Donostia - San Sebastián (España) Tourism Administration of Spain. World Tourism Organization (UNWTO)...
António dos Santos Queirós
Professor. Researcher: Aveiro University
Economics, Management and Industrial Engineering Department
antonio.queiros@iol.pt
“The ultimate aim of Science is, therefore, the formation of an orderly framework that explains natural phenomena—phenomena of the physical world and of the human, individual and social world.” (p. 101, Bento de Jesus Caraça, Conceitos Fundamentais da Matemática.)
Abstract:
Summary
The scientific corpus of tourism studies. A new tourism paradigm: the origin and evolution of the concepts of route and circuit and their critical analysis in the context of cultural tourism and nature tourism (environmental tourism) and economics and management.
Keywords
New scientific paradigm for tourism studies and for the tourism economy: primary, secondary and tertiary sector. The tourism industry. Concepts of route and circuit. Ecology and metaphysics of landscape.
Introduction
The tourism industry and the tourism economy, fully structured with a primary, secondary and tertiary sector, and not just as a list of services and products—this is the innovative and controversial perspective of this research effort which, from its conceptual theses to the demonstration of the problem, does not cease to be questioned. We want to open a debate on the concepts of route and circuit: the “Rosetta Stone” of the question.
The concepts of tourism route and circuit are used arbitrarily, without a rigorous conceptual delimitation. The result of this lack of definition is, generally, confusion and economic inefficiency.
We will also analyse the universal question, the scientific corpus of tourism studies, from the perspective of a national travel tradition, an interpretation of the humanized landscape and use of heritage, which is often a leading indicator with respect to the arrival of European modernity. All of there are necessary to investigate, discover and integrate into the tourism supply built up throughout scientific, literary and artistic history, and which makes it possible to establish a brand identifying Portugal as a tourism destination (as in the case of Spain or France).
Context of the problem
Throughout the Mediterranean basin, the tourism industry is faced with the spectre of the crisis of the “sun and sand” model. Over the past years, optimism gave rise to a debate on complementary elements or even alternatives to this model, with the construction of a new paradigm associated with cultural and nature tourism and the diversification of tourism in the rural milieu, as a sort of matrix for the redemption of Tourism. These designations (cultural and nature tourism) proliferated without following a conceptual definition with scientific value and without being technically evaluated by tourism economics. What is cultural and nature tourism? And what scientific and economic norms must be observed by its Routes and Circuits, which also proliferate without any defined norms of delimitation? In this context, what is the effectiveness of traditional guides, packages and intermediary agents? Is there a need to include new products or even new values in the categories of accommodation, restaurants, merchandising, event organization, transport and mediation? And lastly, what is the historical, scientific, literary and artistic evaluation of our tradition of travel, of landscape interpretation and the use of their heritage, of our tourism identity in the Iberian and European contexts?
We always face the same problem: how to increase the length of stay of travellers, transforming same-day visitors into tourists and, among tourists, how to increase the level of quality consumption and the degree of satisfaction that leads to informal promotion and return visits. Consequently, this would lead to increased productivity attributed to the “tourism industry” as well as increased sustainable development and social productivity, functioning as a hub of other industries, economic activities and services, and a true driving force of sustainable development projects.
Where is the industry going, led by the iron hand of the market, as seen from both sides—supply and demand—with the creation of the information and knowledge society, of a new middle class that is educated and cultured, of a computer-literate youth and a growing segment of tourists who are arriving sooner to the middle age of retirement and are also gaining for themselves a new mobility at the scale of the Iberian, European and international market, which is becoming broader and also closer at the same time, thanks above all to the increase in air transport and “low-cost” flights, the improvement of roads and the diffusion of information and communication technologies? Has tourism not already constructed its first scientific corpus?
Objectives
We wish to demonstrate, on a scientific basis, the following theses: Tourism today constitutes an independent scientific sector, with a conceptual corpus that is yet modestly development but already has its own identity distinct from other scientific domains. In this paper, we will set forth and demonstrate some of its fundamental concepts in the area of Innovation in the Tourism Enterprise.
Collaborating with the Tourism Administration of Spain (Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Commerce, Secretariat of State for Tourism, and Turespaña) are the following institutions and entities: CICtourGUNE, INRouTe, World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), Basque Government / Department of Industry, Innovation, Commerce and Tourism, Basquetour- Basque Tourism Agency, and the City Hall of San Sebastian.
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