Abstract
Distance and price have frequently been identified as the major factors affecting tourists’ decision-making process. These factors have long been common themes in economic geography, defining theories of location. This paper explores and demonstrates how a modified Von Thünen Location Rent Model can be applied to a destination’s tourist origin patterns, replacing the concept of location rent with that of a destination’s tourism accessibility. The results provide a potentially valuable source of information for both tourism planning authorities and destination marketers. Analysing the model’s output and comparing it with actual tourism data show how a destination’s accessibility is affected by its distance from the tourist’s origin as well as highlighting the different destination accessibility gradients associated with different types of tourism. This information could be useful in deciding where there is potential to increase tourism to the destination and could be used to pinpoint marketing initiatives and travel promotions more efficiently.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Alonso, W. (1964). Location and land use: Toward a general theory of land rent. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Ashworth, G., & Page, S. J. (2011). Urban tourism research: Recent progress and current paradoxes. Tourism Management, 32(1), 1–15.
Buhalis, D. (2000). Marketing the competitive destination of the future. Tourism Management, 21(1), 97–116.
Bull, A. (1991). The economics of travel and tourism. Melbourne: Pitman.
Cai, L. A., & Li, M. (2009). Distance segmented rural tourists. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 26(8), 751–761.
Chisholm, M. (1962). Rural settlement and land use (pp. 21–35). London: Hutchinson University Library.
Crouch, G. I. (1992). Effect of income and price on international tourism. Annals of Tourism Research, 19(4), 643–664.
Crouch, G. I. (1994). Demand elasticities for short-haul versus long-haul tourism. Journal of Travel Research, 33(2), 2–7.
Crouch, G. I. (2011). Destination competitiveness: An analysis of determinant attributes. Journal of Travel Research, 50(1), 27–45.
Crouch, G. I., & Ritchie, J. R. B. (1999). Tourism, competitiveness and societal prosperity. Journal of Business Research, 44(3), 137–152.
Crouch, G. I., & Shaw, R. N. (1990) Determinants of International Tourist Flows: Findings from 30 Years of Empirical Research. In The Tourism Connection: Linking Research and Market- ing, proceedings of the 21st annual conference of the Travel and Tourism Research Association, pp. 45–60. Salt Lake City UT: TTRA.
Dunn, E. S. (1954). The location of agricultural production. Gainesville: University of Florida Press.
Dwyer, L., Forsyth, P., & Rao, P. (2000). The price competitiveness of travel and tourism: A comparison of 19 destinations. Tourism Management, 21(1), 9–22.
Dwyer, L., & Kim, C. (2003). Destination competitiveness: Determinants and indicators. Current Issues in Tourism, 6(5), 369–414.
Economist Intelligence Unit, (2012). Global city competitiveness index.
Economist Intelligence Unit, (2012). Globe shopper index.
Edwards, A. (1995). “Asia Pacific travel forecasts to 2005.” Research Report, Economist Intelligence Unit, London.
Edwards, D., Griffin, T., & Hayllar, B. (2008). Urban tourism research: Developing an agenda. Annals of Tourism Research, 35(4), 1032–1052.
Eldridge, D., & Jones, J. P. (1991). Warped space: A geography of distance decay. Professional Geographer, 43(4), 500–511.
Enright, M. J., & Newton, J. (2004). Tourism destination competitiveness: a quantitative approach. Tourism Management, 25(6), 777e888.
Enright, M. J., Scott, E. E., & Dodwell, D. (1997). The Hong Kong advantage. Hong Kong: Oxford University Press.
Eugenio-Martin, J. L., & Campos-Soria, J. A. (2011). Income and the substitution pattern between domestic and international tourism demand. Applied Economics, 43(20), 2519–2531.
Greer, T., & Wall, G. (1979). Recreational hinterlands: A theoretical and empirical analysis. In Wall G (ed) Recreational land use in Southern Ontario (Department of Geography Publication Series No. 14). Waterloo, Canada: Waterloo University, pp. 227–246.
Hanink, D. M., & White, K. (1999). Distance effects in the demand for wildland recreational services: The Case of National Parks in the United States. Environmental and Planning Annals, 31(3), 477–492.
Hotels.com (2011). Hotel price index.
International Monetary Fund, (2011). International PPP comparison data.
Jackson, C. (2007). Weekend journal: Land of the spree. The Wall Street Journal, W1.
Jara-Díaz, S. R., Munizaga, M. A., Greeven, P., Guerra, R., & Axhausen, K. (2008). Estimating the value of leisure from a time allocation model. Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, 42(10), 946–957.
