980swhen it comes to organizing

Tourism in Transitions

Series editors

University, Umeå, Sweden

Jarkko Saarinen, Geography Research Unit, University of Oulu, Oulu, FinlandCarolin Funck, Faculty of Integrated Arts and Sciences, Graduate School ofIntegrated Arts and Sciences, Hiroshima University, Higashihiroshima, Japan

In a geographical tradition and using an integrated approach this book seriesaddresses these issues by acknowledging the interrelationship of tourism to widerprocesses within society and environment This is done at local, regional, national,and global scales demonstrating links between these scales as well as outcomes ofglobal change for individuals, communities, and societies Local and regionalfactors will also be considered as mediators of global change in tourismgeographies affecting communities and environments Thus Geographies ofTourism and Global Change applies a truly global perspective highlightingdevelopment in different parts of the world and acknowledges tourism as aformative cause for societal and environmental change in an increasinglyinterconnected world.

The scope of the series is broad and preference will be given to crisp and highlyimpactful work Authors and Editors of monographs and edited volumes, fromacross the globe are welcome to submit proposals The series insists on a thoroughand scholarly perspective, in addition authors are encouraged to consider practicalrelevance and matters of subject specific importance All titles are thoroughlyreviewed prior to acceptance and publication, ensuring a respectable and highquality collection of publications

More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/15123

Dieter K M üller • Marek Wi ęckowski

Editors

Tourism in Transitions

Recovering Decline, Managing Change

123

Polish Academy of SciencesWarsaw

Poland

ISSN 2366-5610 ISSN 2366-5629 (electronic)

Geographies of Tourism and Global Change

ISBN 978-3-319-64324-3 ISBN 978-3-319-64325-0 (eBook)

DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-64325-0

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017947479

© Springer International Publishing AG 2018

This work is subject to copyright All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part

of the material is concerned, speci fically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission

or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed.

The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a speci fic statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.

The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional af filiations.

Printed on acid-free paper

This Springer imprint is published by Springer Nature

The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG

The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

The Commission for the Geography of Tourism, Leisure and Global Change withinthe International Geographical Union (IGU) has a tradition dating back to the 1980swhen it comes to organizing conferences and facilitating publications on tourismgeographies The Commission’s objective is to examine the geographical nature oftourism, leisure and global change Tourism and leisure are seen as deeply geo-graphical phenomena that do no happen in a socio-spatial vacuum They areunderstood as social and cultural activities occurring in space and time.

This volume is an outcome of such a conference in 2014, which was organizedtogether with the Polish Geographical Society and the Institute of Geography andSpatial Organization within the Polish Academy of Sciences around the themeTourism and Transition in a Time of Change The local organizers Marek

Więckowski and Denis Cerić from the Institute of Geography and Spatial Planning,Polish Academy of Science, had done an excellent job in selecting the PieninyMountains, Southern Poland, as venue for the event and about 40 geographers fromEurope, North and South America, Africa, Asia and Oceania gathered in thisinspiring environment to discuss the topic of the conference Following theappreciated tradition of previous events, the hosts of the conference providedexcellentfield trips demonstrating the conference topic in practice This was foodfor thoughts and contributed to making the conference a great success Marek andDenis deserve great thanks for organizing such a memorable event

(University of Hiroshima) The book series is in line with the mission of the IGUCommission for the Geography of Tourism, Leisure and Global Change and it will

be one channel to illustrate the activities of the commission and its members In thiscontext, we would like to thank the team at Springer, and not least, Stefan Einarsonand the production team, for accepting and facilitating this series

v

Moreover, a great thanks to all authors and colleagues contributing manuscriptsand comments on draft versions, respectively, and to all other colleagues whoduring the recent years helped to make this book become a reality.

May 2017

1 Tourism and Transition 1Dieter K Müller

Sustainability 21Alison M Gill

Corporate Use of Brazilian Territory 39Rita de Cássia Ariza da Cruz

Dynamic Equilibrium 59Denis Cerić

Attracted by an Art-Based Revitalization Project in the Seto

Inland Sea 81Carolin Funck and Nan Chang

Developing Countries like South Africa 97Anette Hay

Environment—Impacts and Challenges in Lao P.D.R 117Diana Marquardt

Tourism 137Aija van der Steina and Maija Rozite

of Warsaw, Poland 157Marta Derek

vii

10 From Periphery and the Doubled National Trails to the

Comparative Analysis in the Eastern Alps 187Robert Steiger and Bruno Abegg

Index 201

About the Editors

Dieter K Müller is Professor of Social and Economic Geography at the Department of Geography and Economic History, Ume å University He has published widely within the fields of tourism and local/regional development in northern areas, indigenous tourism, and tourism and mobility A particular interest relates to the geography of second homes M üller is currently the chair of the International Geographical Union (IGU) Commission for the Geography of Tourism, Leisure and Global Change and the co-editor of the Springer book series on Tourism and Global Change.

Marek Więckowski is Professor at the Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization of the Polish Academy of Sciences Previously he was director of research at the Institute of Geography

of Cities and Population of IGiPZ PAN (2013 –2014) and the director of Scientific Center of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Paris (2014 –2017) Moreover, Marek is Vice-president of the Polish Geographical Society and editor of Geographia Polonica He is also a member of the IGU Commission for the Geography of Tourism, Recreation and Global Change His field of research is political geography (frontiers and cross-border collaboration), geography of tourism, mobility, geography of transport, regional development, and territorial marketing.

Contributors

Bruno Abegg Institute of Geography, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, AustriaDenis Cerić Department of Urban and Population Studies, Institute of Geographyand Spatial Organization, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland

University, HigashiHiroshima, Japan

Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

University, HigashiHiroshima, Japan

ix

Alison M Gill Department of Geography, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC,Canada

Education Sciences, School of Natural Sciences and Technology for Education,Potchefstroom Campus, North-West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa

Applied Sciences, Kleve, Germany

University, Umeå, Sweden

Latvia

Robert Steiger Institute of Public Finance, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck,Austria

of Latvia, Riga, Latvia

Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland

Fig 1.1 The Green Gables farmhouse, Prince Edward Island, Canada

(Photo DK Müller) 10

(1975–2014) Source The Shipbuilders Association

of Japan (2015) 50Fig 3.2 Number of ships involved in the maritime cruise sector along

the Brazilian Coast (2004/5–2014/2015) Source

ABREMAR/FGV (2015) 51

(2012) 54

Amazon) Source www.portalmarajo.com/2012/07/ 55

2000–2014 (million passengers) Source Author’s elaboration

based on industry data published by GP Wild & BREA

(2009), BREA (2014), CLIA (2014a, 2015a) 64

combined in the Mediterranean region by the potential

number of passengers during the year around period: a from

December 2011 until November 2012, b from December

2015 until November 2016 Source Author’s elaboration

based on catalogue offer of the Costa Cruises and MSC

2011, 2015; MSC 2011, 2014, 2015) 73

combined in the Mediterranean region by potential number of

passengers during the low season period: a from December

2011 until March 2012 and from October until November

2012, b from December 2015 until March 2016 and from

October until November 2016 Source Author’s elaboration

based on catalogue offer of the Costa Cruises and MSC

xi

Cruises companies for 2011–2012 and 2015–2016

(Costa 2011, 2015; MSC 2011, 2014, 2015) 74

combined in the Mediterranean region by potential number of

passengers during the high season period: a from April 2012

until September 2012, b from April 2016 until September

2016 Source Author’s elaboration based on catalogue offer

of the Costa Cruises and MSC Cruises companies for

2014, 2015) 75

Naoshima Town, Fukutake Zaidan) 85

(source author’s own survey on Naoshima 2012) 88

(minshuku) using an old house in Honmura village, run by a

local resident (photo by author, 2006) 92

village, run by a young couple who moved to Naoshima

recently (photo by author, 2012) 93

the case study Source Job 2014 100

of GDP of Latvia 1995–2015 (CSB 2016) 139Fig 9.1 Distribution of selected tourist attractions in Warsaw 163

Source Fieldwork 166

in Poland Source Author’s proposition 183Fig 11.1 Ski areas classified by size Source: Bergfex (2014); own

illustration 192Fig 11.2 Snow reliability of ski areas today (1981–2010) without (top)

and with snowmaking (bottom) Source: Own research 193

(top) and +2 °C scenario (bottom) Source: Own research 194

Table 3.1 Movement of sea cruises in Santos Maritime Passenger

Terminal (2009–2015) Source Concais (2016) 41Table 3.2 Great operators and companies/brands of sea cruises in the

world in 2013 45Table 4.1 International demand for cruises by regions,

1989 and 2014 63Table 4.2 Types of itineraries in cruise tourism sector 66

2015–16 on the example of five largest vessels by capacity in

ownership of Costa Cruises and MSC Cruises companies 67

cruise offer in the Mediterranean region between 2011–2012

and 2015–2016 70Table 4.5 Cruise itineraries’ patterns in the Mediterranean region 72Table 5.1 Please tell us what is important for you when you travel

