The rise, fall and renaissance of the resort: a simple economic model

• G. M. Peter Swann ^[1]
  1. [1] University of Nottingham

     University of Nottingham

     Reino Unido

     
• Localización: Tourism economics: the business and finance of tourism and recreation, ISSN 1354-8166, Vol. 16, Nº. Extra 1, 2010 (Ejemplar dedicado a: Special Focus: The Economics of Tourism – New Directions), págs. 45-62
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • There is a large volume of literature on the life cycle of the tourist resort. However, there is scope to develop this body of work by harnessing recent contributions in the economics literature on cycles or waves in demand. This paper presents a simple economic model of the rise, fall and possible renaissance of the resort. The analysis is based on the work of Cowan et al (1997, 2004), which models waves in consumption when there are interdependencies between consumers. Of particular interest here are the conditions under which we may observe a 'travelling wave', where a new resort starts off as a distinctive and select venue but then, as it grows in popularity, starts to go downmarket. After the resort has been unfashionable for some time and unattractive associations are far enough in the past, a new sort of pioneer (accompanied by a new wave of investment) can start off a second wave of popularity. The model presented was motivated by reference to the history of the city of Bath, which enjoyed a long period as a very popular resort and then fell into decline in the 19th century, but enjoyed a renaissance in the mid-20th century to become one of the most popular medium-sized towns in England.