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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
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293 Think Tank XII Employee Work Attitudes, Mobility and Promotional Oppo... file 9162 Nov 06, 2013

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292 Think Tank XIV A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Study of Sustainab... file 9084 Jun 26, 2014

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291 Think Tank VII Volunteer Tourism: Sustainable Innovation in Tourism, ... file 9077 Oct 13, 2013

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290 Think Tank XV A vacation from capitalism; what happens when the ‘mas... file 8965 Jul 27, 2015

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289 Think Tank XIII Modeling the Index Components of Tourist Satisfaction ... file 8956 Nov 06, 2013

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288 Think Tank IX Labour Justice and Sustainable Tourism: The Centrality... file 8839 Oct 13, 2013

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287 Think Tank VIII Destination Competitiveness and Policy Making for Pove... file 8836 Oct 13, 2013

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286 Think Tank VI Corporate Social Responsibility and Marine Tourism Org... file 8832 Oct 13, 2013

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has become an important issue for some governments but the tourism industry appears to be slow in adopting CSR strategies. By focusing on CSR, we argue that the implementation of CSR audits could help t...

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285 Think Tank XV Why Africans do not visit their national parks: A case... file 8765 Jul 27, 2015

Present-day Western approaches relating to nature and natural resources management assume that humans are independent from the natural world (Pierotti & Wildcat, 2000). Protected areas such as Yellowstone National Park were created with ...

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284 Think Tank XIV Exploring the potential of Community Based Ecotourism ... file 8739 Jun 27, 2014

Development in developing countries often results in mass land-use change and subsequent increase in greenhouse gas emission by deforestation or forest degradation. For instance, approximately a-fifth of global greenhouse gas emissions was a...

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283 Think Tank XI Visualising Sustainability: Reflections on Applied Stu... file 8676 Oct 14, 2013

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282 Think Tank IX The role of values in sustaining the hospitality labou... file 8641 Oct 13, 2013

The role of human resources in sustaining hospitality enterprises has long been recognized (Hjalager und Andersen 2001; Baum 2007). Personnel are considered vital for the delivery of touristic experiences, thus being a central ingredient of ...

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281 Think Tank VII Innovations in Volunteer Tourism: A Case Study of Fund... file 8579 Oct 13, 2013

The popularity of volunteer tourism as a form of alternative tourism has grown significantly over the past decade (McGehee, and Norman, 2002). Volunteer tourists can now be found throughout the world participating in a wide array of social, ...

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280 Think Tank IX Valuing Open Innovation Environments in Tourism Educat... file 8555 Oct 13, 2013

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279 OPA award The Managing Local Tourism Master Class: Communicating... file 8415 Oct 13, 2013

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278 Think Tank XIII Understanding Sense of Place in Tourism Development: T... file 8381 Nov 06, 2013

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277 Think Tank V Using Theories of Stigma Management and Impression Man... file 8378 Oct 13, 2013

Researchers have noted that impression management is key to tourism crisis management planning and recovery (Ritchie et al., 2003:201); indeed, some have suggested that “crisis management is as much about dealing with human perceptions about...

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276 Think Tank XII Opportunities and Obstacles for Sustainable Tourism Mo... file 8362 Nov 06, 2013

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275 Think Tank XV Perceptions of the business community on the sustainab... file 8312 Jul 27, 2015

The holiday property market has seen a genuine boom in the last years with second homes being an integral part of today’s tourism and an important pillar in the accommodation sector. Today second homes are seen as an enabler for destination ...

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