Center-periphery, tourism

Center-periphery dynamics, implicitly or explicitly, pervade tourism and reflect broader realities of structural and spatial imbalance. Deliberations on the interplay of “push” (demand) and “pull” (supply), for example, include the desire of harried urban residents to seek respite in the environmental tranquillity afforded by nonindustrial peripheral settings (Dann 1977). This dynamic stimulates the emergence of regional hinterlands such as the Canadian Laurentians and summer coastal resorts in northern Europe. More recently, attention is paid to the major tourism opportunities provided by the rural-urban fringe, or proximate periphery, which includes the development of “hyper-destinations” where (mostly day) tourists vastly outnumber residents.

More broadly, post-1950 mass consumer demands for sea-sand-sun tourism prompt large-scale travel from North to South, spawning a global pleasure periphery incorporating the Caribbean, Mediterranean, South Pacific, and Indian Ocean basins...