Tourism, Property and the Management of Change in Coastal Resorts: Perspectives from South West England

Abstract

Over the past two decades coastal resort regeneration has been an important policy concern of successive governments. At the heart of regeneration has been property as a medium to embody change. Property has form, it is possessed, and it is valorised in multiple ways by those with a stake in it. To date, property ownership and its conceptualisation have been overlooked in policy and academic tourism discourse. This paper explores notions of property ownership among small- and medium-sized tourism enterprises (SMTEs) in the English resort of Teignmouth, South Devon. It discusses the nature of property ownership among accommodation providers, the valorisation of property assets among SMTEs, and the policy implications for resort futures. A qualitative approach rooted in the conceptual framework of sunk costs reveals a group of recent market entrants for whom the financial gains from the property market are as important as those from service provision. The tourism sector is fluid as SMTEs continually enter and exit. The challenges are to better understand tourism sector dynamics through a more detailed consideration of the relationship between property, lock-in and exit, as well as to formulate policy that more closely reflects sector operations.