Tourism in the USA

A Spatial and Social Synthesis

Dimitri Ioannides, Dallen Timothy

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2011
• ISBN:
  9781135241308
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

The United States continues to provide opportunities for travel and tourism to domestic and international travellers. This is the first book to offer students a comprehensive overview of both tourism and travel in this region, paying specific attention to the disciplines of Geography, Tourism Studies and, more generally, Social Science.

Tourism in the USA explains the evolution of tourism paying attention to the forces that shaped the product that exists today. The focus of the book includes the manner in which tourism has played out in various contexts; the role of federal, state, and local policy is also examined in terms of the effects it has had on the US travel industry and on destinations. The various elements of tourism demand and supply are discussed and the influence that transportation (especially Americans' high personal mobility rates and love affair with the auto) has had on the sector highlighted. The economics of tourism are fleshed out before focusing more narrowly on both the urban and rural settings where tourism occurs. A look into the manner in which the spatial structure of cities is transformed through tourism is also offered. Additionally, a brief examination of future issues in American tourism is presented along with explanations concerning the ascendancy of tourism as an economic development tool in various areas.

The book combines theory and practice as well as integrating a range of useful student orientated resources to aid understanding and spur further debate, which can be used for independent study or in class exercises. These include:

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• 'Closer Look' case studies with reflective questions to help show theory in practice and encourage critical thinking about tourism developments in this region

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• 'Discussion Questions' at the end of each chapter encourage stimulating debates

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• 'Further Reading' sections direct the readers to related book and web resources so that they can learn more about the topics covered in each chapter.

Written in an engaging style and supported with visual aids, this book will provide students globally with an in-depth and essential understanding of the complexities of tourism and travel in the USA.

1 Introduction
The tourism phenomenon in the USA

2008 will clearly go into the history books as a year of turbulence and contrasts. In the twelve months since UNWTO published its January 2008 edition of the World Tourism Barometer, including forecasts for the year ahead, the growth in international tourist arrivals has slowed drastically worldwide, under the influence of an extremely volatile and unfavorable global economy – due to factors such as the credit crunch, the widening financial crisis, commodity and oil price rises, and massive exchange rate fluctuations. All this has, inevitably, undermined both business and consumer confidence, contributing in turn to the current global recession.

(United Nations World Tourism Organization 2009: 1)

The quote above, from the most recent UNWTO World Tourism Barometer (2009), contextualizes the growing uncertainty on the part of tourism experts worldwide concerning the sector’s future. Certainly, in the United States the public is inundated with stories on a daily basis about how the current global recession has affected Americans’ travel patterns. It is said, for instance, that an increasing number of people are choosing a “staycation,” when on leave, a far more affordable and stress-free approach to spending their holidays, allowing them either to explore the attractions of their home community or, simply, relax by the backyard pool (Alban 2008). Meanwhile, communities, large and small, report declining visitation, lower room occupancy rates, and reduced revenue. According to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, the number of arrivals in the city during 2008 fell by 4.4 percent; room occupancy rates were also down, and the daily revenue per room was reduced by almost 10 percent from the previous year. Additionally, the city reported a decline in convention attendees and noted that revenue from gambling has also fallen substantially (Velotta 2009).

The travel industry in the USA is, of course, no stranger to crises, especially since the tragic events of September 11, 2001. In the immediate aftermath of that fateful day demand for travel fell astronomically and the tourism industry nationwide took a massive hit (Floyd et al. 2003; Goodrich 2002; Green et al. 2003). The airline industry was particularly hard hit and has since had to undergo major restructuring in order to survive. Importantly, much of the luster that used to be associated with the trip itself (especially air travel) has all but disappeared as travelers not only have to face arduous security checks at airports and harbors but also rapidly declining service quality, long delays, lost luggage, and other hardships, many of which travelers claim to be an invasion of their privacy but which the government argues are necessary for national security.

Nevertheless, despite the pitfalls associated with travel during the era of the “war on terror,” the US tourism industry gradually rebounded as an increasing number of Americans quickly learned to adapt to the new realities in their travel pursuits. Regardless of the public outcry about having to remove their shoes for x-ray purposes at airports, having to put up with surly Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers or airline personnel, or having to endure long traffic jams, and major road works during holidays, people have once again started traveling, in record numbers, that is until the latest economic downturn, which began in 2007. In other words, things may appear dire at present, and the most ardent pessimists would suggest that the sky is falling on America’s travel industry. Nonetheless if history has a tendency to repeat itself, sooner or later the economic crisis will turn around. Furthermore, while the current recession may be far more severe than others in the past, it is likely that people will eventually adjust. We can already see that people are traveling less often than they did in the past as a coping mechanism. Maybe their choice of destination or their mode of travel will change, but truth be told, there will always be demand to visit places in the USA and abroad.

