Time and Tourism

Abstract

The relationships between tourism and time are multi-dimensional and complex. At a macro level, the mass movement of people for touristic purposes within and across the various parts of the globe appears as a relentless surge of travel throughout the course of the year. However, in practice, the temporal spread of tourism is far from uniform. The reality is a complex mix of travel patterns that pulse in intensity at different times of the year according to geography, destination resources, climate, human motivations, personal circumstances, economic wellbeing, transport infrastructures and the activities of a sophisticated tourism industry that responds in numerous ways to temporal variations in demand. The shorthand for this is ‘seasonality’, a concept that has been synonymous with tourism ever since recreational travel became established (Butler, 2001; Bar On, 1975).