(source author’s own survey conducted on Naoshima in 2012,

on Miyajima in 2010) 88

Farms—7) 105Table 6.2 The spatial and economic distribution of second home owners

in Rosendal area (N = 74) 107

2014 121Table 8.1 Evaluation of tourism impact items by residents of Riga

High mean values indicate a strong support for negative (N)

or positive (P) assessment 147Table 8.2 Evaluation of the positive and negative impacts of tourism by

the residents of Riga 148

xiii

Table 9.1 Number of entries to selected ticketed attractions of Warsawin

2015 161Table 11.1 Share of t-bar lifts and share of ski slopes covered

with snowmaking facilities 189Table 11.2 Change of snow demand 195

Tourism and Transition

Dieter K Müller

1.1 Introduction

It is common knowledge that the world is constantly changing and so is tourism.Scientific literature gave early attention to the fact that tourism changes places

yielded early academic attention (e.g., Cohen 1978; Pigram 1980) However, asHall and Lew (2009) argue impacts understood as a unilateral relationship betweentourism and a place most likely fail to capture a more complex reality Instead,tourism impacts usually signify two-way relationships between tourism and a place

or any other phenomenon This relationship also changes over time and feedbackloops further create causality In other words, tourism does not only change places,but it is also changed by places Changes can turn out to be positive or negative and

expectations and desires However, scientific literature particularly tends to light what is perceived negative impact, requiring planning and management action

high-A transition can be seen as a change from one situation to another In the context

of change, transitions characterize situations where change is not smooth andstepwise, but rather dramatic, rapid, and fundamental Thus Hall (2004) defines

given society passes to reach a common state of dynamic equilibrium” (Hall2004,

p 2) Hence, tourism transition is dependent on the societal context where it takesplace, and furthermore on the characteristics of the tourism industry itself In thiscontext, Hall understands equilibrium as a “structural and spatial balance of andbetween tourism development and its context” (p 3) while the notion of dynamismD.K M üller (&)

Department of Geography and Economic History, Ume å University, 90781 Umeå, Sweden e-mail: dieter.muller@umu.se

© Springer International Publishing AG 2018

D.K Müller and M Więckowski (eds.), Tourism in Transitions,

Geographies of Tourism and Global Change, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-64325-0_1

1

acknowledges a continuously ongoing change, however not disrupting the balance.Hall’s notion of transition is thus in line with ideas of development as a processcomprising stages Notably, Rostow’s (1959) model of economic growth throughdifferent stages of development from a traditional society to a mass consumptionsociety and beyond is one example of this way of thinking However, as he pointsout, in contrast to Marx’s historical determinism, the driving force for leaving onestage and moving to the next does not need to depend on economic reasons alone,and may, in fact, be contingent on other human desires and ambitions Taking Halland Lew’s (2009) notion of two-way relationships into account, the abovemen-tioned argument implies that tourism transition also means a transition of societyand context This perception is in line with ideas of a tourism system in whichtourism is embedded into a multi-level environment acknowledging variousphysical, social, economic, demographic, cultural, and political conditions Hence,even reasons related to changes in the physical environment may warrant and entailtransition (e.g Gössling and Hall 2006; Gössling et al 2015) Moreover, thegeographical dimension of the tourism system containing spatial elements likeregions of tourists’ origins, transportation corridors, and destinations makes therelationship between places and other elements of the tourism system even morecomplex Hence, transitions in the tourism system may be caused by changes in allthree spatial elements; shifting societal preconditions in sending regions and des-tinations as well as disruption in transportation are just some examples of possiblesources of change However, even changes in sometimes remote parts of the sur-rounding environment may influence tourism For example, the terror attacks of

changing regulations and security measures globally mostly when it comes to airtransportation, but also in other sectors of the tourism industry

This book focuses on different types of transitions This introduction discussesthe relationship of transition and tourism Tourism is seen as a vehicle for transition,

as an integrated part of transitions, and as a consequence of transition The chapteraims to provide a systematic approach to conceptualize and understand transitions

In this context, transitions are seen as event-driven rapid changes within economy,politics, and environment requiring comprehensive adaptation to new circum-stances The chapter is then followed by a selection of case studies from differentgeographical settings which address various aspects of transition and tourism, andhow people cope with new circumstances

1.2 Event-Driven Transition

As mentioned earlier a basic idea of stage models of development is the idea oftransition from one balanced situation to another (Hall2004) The Tourism AreaLife Cycle Model (Butler1980) certainly assumes a development through variousstages An involvement and exploration stage is followed by a period of devel-opment, consolidation and stagnation before decline or rejuvenation provide

preconditions for new development stages Still, the model lacks a tion of rapid change Hence, it would not be applicable to describe a transition.However, it can be modified to fit a situation with difficulties in development, asCorak (2006) shows for the Croatian Riviera, which had to restart tourism devel-opments because of various wars during the 20th century Similarly, researchers usethe rejuvenation of the Atlantic City as an example of such a non-linear develop-ment curve (Stansfield 2006).

conceptualiza-Besides stage models, even ideas of crisis management (Hall2010; Visser andFerreira2013) and resilience, particularly in combination with sustainability, which

2014; Luthe and Wyss2014; Orchiston et al.2016) can be seen as related concepts.Resilience is often defined as the ability of a system to cope with change According

to Folke et al (2002, p 438):

Resilience, for social-ecological systems, is related to (i) the magnitude of shock that the system can absorb and remain within a given state; (ii) the degree to which the system is capable of self-organization; and (iii) the degree to which the system can build capacity for learning and adaptation.

A system in this context is, as Hall and Lew (2009, p 66) put it,“…a group ofelements organized such that each element is, in some way, either directly orindirectly interdependent with every other element” Besides its basic elements,systems contain therefore the relationship between the elements Furthermore,systems are delimited by boundaries and embedded in a wider environment Hall

system highlighting the self-organizing and adaptive properties of the system.Against this background, a transition can be understood in various ways It can

be seen as a reaction to a shock, in which magnitude exceeds what the system cancope with, and thus transforms into a new state However, even substantial changeswithin a socio-ecological system based on adaptation and learning may be under-stood as a transition, though this may occur without a total breakdown of thesystem

Considering the origins of resilience theory within ecology and referring toecological systems it is not a surprise that research on resilience often prefersstability over change and transition Furthermore, the likelihood of a systemadapting to change is, of course, dependent on the scope and speed of change Thegreater the disruption of a system the less likely the system can adapt and sustainsince learning and adaptation require time Hence, resilience theory advocates earlywarning systems, limits of acceptable change and thresholds (Folke et al 2002).Dramatic events, such as earthquakes and meteorites are, however, sometimesdifficult to predict and to adapt to and are thus major challenges for resilience andsustainability

Although resilience theory has been developed within ecological sciences, theapproach has been used within social sciences and tourism geography too Hereresilience planning is understood as a way of sustaining an equilibrium (Lew2014).This normative approach preferring stability instead of change can, however,

be criticized since transition and change may be suitable ways to cope withself-destructive or unjust political and economic systems In other words, dramaticsystem changes and transition may be warranted by many, as the example of thedissolution of the Soviet Union illustrates But somewhat ironically, transition isalso promoted by Marxist researchers (cf Staeheli and Mitchell 2005) In thiscontext, resilience and system sustenance become a problem rather than an asset.Still, resilience thinking may help to understand that transitions are caused byevents that can change systems.

The following sections present and discuss the role of various events for sition and change

tran-1.2.1 Environmental Events

Natural events

Environmental disasters are well known for their capability to cause serious damage

to society and tourism Hall (2010) expects crisis events in tourism to increasebecause of the global dimensions of tourism However, in most cases, environ-mental events are to a limited degree capable of entailing transitions in tourism.Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions andflooding are most often discrete events limited

development for a considerable time, they do not necessarily change the tourismsystem in the long run For example, the Christchurch earthquakes had conse-quences not only for the city and its tourism infrastructure but also for hosts andtheir ability to cope with the impacts of the disaster (Wilson2016) Still, tourismstrategies aim at recovery, and thus, do not evoke the idea of transition into a newstage of development This seems to apply for most cases where natural disastersstrike tourism destinations Consequently, the scientific literature has addressed themanagement and mitigation of impacts caused by environmental disasters (Faulkner

2001; Huan et al.2004; Ritchie2004)

