Arie Stoffelen

An integrative geotourism approach: bridging conflicts in tourism landscape research.

Landscapes have a central position in many rural tourism destinations. They provide both assets and bounds for tourism development, and they indirectly provide the framework in which tourism is often envisaged as a regional development tool. However, the complexity of the interactions between landscapes and tourism has resulted in multiple and sometimes contrasting interpretations and research focuses dealing with landscape–tourism interactions. These contrasts have impeded constructive discussion, dynamism and progress in tourism landscape research in general. To manoeuvre in this complex and ‘chaotic’ field, we argue that a reinterpretation of the concept of geotourism provides a structured way forward. A focus on geotourism, although highly contested as a scientific concept, creates opportunities to bridge the gap between tourism-centred and landscape-centred strands that dominate and hence divide current tourism landscape research. The adapted geotourism framework presented here, in which geotourism is re-interpreted as an approach to study landscape–tourism interactions instead of currently contrasting definitions as either geological niche tourism or a form of sustainable tourism, builds on the idea that landscapes and tourism are inextricably connected. Landscapes provide natural and cultural assets for tourism development, with destination images being constructed by emplaced social and power relations. Simultaneously, the created ‘tourismscape’ has constitutive power to shape the landscape and the processes within it. By building on this continuum between tourism and landscape, the proposed geotourism approach provides a solid conceptual foundation for future research on landscape–tourism interactions and the interrelations between tourism landscapes and regional development.

Analysing governance in tourism value chains to reshape the tourist bubble in developing countries: the case of cultural tourism in Uganda

Several studies found larger benefits for communities when local stakeholders could participate in the tourism value chain by ‘linking’ their labour, products and services to the sector. However, the establishment of local linkages is difficult because of the complexity of the tourism system that consists of multi-sectoral and multi-scalar relationships. Moreover, in developing countries, empowered stakeholders tend to organise the tourism value chain vertically in which tourists are led in a spatially and socially confined trajectory in the destination, the so-called tourist bubble. This paper analyses the effect of governance in the tourism value chain on the establishment of local linkages to reshape the social and spatial boundaries of the tourist bubble in Uganda. Specifically, the possibilities of cultural tourism are explored as one particular way to reshape the bubble, that is centred on nature-based and ecotourism focuses. Results show that cultural activities can reshape the social boundaries of the bubble, while the catalyst role of cultural tourism developments is less successful in reshaping the spatial bubble boundaries. The national scale is pivotal to ensure that (1) local stakeholders are empowered to overcome existing barriers to enter and (2) international stakeholders are given incentives to reshape the bubble.

Institutional (dis)integration and regional development implications of whisky tourism in Speyside, Scotland.

Abstract Actively positioning tourism in regional socio-economic contexts and development plans is regularly seen by researchers as a prerequisite to practically unfold tourism-related regional development potential. However, conceptual elaboration and additional empirical evidence are still needed to gain a more critical understanding of this notion. Therefore, the objective of this research is to explore tourism-related delivery mechanisms for regional development by focusing on the role of tourism in larger region-building processes. Using an in-depth interview-based case study on the supply and policy of whisky tourism in Speyside (Scotland), we found that the mode of commodification and institutionalisation of whisky tourism in Speyside provides an unstable basis for reaching destination-wide regional development aims. Despite high-profile regional branding, the regional institutionalisation provides barriers for local stakeholders to integrate in destination management processes. Networking vehicles with multi-scalar actions are necessary to foster empowerment of local stakeholders and to facilitate regional integration of stakeholder interests. We conclude that an integrative position of tourism in the region-building process of destinations, facilitated by the mode of multi-scalar commodification and institutionalisation of territorial resources in the destination, is central for reaching tourism-induced regional development aims.

Tourism and cross-border regional development: insights in European contexts

ABSTRACT This paper aims to structurally analyse the role of tourism in regional development processes in European cross-border regions with different historical development paths. Departing from an institutional perspective, the research is based on comparison of the position of tourism in region-building processes in the newly developing German–Czech cross-border region and the more ‘mature’ German–Belgian borderlands. Results indicate that the development of local cross-border tourism projects is no guarantee for positive destination-wide regional development impacts. In some cases, these projects may even reinforce asymmetrical socio-economic development directions of neighbouring borderlands. Rather, the socio-spatially equitable distribution of tourism benefits in cross-border contexts depends on several process-based aspects. These include the presence of ‘thick’ (cross-border) institutional arrangements, multi-scalar representation of tourism stakeholders in decision-making processes and a transversal position of tourism in regional development strategies. However, both with cross-border institutional ‘under-mobilization’ (Germany–Czech Republic) and with institutional ‘over-mobilization’ (Germany–Belgium), the informal network position of institutional brokers proved key for safeguarding the integrative character of tourism in the inevitably complex cross-border region-building process.