Welcome to Tourism and the Butler Model
Welcome to this study guide! In this chapter, we explore tourism, one of the world's fastest-growing tertiary (service) industries. Have you ever packed a suitcase for a holiday, visited a beach resort, or explored a historic city? If so, you have taken part in global tourism!
Tourism connects people and places across the world. However, as visitor numbers grow, destinations undergo dramatic changes. In this chapter, you will learn:
• Why tourism has grown rapidly over recent decades.
• The Butler model of resort development (including its stages, strengths, and limitations).
• The benefits and problems of tourism across social, economic, and environmental areas, looking at local, regional, national, and global scales.
• Sustainable tourism management and how to evaluate strategies used to protect destinations for the future.
Cross-reference note: Tourism is part of the tertiary sector within economic systems. For foundational information on industrial sectors, refer to the chapter on Employment structures and industrial location.
1. Factors Behind the Rapid Growth of Global Tourism
Why do so many more people travel today compared to fifty or sixty years ago? The growth in global tourist numbers is driven by a combination of economic, social, technological, and political factors.
Economic Factors
• Higher disposable income: People in many countries, especially High-Income Countries (HICs) and emerging Middle-Income Countries (MICs), have more money left over after paying for essentials like food and housing. This money can be spent on leisure and travel.
• Currency exchange rates and cheaper options: Competitive package holidays and budget airlines have made travel affordable for a wider range of income groups.
Social and Demographic Factors
• Increased paid leave and holiday time: In many countries, workers now legally receive several weeks of paid annual leave, giving them dedicated time to travel.
• Earlier retirement and an ageing population: Many people are living longer, healthier lives after retirement, with pensions and savings that allow them to travel outside of peak school holiday times.
• Desire for new experiences: Increased awareness of global cultures, natural wonders, and wildlife through television, internet platforms, and social media encourages people to explore new destinations.
Technological and Transport Factors
• Faster, cheaper, and safer transport: The expansion of commercial aviation, including fuel-efficient long-haul aircraft and budget airlines, has reduced travel times and costs significantly. High-speed rail networks and modern motorways have also made domestic and regional travel easier.
• Online booking and communications: The internet allows tourists to research destinations, compare prices, book flights and accommodation instantly, and navigate unfamiliar areas using smartphone mapping apps.
Political Factors
• Government promotion: Governments frequently invest in airports, roads, and global advertising campaigns because tourism brings valuable foreign currency, tax revenue, and employment.
• Easier border crossings: Visa-free travel agreements and streamlined online visa applications make entering many countries much simpler than in the past.
Quick Review: Remember the four main drivers using the memory aid STEP: Social (paid holidays, active retirees), Transport and Technology (faster planes, internet bookings), Economic (higher disposable incomes), and Political (government promotion, easier visas).
2. The Butler Model of Tourism Resort Development
How does a sleepy fishing village turn into a bustling, crowded holiday destination—and what happens afterwards? Geographer Richard Butler introduced a model to explain how tourist resorts change and develop over time. It graphs the number of tourists (vertical axis) against time (horizontal axis).
The Six Stages of the Butler Model
Stage 1: Exploration
• A very small number of adventurous tourists discover an unspoilt, quiet location.
• There are no dedicated tourist facilities; visitors stay in local homes or camp and enjoy the natural beauty or culture.
• Local life remains completely unchanged, and physical impact is minimal.
Stage 2: Involvement
• Local residents begin to see the economic potential of visitors.
• Basic tourist facilities appear, such as family-run guesthouses, small cafes, and boat hire services.
• A distinct tourist season emerges, and local authorities may begin to provide basic infrastructure.
Stage 3: Development
• Large-scale travel companies, hotel chains, and tour operators move in.
• Tourist numbers grow very rapidly, often exceeding the local population during the peak season.
• Modern hotels, restaurants, bars, and entertainment venues are built. Control shifts from local residents to external companies.
Stage 4: Consolidation
• Tourist numbers continue to increase, but the rate of growth begins to slow down.
• Tourism dominates the local economy and employment.
• Facilities begin to show signs of wear and tear, traffic congestion rises, and local resentment towards overcrowding can begin.
Stage 5: Stagnation
• The resort reaches its carrying capacity (the maximum number of visitors an area can support without causing environmental damage or a decline in visitor experience).
• Tourist numbers peak and level off.
• The destination is no longer fashionable; it relies on repeat visitors, discounted package deals, and business conferences.
Stage 6: Two Possible Pathways — Rejuvenation or Decline
After stagnation, the Butler model shows that a destination will follow one of two paths:
• Path A: Rejuvenation (Growth resumes): The resort undergoes major investment and modernisation. It adds new attractions, upgrades infrastructure, diversifies its image (e.g. promoting cultural heritage, eco-tourism, or sports), and attracts a new group of visitors, causing tourist numbers to rise again.