Moreover, potential and real places of natural disasters such as volcanoes havebecome popular tourism attractions in their own right (Erfurt-Cooper2014) Indeed

as Benediktsson et al (2011) showed the perception of risks among tourists afterthe Eyjafjallajökull eruption in Iceland affected their relation to the destination also

in a positive sense

Human-induced environmental events

Most available examples refer to the destruction of attraction However, the impact

of human-induced environmental impacts is not always self-evident Gössling et al.(2012) point out that tourists are the element in the tourism system with the greatestability to adapt, and hence, understanding the impacts of climate change requiresgaining more knowledge about tourist demand As such they argue that climatechange will affect multiple dimensions of destination attractiveness, but this does

not automatically entail that that tourists perceive these changes in a way that wouldchange their travel decisions Perception is a very complex process and dependent

on, for example, geographical and social contexts Furthermore, the role of mediacannot be underrated (Gössling et al.2012)

As a result, impacts of climate change do not necessarily cause any directadaptation of tourist demand For example, studies on tourism about the bleaching

of coral reeves in Zanzibar showed that tourism continued despite the poor dition of the coral reeves (Andersson 2007; Gössling et al 2007) Similarly,Dawson and Scott (2010) have demonstrated that skiers in North America respond

con-to climate change throughflexibility, while insecure access to snow seems to limitdemand in the European Alps (Steiger2011) Moreover, even a growing awareness

of climate change does not necessarily entail a willingness to cutflying, thoughthere are narratives of growing awareness and a potential future adaptation inmature markets (Becken2007; Cohen et al.2011; Higham and Cohen2011) Still,trust in technological innovation turns out to be a hindrance for adaptation due toclimate change (Cohen et al.2016) Therefore it can be noted that climate change,

at least so far, has not led to a significant change in the tourism system or to atransition into another mode of production

However, among the man-made environmental events, there are still someevents that changed tourism significantly For example, although the Chernobylaccident more or less eradicated tourism in the area, the emergence of new forms oftourism can be noted Hence, visits to the toxic zone have recently grown inpopularity, a development well in line with recent interest in dark tourism

1.2.2 War and Political Events

War and political change are usually good and very illustrative examples forchanges entailing transition War obviously creates chaos and turmoil, destroysphysical infrastructure and sometimes even societal institutions Thus, recoveringfrom war often requires more than a restoration of infrastructure and image, but areinvestment in social relations as well (Richter 1999) However, the relationshipbetween tourism and war is not uncomplicated since superficial notions such aspeace as a requirement for tourism have been proven wrong (Sönmez1998; Butlerand Suntikul2013) Subsequently, tourism occurs even during wartime, though it

political events like revolutions are powerful game changing events

The devolution of the Warsaw Pact and the Soviet Union provided a relativelyrecent example of rapid change and transition (Hall 2004) Besides the politicalchange toward a more democratic organization of societies, a new economic systemfavouring free markets over centrally planned production was set in place This

of course also implied a dramatic change in tourism Theoretically, war and olution are thus factors disrupting a spatially and sectorally balanced development

rev-The resulting situation is thus often characterized by turmoil until a new balance isachieved However as Stark notes for the transition from Soviet communism toRussian post-communism, a new balance has been achieved“…not on the ruins butwith the ruins of communism” (Stark1994, p 995) This indicates that transitionsusually lead to situations where a new balance is at least partly dependent onpersistent institutions or structures.

The transition towards a market situation is tricky Focusing the post-Soviettransition of Estonia, Jaakson (1996) highlights four factors influencing tourismdevelopment: democratization; privatization; land and property reform; anddecollectivization of not least agriculture Even the re-internationalization andglobalization, and the polarization of consumption within domestic tourism aresometimes mentioned as critical points in the transition process (Williams2002) Inaccordance, the satisfaction of these preconditions opens opportunities for a suc-cessful tourism development Furthermore, the already mentioned institutionallegacies are often persistent, and thus, political and economic transitions do notalways erode all institutions Therefore, even tourism systems do not transform in avacuum (Grabher and Stark 1998; Saarinen and Kask2008) Markets and infras-tructure patterns are often far more persistent than expected, and hence, are-internationalization may indeed lead to a restoration of previous patterns (Corak

development after transition did take place in the regions that had been featured astourism destinations already before transition (Williams and Baláž 2001) Thereason for these sustained patterns is notably the dependence on domestic tourismand state intervention (Hall1998; Williams and Baláž2001)

Another example indicating the relevance of political events in relation totourism is the Cuban revolution in 1959 Initially, a destination within the USpleasure periphery the revolution and the subsequent US boycott largely discon-tinued the success of the gambling destination (Hinch1990) However, the devo-lution of the Soviet Union and the resulting economic uncertainties implied a return

to a state-controlled tourism to earn foreign currency (Simon 1995; Taylor and

economy, i.e a new transition, are already predicted to have a very positive impact

on the Cuban tourism industry (Padilla and McElroy2007; Hingtgen et al.2015)

A third example to be mentioned here are the impacts of terrorist attacks In arather comprehensive review of the impact of terrorist attacks and political insta-bility on tourism, Saha and Yap (2014) reveal that countries hit by short terroristattacks indeed sometimes record an increasing demand In contrast, durable polit-ical instability and turmoil affect tourismfigures very negatively Still as Arana and

León (2008) show, even terrorist attacks create destinations that are winners whileothers become losers

A major terror attack happened on September 11th, 2001 when Arab terroristshigh-jacked passenger airplanes to crash them into the iconic two towers of theWorld Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon outside Washington DC Theimpact on tourism not only in the U.S but also elsewhere in the world wereimmediate and radical (Goodrich2002) In an analysis of the impacts of 9/11 on

countries in the Middle East, Steiner (2007) notes that the internationalization of thetourism industry influences reactions Of course, the duration and intensity ofconflicts guide the strategies of the companies, but in contrast to what could havebeen expected, international companies do not necessarily leave the region after theterrorist attacks and the resulting uncertainty Rather they contributed to stabilizingthe region and stay because they are locally embedded, Steiner (2007) argues.The examples used here illustrate that war, revolution, terror and other eventshave a great impact on tourism systems However, political events not alwaysinitiate a whole transition of the tourism system Still, these kinds of events turned

conducted

1.2.3 Economic Events and Innovations

Often political events have economic consequences too The above mentionedexample of the collapse of Eastern European planning economies and their tran-sition towards market economies illustrate this nexus well However, economicevents or crises do not always require a political crisis Economic crisis in tourism isoften related to price levels and competitiveness Hence, sudden increase ordecrease in price levels, respectively, influence the relative market position ofdestinations Jóhannesson and Huijbens (2010) report for instance that the globalcredit crunch in 2008 turned the Icelandic economy upside down causing amongmany other impacts rapidly declining price levels As a result, tourism became acore industry within the national economy

Another example is related to institutional change; in the European Union, thepolitical and economic integration took away extensive travel and investmentrestrictions Among other things, this led to an increase of international investment

in recreational properties and second homes in the 1990s (e.g Buller and Hoggart

1994; Müller1999; Williams et al.2004) Besides the eradication of legal barriers,taxation issues have been an important aspect for relocating temporarily not least toMediterranean destinations like Malta (Åkerlund 2013) Moreover, the expansion

of this residential tourism and the related lifestyle mobilities have entailed theestablishment and growth of a ‘lifestyle migration industry’ (David et al 2015),which can be considered as a new branch of the tourism industry

However more prominent is the focus on tourism as a response to a crisis inother sectors of the economy Thus, tourism has been used to revitalize rural andperipheral areas when employment in traditional industries was in decline (Jenkinsand Hall1998; Hall2007,2013; Müller2013) Governments have often supportedthese strategies, for example establishing national parks (Butler and Boyd 2000;Wall Reinius and Fredman2007; Mayer et al.2010; Saarinen2014), but researchhas shown that measures, though they are welcomed alternatives, often fail toacknowledge local innovation and tourism systems, and hence not always entail ananticipated development (Almstedt et al.2015; Brouder2012; Carson et al.2014)

Even on a global scale, early on tourism had been identified as an opportunity tosupport developing countries (De Kadt1979; Telfer and Sharpley2015) Althoughthe outcomes of these activities are, to say the least debatable (e.g Britton1982;

destinations and raise foreign currency incomes for developing economies Forexample, Yang and Wall (2008) argue that the inclusion of ethnic minorities asentrepreneurs in tourism development implies an empowerment of an otherwisemarginalized group However, seldom can these changes be seen as event-driven orpurely economic Instead, they indicate the intrinsic relationship of tourism andpolitics (Britton1982; Mosedale2014)

Finally, a major trigger for change is innovation Although researchers arguedthat innovation in tourism is limited there are multiple examples of how innovation

in tourism also changed systems and the way tourism is produced and consumed(Hall and Williams 2008) Not least, tourism innovation influences the competi-tiveness of regions or products, though systematic evidence on the role of inno-vation in destinations and national economies is lacking (Hjalager2010) Hjalagerdistinguishesfive fields of innovation within the tourism system where innovationmainly occurs, i.e product supplies, processes, management, marketing and insti-tutions Here technological development is important, as is the role ofentrepreneurship and geographical context Illustrative examples of technologicalinnovation altering tourism production and consumption are related to digitalization(Viglia et al 2016) Certainly, the introduction of internet has changed bookingsystems, destination promotion and packaging, distribution of services, trip plan-ning, and recollection through social media (Law et al.2014; Xiang et al.2015) Ithas also transformed the way tourists are connected during the trip and experiencetheir holidays (Neuhofer et al.2014; Tanti and Buhalis2017) The opportunity toestablish direct connections between tourist and tourism provider through internetplatforms has further created new more or less commercial sub-segments of thetourism market such as AirBnB and consecutively caused rather severe conse-

