Recreational land use patterns within an American seaside resort

Abstract

Urban areas whose dominant economic activities are those of providing an array of recreational services to tourists normally reflect this specialization in their land use patterns. Although precise statistical definition of the relative importance of recreational functions within an urban economy has certain inherent difficulties, some towns are so obviously dependent on tourism that they are universally recognized as resorts. In these towns, a characteristic urban morphology is apparent. Their unique physical qualities, so readily observed in the basic urban structure of resorts, may provide students of the science of tourism with insight into their function. Function and form, in tourism as in other urban activities, are, necessarily, closely interwined. ‘The landscape of a town, or if the word is accepted, the “townscape”, is worthy of far more geographical research than it now receives.’ The objective of this paper is the description of this interrelationship as observed in a representative American seaside resort, together with a brief historical interpretation of urban development in this resort.