There is no single and all embracing resort concept prevalent within the literature to capture the diverse use of the term and its manifestations (Agarwal and Shaw 2007). The main distinction within the field is between “legacy” resorts which have evolved over periods sometimes extending to centuries and others which are outcomes of more deliberate and self-conscious development by an entrepreneur. Some of the former “first-generation resorts” are synonymous with destination towns or even cities.
The destination and resort life cycle concepts have been used almost interchangeably to explain the development process for these and subsequent resorts. Butler’s (1980) tourism area life cycle is the best known and most established theory of the resort development process. The model draws from multiple disciplines including marketing (where the product life cycle originated) and from regional planning. It has subsequently been applied by researchers and practitioners in diverse geographical...
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References
Agarwal, S., and G. Shaw, eds. 2007 Managing Coastal Tourism Resorts: A Global Perspective. Clevedon: Channel View.
Butler, R. 1980 The Concept of a Tourist Area Cycle of Evolution: Implications for Management of Resources. The Canadian Geographer 24:5-12.
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King, B.E.M. (2016). Resort development. In: Jafari, J., Xiao, H. (eds) Encyclopedia of Tourism. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-01384-8_160
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