TOURIST GEOGRAPHY: OBJECT OF STUDY, ORIGIN, AUXILIARY SCIENCES - GEOGRAPHY - 2024

The tourist geography or tourism, is a branch of geography that focuses on the study of the human transfer in terms of activities such as travel and tourism within the industrial, social and cultural.

This branch views tourism as an activity that involves the transfer of goods, services and groups of people through time and space, which makes it a phenomenon essentially related to geography.

Tourism promotes exchange activities around the world

Image by Pam Patterson from Pixabay

Tourism can be approached geographically through its effects in terms of spatial distribution, economy, culture, society and environment. Part of the objective is to understand the mobilization of people regarding their choices of tourist destinations for their leisure activities.

Object of study

As a discipline, tourist geography has the objective of studying the activities related to tourism and the impact that this factor can generate in different parts of the world. This approach also focuses on the development of economics and administration from a sociological point of view.

Tourism is an activity that inherently involves geography. For its analysis, from a geographical point of view, there are certain aspects that serve as a basis.

Tourism, first of all, is an activity that takes place or occurs in places, on the other hand, it involves a sale and a transition from a place of origin to a new destination. Besides, this activity has the ability to modify the natural landscape in a specific way that is distinguished from non-tourist activities.

Other elements of the study include the factors that are influenced by tourism such as people, goods, services, the exchange of ideas and culture, and money. Within this exchange, or transfer of elements, the different modes and concepts that people possess when establishing a relationship with the world and the environment also stand out.

Geography within tourism systematically examines cultural and physical environments to understand development and changes within tourism landscapes.

Also included are regional, spatial and evolutionary perspectives that explain the origin of markets originated by tourism and the establishment of “destination” points by these.

Origin

The study of tourism from geography has its origin in the growth of tourism as an economic activity. It was in the middle of the 20th century when tourism began to appear as a necessity for people. There is what is known as "mass tourism" focused on areas such as beaches and also cities with high historical and artistic content.

In 1950, tourist geography gained greater acceptance as its own branch, mainly in countries such as the United States and Germany. From this moment on, some attempts to define the discipline began to emerge, which evolved over time.

For the year 1998, the professor in geography Stephen Williams, defined the areas of interest for the study of the geography of tourism: the effects on the spatial dimension, the distribution of economic activities, the impacts of tourism and planning, and the establishment of models for the spatial development of tourism.

However, tourism is a changing activity in which new forms of interaction have even been generated in the places of destination. Dynamics such as ecotourism are relatively new and merit other modes of behavior for human groups when it comes to enjoying recreation time in new places.

Auxiliary Sciences

Tourism, being an activity capable of influencing various areas of geography and society, can use other approaches for its study.

Economic geography

Economic geography focuses on the location of economic activities on space. Within his studies, he takes into account the goods, services, cultural factors, communication routes and the connection that people establish between places.

Tourism is capable of influencing the economy of a space or region, so it is important, for the geography of tourism, to take the different elements of the economy that are related to it.

Cultural geography

It is responsible for the study of the cultural diversity of a society. It emphasizes how culture determines human distribution in space, the sense of identity, and the sense of place. Part of the elements that are analyzed are the values, practices and customs and the forms of expression and interaction that define the culture.

As for tourism, they are related from the point of view of exchange or cultural encounter. It should be noted that culture also largely defines the preferences or priorities of human groups that could even privilege the interest of one area for another.

Tourism Sociology

It is an area of ​​sociology that focuses on the study of motivations, roles, institutions and relationships, between people involved in tourism activity and society.

Recreation ecology

Scientific approach that is responsible for studying the changes in the environment that are generated by recreation and leisure activities.

It controls and analyzes biophysical changes, the causes and possible solutions to devise strategies to reduce the impact on nature. Tourism is part of the recreational activities that have a great capacity to influence the natural state of the environment.

Related concepts

cultural tourism

It is a type of tourism whose main motivation is the learning, experimentation and discovery of any type of attraction related to culture, whether tangible or intangible.

Each activity usually has distinctive characteristics on an intellectual or spiritual level. They are also related to the elements of identification of a certain place such as architecture, history, culture, gastronomy, music, ways of life, values ​​and traditions.

Ecotourism

Ecotourism proposes a sustainable way of doing tourism

Image by renategranade0 from Pixabay

It is a form of tourism defined as "responsible" and characterized by the preference for trips to natural and conserved areas.

Part of the objective is to get involved in the lifestyle of the environment that is visited as a way to learn about local life. Ecotourism advocates for the conservation of communities and sustainable forms of travel.

References

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4. Williams S (1998). Tourism Geography. Routledge Contemporary Human Geography. Recovered from bauldelturismo.com
5. Che D (2017). Tourism Geography. Oxford Bibliographies. Recovered from oxfordbibliographies.com
6. Mitchel L, Murphy P (1991). Geography and tourism. Annals of Tourism Research. Recovered from sciencedirect.com
7. Saarinen J (2014). Tourism Geographies: Connections with human geography and emerging responsible geographies. Recovered from researchgate.net
8. Salomia S (2014). What is Tourism Geography ?. Recovered from geographyrealm.com
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10. Tourism geography. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Recovered from en.wikipedia.org
11. Cohen E (1984). The Sociology of Tourism: approaches, issues, and findings. Recovered from annualreviews.org
12. Recreation Ecology. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Recovered from en.wikipedia.org