Application of Butler’s (1980) Tourist Area Life Cycle to Saly (Senegal)

Abstract

Richard W. Butler publishes in 1980 a model of evolution of tourist destinations known as TALC -Tourism Area Life Cycle- which stipulates that a site exploited for tourism and leisure knows 6 phases in its evolution: exploration, involvement, development, consolidation, stagnation, decline or rejuvenation. Several experiments of the model will be carried out around the world, however the tourist destinations located in the developing countries constitute a residual category of these applications. This article proposes an exploration of the TALC at the first station developed by the public authorities in West Africa, Saly located on the small coast in Senegal. For this purpose, we used a qualitative research method based on semi-directive interviews with actors at the level of the student site completed by official statistics. Our results show that Saly is in a so-called stagnation phase and that it is important to re-qualify the typology of tourist space in this city, which is experiencing a significant change in relation to its location.