Benchmark 1990, Conference of Latin Americanist Geographers, Vol.17/18, pp.199-207
Yearbook (Conference of Latin Americanist Geographers), 17/18
Conference of Latin Americanist Geographers (1990)
1992
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Abstract
Research on Latin American and Caribbean tourism geography during the 1980s has increased greatly over previous decades. Tourism research is an interdisciplinary field of study and research opportunities for geographers abound. Of the various academic and applied fields that have contributed to the great increase in tourism research, geographers have contributed a greater than proportional share. Of eleven major categories of research identified among the 1980s publications, which include geographic as well as related non-geographic sources, the most popular ones for geographers are tourism development, descriptive studies and historical studies. Tourism impact studies are also quite popular. not only in terms of general impacts but also specifically environmental impacts, economic impacts and socio-cultural impacts. A high proportion of the publications are on specific impacts, economic impacts and socio-cultural impacts. A high proportion of the publications on specific impacts were supplied by scholars in respective :related fields. Also, a total of fourteen theses and
dissertations were written on Latin American and Caribbean tourism topics, almost half in Canadian departments of geography.
In terms of geographic distribution of the research foci of tourism studies in the 1980s,a map of Latin America exhibits dense clusters in Mexico and at several Caribbean island destinations and vast empty spaces across the South American continent. This pattern may reflect several important points: 1) few researchers are providing a large number of the publications; 2) tourism research is concentrated where English is the native language; 3 the distance-decay principle may keep most North American scholars closer to home; and 4) few Latin American Caribbean geographers have examined their local tourism industries.
In spite of tremendous increases having been made in the number of geographic and related non-geographic publications on Latin American and Caribbean tourism, the increases have been location-specific. The spectrum of research, ranging from explanatory to descriptive to predictive, is encouraging but the geographic applications of that research need to be greatly expanded throughout the Latin American realm. Perhaps these goals will yet be realized before this decade ends.
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Title
Geographic research on tourism in Latin America, 1980-1990
Publication Details
Benchmark 1990, Conference of Latin Americanist Geographers, Vol.17/18, pp.199-207
Resource Type
Conference proceeding
Conference
Conference of Latin Americanist Geographers (1990)
Publisher
University of Texas Press
Series
Yearbook (Conference of Latin Americanist Geographers); 17/18
Identifiers
99380090355106600
Academic Unit
Earth and Environmental Sciences; Hal Marcus College of Science and Engineering