Author(s):
Dimitri Ioannides* - Missouri State University
Sandra Wall Reinius - Mid-Sweden University
Kristina Zampoukos - Mid-Sweden University
Abstract:
Neoliberalism's rise from the early 1980s to this day has become a major topic of preoccupation in urban and economic geography. Tourism researchers have been somewhat slow in embracing the significance of neoliberalism's ascent and transformation in terms of the dynamics of tourism evolution in various destinations. In this paper we argue that when observing the manner in which North American and European communities have sought to regenerate themselves as visitor destinations over the last three decades it is obvious they have commonly done so guided by a neoliberal agenda, albeit one that is arguably contingent on local (place-bound) idiosyncrasies. It is, for instance, evident that in many instances tourism's development reveals expressions of "roll-back" and "roll-out" neoliberalism as postulated by Peck and Tickell (2002). Of particular interest is the manner in which the embrace of revanchist policies in many communities since the mid-1990s projects a reassurance of safety and security to visitors - especially within so-called tourism bubbles - while concurrently marginalizing undesirable land uses and individuals. An emerging worry is that the continuous adoption of a neoliberal agenda, despite the fact that this is in itself transforming over time, has serious dire consequences for the sustainable development of destinations and particularly the social equity dimension of sustainability