The United States is a vast country, with a remarkable range of attractions from unique natural formations to some of the most astonishing human-created spectacles on earth. The USA is home to instantly recognizable global symbols and emblems, including the Statue of Liberty, the Golden Gate Bridge (Plate 1.1), the Grand Canyon, and the Saint Louis Gateway Arch. It is the home of Hollywood and the birthplace of Coca-Cola and the “worlds” of Disney, powerful symbols that have been so influential in terms of “Americanizing” the world. Additionally, in the United States holidaymaking as a democratic phenomenon has a fairly long history ranging back to the nineteenth century, and Americans have long enjoyed a very high standard of living compared to most other countries which has for decades allowed many families to use discretionary income for vacation travel.

Plate 1.1 Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco
(Dimitri Ioannides)

Communities throughout the United States have increasingly focused on tourism as the motor that is meant to engender economic growth and diversification, especially in the post-industrial era. Increasingly, places compete with each other on the basis of which one can offer the most dazzling aquarium, the best-designed and largest convention center, or the most up-to-date sports arena. It is not unusual for local governments to authorize enormous amounts of spending on infrastructure that underpins tourism from airport facilities to civic parks or from new sidewalks to baseball stadiums (Judd 2003).

Yet, despite all the fuss about tourism in the USA, it is more than clear that it is a misunderstood phenomenon. Civic leaders, for instance, often support major spending on projects they hope will entice a large number of visitors, without first undertaking a detailed feasibility study to see if the expenditure is indeed justified. Frequently they acknowledge that the project will cost far more than it was supposed to and that they expect the revenue to fall short of expectations. Nevertheless, they will often back the expenditure for a new stadium or museum regardless of whether the money can be recouped in a timely fashion, as long as the project serves to boost the community’s image (Crompton 2004; Judd 1995). This failure to undertake a rigorous analysis of tourism’s impacts in turn further fuels already existing debates concerning the sector’s economic effects. On the one hand we regularly hear from analysts how tourism is a major sector in terms of contribution to employment generation and regional economic growth, while on the other hand critics lament that the jobs created are poorly paid, often part-time, and unskilled. The same critics also argue that reinventing an economy into one that is based on tourism services is an insult to a glorious past based on the production of tangible manufactured goods like steel or military equipment (Herzenberg et al. 1998; Ioannides and Debbage 1997, 1998).

To be sure, debates about the dynamics and effects of tourism extend well beyond economics. Discussions have been generated, many of them relating to the United States itself, exploring urban tourism as a modern phenomenon, and academics have, among others, adopted a political economy perspective to comprehend the workings of tourism and its effects within cities (Hoffman et al. 2004; Judd and Fainstein 1999). What are the ramifications, for instance, of the growth of tourism for the spatial structure of metropolitan regions? Who benefits from tourism’s growth and who loses out? How do local populations react to the influx of visitors and can we, in the modern era, really discriminate between tourists and local residents who use the same facilities?

Discussions have also been produced examining the darker side of tourism development, especially from a socio-cultural perspective, in specific parts of the USA. In Devil’s Bargains, for instance, Hal Rothman (1998) weaves a fascinating account of the history of the growth of tourism in the American west since the early part of the nineteenth century, while also warning that communities that embrace the sector as a means of growth are selling-out to outside interests and, consequently, become subject to neocolonialist, exploitative relationships.

The issues just highlighted reflect only a fraction of the interest that has been generated in tourism-related discourse. We are aware of these and many other discussions and, in fact, we touch upon a number of them throughout the text. Nevertheless, the principal objective of this book is not to launch into an in-depth analysis of these topics. Instead a choice was made to leave these for more specialized volumes. Our aim here is to provide an overview and detailed account of the workings of tourism as a modern-day phenomenon in the United States of America. We have approached this, conscious of the fact that there are no other texts that examine the breadth and depths of tourism in the United States as a whole. Further, there are several texts that examine the structure and composition of the American tourism business (e.g., travel retailers and wholesalers, airlines, and destination management organizations) but these tend to be non-geographical (e.g., Goeldner and Ritchie 2006). In other words they do not relate to any specific locality or region within the country.

While this book like many others deals with tourism, it does so specifically with reference to the United States and, as such, provides a geographic perspective of the phenomenon. We explore how tourism has evolved, the industry’s structure and organization, and analyze the development of tourism in various contexts. The rest of this chapter briefly introduces the topic and provides a detailed outline of the rest of the book.