2016)

However, not only technological change has altered tourism systems Sometimesnew products are important innovations Hence, Müller (2011) argues that theestablishment of the Icehotel in Northern Sweden not only affected the hosting

tourism season from summer to winter all over northern Sweden by triggering adevelopment of a diversified product supply beyond traditional skiing Of course,not least on a local scale new products and other kinds of innovations can influencelocal competitiveness formative

This short review reveals that transitions, driven by economic events, often occur

in relation to change within other fields As already mentioned in the previoussection, political change in particular often implies economic change as well.However, here it was exemplified that even economic crisis in itself can trigger a

However, it was also demonstrated that tourism development in itself is utilized to

accomplish regional development and transitions of economies and communities.This may not always be perceived to be caused by events, but rather as a result ofincremental processes Still, political decision-making, changing laws, regulationsand institutions as well as economic decision-making influencing investments areother factors capable of altering tourism systems Finally, innovation is a majorreason for transitions related to new economic preconditions.

1.2.4 Cultural Events and Heritage

Afinal point to be considered in the context of transitions and tourism are culturalevents As for economic events, cultural events can disrupt structures and tourismsystems Most often this lacks drama and indeed may be related to the creation andestablishment of mainly cultural attractions For example, events within the sectors

of culture and sports are used to influence local development A good example,though highly debated regarding their cost-benefit balance, are Olympic Games andother mega and hallmark events that are justified by pointing to their touristic value

in a short and a long-term perspective (Teigland 1999; Singh and Zhou 2015).Similarly, the European Capital of Culture annual events are comparable events inthefield of fine arts and culture that are expected to have a positive correlation withtourism development (Hughes et al.2003; Liu2014; Richards2014) The event isexpected to boost development by re-imaging cities and mobilizing cultural pro-duction and consumption Although as with sports events, even cultural events arefar from being a guarantee for achieving the aspired development

The relation of cultural events and tourism even comprises other examples.Cultural productions, such as music, literature and movies, are sometimes strongmarkers of places and induce tourism (Gibson and Connell2007; Beeton 2016).However, even here it has been discussed to what extent the overall image of adestination is more significant than the impact of movies for attracting tourists(Hahm and Wang2011) The advent of new touristic expectations at places related

tofilms and literature is changing places not always in line with desires of the localpopulation (Croy and Buchmann2009; Bolan et al 2011) Furthermore, in manycases, this development is limited in time and depends on the popularity of thecultural expression that makes the nucleus of the attraction However, it has beenshown that places related to children’s literature indeed were able to establish a

Müller2009) For example, the places described by Lucy Maud Montgomery in herwork Anne of Green Gables on Prince Edward Island, Canada, were later also used

in movie productions Today they are essential parts of the island’s tourism product(Fig.1.1)

Even places of dark heritage may turn areas otherwise with limited attractivenessinto tourism destinations Among those, sites of deadly accidents, battles, church-

Timothy2011) Often these transformations are not without contestation and debate

since different experiences and perspective on the heritage in place exist (Buchholtz

2005; Lemelin et al.2013)

In summary, cultural events and places related to heritage can entail a transitioninto tourism Indeed sometimes these events are held to facilitate such developmentnot least in previously deprived places or regions in crisis However, the longevity

of such development is dependent on significance, fashion and popularity of theevent and the related site Hence, the most likely development is not a transition butrather a short peak in demand

1.3 Scale and Transition

As argued earlier, transitions are fundamental changes of systems From a graphical perspective, this implies that scale becomes an important aspect oftransitions since“…tourism is stretched over time and space” (Hall and Page2014,

geo-p 148) Hence, the boundaries of the systems considered affect the factors

influencing it as well, or as Hall and Lew (2009, p 71) formulate it,“[S]cale affectsthe definition of the system, and hence the behaviours observed, and the feedbackprocesses that can occur between system levels” This implies that what is con-sidered a transition is also dependent on the delimitations of a system In complexFig 1.1 The Green Gables farmhouse, Prince Edward Island, Canada (Photo DK M üller)

adaptive systems such as tourism, the focus is on behaviour at lower levels Generalbehavioural patterns are seen as aggregates of agents’ behaviour on a lower level.Socio-economic scales stretch from the individual to the local and then to theglobal level Focus on the individual level can explain how an individual tourismfirm is affected by change, but in fact, these changes would seldom qualify to becalled a transition; on a destination level the change for a single company withintourism would seldom be noted Moreover, as Hall and Lew (2009) note tourism isoften assessed at a destination level In the same way changes in a destination donot necessarily affect a national tourism system, but in case a national tourismsystem is going through a transition, it would be likely that this is understood as aresult of changes at a regional or destination level.

Analogue to spatial scales even temporal scales and the temporal delimitation ofsystems affect how changes are assessed Slow changes would usually not result inmuch action For example, climate change would usually not affect tourism oper-ations within weeks, months or even a year Instead, it is the longer perspective thatmakes climate change a challenge More dramatic events, like disasters such asearthquakes or other natural hazards, are immediate problems Thus temporal scaleshave implications as well whether tourism transitions are detected and consideredproblematic or not

Lew (2014) offers a systematic approach to tourism scales and change rates inrelation to system resilience Hence, on the level of the single entrepreneur and thesmall-scale company a decline of services or facilities may imply a slowlydecreasing competitiveness that could be managed through maintenance programs.Training and diversification can address a more rapid change caused by a destroyedattraction or a vanishing market On the community level, slow change can betriggered by, for example, climate change or increasing global competition Here afocus on conservation, mitigation, and adaptation may be reasonable strategies Inthe case of sudden change caused, for example by disasters, various support sys-tems focusing on welfare and infrastructure services are requested

Consequently, scale is an important perspective regarding the understanding andanalysis of transitions, and although geographical and temporal scales are oftendominant, Hall and Lew (2009) list various other sectors such as networks andsocio-economic systems, where scalar dimensions are relevant Together with theabove-presented events that drive transitions, they form a framework for under-standing the relation between transitions and tourism in time and space

1.4 Outline of the Book

Against this background, this book presents a selection of case studies addressing avariety of aspects related to the topic of transitions from a geographical perspective.The examples were originally presented at a meeting titled Tourism and Transition

Commission for the Geography of Tourism, Leisure and Global Change together

with the Polish Geographical Society and the Institute of Geography and SpatialOrganization within the Polish Academy of Sciences The conference took place inthe Pieniny Mountains, Southern Poland, in 2014 The ambition in this context hasbeen to broaden the perspective available in the scientific literature beyond the areaspredominantly represented there Hence, this volume offers examples from Northand South America, Europe, Africa and Asia Furthermore, the events causingtransitions presented here have different characteristics Environmental change,globalization and political change in relation to the dissolution of the Soviet Unionand its sphere of influence are topics in some of the cases discussed.

In the next chapter, Alison Gill presents the case of the resort of Whistler,Canada, which underwent a transition from a traditional resort to a communityputting sustainable development at the forefront She argues that the concept ofsustainability is well established in political rhetoric, but interpretations of theconcept are understood differently, and implementation is challenging Often theconcepts of growth and sustainability are viewed as antithetical Therefore thecontribution aims at examining the challenges that the resort town is facing inmaintaining the integrity of its innovative, comprehensive sustainability model Asthefirst resort governance model aiming at sustainability of its kind, it has gainedwidespread interest from resort destinations globally However, since 2011 therehave been a number of challenges to the resort’s sustainability journey includingshifting priorities and new stakeholder constellations

These challenges to the recently established sustainability pathway raise issuesconcerning the resilience of the new model Building on previous research inWhistler an evolutionary economic geography approach to examine this issuethrough the lens of path creation is employed The chapter demonstrates that thispolitically driven transition toward“sustainability requires not only innovation andentrepreneurship by champions but also continuing engagement, support andpartnerships with a broad range of stakeholders” (Gill, this volume)

The two following chapters refer to transitions in cruise tourism Rita de CássiaAriza da Cruz discusses the impacts of the rapid development of cruise tourismalong the Brazilian coast Not least the economic crisis in the core countries ofcapitalism triggered an interest in new emerging markets such as South America.Although supported by some, the chapter focuses on the negative consequences ofthe rapid development The author argues that a few global players within the cruiseindustry require adaptation from Brazilian authorities in order to visit the ports ofthe country However, local impacts are limited because most Brazilians cannotafford to participate in this form of tourism, makes it questionable whether aninvestment in potentially shortsighted opportunities is reasonable Hence, thechapter demonstrates the inclusion of the Brazilian territory in the circuits ofinternational cruise tourism and illustrates the challenges of such a transition forlocal authorities, especially in relation to other challenges of a developing economyand society

