Resumen de Vanishing Peripheries: does Tourism Consume Places?
C.M. Hall, David Harrison, David Weaver, Geoffrey Wall
The notion of the periphery and its relationship to tourism is one that has been a source of debate for many years. The concept of a periphery obviously raises the question of peripheral to what, while the term is often used in a relatively negative context with respect to levels of development and/ or influence on central government decision-making. What the term does raise of course is the extent to which location still matters at a time when physical, virtual, capital and human mobility is supposedly greater than ever before. The four contributions therefore highlight a number of key points and debates surround the relative importance or, and relationship between, location and tourist movement.
The lead piece by C. Michael Hall, from the Pacific periphery of the South Island of New Zealand, is charged with the topic of does tourism consume place and therefore lead to the loss of the periphery, and perhaps some of the very qualities that attracted tourists to it in the first place. The first response by David Harrison, also from the Pacific, looks at both the geographical and broader sodal scientific understandings of periphery. The second response from David Weaver utilizes the concept of experiential consumption to interrogate Hall's paper and also link to Harrison's reference to the importance of development theory in understanding notions of periphery. The final response from GeoffW all approaches the topic from an overtly geographical perspective and brings the research probe full circle.
