Tim Gale

A survey of doctoral theses accepted by universities in the UK and Ireland for studies related to tourism, 1990-1999

The Index of Theses provided the single source for multiple searches utilizing the following key words: ‘holiday’, ‘holidaymaker’, ‘holidays’, ‘tourism’, ‘tourist’, ‘tourists’, ‘travel’, ‘visitor’ and ‘visitors’. A refined list of 149 doctoral theses accepted by universities in the UK and Ireland between 1990 and 1999 is reported. Results of the survey are reported for awarding university and year of acceptance, subject categories, location of fieldwork and methods of data collection and analysis. The universities of Strathclyde and Surrey accepted just over a quarter of all theses in the reported period. The frequency of accepted theses rose from four in 1990 to 29 in 1997 with a mean yearly average since 1996 of 23. Twenty-two subject categories were created. Four frequent areas of study were reported; development, impact, behaviour and industry and these accounted for approximately half of the theses. Fieldwork locations were spread across the major regions of the world with studies of the UK comprising less than a quarter of the theses. The analysis of methods confirms the prevailing influence of positivist (questionnaire) and hermeneutic (interview) epistemologies in these studies of tourism.

Modernism, Post-Modernism and the Decline of British Seaside Resorts as Long Holiday Destinations: A Case Study of Rhyl, North Wales

Abstract This paper premises that late twentieth century changes to culture impacted upon the demand for and supply of the constituent tourism resources of British seaside resorts in such a way as to facilitate their decline as mass market, long holiday destinations. It begins by reviewing the current state of knowledge pertaining to seaside resort development, noting the tendency to present this as an evolutionary process and the corresponding emphasis placed on competition and resource depletion as reasons for decline, factors that are synonymous with the consolidation, stagnation and post-stagnation phases of the tourist area life cycle. Accordingly, it contends that academics have been slow to engage with the root causes underpinning the diminished popularity of traditional tourist destinations, notably the recent and revolutionary transformations associated with economic restructuring and, especially, cultural change. Using the case study of Rhyl, a traditional cold-water resort on the North Wales coast, the paper demonstrates the influence of the latter by associating significant and unfavourable modifications to (and attitudes towards) the resorts built environment since the 1960s with characteristics salient to the emergent cultural formation of post-modernism, and its predecessor modernism, as explained in a review of relevant literature. The social theory used to inform this analysis, and the empirical evidence of Rhyls decline presented in the paper, together represent an attempt to move beyond simplistic notions of a resort life cycle.

A realist agenda for tourist studies, or why destination areas really rise and fall in popularity:

This article proposes a (critical) realist agenda for tourist studies, centred around the question, ‘What makes tourism possible?’. In asserting realism as the philosophy of social science most likely to advance tourism theory, it offers a critique of prevailing epistemologies, notably positivism and constructivism (and critical theory), with a view to provoking engagement by the tourism research community with ontological and epistemological arguments, which we would contend is the hallmark of a mature subject area that is not derivative of disciplines. In the furtherance of this cause a critical assessment is made of the ontological, epistemological and methodological assumptions underpinning an idea or assemblage of ideas within tourist studies that might be construed as ‘orthodox’, here represented by the tourist-area life cycle and subsequent applications, and also of radical reactions to that orthodoxy. We follow this with a case study of seaside resort decline (Rhyl, North Wales), which demonstrates how a realist philosophy of social science may permit a more satisfactory understanding of, in this instance, tourism destination development than that afforded by actualism or non-realism.

Urban Beaches, Virtual Worlds and ‘The End of Tourism’

This paper revisits John Urrys ideas on ‘the end of tourism’, or the de‐differentiation of tourism and everyday life under disorganised capitalism (to the extent that the former ceases to be ‘special’ and the latter ‘mundane’). Against the backdrop of the recent and exponential growth in the number of tourists and migrants flowing to and from the countries of the world that comprise the ‘pleasure periphery’, it takes the notion of everyday space (including cyber‐space) being reconfigured as tourism space one step further with reference to two quite distinct, but theoretically intertwined phenomena: urban beaches and virtual worlds (the former represented by a case study of Paris Plage, and the latter by examples of the most popular Massively Multiplayer Online Social Games or MMOSGs, including Second Life and There). In exploring what these case studies have in common reference is made to ideas about liminality and liquid modernity, which provide a context for understanding the contemporary relationship between tourism and the everyday. There follows a brief conclusion that reflects upon the consequences for tourism‐related research of the turn to mobilities in the social sciences.

Chapter 33 – Postgraduate and Ph.D. Education

The pursuit of a postgraduate higher education in tourism studies, particularly for students from developing nations, is largely achieved by studying in the countries of the developed world. This has, therefore, created patterns of temporary migration to, and an international marketplace for, higher education institutions in Europe, North America and Australasia that have developed expertise in tourism studies. In this chapter we are interested to explore the implications of this phenomenon for the form, content and context of postgraduate higher education in tourism. By the mid-1970s a small number of international postgraduate students began arriving in the UK to study tourism. Thirty years later we estimate that approximately 1000 postgraduate students are studying tourism in UK universities, the majority of whom are from outside of the European Union. International students now dominate postgraduate tourism studies at both levels and in all forms of postgraduate study; taught qualifications up to Masters level and research degrees leading to Masters and doctoral awards (Botterill & Platenkamp, 2004; Botterill, Haven, & Gale, 2002; Lengkeek & Platenkamp, 2004).

Spectators' negotiations of risk, masculinity and performative mobilities at the TT races

Abstract This paper explores the particular assemblage of place, event and individual identity performances that occur each year in the Isle of Man in and through the TT (Tourist Trophy) motorcycle races. These road races are associated with a high degree of risk for the racers and the confluence of over 30,000 visitors and 10,000 motorcycles also presents potential risks for spectators and residents alike. Both motorcycling and risk-taking have been associated with particular forms of masculinity, notably hegemonic, working class and youthful masculinities. Using detailed surveys of spectators we argue that the TT races, while undoubtedly dominated by men and predicated on a cultural privileging of speed and skill, are grounded in varying combinations of determinate and reflexive attitudes to risk, reflecting the performance of a variety of gendered, ‘biker’ and wider identity-based positionalities. Findings also highlight a particular inter-relation of mobilities and place identities at the TT races and bring to light the highly significant and under-researched embodied, performative and emotional mobilities of spectators. The conceptual and methodological importance of (a) situated research of both mobilities and gender in specific place-temporalities and (b) wider surveys of motorcyclists to complement ethnographic studies of small cohorts are also stressed.

Urban beaches as social tourism installations: case studies of Paris Plage and Bristol Urban Beach 2007

Urban beaches have become a feature of many European cities in the summer months, on the pretext of providing an alternative recreational space for residents on low incomes. Accordingly, this chapter extends the discussion of social tourism elsewhere in this volume to encompass the urban beach as a means of addressing, or compensating for, non-participation in leisure travel on the part of the least mobile in (post)modern society. It commences with a background to the development of urban beaches in the UK and continental Europe, before introducing Paris Plage and Bristol Urban Beach 2007 as, arguably, the best known and most recent examples thereof (at the time of writing). Through a combination of secondary and primary research (including a visitor survey), the chapter then evaluates the sustainability and social tourism credentials of the urban beach, ending with a commentary on the enablements and constraints to realizing more sustainable and inclusive forms of tourism through innovations such as this.