In his chapter, Denis Cerić addresses how the cruise industry can adapt theiractivities to changing market forces by simply repositioning cruise vessels Cruisecompanies are discovering new markets rapidly, involving every part of the world

in cruise tourism and continually changing themselves to ensure growth He argues,therefore, that transition in cruise tourism can be observed from a number ofperspectives: clustering of the companies, gigantism in shipbuilding, models ofrepositioning vessels, cruising itineraries patterns, and so on In the Mediterranean,within only four full years of operation, the number of cruise vessels and total days

in which the cruise vessels are present in the Mediterranean region decreasedtogether with many other indicators Overall results indicate a change of focus fromthe entire Mediterranean basin in 2012 to Western Mediterranean sub-region in

2016 These quick changes entail substantial challenges to ports and destinationsand have to be managed thoroughly to avoid major setbacks in the development oftourism

Carolin Funck and Nan Chang present a case study of Naoshima, an island inJapan’s Seto Inland Sea Here tourism development is used in order to rejuvenateand develop an island that has been known as an industrial site mainly Since the

1960 and in cooperation with private stakeholders, local government has developedNaoshima into a successful destination based on special interest tourism instead ofmass tourism Art tourism definitely has contributed to a diversified visitor structuredifferent from other locations in the Seto Inland Sea Within this structure, volunteertourists constitute a special niche market Finally, the development from niche tomass tourism on Naoshima created opportunities for in-migrants to establish theirown business and has given the island an advantage in the nationwide competitionfor migrants to rural areas

Anette Hay’s chapter deals with second home owners and the social and nomic changes they induce on rural communities in South Africa Using the village

eco-of Rosendal in the Eastern Free State province eco-of South Africa as a case study, Hayshows how second home development contributes to the shift of communities from

a productivist to post-productivist countryside These social and economic changesserve to alter the nature of traditional farming and the face of the rural small-town—resulting in a differentiated countryside

which is in the transition from centrally planned to market economy The countryopened its borders for international visitors as late as the 1990s, but tourism quicklybecame a major business sector It contributes significantly to socio-economicdevelopment and poverty reduction in the country The transition through tourism isheavily supported by international donors The chapter indicates that developmentcooperation operates in a challenging environment of new economic dynamics andlong-standing political structures A lack of qualified personnel, low capacity inmanagement and planning, and insufficient cooperation with tourism economy aremajor challenges for a successful tourism development Hence the chapterdemonstrates how persistent structures constrain a desired transition process.Two chapters present cases related to the political and economic transitioncaused by the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact Aija van derSteina and Maija Rozite present a study of resident attitudes towards tourismdevelopment in Riga, Latvia The city quickly became a popular internationaltourist destination, and indeed the Latvian economy benefitted greatly from this

development However, the city experienced not just the positive impacts on thelocal economy, culture and environment, but also some unexpected consequencesrelated to alcohol consumption and drug abuse This influenced Riga’s image as adestination negatively and fuelled the resentment of the local community towardstourism development However, the authors show that the local population anddestination management learnt quickly over the years and developed measures tosuccessfully cope with stag tourism as well as recover from the global economiccrisis As a result, the local population kept a positive attitude towards tourismmaking Riga a good example of a successful transition into a tourism-based urbaneconomy.

Another example of transition within an urban destination is presented in achapter on the spatial restructuring of tourism in Warsaw Marta Derek shows howthe transition from a centrally planned economy to a market economy influencestourism within an urban space in a significant way However, the transition to themarket economy does not imply that tourism in Warsaw is concentrated to onecentral tourism district as in many western cities only Instead, tourism is distributedover the city, and the residential functions are not displaced by tourism to anygreater extent The chapter is thus an example of the role of path dependency andpersistent structures It demonstrates that outcomes of transitions are dependent onprevious structures and seldom share the properties of a greenfield development.Marek Więckowski considers in his chapter tourism-specific elements of Polishborders, such as principles of human mobility Tourism flows are one importantcomponent of this mobility, not least since Poland and its neighbors joint the

tourism partnerships Moreover, it takes account of the particularities of tional tourism development on the Polish Baltic Sea coast The chapter questionswhether and how tourism contributes to the levels of integration and what it means

transna-to the movement of people in the Southern Baltic from the perspective of changes

in border functions in Poland and its neighboring countries

climate change by assessing the competitiveness of ski areas in the European Alps.Departing from the notion that climate change is likely to impact competitiveness,they conduct an analysis of ski areas’ competitiveness in the Eastern Alps byassessing the consequences of a warming of +4 °C on snow reliability In thiscontext, the ability of artificial snowmaking becomes a core asset to deal withhigher temperature The analysis demonstrated that climate change impacts differgreatly across the Eastern Alps Investments in snowmaking can be a way ofmaintaining competitiveness in some regions but are less influential in otherregions It is likely that the ski market will contract due to climate change This islikely to benefit the remaining ski areas at least until the middle of the 21st century.Hence, the chapter demonstrates an ongoing transition caused by environmentalchange

Together the chapters provide a set of examples that illustrate the variety ofevents that can cause transitions in tourism on different temporal and spatial scales

Although it is not the aim to draw any wide-reaching conclusions, it is evident thattransitions can occur quickly and change destinations substantially by creating oreroding preconditions for tourism.

Arana, J E., & Le ón, C J (2008) The impact of terrorism on tourism demand Annals of Tourism Research, 35(2), 299 –315 doi: 10.1016/j.annals.2007.08.003

Becken, S (2007) Tourists ’ perception of international air travel’s impact on the global climate and potential climate change policies Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 15(4), 351 –368 doi: 10 2167/jost710.0

Becken, S (2013) Developing a framework for assessing resilience of tourism sub-systems to climatic factors Annals of Tourism Research, 43, 506 –528 doi: 10.1016/j.annals.2013.06.002 Beeton, S (2016) Film-induced tourism (2nd ed.) Bristol: Channel View.

Benediktsson, K., Lund, K A., & Huijbens, E H (2011) Inspired by eruptions? Eyjafjallaj ökull and Icelandic tourism Mobilities, 6(1), 77 –84 doi: 10.1080/17450101.2011.532654 Bianchi, R (2006) Tourism and the globalisation of fear: Analysing the politics of risk and (in) security in global travel Tourism and Hospitality Research, 7(1), 64 –74 doi: 10.1057/palgrave thr.6050028

Bolan, P., Boy, S., & Bell, J (2011) We ’ve seen it in the movies, let’s see if it’s true: Authenticity and displacement in film-induced tourism Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes, 3(2),

Butler, R W (1974) The social implications of tourist developments Annals of tourism research, 2(2), 100 –111.

Butler, R W (1980) The concept of a tourist area cycle of evolution: implications for management of resources The Canadian Geographer, 24(1), 5 –12.

Butler, R., & Boyd, S W (Eds.) (2000) Tourism and national parks Chichester: Wiley Butler, R., & Suntikul, W (2013) Tourism and war: An ill wind In R Butler & W Suntikul (Eds.), Tourism and war (pp 1 –11) Abington: Routledge.

Carson, D A., Carson, D B., & Hodge, H (2014) Understanding local innovation systems in peripheral tourism destinations Tourism Geographies, 16(3), 457 –473 doi: 10.1080/ 14616688.2013.868030

Cohen, E (1978) The impact of tourism on the physical environment Annals of Tourism Research, 5(2), 215 –237.

Cohen, S A., Higham, J E., & Cavaliere, C T (2011) Binge flying: Behavioural addiction and climate change Annals of Tourism Research, 38(3), 1070 –1089 doi: 10.1016/j.annals.2011.01.

013

Cohen, S A., Higham, J., G össling, S., Peeters, P., & Eijgelaar, E (2016) Finding effective pathways to sustainable mobility: Bridging the science –policy gap Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 24(3), 317 –334 doi: 10.1080/09669582.2015.1136637

Corak, S (2006) The modi fication of the tourism area life cycle model for (re)inventing a destination: The case of the Opatija Riviera, Croatia In R Butler (Ed.), the tourism area life cycle: Applications and modi fications (Vol 1, pp 271–286) Clevedon: Channel View Croy, W G., & Buchmann, A (2009) Film-induced tourism in the high country: Recreation and tourism contest Tourism Review International, 13(2), 147 –155 doi: 10.3727/

154427209789604642

David, I., Eimermann, M., & Åkerlund, U (2015) An exploration of a lifestyle migration industry.