• Path B: Decline (Visitor numbers fall): If no improvements are made, facilities become run-down. The resort loses popularity, wealthier tourists move on to newer destinations, prices drop, and businesses close down, leading to job losses and economic hardship.
Evaluating the Butler Model: Strengths and Limitations
In your IGCSE exam, you may be asked to evaluate the Butler model by identifying both its strengths and its limitations.
Strengths of the Butler Model:
• Provides a clear overview: It gives planners, businesses, and governments a simple, step-by-step framework to understand how resorts grow and change.
• Helps with future planning: By identifying which stage a resort is in, managers can anticipate problems (such as overcrowding or worn-out facilities) before they reach the critical stagnation stage.
• Highlights carrying capacity: It emphasizes that environments and communities have limits, raising awareness of the need for sustainable management.
Limitations of the Butler Model:
• Too simplistic and rigid: Not every resort follows a single, smooth curve. Some destinations experience instant mass tourism due to rapid government investment, skipping early stages entirely.
• Ignores external shocks: The model does not easily account for sudden, unpredictable events such as natural hazards, political instability, economic recessions, or global health crises, which can stop tourism overnight.
• Does not show time scales: The horizontal axis indicates "time", but does not specify years; some resorts move through the stages in a few decades, while others remain at exploration or involvement for centuries.
Key Takeaway: The Butler model illustrates the life cycle of a resort from Exploration through to Rejuvenation or Decline. It is a helpful tool for predicting growth, but does not fit every destination perfectly.
3. Impacts of Tourism: Benefits and Problems
Tourism creates significant changes. Geography questions often ask you to classify these impacts as positive (benefits) or negative (problems), and to organize them into social, economic, and environmental categories across different scales (local, regional, national, global).
Social Impacts
Positive Social Impacts (Benefits):
• Improved infrastructure: Better roads, clean water networks, electricity, and healthcare built for tourists also benefit local residents.
• Cultural preservation: Demand from tourists can revive traditional crafts, dances, music, and historical monuments that might otherwise be forgotten.
• Cross-cultural understanding: Visitors and hosts learn about each other's ways of life, reducing stereotypes and building mutual respect.
Negative Social Impacts (Problems):
• Culture clash and loss of traditions: Inappropriate behaviour, dress, or consumption by tourists can offend local religious and cultural norms. Traditions may become commercialised merely to entertain visitors.
• Overcrowding and noise: High numbers of tourists can congest local roads, crowd public transport, and disrupt the peaceful daily lives of local people.
• Increased crime: Concentrations of wealthy travellers can lead to an increase in petty crime, such as pickpocketing and scams.
Economic Impacts
Positive Economic Impacts (Benefits):
• Job creation: Tourism creates direct jobs (hotel staff, tour guides, transport operators) and indirect jobs (construction workers, food suppliers, farmers).
• The Multiplier Effect: Money spent by tourists circulates through the wider economy. A hotel buys vegetables from local farmers, who then spend their earnings in local shops, stimulating further economic growth.
• Foreign currency and tax revenues: Governments earn money from airport taxes, sales taxes, and entry fees, which can be reinvested into national development projects.
Negative Economic Impacts (Problems):
• Economic leakage: In many destinations, especially in Low-Income Countries (LICs) and Middle-Income Countries (MICs), large foreign-owned hotel chains, airlines, and tour operators send a significant portion of profits back to their home countries rather than keeping them in the local economy.
• Seasonality: Many tourism jobs are available only during certain months of the year (e.g., summer or winter ski seasons), leaving workers with low incomes during the off-season.
• Inflation: High demand from tourists can drive up the prices of land, housing, food, and basic goods, making it difficult for local residents to afford living in their own towns.
Environmental Impacts
Positive Environmental Impacts (Benefits):
• Conservation funding: Entry fees to national parks, wildlife reserves, and marine sanctuaries generate revenue used to protect endangered habitats and pay ranger salaries.
• Environmental awareness: Highlighting natural wonders encourages both visitors and locals to value and protect biodiversity and clean landscapes.
Negative Environmental Impacts (Problems):
• Pollution: Inadequate waste management can result in litter on beaches, untreated sewage dumped into coastal waters, and increased noise and light pollution.
• Habitat destruction: The construction of hotels, marinas, roads, and golf courses can destroy natural habitats such as sand dunes, coastal mangroves, and woodlands.
• Depletion of resources: Tourists often consume far more water per day than local residents (for swimming pools, showers, and landscaped lawns), putting immense pressure on local water supplies in dry regions.
Thinking Across Scales
When writing extended responses, demonstrate geographic depth by considering different scales:
• Local scale: Traffic jams in a specific town, jobs for local youths, litter on a specific beach.
