Why tourism may not be everybody’s business: the challenge of tradition in resource peripheries
Doris A. Carson A D and Dean B. Carson B C
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A Centre for Regional Engagement, University of South Australia, 111 Nicolson Avenue, Whyalla Norrie, SA 5608, Australia.
B Flinders University Rural Clinical School, PO Box 889, Nuriootpa, SA 5355, Australia.
C The Northern Institute, Charles Darwin University, NT-0909 Darwin, Australia.
D Corresponding author. Emails: doris.schmallegger@unisa.edu.au; doris.carson@unisa.edu.au
The Rangeland Journal 33(4) 373-383 https://doi.org/10.1071/RJ11026
Submitted: 3 May 2011 Accepted: 10 October 2011 Published: 29 November 2011
Abstract
Tourism is commonly promoted as a tool for economic diversification in peripheral regions that have traditionally relied on exporting natural resources (the ‘staples’). However, developing tourism in these regions has often proven immensely difficult. Part of the reason for this is that tourism seems to require different institutional arrangements to those common in traditional staples economies. This paper analyses the case of the Flinders Ranges in South Australia to examine how the conflicting institutional requirements of tourism and staples industries impacted on the capacity of the regional economic system to innovate and diversify its staples-based economy to include tourism. The paper further documents how conflicts in the diversification process have been mitigated. The research concludes that harnessing tourism for successful economic diversification in peripheral regions requires fundamental changes to previous ways of operating, including new approaches to business creation, capacity building, education and knowledge exchange, networking and public–private interactions.
Additional keywords: economic diversification, Flinders Ranges, innovation capacity, institutional environment, resource peripheries, staples thesis.
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