In K Torkington, I David, & J Sardinha (Eds.), Practising the good life: Lifestyle migration in practices (pp 138 –160) Newcastle Upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

Dawson, J., & Scott, D (2010) Examining climate change vulnerability for the US Northeast ski tourism sector using a systems based approach Journal of Tourism Hospitality and Planning Development, 7(3), 219 –235.

De Kadt, E (Ed.) (1979) Tourism-Passport to Development? Oxford: Oxford University Press Erfurt-Cooper, P (Ed.) (2014) Volcanic tourist destinations Amsterdam: Springer.

Fang, B., Ye, Q., & Law, R (2016) Effect of sharing economy on tourism industry employment Annals of Tourism Research, 57, 264 –267 doi: 10.1016/j.annals.2015.11.018

Faulkner, B (2001) Towards a framework for tourism disaster management Tourism Management, 22(2), 135 –147 doi: 10.1016/S0261-5177(00)00048-0

Folke, C., Carpenter, S., Elmqvist, T., Gunderson, L., Holling, C S., & Walker, B (2002) Resilience and sustainable development: Building adaptive capacity in a world of transfor- mations Ambio, 31(5), 437 –440 doi: 10.1579/0044-7447-31.5.437

Gibson, C., & Connell, J (2007) Music, tourism and the transformation of Memphis Tourism Geographies, 9(2), 160 –190 doi: 10.1080/14616680701278505

Goodrich, J N (2002) September 11, 2001 attack on America: a record of the immediate impacts and reactions in the USA travel and tourism industry Tourism Management, 23(6), 573 –580 doi: 10.1016/S0261-5177(02)00029-8

G össling, S., & Hall, C M (2006) An introduction to tourism and global environmental change.

In S G össling & C M Hall (Eds.), Tourism & global environmental change: ecological, social, economic and political interrelationships (pp 1 –33) Abingdon: Routledge.

G össling, S., Hall, C M., & Scott, D (2015) Tourism and water Bristol: Channel View Publications.

G össling, S., Lindén, O., Helmersson, J., Liljenberg, J., & Quarm, S (2007) Diving and global environmental change: A Mauritius case study In B Garrod & S G össling (Eds.), New frontiers in marine tourism (pp 67 –92) Amsterdam: Elsevier.

G össling, S., Scott, D., Hall, C M., Ceron, J P., & Dubois, G (2012) Consumer behaviour and demand response of tourists to climate change Annals of Tourism Research, 39(1), 36 –58 doi: 10.1016/j.annals.2011.11.002

Grabher, G., & Stark, D (1998) Organising diversity: Evolutionary theory, network analysis and post-socialism In J Pickles & A Smith (Eds.), Theorizing Transition: The Political Economy

of Post-communist Transformations (pp 51 –71) London: Routledge.

Greenwood, D J (1976) Tourism as an agent of change: A Spanish Basque case Annals of Tourism Research, 3(3), 128 –142.

Guttentag, D (2015) Airbnb: Disruptive innovation and the rise of an informal tourism accommodation sector Current issues in Tourism, 18(12), 1192 –1217 doi: 10.1080/13683500 2013.827159

Hahm, J., & Wang, Y (2011) Film-induced tourism as a vehicle for destination marketing: Is it worth the efforts? Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 28(2), 165 –179 doi: 10.1080/ 10548408.2011.546209

Hall, C M (2007) North-south perspectives on tourism, regional development and peripheral areas In D K M üller & B Jansson (Eds.), Tourism in peripheries: Perspectives from the far north and south (pp 19 –37) Wallingford: Cabi.

Hall, C M (2010) Crisis events in tourism: Subjects of crisis in tourism Current issues in Tourism, 13(5), 401 –417 doi: 10.1080/13683500.2010.491900

Hall, C M (2013) Vanishing peripheries: Does tourism consume places? Tourism Recreation Research, 38(1), 72 –77.

Hall, C M., & Lew, A A (2009) Understanding and managing tourism impacts: An integrated approach London: Routledge.

Hall, C M., & Page, S J (2014) The geography of tourism and recreation: Environment, place and space Abingdon: Routledge.

Hall, C M., & Williams, A M (2008) Tourism and innovation Abingdon: Routledge Hall, D R (1998) Tourism development and sustainability issues in Central and South-eastern Europe Tourism Management, 19(5), 423 –431 doi: 10.1016/S0261-5177(98)00039-9 Hall, D (2004) Introduction In D Hall (Ed.), Tourism and transition: Governance, transformation and development (pp 1 –51) Wallingford: CABI.

Higham, J E., & Cohen, S A (2011) Canary in the coalmine: Norwegian attitudes towards climate change and extreme long-haul air travel to Aotearoa/New Zealand Tourism Management, 32(1), 98 –105 doi: 10.1016/j.tourman.2010.04.005

Hinch, T D (1990) Cuban tourism industry —its re-emergence and future Tourism Management, 11(3), 214 –226 doi: 10.1016/0261-5177(90)90044-A

Hingtgen, N., Kline, C., Fernandes, L., & McGehen, N G (2015) Cuba in transition: Tourism industry perceptions of entrepreneurial change Tourism Management, 50, 184 –193 doi: 10 1016/j.tourman.2015.01.033

Hjalager, A M (2010) A review of innovation research in tourism Tourism Management, 31(1),

1 –12 doi: 10.1016/j.tourman.2009.08.012

Huan, T C., Beaman, J., & Shelby, L (2004) No-escape natural disaster: Mitigating impacts on tourism Annals of Tourism Research, 31(2), 255 –273 doi: 10.1016/j.annals.2003.10.003 Hughes, H., Allen, D., & Wasik, D (2003) The signi ficance of European “Capital of Culture” for tourism and culture: The case of Krakow 2000 International Journal of Arts Management, 5 (3), 12 –23.

Jaakson, R (1996) Tourism in transition in post-Soviet Estonia Annals of Tourism Research, 23 (3), 617 –634 doi: 10.1016/0160-7383(95)00113-1

Jenkins, J M., & Hall, C M (1998) The restructuring of rural economies: Rural tourism and recreation as a government response In R Butler, C M Hall, & J Jenkins (Eds.), Tourism and recreation in rural areas (pp 43 –68) Chichester: Wiley.

J óhannesson, G T., & Huijbens, E H (2010) Tourism in times of crisis: Exploring the discourse

of tourism development in Iceland Current Issues in Tourism, 13(5), 419 –434 doi: 10.1080/ 13683500.2010.491897

Jordan, J W (1980) The summer people and the natives some effects of tourism in a Vermont vacation village Annals of Tourism Research, 7(1), 34 –55 doi: 10.1016/S0160-7383(80) 80005-3

Law, R., Buhalis, D., & Cobanoglu, C (2014) Progress on information and communication technologies in hospitality and tourism International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 26(5), 727 –750 doi: 10.1108/IJCHM-08-2013-0367

Lemelin, R H., Whyte, K P., Johansen, K., Higgins-Desbiolles, F., Wilson, C., & Hemming, S (2013) Con flicts, battlefields, indigenous peoples and tourism: Addressing dissonant heritage

in warfare tourism in Australia and North America in the twenty- first century International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research, 7(3), 257 –271 doi: 10.1108/IJCTHR- 05-2012-0038

Lew, A A (2014) Scale, change and resilience in community tourism planning Tourism Geographies, 16(1), 14 –22 doi: 10.1080/14616688.2013.864325

Liu, Y D (2014) Cultural events and cultural tourism development: Lessons from the European Capitals of Culture European Planning Studies, 22(3), 498 –514 doi: 10.1080/09654313.2012.

Mosedale, J (2014) Political economy of tourism: Regulation theory, institutions and governance networks In A A Lew, C M Hall, & A M Williams (Eds.), The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Tourism (pp 55 –65) Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.

Mowforth, M., & Munt, I (2015) Tourism and sustainability: Development, globalisation and new tourism in the third world Abingdon: Routledge.

M üller, D K (1999) German second home owners in the Swedish countryside: on the internationalization of the leisure space Östersund: European Tourism Research Institute (ETOUR).

M üller, D K (2009) Astrid Lindgrens landskap för tyska turister In M Bohlin (Ed.), Astrid Lindgrens landskap: hur landskapets kulturarv f örändras, förstås, förvaltas och förmedlas (pp 85 –99) Stockholm: Vitterhetsakademin.

M üller, D K (2011) Tourism development in Europe´s “last wilderness”: An assessment of nature-based tourism in Swedish Lapland In A A Grenier & D K M üller (Eds.), Polar tourism: A tool for regional development (pp 129 –153) Montreal: Presses de l’Université du

Qu ébec.

M üller, D K (2013) Hibernating economic decline? Tourism and labor market change in Europe ’s northern periphery In G Visser & S Ferreira (Eds.), Tourism and crisis (pp 113– 128) London: Routledge.