• Regional scale: New regional highways built between cities and resorts, regional water shortages, spread of wealth across neighbouring farming communities.
• National scale: Contributions to national Gross Domestic Product (GDP), foreign currency reserves, national employment statistics.
• Global scale: Carbon emissions from long-haul aviation contributing to global climate change, international movement of people and disease.
4. Sustainable Tourism Management
Sustainable tourism means managing tourism activities in a way that meets the needs of present tourists and local communities, while protecting and enhancing opportunities for the future. It balances economic growth, social wellbeing, and environmental protection.
Management Strategies and Techniques
Destinations use a variety of strategies and techniques to reduce the negative impacts of tourism:
• Zoning and designated paths: Restricting tourists to marked trails, boardwalks, or specific zones prevents trampling of fragile ecosystems (such as sand dunes or alpine meadows) and protects wildlife breeding grounds.
• Visitor quotas and permit systems: Setting limits on the number of daily visitors prevents overcrowding, keeps numbers within the carrying capacity, and protects fragile historic monuments or natural sites.
• Ecotourism: Small-scale tourism that focuses on experiencing natural environments responsibly, supporting conservation, and directly employing local communities.
• Water and energy conservation: Mandating that hotels use rainwater harvesting, low-flow plumbing fixtures, solar energy, and local building materials.
• Promoting local businesses: Encouraging tourists to buy locally made souvenirs and eat at locally owned restaurants reduces economic leakage and ensures money remains in the host community.
• Educating visitors and codes of conduct: Clear guidelines on respecting cultural traditions, dressing appropriately, not touching wildlife, and taking litter home.
Evaluating Sustainable Management Strategies
In an exam, you may be asked to evaluate these strategies (weighing up how effective they are, noting both successes and challenges):
• Successes: Quotas and permits prevent wear and tear; local employment generates steady income and reduces poaching or illegal tree-cutting; conservation fees directly protect habitats.
• Challenges: Enforcing regulations requires trained staff and funding, which may be lacking; limiting visitor numbers can lower short-term tourism profits, causing resistance from business owners; high demand can create black markets for entry permits.
5. Required Detailed Specific Example: Tourism in a Named Country or Area
The syllabus requires you to study one detailed specific example of a named country or area CE 2000 to the present day, covering:
1. Reasons for the growth of tourism.
2. Benefits and problems of tourism.
3. Sustainable management strategies and their evaluation.
Note: The syllabus does not prescribe a specific place name—your teacher will have selected one, or you can choose your own area. When answering exam questions on this topic, always include specific facts, named locations, and realistic details from your chosen example.
Framework to Structure Your Chosen Example:
• Name and location of your area: Name the specific resort, national park, island, or country, and describe its key attractions (e.g. sandy beaches, coral reefs, historic architecture, wildlife).
• Reasons for growth: Mention specific transport upgrades (e.g. an expanded international airport), government initiatives, marketing campaigns, or climatic appeals (e.g. warm, dry summers).
• Specific benefits: Cite economic gains (e.g. percentage of local employment, infrastructure improvements), and cultural revival projects.
• Specific problems: Mention concrete issues such as coastal water pollution, traffic gridlock, water shortages in dry seasons, or rising housing costs for locals.
• Sustainable management used: Detail the exact strategies implemented (e.g. daily visitor caps, plastic bans, eco-lodges, ranger patrols) and evaluate whether they have succeeded or faced challenges.
Common Mistakes to Avoid in the Exam
• Confusing the Butler model stages: Be careful not to confuse Consolidation (growth is still happening, but slowing down) with Stagnation (numbers have peaked and flattened out).
• Forgetting to evaluate: If a question asks you to "evaluate management strategies", do not just describe the rules; explain how successful they were and what difficulties arose.
• Using outdated classification terms: Remember to use LICs (Low-Income Countries), MICs (Middle-Income Countries), and HICs (High-Income Countries). Do not use obsolete terms such as LEDC or MEDC.
• Being too vague: Avoid writing statements like "it causes pollution". Specify the type of pollution: untreated sewage discharged into the sea, plastic litter left on beaches, or noise pollution from late-night entertainment.
Quick Chapter Summary
• Tourism growth is driven by economic wealth, paid leave, transport developments, internet technology, and government promotion.
• The Butler model outlines six key stages: Exploration, Involvement, Development, Consolidation, Stagnation, followed by either Rejuvenation or Decline.
• Tourism creates social, economic, and environmental impacts, which can be positive (e.g. job creation, infrastructure, conservation funding) or negative (e.g. culture clashes, economic leakage, resource depletion, pollution).
• Sustainable management uses techniques like visitor quotas, zoning, ecotourism, and supporting local enterprise to ensure tourism benefits communities without destroying the environment.