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TOURISM AS AN EVOLUTIONARY PROCES S 11

Tourism as an evolutionary process

We have already seen the rise and fall of a group of destinations – the British inland spas
– and it is all too apparent that their successors – the British seaside resorts – are now
often in a state of serious decline. Butler (1980) developed a model of the evolutionary
cycle of a destination (see Figure 1.2), a model which has been widely adapted as a mar-
keting model to describe the lifecycle of virtually all products.

Figure 1.2 Butler’s evolutionary lifecycle

Maturity

Decline
Scale

Growth

Start-up

Time

Source: Based on Butler (1980)

Other theorists such as Thurot (1973) and Plog (1974) sought to explain what drives
such an evolutionary lifecycle. Such models are dynamic – they emphasise the changing
nature of the tourists who visit a particular destination, and especially a notion of ‘suc-
cession’. In other words, there is a pattern in the change of the type of tourists who visit
a particular destination, with one type of tourist moving on to new destinations to be
succeeded by a different type of tourist. They differ in what they argue is the driver of
this change process, as set out in Table 1.1.

Table 1.1 Evolutionary theories of destination development

Theorist Driver Resort discovered by: Succeeded by: Need for response by
destination

Thurot Class The rich Upper middle class; Changing types

(1973) succession middle class; of hotels
mass tourism
Plog Personality The allocentric tourists Midcentric tourist Changing types of
(1974) type (the adventurous, (part- allocentric; part attractions
outgoing, self-confident psychocentric; they
independent traveller) constitute the majority of
tourists); then psychocentric
tourists (the timid tourist
who prefers ‘abroad’ to be
like ‘home’)

Source: Based on information derived from WTO (www.wto.org)