Neuhofer, B., Buhalis, D., & Ladkin, A (2014) A typology of technology-enhanced tourism experiences International Journal of Tourism Research, 16(4), 340 –350 doi: 10.1002/jtr.1958 Orchiston, C., Prayag, G., & Brown, C (2016) Organizational resilience in the tourism sector Annals of Tourism Research, 56, 145 –148 doi: 10.1016/j.annals.2015.11.002

Padilla, A., & McElroy, J L (2007) Cuba and Caribbean tourism after Castro Annals of Tourism Research, 34(3), 649 –672 doi: 10.1016/j.annals.2007.02.004

Pigram, J J (1980) Environmental implications of tourism development Annals of Tourism Research, 7(4), 554 –583 doi: 10.1016/0160-7383(80)90049-3

Pizam, A (1978) Tourism ’s impacts: The social costs to the destination community as perceived

by its residents Journal of Travel Research, 16(4), 8 –12.

Richards, G (2014) Creativity and tourism in the city Current Issues in Tourism, 17(2), 119 –144 doi: 10.1080/13683500.2013.783794

Richter, L K (1999) After political turmoil: The lessons of rebuilding tourism in three Asian countries Journal of Travel Research, 38(1), 41 –45.

Ritchie, B W (2004) Chaos, crises and disasters: A strategic approach to crisis management in the tourism industry Tourism Management, 25(6), 669 –683.

Rostow, W W (1959) The stages of economic growth The Economic History Review, 12(1),

1 –16.

Saarinen, J (2014) Tourism and tourists in nature, national parks, and wilderness In A A Lew,

C M Hall, & A M Williams (Eds.), The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Tourism (pp 500 – 512) Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.

Saarinen, J., & Kask, T (2008) Transforming tourism spaces in changing socio-political contexts: The case of P ärnu, Estonia, as a tourist destination Tourism Geographies, 10(4), 452–473 doi: 10.1080/14616680802434072

Saha, S., & Yap, G (2014) The moderation effects of political instability and terrorism on tourism development: A cross-country panel analysis Journal of Travel Research, 53(4), 509 –521 Sharpley, R., & Stone, P R (Eds.) (2009) The darker side of travel Bristol: Channel View Simon, F L (1995) Tourism development in transition economies: The Cuba case The Columbia Journal of World Business, 30(1), 26 –40.

Singh, N., & Zhou, H (2015) Transformation of tourism in Beijing after the 2008 Summer Olympics: An analysis of the impacts in 2014 International Journal of Tourism Research, 18 (4), 277 –285 doi: 10.1002/jtr.2045

S önmez, S F (1998) Tourism, terrorism, and political instability Annals of Tourism Research, 25 (2), 416 –456.

Squire, S J (1996) Literary tourism and sustainable tourism: Promoting ‘Anne of Green Gables’

in Prince Edward Island Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 4(3), 119 –134 doi: 10.1080/

Stark, D (1994) Path dependence and privatisation strategies in East-Central Europe In E Milov (Ed.), Changing political economies: Privatization in post-communist and reforming communist states (pp 115 –146) New York: Lynne Reinner.

Steiger, R (2011) The impact of snow scarcity on ski tourism: an analysis of the record warm season 2006/2007 in Tyrol (Austria) Tourism Review, 66(3), 4 –13.

Steiner, C (2007) Political instability, transnational tourist companies and destination recovery in the Middle East after 9/11 Tourism and Hospitality Planning & Development, 4(3), 169 –190 Tanti, A., & Buhalis, D (2017) The in fluences and consequences of being digitally connected and/or disconnected to travellers Information Technology & Tourism, 17(1), 121 –141 Taylor, H L., & McGlynn, L (2009) International tourism in Cuba: can capitalism be used to save socialism? Futures, 41(6), 405 –413.

Teigland, J (1999) Mega-events and impacts on tourism; the predictions and realities of the Lillehammer Olympics Impact assessment and project appraisal, 17(4), 305 –317 doi: 10 3152/147154699781767738

Telfer, D J., & Sharpley, R (2015) Tourism and development in the developing world Abingdon: Routledge.

Timothy, D J (2011) Cultural heritage and tourism Bristol: Channel View.

Viglia, G., Werthner, H., & Buhalis, D (2016) Disruptive innovations Information Technology & Tourism, 16, 327 –329 doi: 10.1007/s40558-016-0072-1

Visser, G., & Ferreira, S (Eds.) (2013) Tourism and crisis Abingdon: Routledge.

Wall, G., & Mathieson, A (2006) Tourism: Change, impacts, and opportunities Harlow: Pearson Education.

Wall Reinius, S., & Fredman, P (2007) Protected areas as attractions Annals of Tourism Research, 34(4), 839 –854 doi: 10.1016/j.annals.2007.03.011

Williams, A M (2002) The Czech and Slovak Republics: Conceptual issues in the economic analysis of tourism in transition Tourism Management, 23(1), 37 –45.

Williams, A M., & Bal áž, V (2001) From collective provision to commodification of tourism? Annals of Tourism Research, 28(1), 27 –49.

Williams, A M., King, R., & Warnes, T (2004) British second homes in Southern Europe: Shifting nodes in the scapes and flows of migration and tourism In C M Hall & A.

M Williams (Eds.), Tourism, mobility and second homes: Between elite landscape and common ground (pp 97 –112) Dordrecht: Kluwer.

Wilson, J (2016) Disrupted hospitality –the impact of the Christchurch earthquake/s on accommodation hosts Hospitality & Society, 6(1), 55 –75.

Xiang, Z., Magnini, V P., & Fesenmaier, D R (2015) Information technology and consumer behavior in travel and tourism: Insights from travel planning using the internet Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 22, 244 –249 doi: 10.1016/j.jretconser.2014.08.005 Yang, L., & Wall, G (2008) Ethnic tourism and entrepreneurship: Xishuangbanna, Yunnan, China Tourism Geographies, 10(4), 522 –544 doi: 10.1080/14616680802434130

Yankovska, G., & Hannam, K (2014) Dark and toxic tourism in the Chernobyl exclusion zone Current issues in Tourism, 17(10), 929 –939.

Author Biography

Dieter K M üller is Professor of Social and Economic Geography at the Department of Geography and Economic History Ume å University He has published widely within the fields of tourism and local/regional development in northern areas, indigenous tourism, and tourism and mobility A particular interest relates to the geography of second homes M üller is currently the chair of the International Geographical Union (IGU) Commission for the Geography of Tourism, Leisure and Global Change and the co-editor of the Springer book series on Tourism and Global Change.

Challenges to the Resilience of Whistler ’s

Journey Towards Sustainability

Alison M Gill

2.1 Introduction

The concept of sustainability is well established in political rhetoric, but tations of the concept are variously understood and implementation is challenging.Despite the increasing application of the term sustainability within policy domains,moving towards sustainability has proven to be challenging due to complex andpersistent environmental, social, political and economic constraints As Westley

interpre-et al (2011: 276) observe:

The conceptual and institutional separation of social and ecological systems has contributed and continues to contribute to a mis fit between ecosystem and governance systems This separation is a strong contributor to the path dependence that makes it so hard to shift to sustainable trajectories.

Even for those who seek to pursue sustainable trajectories, it must be recognizedthat, sustainability is not an end-state—but an attribute of dynamic, adaptive sys-tems (Center for Resilience at The Ohio State University 2016) Consequently,increasing attention is being placed on transitional aspects of sustainability path-ways and the ways in which they can become more resilient (e.g Pike et al.2010;Kemp et al 2007) Resilience is the capacity of a system to survive, adapt, andgrow in the face of uncertainty and unforeseen changes, even catastrophic incidents(Center for Resilience2016) The increasing popularity of the concept of resilience

in the social sciences is seen to be a result of the perception of increasing tainty and insecurity in a globalized world where economic and environmentalcrises intersect (Lew2014) Much like the term‘sustainability’, the term ‘resilience’

uncer-is a broad, fuzzy, ill-defined concept, applied widely across many contexts

A.M Gill ( &)

Department of Geography, Simon Fraser University, 8888 University Drive,

Burnaby, BC V7N 3K7, Canada

e-mail: agill@sfu.ca

© Springer International Publishing AG 2018

D.K Müller and M Więckowski (eds.), Tourism in Transitions,

Geographies of Tourism and Global Change, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-64325-0_2