Factors affecting travel in the USA

On the surface, Americans’ proclivity to travel reflects the extreme mobility which characterizes this society. Throughout the history of the United States people have moved in large numbers in constant search of more fertile land, a well-paying job, and a better life in general. Even today, Americans are extremely mobile, often traversing hundreds or even thousands of miles in pursuit of better employment or a change in lifestyle. Consider, for instance, the large numbers of highly educated people who are drawn to trendy cities like Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington, or the vast number of retirees who escape the metropolitan areas of Chicago, Minneapolis, and New York for warmer climates in the south, like Arizona and Florida. Furthermore, on a daily basis Americans undertake numerous trips between their residences, work places, shopping centers, or the places where their children go to school and play.

Two major factors have historically enabled Americans to be as mobile as they are. The first has been a prevailing national psyche that epitomized the need to settle the frontier, to move west and constantly seek better living and work opportunities. More importantly, however, it was the exceptional transportation infrastructure that evolved over the last 150 years or so that enabled this increase in mobility . First, during the early nineteenth century, the elaborate system of canals enabled New Yorkers to explore the far reaches of their own state. Not much later, railroads linked the distant corners of the country with the already settled north and central eastern seaboards. With the advent of the automobile in the early part of the twentieth century and, most importantly, the growing affordability of personal cars from the 1920s onwards, Americans became the first society worldwide where people had the ability to travel a considerable distance to a destination of their own choosing without being shackled to network or timetable restrictions. This new-found liberty led to the growing desire to take road trips for the sole purpose of leisure and relaxation, including visits to the seaside or the countryside. Especially after the 1950s, with the development of a comprehensive Interstate Highway System and the enormous increase in living standards, more and more Americans sought to travel for the purpose of recreation or to visit friends and relatives. Indeed, as reflected in so many Hollywood movies of the 1960s and ’70s, it was almost unthinkable for a middle-class American family not to embark in the ubiquitous station-wagon on the annual obligatory trip to discover the wonders the country had to offer.

The advent of jet passenger travel in the late 1950s and the introduction of safer and larger aircraft served to increase the popularity of air travel, and by the 1980s, following the deregulation of the airline industry and the emergence of cheaper fares, increasing numbers of Americans took to the skies. While business travel flourished because of superior air connections, the leisure market also grew. Importantly, new destinations further afield emerged and flourished because of air transportation, including Hawaii and southern Florida. Meanwhile, a growing number of Americans began to spend their holidays abroad, in places like the Caribbean and Europe while, concurrently, better global connections meant that more overseas visitors began coming to the United States.

The high degree of mobility is, of course, but one aspect of the story of travel and tourism within the United States. The transportation system has been a key enabling factor, allowing Americans to become increasingly mobile, but it is the rich supply of a wide range of attractions, both natural and human-built, that has stirred the imagination for travel in the first place. After all, the United States is a vast country, with a total land area exceeding nine million square kilometers. It is more than twice the size of the European Union and a little larger than China. Indeed, it is the third largest country in the world, after Russia and Canada. The vastness of the country means that certain parts encompass some of the remotest parts of the world while, concurrently, others have some of the most developed metropolitan regions. While the country’s climate could be described mostly as temperate, it also encompasses an assortment of other climatic zones, including arctic (Alaska), tropical or sub-tropical (Hawaii and Florida), and arid (Southwest) (CIA 2009). In turn, the wide array of climatic zones means that different parts of the country have varying types of vegetation. In the Pacific Northwest there are large expanses of temperate rainforest; in places like western Kansas and Nebraska one can find vast expanses of prairieland, and in the southwest scrub vegetation is dominant (Rowntree et al. 2006). The contiguous part of the country, the lower 48 states, spans approximately 5,000 kilometers from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean (Figure 1.1). The northernmost coastline of the country (northern Alaska) is located on the Arctic Ocean, while farther south the Hawaiian Islands lie in the tropics.

Numerous landscapes exist throughout the United States from the fjords of Alaska to the sandy beaches of Hawaii, California and Florida and from the impressive mountain chains such as the Rockies, Cascades, and Sierra Nevada in the west to the far gentler Ozarks in the lower Midwest and the Piedmont and Appalachians in the east. Indeed, the United States claims both the highest and lowest points in North America, Mount McKinley in Alaska, and Death Valley in California. In the northern part of the United States are the Great Lakes, while in many...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Plates
• Figures
• Tables
• Closer Look Cases
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• 1. Introduction: The Tourism Phenomenon In the USA
• 2. American Tourism: A Study Through Time
• 3. The Institutional Setting for Tourism In the United States
• 4. Demand for Tourism In the United States
• 5. Tourist Attractions, Tourism Types, Accommodations, and Intermediaries
• 6. The Transportation System
• 7. Tourism’s Economic Significance
• 8. Urban Tourism In the USA
• 9. On the Road to Small Town, USA: Rural Tourism and Its Significance
• 10. Conclusions: Trends and Futures of Tourism In the USA
• References