Jud, G. D., & Joseph, H. (1974). International demand for Latin American tourism. Growth and Change, 5(1), 25–31.
Keating, B., & Kritz, A. (2008). Outbound tourism from China: Literature review and research agenda. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management, 15(1), 32–41.
Kim, H. B. (1998). Perceived attractiveness of Korean destinations. Annals of Tourism Research, 25(2), 340–361.
Kliman, M. L. (1981). A quantitative analysis of Canadian overseas tourism. Transportation Research, 15A(6), 487–497.
Korea Tourism Organization (2012). International Visitor Survey 2011.
Laforet, S., & Chen, J. (2012). Chinese and British consumers’ evaluation of Chinese and international brands and factors affecting their choice. Journal of World Business, 47(1), 54–63.
Lee, H., Guillet, B. D., Law, R., & Leung, R. (2012). Robustness of distance decay for international pleasure travelers: A longitudinal approach. International Journal of Tourism Research, 14(5), 409–420.
Lloyd, P. E., & Dicken, P. (1977). Location in space: A theoretical approach to economic geography. New York: Harper & Row.
Mankiw N. G. (2009). Principles of economics, 3rd ed. South-Western Publication.
Martin, C. A., & Witt, S. F. (1987). Tourism demand forecasting models: Choice of appropriate variable to represent tourists’ cost of living. Tourism Management, 8(3), 223–245.
Martin, C. A., & Witt, S. F. (1988). Substitute prices in models of tourism demand. Annals of Tourism Research, 15(2), 255–268.
McKercher, B. (2008). Segment transformation in urban tourism. Tourism Management, 29(6), 1215–1225.
McKercher, B., Chan, A., & Lam, C. (2008). The impact of distance on international tourist movements. Journal of Travel Research, 47(2), 208–224.
McKercher, B., & Chow, B. (2001). Cultural distance and cultural tourism participation. Pacific Tourism Review, 5(1/2), 21–30.
McKercher, B., & du Cros, H. (2003). Testing a cultural tourism typology. International Journal of Tourism Research, 5(1), 45–58.
McKercher, B., & Lew, A. (2003). Distance decay and the impact of effective tourism exclusion zones on international travel flows. Journal of Travel Research, 42(2), 159–165.
Morley, C. L. (1992). A microeconomic theory of international tourism demand. Annals of Tourism Research, 19(2), 250–267.
Morley, C. L. (1998). A dynamic international demand model. Annals of Tourism Research, 25(1), 71–84.
O’Kelly, M., & Bryan, D. (1996). Agricultural location theory: Von Thünen’s contribution to economic geography. Progress in Human Geography, 20(4), 457–475.
Pearce, D. (1989). Tourist development (2nd ed.). Harlow: Longman Scientific.
Pearce, D. (2001). An integrative framework for urban tourism research. Annals of Tourism Research, 28(4), 926–946.
Pearce, P., & Lee, U. I. (2005). Developing the travel career approach to tourist motivation. Journal of Travel Research, 43(3), 226–237.
Porter, M. E. (1990). The competitive advantage of nations. New York: The Free Press.
Ritchie, J. R. B., & Crouch, G. I. (2000). The competitive destination: A sustainability perspective. Tourism Management, 21(1), 1–7.
Sinclair, R. (1967). Von Thünen and Urban Sprawl. Annals of American Geographers, 57(1), 72–87.
Smeral, E. (1988). Tourism demand, economic theory and econometrics: An integrated approach. Journal of Travel Research, 26(4), 38–43.
Stutz, F. P., & Warf, B. (2005). The world economy: Geography, business, development. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, Pearson.
Um, S., & Crompton, J. L. (1990). Attitude determinants in tourism destination choice. Annals of Tourism Research, 17(3), 432–448.
Von Thünen, J. H. (1826). Der Isolierte Staat.
Zhang, H., Gu, C., Gu, L., & Zhang, Y. (2011). The evaluation of tourism destination competitiveness by TOPSIS & information entropy: A case in the Yangtze River Delta of China. Tourism Management, 32(2), 443–451.
Zhang, J., Wall, G., Du, J. K., Gan, M. Y., & Nie, X. (1999). The travel patterns and travel distance of tourists to National Parks in China. Asia Pacific Journal of Tourism Research, 4(2), 27–34.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Hooper, J. A destination too far? Modelling destination accessibility and distance decay in tourism. GeoJournal 80, 33–46 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-014-9536-z
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-014-9536-z