Tourism Development

This book investigates the local, place-based factors that influence tourism development, and asks why some tourism areas develop more than others. It provides important insights into the dynamics that occur at the local level, and contributes to the existing literature on destination development by investigating the influence of local tourist influentials; the presence of a social and professional milieu and a propensity for co- operation. This detailed analysis and comparison of tourism development in Killarney (a highly developed tourist town in the southwest of Ireland) and Clifden (a less developed tourist area in the west of Ireland) explores the way in which two tourism areas and communities have engaged with tourism, how their different histories have resulted in different factors of development, and how this has influenced their development as destinations. This research enhances the academic literature on tourism development in Ireland, an area that is extremely underdeveloped and contributes to our understanding of how destinations develop.