Skip to main content

Destination, tourism

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Tourism
  • 154 Accesses

From a geographic perspective, a destination is a particular place which a tourist plans to visit. Typically, natural and human attractions play a major role in making the choice (Gunn 1988). A destination is different from the tourist’s normal environment. The term is used to describe locations at a range of scales from an individual resort to a city, to a country, or to even a continent. A particular trip begins from an origin, through a transit region, to one or many destinations. It may be visited by tourists on a tour as a first stopover, as a hub for excursions, or as an exit point from a country. Tourists may be first timers or repeat visitors of a destination. The dispersal of tourists across destinations is important in determining their expenditure patterns. Stays may be restricted to an enclave resort area or travelaround the core destination and beyond. The borders of a destination are often drawn based on political boundaries but arguably are better formulated from...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Becken, S., and J. Gnoth 2004 Tourist Consumption Systems Among Overseas Visitors: Reporting on American, German, and Australian Visitors to New Zealand. Tourism Management 25:375-385.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Beritelli, P., T. Bieger, and C. Laesser 2014 The New Frontiers of Destination Management: Applying Variable Geometry as a Function-based Approach. Journal of Travel Research 53:403-417.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Butler, R. 1980 The Concept of a Tourist Area Cycle of Evolution: Implications for Management of Resources. Canadian Geographer 24:7-14.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Framke, W. 2002 The Destination as a Concept: A Discussion of the Business-related Perspective Versus the Socio-cultural Approach in Tourism Theory. Scandinavian Journal of Hospitality and Tourism 2(2):92-108.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gunn, C. 1988 Tourism Planning. New York: Taylor and Francis.

    Google Scholar 

  • Manente, M., and M. Furlan 1998 Quality in the Macroeconomic System of Toruism. The Tourist Review 53(2):17-28.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Prideaux, B. 1996 The Tourism Crime Cycle: A Beach Destination Case Study. In Tourism, Crime and International Security Issues, A. Pizam and Y. Mansfeld, eds., pp.59-75. Chichester: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ritchie, B., J. Crotts, A. Zehrer, and G. Volsky 2014 Understanding the Effects of a Tourism Crisis: The Impact of the BP Oil Spill on Regional Lodging Demand. Journal of Travel Research 53:12-25.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Scott, N., C. Cooper, and R. Baggio 2008 Destination Networks: Four Australian Cases. Annals of Tourism Research 35:169–188.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • UNWTO, 2007, A Practical Guide to Tourism Destination Management. Madrid: World Tourism Organization.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Adao Flores .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2014 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

About this entry

Cite this entry

Flores, A., Scott, N. (2014). Destination, tourism. In: Jafari, J., Xiao, H. (eds) Encyclopedia of Tourism. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-01669-6_51-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-01669-6_51-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-01669-6

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Business and ManagementReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

Publish with us

Policies and ethics