Establishing Influence Areas of Attractions in Rural Destinations

Identifier:  imarina:9470950

Handle: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11797/imarina9470950

Authors:  Paulino Valldepérez, Isabel; Prats, Lluís; A.Whalley, Peter

Abstract:
This research provides a critical approach to the assessment and evaluation of tourism destinations from the perspective of traditional administratively-based boundaries. It suggests that researchers and managers should abandon their focus on destinations as all-inclusive administratively-defined areas, readjusting to a more flexible model tied to tourists’ travel patterns. Given the centrality of attractions to the leisure tourism process, the flows that an attraction is able to generate from neighbouring accommodation hubs explains an important share of the way a destination is consumed and offers a means of identifying more 'natural' destination areas. The analysis also explores how several factors affect the influence areas of attractions, and how the elements of conjoining destinations can be interconnected due to tourism flows representing overlapping influence areas and traversing administrative boundaries. Based on three rural case studies, this research investigates the movements of tourists within and between destination areas, focusing on the relationship between accommodation hubs and attractions as represented by visitor flows. The graphical representation of such flows has enabled the identification of influence areas of attractions which traverse administrative boundaries, and overlap with those of other attractions. The application of a distance decay curve approach clarifies the relationship between accommodations and the visiting of attractions in the three selected rural areas. Furthermore, the overlapping of several attractions influence areas allow the detection of unexploited cooperation within the destination.