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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 Viewssort Date
10 Think Tank VIII Environmental Education and Ecotourism: A Case Study o... file 8695 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 

9 Think Tank VIII Community Actions to Engage Local Residents in Tourism... file 7777 Dec 19, 2013

This paper explores the residents’ knowledge of community actions to engage local members in tourism planning and development in the King Cobra Village of Thailand. The degree of participatory ability which is associated with the public atti...

Author: Kitsada Tungchawal 

Year: 2008 

8 Think Tank VIII Destination Competitiveness and Policy Making for Pove... file 6830 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 

7 Think Tank VIII Resident Support for Sustainable Tourism Policies in T... file 5447 Oct 13, 2013

During the last two decades, there has been increased focus on topics related to various aspects of sustainable tourism. Believing that sustainable tourism can be a serious alternative that can remedy some of the negative impacts associated ...

Author: Ercan Sirakaya-Turk, Muzzo S. Uysal & Turgut Var 

Year: 2008 

» Think Tank VIII Lifestyle Oriented Small Tourism [LOST] Firms in the F... file 5033 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 

5 Think Tank VIII Emerging Green Tourists: Their Behaviours and Attitudes file 5029 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 

4 Think Tank VIII Integrating Sustainability into Tourism Education and ... file 4802 Oct 13, 2013

The focus of this paper is to provide an overview of the current sustainability content in Irish tourism programmes and the identification of key trends in this regard. It is based on extensive research of secondary and tertiary education s...

Author: Jane Stacey, Sheila Flanagan, Kevin Griffin & Anna Tottle 

Year: 2008 

3 Think Tank VIII A Framework for Work-Life Balance Practices in the Tou... file 3848 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 

2 Think Tank VIII Tourism Professionals’ Attitudes towards Climate Chang... file 3441 Oct 13, 2013

This paper discusses three aspects of the interrelationship between tourism and climate change: the perception of the problems related to global warming by tourism professionals, their suggestions concerning possible actions that can be tak...

Author: Xavier Matteucci & Dagmar Lund-Durlacher 

Year: 2008 

1 Think Tank VIII Assessing Whose Quality of Life: A Critical Examinatio... file 3182 Oct 13, 2013

Almost all the academic literature on tourism impacts has focussed on the consequences of tourism for the destination and its residents. Very little attention has been paid to the impacts of tourism on tourists. Virtually all cost-benefit an...

Author: Gianna Moscardo 

Year: 2008 

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