21

Recent work on resilience in the tourism sector has sought to engage with themore complex and adaptive lens of social-ecological systems (SES) There havebeen several conceptual discussions, including those by Farrell and Twinning-Ward(2005), Strickland-Munro et al (2010), Tyrell and Johnston (2007) and Calgaro

et al (2014) that propose frameworks or models to help clarify the complex ments of adaptive management in the tourism sector The majority of tourismresilience research is based on case studies relating to either experience and per-ceptions of stakeholders to major economic shocks or natural disasters and crises(e.g Biggs et al.2012; Calgaro and Lloyd2008; Cochrane2010; Orchiston2013;Ruiz-Ballesteros 2011) and more recently, resilience and adaptation to the lessimminent environmental threats associated with climate change (e.g Becken andHay2012; Scott et al.2012; Luthe et al.2012) Lew (2014) proposes that studies ofresilience in a community tourism context should encompass slow change in order

ele-to provide a more comprehensive view of resilience He presents a matrix modelthat conceptualizes resilience on the basis of scale (entrepreneurs to community)and rate of change (slow to sudden) that identifies four distinct categories each ofwhich call for distinct issues, methodologies and management As Lew (2014: 16)observes, “the concept of resilience has largely focused on economic resilience(rather than cultural, institutional or infrastructure resilience)” and predominantly

on case studies rather than theoretical constructs

My aim is to understand the catalysts of change that have affected the resilience

of the sustainability path that the Resort Municipality of Whistler, Canada

incorporated policy designed to operationalize a journey towards sustainabilitythrough broadly-based, transparent stakeholder engagement in decision makingsupported by a comprehensive monitoring program, it gained widespread interestfrom resort destinations globally However, since 2011, there have been a number

of challenges to the resort’s sustainability pathway These challenges raise issuesconcerning the resilience of such models The inquiry is informed generally by theapplication of resilience thinking to social-ecological systems (Berkes and Folke

1998; Holling 1973; Gunderson and Holling 2002) and more specifically by thelens of‘evolutionary resilience’ (Davoudi2012) that focuses not on the return to apreviously normal state but on the adaptability of socio-ecological systems inchanging, adapting and transforming in response to stressors This perspectivealigns well with the understanding of transition management in sustainabilityplanning (van Assche et al.2014)

The discussion in this chapter draws upon research engagement over the pasttwo decades with colleagues and graduate students into a range of topics relating tochange and evolution in the Resort Municipality of Whistler These research pro-jects have variously employed multi-method community-based approaches thathave utilized key informant interviews with a wide range of stakeholders; analysis

of government documents (municipal and provincial); analysis of media reports;community surveys; and, participant observation at community meetings and

events Whilst discussions on the evolution of Whistler have been publishedelsewhere (e.g Gill2000; Gill and Williams2011,2014), the lens of evolutionaryresilience offers new insights into the critical examination of the factors thatunderlie governance transition in the resort and the factors that act as catalysts ofchange to the resilience of Whistler’s sustainability pathway.

I begin the chapter with an overview of key constructs that inform the lens of

‘evolutionary resilience’ (Davoudi2012; Davoudi et al.2013) that is employed inthis paper The subsequent descriptive summary of Whistler’s path to sustainabilityhighlights key features and events to provide a chronological framework andcontext for the following discussion section that examines resilience factors of thesustainability path through an evolutionary resilience lens

2.2 Key Constructs Underlying an Evolutionary

Resilience Perspective

Resilience thinking provides a management approach based on recognizing theintegration of human and ecological systems as complex systems that are contin-ually adapting and neither linear, predictable or controllable (Folke et al.2002) AsWalker and Salt (2006: 9) observe, “[t]he key to sustainability is enhancing theresilience of the social-ecological system (SES), not by optimizing isolated com-ponents of the system” They go on to say that despite recent advances in thesustainability debate, it is evident that examination through a resilience lens clearlyreveals,‘that we still have a way to go’ (Walker and Salt2006: 9) The concepts ofboth resilience and sustainability share similar attributes of being fuzzy, andbroadly interpreted and misunderstood in diverse contexts, however, both it isagreed represent interpretations of a process rather than an end product (Smith andStirling 2010) Although a contested construct, resilience can be perceived as anintegral part of sustainability and a key element of pathway creation in the process

of moving towards sustainable futures

Evolutionary economic interpretations of the dynamics of change have nowbecome widely applied across other social sciences disciplines Geographers haveextended these ideas to place-based interpretations that broadened inquiry toinclude consideration of social-ecological systems (e.g Simmie and Martin2010;Martin and Sunley2015) Evolutionary understanding of resilience is best articu-lated by the“adaptive cycle” as reflected in the panarchy model (Gunderson andHolling2002) This suggests that a system goes though cyclical phases of change instructure and function, notably: growth and exploitation; conservation; release orcreative destruction and reorganization Indeed, such phases resonate with Butler’s(1980) model of the tourism area life cycle model, although at that time it wasconceived as a linear and less complex process (Cochrane2010)

In understanding resilience in an SES context, two key evolutionary concepts areespecially pertinent The concept of‘path dependence’, a core notion in evolutionary

geography interpretations of regional development, recognizes the importance ofpast events in shaping future pathways through notions of“lock-in” (Martin andSunley2006) This focuses attention on a range of structural, cognitive and politicalelements that serve to maintain commitment to the established path However

Understanding how path creation occurs directs the inquiry towards human agencyand the role of entrepreneurs in forging new innovative paths Human agents bothindividually and collectively are seen as engaging in ‘mindful deviation’ fromexisting paths, with their actions understood with reference to real time influence andthe reaction to exogenous and endogenous critical events (Garud and Karnøe2001;Gill and Williams2014) The importance of niches (Kemp et al.2001), or‘protectivespaces’ (Smith and Raven 2012), in nurturing innovations within a path creationprocess has been highlighted, for example in the context of socio-technical sus-tainability transitions (Smith and Stirling2010)

Recent research suggests increasingly complex evolutionary processes thatchallenge rigid notions of path dependency Strambach and Halkier (2013) intro-duce the concept of ‘path plasticity’ whereby innovations within a more flexiblenotion of path dependency do not necessarily result in the creation of new path-

“socio-ecological resilience” (Folke et al 2010)] to challenge the idea of rium whereby systems change over time with or without external disturbances and

equilib-‘small scale changes in the system can amplify and cascade into major shifts’(Davoudi2012: 303) Further, resilience does not imply a return to normality butthe ability of complex social-ecological systems to transform in response to stressesand strains This is especially appropriate for examining governance for sustain-ability and the capacity of traditional institutional frameworks and managementprocesses to adapt to complex, changing economic, environmental and political,social, demographic and political realities

Application of these evolutionary perspectives is reflected in the notion of

Assche et al.2014) Transition management is conceived as an evolutionary, ative four-stage cyclical governance framework (Kemp et al.2007; Loorbach2010;Rotmans et al.2001) that includes problem and goal setting and visioning; iden-

institutionalization (Smith and Stirling2010) Gill and Williams (2011,2014) haveapplied an evolutionary economic geography approach to examining changingmodes of destination governance As they observe, effecting real change in modes

of governance that embody principles of sustainability is an oft-contested process aspath dependent forces, grounded in strategies that prioritize economic growth, act

as resistant forces to more innovative approaches to governance that address abroader range of sustainability objectives This chapter examines these findingsthrough the lens of resilience

2.3 Whistler ’s Journey Towards Sustainability

The Resort Municipality of Whistler in British Columbia, Canada, located 120 kmnorth of Vancouver, was established in 1975 to govern the new comprehensivelyplanned mountain resort development From its early beginnings with two com-peting companies operating on adjacent mountains (later in the 1990s to merge into

a single corporation, Intrawest), the resort has grown to have a resident populationover 10,000 with 2700 seasonal residents and an additional 11,500 second-homeresidents It has evolved from a winter ski resort to North America’s premierall-season mountain resort with over 2.7 million annual visitors (approximately

Several features make Whistler’s governance evolution distinctive From itsearliest days, it has had a fully functional municipal government structure with allplanning regulated by an Official Community Plan that is periodically updated Thefirst decade of development has been characterized as being driven by ‘growthmachine’ politics, controlled by elite decision makers, which stimulated rapidgrowth to establish a critical mass of accommodation and services in thefledglingresort (Gill2000) Community growth and civic engagement since the early 1990s

engagement of residents with trust in the democratically appointed municipalgovernment Notable, as demonstrated in community survey responses, were resi-dents’ high rankings of environmental quality as the most valued attribute of resortcommunity living (Gill2000) This strong environmentalist philosophy was alsodemonstrated in the creation of various environmental organizations within thecommunity Whistler also developed close working relationship between themountain operators (Intrawest - now with new corporate ownership known as

environmental management initiatives This resulted in generally harmonious,uncontested, collaboration

late 1980s with the introduction of a‘bed unit cap’, a planning management andmonitoring tool that established a limit to growth associated with environmentalquality (i.e., sewage and water capacity) (Gill 2007) This growth managementpolicy regulated the type, number and location of allowable units of accommoda-

when established, seemed far in the future despite on-going growth of the resort thatseemed resilient even to global economicfluctuations Successful destinations drawincreasing demand and this was especially the case in Whistler when, in the late1990s, it became evident that the resort community was indeed approaching itsplanned limits to growth This in turn had the effect of accelerating the rate ofdevelopment and consequently housing prices The Resort Municipality found itself

in a difficult political position The resort was locked into a growth model that hadserved both economic and community interests well for over a decade.Development was carefully controlled by policies and by-laws identified in the