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RESOURCES: PAPERS & PRESENTATIONS

Author : Jack Carlsen & Alison Morrison
School/Work Place : Curtin University, Australia (Jack Carlsen), University of Strathclyde, UK (Alison Morrison)
Contact : j.carlsen@curtin.edu.au
Year : 2008

Lifestyle has been oft cited in the literature as the main motivation for those establishing or acquiring tourism related businesses in attractive destinations. However, the term has many different dimensions and connotations, both positive and negative, that have emerged in the tourism literature since the 1980s. Furthermore, the trend towards increased migration, reinforced
by the baby boomer generation pursuing new opportunities for enhanced quality of life has given rise to the phenomena variously referred to as 'lifestyle migration' in Europe (Vaugeois and Rollins, 2007), 'amenity migration' in North America (Moss 2006) and 'sea- change' in Australia (Stehlik 2007) that underwrites the growth of lifestyle firms in tourism and hospitality. Demographers have noted the internal migration of urban dwellers to rural areas of Australia since the 1970s and refer to this as 'population turnaround' because it has arrested the decline of rural communities that had occurred in previous decades (Burnley and Murphy 2004). Coastal and mountain locations are also popular destinations that receive this flow of migration, creating significant impacts in resident communities, land use and economic activity, both positive and negative. In light of these trends and impacts, the need to understand this phenomenon and those that pursue an ideal lifestyle through tourism and hospitality related business endeavors has never been more acute.

This understanding is premised on the assumption that lifestyle is a socially constructed phenomenon (Russell and Faulkner 2001) which, when applied to a tourism and hospitality business context, creates a degree of complexity in motivations, meanings and values that sets it apart from other business models. However, lifestyle oriented small tourism [LOST] firms have significant influence in tourism destinations through the quality of the experiences they provide, service standards, investment decisions and environmental performance so the business dimensions of lifestyle firms are also important.

There is an obvious connection between LOST firms in a destination and the promotion of a desired lifestyle to their potential customers, the lifestyle-led consumer groups. It has long been recognised in marketing that consumers do not only purchase physical products and services, they also buy concepts and associated images attached to those products and services. For example, Kamman et al (1998) has suggested that rural life could be conceptualized as meaning quietness, space, physical activities, feeling of belonging to a community, small and human scale, sparsely populated, low density building, fresh air, healthy and peaceful. Kamman et al (1998) suggest that these lifestyle concepts and associated products can be 'reverse network engineered' in certain geographical locations to provide a blue print for policy and planning and encourage and stimulate certain forms of activities while excluding others that conflict with the lifestyle concept.

Walmsley (2003) contends that there will be winners and losers in the emergent lifestyle-led consumption oriented society, citing places such as Denmark, on the south coast of Western Australia as having an image that "can accommodate a lifestyle oriented tourism industry" (2003:68). In this way, tourism is critical to the changing nature of rural locales that are the target of lifestyle consumers as well as those small tourism firms that seek to exploit the locational and lifestyle benefits that are vested in these places. Potentially all 'post-rural' places could offer the 'otherness' that urbanized Australians are increasingly demanding and thereby capitalize on the centrality of lifestyle in the consumer society, increasing mobility and prosperity of lifestyle oriented groups, such as retired baby boomers and advances in technology for place promotion. The need to generate an income during the transition from farming to tourism, or from salaried to selfemployment or retirement is also a significant driver of change in rural areas. Thus, opportunity and necessity is evident in many rural areas, including the Ferguson Valley in Western Australia that forms the case study in this paper. Descriptions of the valley in the words of the LOST firms designed to appeal to lifestyle oriented consumers provide insights into the multiple dimensions of lifestyle firms as depicted in a systemic model of LOST firms proposed in this paper.


List of Articles
No. Subject Views Date
114 Think Tank IX Achieving Sustainability in Business Events; Challengi... file 3628 Oct 13, 2013

Achieving sustainability is a challenge for all of society, but one that may prove especially problematic for the business events sector. Tourism in general and the business events industry in particular may be even more susceptible than oth...

Author: Judith Mair & Leo Jago 

Year: 2009 

113 Think Tank IX Cross-Cultural Interaction, Capacity Building and Sust... file 10655 Oct 13, 2013

This paper reports on findings which are part of a broader research conducted under the Learning and Teaching Fellowship Award 2007/08, aimed at the assessment of innovative blended learning techniques and applied learning in alternative st...

Author: Marina Novelli 

Year: 2009 

112 Think Tank IX Community based sustainable tourism: Quality of life a... file 8035 Oct 13, 2013

This paper explores the concept of quality of life (QOL) as perceived by residents in tourism destinations and examines differences in perceptions of QOL among culturally different destinations. The perceived QOL of local community is an imp...

Author: Yvette Reisinger & Kwang-Soo Park 

Year: 2009 

111 Think Tank IX Ethical Confusion and Confusion of Ethics: Unpacking t... file 2447 Oct 13, 2013

For many decades authors (see Sontag, 1976, Baederholt, 2006, Chalfern, 1979, Crang, 1997) have recognised the fundamental role of photography within tourism. Many such as Urry (1999, 2002), Crouch (2000, 2002) and Crouch & Lubbren (200...

Author: Caroline Scarles 

Year: 2009 

110 Think Tank IX The Role of Values in Sustainable Tourism Education file 4121 Oct 13, 2013

This presentation discusses the role of values in the context of sustainable tourism education. However, it does not seek to engage in the debate about the definition of Sustainable Tourism nor the differences between this concept and Sustai...

