A broad context model of destination development scenarios

Abstract

Intensity and regulation are employed as variables to formulate a broad context model of tourism destination development. This model consists of four inclusive tourism development states (i.e., circumstantial alternative tourism or CAT, deliberate alternative tourism or DAT, unsustainable mass tourism or UMT, and sustainable mass tourism or SMT), and eight possible scenarios of transition from one state to another. It is argued that the Butler sequence is just one possible scenario within this framework, and that most places are CAT destinations that are unlikely to progress beyond this status quo. The model is applied to the Gold Coast of Australia to suggest that an integrated DAT/SMT product should be the outcome of destination management strategy, to replace the current unintegrated CAT/UMT structure.