Application of PLC – Analyzing a Destination

(i) Exploration

During the exploration phase, drifters discover a destination. They come in very small numbers and accept local conditions. Contact between hosts and tourists is mutually satisfactory, so the euphoria level on the Doxey scale applies. In this phase no disruption of local society occurs. No tourism facilities or accommodation are available. Although relationships between hosts and guests may be intense, overall impacts are small because numbers are small. Usually leakages from the local economic system are small, since most food and building materials, to name a few examples, are produced locally.

(ii) Involvement

Once the local population notices that tourism can be (financially) beneficial to them, local initiatives may be employed to build facilities and accommodation. This is the start of the involvement phase.

Developments in this phase are usually quite slow, because of social or financial constraints. The destination’s destiny is still firmly in local hands.

The phase of involvement involves a marked increase in the number of tourists. Tourists of the drifter type are replaced by explorers. These explorers revel in local conditions. Relationships between hosts and guests, although a little more formalized, are still personal and the scale of tourism and its growth rate are still manageable. Economic benefits per tourist can be quite large, since leakages are small.

(iii) Development

Take-off for the destination occurs in the development phase. Local people see opportunities for further growth of the tourism industry. However, not enough knowledge and investment capital are available within the region to fully capture the opportunities. Several solutions are possible to this problem. If sustained organic growth is regarded as desirable, tourism development is usually constrained financially. This means that development will be slow in terms of tourists and expenditure. However, impacts are also likely to be limited.

Another strategy is to aim at maximum tourism growth, which can only be achieved with the help of experts and money from outside the region. The construction of new facilities and accommodations make a rapid growth of tourist numbers possible. More tourist spending will occur. Together with numbers, the nature of the tourists will change. The maximum growth strategy has some serious drawbacks. Usually the necessary investors are financially strong and very competitive. Therefore, they are usually able to negotiate important advantages. For example, local authorities can be forced to give tax holidays or to build some infrastructural facilities.

Moreover, environmental protection systems often cannot keep up with rapid tourism development.

Many problems occur with waste disposal systems, such as sewage systems. It also tends to be difficult to control tourism development physically. Often, the main tourist attractions are natural

Many things change in a socio-cultural way as well. Local control over development greatly diminishes because ownership and management is in foreign hands. Very quick development leads to a large demand for labour, which may induce immigration or disruption of other sectors. As the industry expands, people begin to take the tourist for granted. He gradually becomes a target for profit-taking and contact on the personal level formalises. This is Doxey’s apathy phase. Cultural shift becomes apparent.

(iv) Consolidation

When arriving at the consolidation phase enough facilities and accommodations are available to receive early mass tourists. These tourists come in a steady flow and look for Western amenities. In the consolidation phase tourism has become institutionalized. The destination has become a product which is marketed by international tour operators. Local control has diminished even further.

In economic terms, both initial tourist expenditure and leakages may be considerable. Because of the sheer number of tourists, much money enters the economy. However, much of the Western amenities these tourists look for are likely to be imports. And much of the profits and wages earned by foreign employees and companies leaks back to the metropolitan areas of the developed world.

Local support for tourism development may diminish because serious social and environmental impacts become apparent, while the economic benefits may be disappointing. In the Bjorkland diagram, this means a shift away from the “active promotion” response to tourism development.

Unlike in the development phase, in the consolidation phase it is not so much the growth rates that cause problems, but sheer numbers of tourists. These may cause large problems of congestion and may overwhelm any local cultural event, indicating the irritation phase on Doxey’s index of tourist irritation.

Because of the large number of tourists, substantial damage can be done to the natural environment as well. Transport emissions and emissions from tourist facilities and accommodations can be quite high, although the initial capacity problems may have been partly resolved.

However, tourist interests can also aid conservation of natural and cultural resources. This can occur by pressure from the tourism industry or by gifts or entrance fees from the tourists themselves.

(v) Stagnation

Tourist numbers are highest in the stagnation stage, although growth rates are low. In this stage massive numbers of tourists come on fully standardized packages and they expect Western amenities.

However, this separation may have serious consequences for the host population. Often, for example, use of beaches is restricted to tourists.

Contact between hosts and tourists is highly institutionalized. Hosts and tourists only meet at scheduled moments along the itinerary which the tour operator has planned. The increasing distance between tourists and the host population may give rise to the formation of caricaturistic images of each other.

The characteristics of Doxey’s stage of antagonism may apply, in which irritations become more overt and the tourist is seen as the harbinger of all that is bad (Prosser, 1994).

The economic benefits may significantly decrease. On the one hand, initial expenditure – at least per tourist – can be expected to decrease due to bargaining by the tour operators. On the other hand, leakages are expected to increase. Control is now firm in the hands of foreigners, who tend to repatriate important shares of their profits and wages.

(vi) Decline / rejuvenation

After the stagnation stage the succession of tourist types, from drifter to organized mass tourist, has come to an end. Often, this means that tourists and the tourism industry lose interest in the destination.

As growth comes to a standstill, so does investment.

Now several scenarios can be imagined, such as decline and rejuvenation. In the decline scenario, the destination does not succeed in changing its image. Tourist numbers will decrease and investors move on, using the destination as a cash-cow. They try to squeeze as much money out of it without investing in improvement.

So, in economic terms, benefits from tourism are gradually declining. People realize that their culture and the environment have changed irreversibly and that it is too late to do something about it. Doxey’s so-called final level of tourist irritation may apply in such a case.

Another possible scenario is rejuvenation in which the destination tries to reposition itself in the tourism market. A destination may for example decide to offer more possibilities for an active vacation, whereas the focus used to be on quite passive vacations by the elderly.