Author: Christian Schott 

Year: 2009 

109 Think Tank IX Tourism Relationship Model and Intermediary for Sustai... file 5847 Oct 13, 2013

This paper proposes a simple model that depicts the relationship between community and extra-community stakeholders that will enable the effective development of sustainable tourism. “Sustainable tourism” in this paper is defined as tourism ...

Author: Asami Shikida, Mami Yoda, Akiko Kino & Masayuki Morishige 

Year: 2009 

108 Think Tank IX Courchevel, an outstanding alpine ski resort at a turn... file 8048 Oct 13, 2013

“Courchevel is first and foremost one among the founding elements of the huge touristic complex of les Trois Vallées in France. Linked to the neighbouring Allues and Belleville valleys by a 3,000 acres network area of regularly packed and ma...

Author: Daniel Tixier 

Year: 2009 

107 OPA award Cultural values in sustainable tourism: Conflicts betw... file 9140 Oct 13, 2013

This paper evaluates cultural conflicts between indigenous groups, recreation users and management agencies over the appropriate amenity use of protected areas in the USA, Australia and New Zealand. It assesses both social values conflicts ...

Author: Heather Zeppel 

Year: 2009 

OPA: 2009 Outstanding Paper Award Winner 

106 Think Tank VIII Responding to Climate Change in Australian Resort Hote... file 6314 Oct 13, 2013

Extensive infrastructure and client expectations of luxury will mean that their carbon footprint and water usage is likely to exceed significantly that of average urban households. Often located in coastal or riverine settings, they are vuln...

Author: Charles Arcodia & Chantal Dickson 

Year: 2008 

105 Think Tank VIII Environmental Education and Ecotourism: A Case Study o... file 8667 Oct 13, 2013

In this paper we take the standpoint that environmental education and ecotourism are highly related and depend on each other, and that ecotourism cannot be achieved without proper environmental education. Furthermore, in order to achieve qu...

Author: Mojca Arsenijevic & Marko Bohanec 

Year: 2008 

104 Think Tank VIII Employment of the Disabled Workforce in the Hospitalit... file 9125 Oct 13, 2013

Employment is one of the important requirements for the integration of disabled people to daily life. The tourism industry is one of Turkey’s important industries with a great potential for growth. However this growth must be a planned and ...

Author: Sabah Balta & Murat Bengisu 

Year: 2008 

103 Think Tank VIII Emerging Green Tourists: Their Behaviours and Attitudes file 5025 Oct 13, 2013

The concerns are varied and are not necessarily important to all tourists and the influence they have on sustaining the industry is unknown. For years the tourism industry has used a number of mechanisms in an attempt to green operators. The...

Author: Sue Bergin-Seers & Judith Mair 

Year: 2008 

102 Think Tank VIII Education’s Impact on Cultural Distance Perception: Th... file 3360 Oct 13, 2013

As an international tourism destination, Turkey serves mostly European tourist markets due to her closeness to European markets. Turkey and Europe has a long shared history of relationships. However, Turkey and Turkish people have a rather b...

Author: Yasin Boylu, Asli D. A. Tasci & William C. Gartner 

Year: 2008 

101 Think Tank VIII Sustaining through Gastronomy: The Case of Slow Food M... file 7915 Oct 13, 2013

This paper is conducted within the interpretive paradigm, using subjectivist, non-positivist, qualitative approach to research started out of writer’s personal motivation after being exposed to a couple of Slow Food conviviums in the recent ...

Author: Miha Bratec 

Year: 2008 

» Think Tank VIII Lifestyle Oriented Small Tourism [LOST] Firms in the F... file 5029 Oct 13, 2013

Lifestyle has been oft cited in the literature as the main motivation for those establishing or acquiring tourism related businesses in attractive destinations. However, the term has many different dimensions and connotations, both positive...

Author: Jack Carlsen & Alison Morrison 

Year: 2008 

99 OPA award A Framework for Work-Life Balance Practices in the Tou... file 4643 Oct 13, 2013

This paper addresses the key issues surrounding the debate over work-life balance. It provides an overview of current thinking in the general work environment, with specific focus on the issue within the tourism industry. This paper present...

Author: Margaret Deery & Leo Jago 

Year: 2008 

OPA: 2008 Outstanding Paper Award Winner 

98 Think Tank VIII Destination Competitiveness and Policy Making for Pove... file 6823 Oct 13, 2013

This paper has five aims. First, to discuss the Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index (TTCI) and the method of its construction. If the TTCI is to have policy significance it is essential that its components be identified and analysed as ...

Author: Larry Dwyer 

Year: 2008 

97 Think Tank VIII Linking Tourist Satisfaction to Happiness and Quality ... file 4871 Oct 13, 2013

Dominant tourist satisfaction measures, typically tied to service quality, have recently received much criticism by senior tourism academics (Ryan, 1995; Kozak, 2001; Pearce, 2005). These prominent tourism scholars commonly refer to very sim...

Author: Sebastian Filep 

Year: 2008 

96 Think Tank VIII Moving from Destination Marketing to Destination Manag... file 70587 Oct 13, 2013

This paper provides a case study of how a tourism organisation has interpreted the change from a ‘marketing’ to a ‘management’ approach in destination development. It begins by looking at what the literature has said about destination manag...

Author: David Foster 

Year: 2008 

95 Think Tank VIII Tourism-led Amenity Migration and the Transformation o... file 3312 Oct 13, 2013

Global economic and political change has stimulated an explosion in tourism-led migration flows resulting in unprecedented transformation in the form and condition of impacted communities (Woods, 2006). This increase in human migration to ar...

Author: Alison M. Gill 

Year: 2008 

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