Seaside towns and Local Enterprise Partnerships: domestic tourism in a core periphery contextJames Kennell & Dr. Samantha ChaperonDepartment of Marketing, Events and TourismBusiness SchoolUniversity of Greenwich

OverviewDefinitions

Neglect of seaside towns

Local Enterprise PartnershipsMethodology

CPT as a framework for future research

Seaside towns...

• are seaside resorts, rather than just all developed areas by the sea – this excludes towns whose main function is as a port or industrial centre;

• are significant urban areas in their own right, rather than suburbs of larger settlements or sections of a settlement that happen to be by the sea;

• had a population of over 8,000 in 1971(Beatty & Fothergill 2003)

Peripherality• ‘Peripherality’ as an economic and spatial notion

• Perceived ‘peripherality’

• Characteristics of peripheral places:– Limited market opportunities– Industry in decline– Close-knit communities– Lacking in education and training– Lack of public and private capital– Small, declining or ageing population– Failure of private decision-making systems

Seaside towns as peripheral places

• Peripheral places are on the margins of centres of wealth, the processes of capital accumulation and also political decision-making

(Brown & Hall, 2000)

The neglect of seaside towns

• Structural decline post-1974• Restructuring of UK and international tourism

markets• Central government has ‘consistently failed’ (Morgan

& Pritchard 1999) to intervene • Seaside towns consistently underperform

economically, and have poor social outcomes for citizens

• Peripherality poorly understood as a contributing factor

• No seaside strategy until March 2010

Local Enterprise Partnerships

• Announced June 2010• New, business-led economic development

partnerships• Sub-regional• No central guidance• Tourism responsibility

Methodology

• Exploratory research

• Purposeful sample of approved LEPs that cover ‘seaside towns’ (7)

• Random sample of pending LEPs that cover ‘seaside towns’ (7)

• Qualitative content analysis

Content analysisCode Description

FACT Facilitation of tourism – i.e. tourism marketing, tourism-related infrastructure development, tourism-related training

FACPI Facilitation of private sector investment –from core or at periphery

FACSI Facilitation of state investment

TPOL Tourism policy

TGOV Tourism governance

Adapted from Weaver, D.B. (1998) Peripheries of the Periphery. Tourism in Tobago and Barbuda. Annals of Tourism Research 25 (2):292-313

Findings1. The new LEPs do not recognise the Peripherality of

seaside towns as a key element in sub-regional growth – with one exception

2. The new LEPs are not innovative in terms of tourism development for seaside towns, relying on outdated ideas of growth

3. The LEP model does not , in itself, offer a brighter future for tourism to seaside towns, or for their development in other regards.

Contribution of CPT to future work

• CPT highlights areas of dependence and structural inequality that can inform policy on a spatial basis

• To apply CPT in the LEP context requires a strategic overview that only central government can provide

• Applying CPT in this domestic tourism context offers areas of future research focus

Next steps

• 2010/11 – Monitoring of LEP evolution, including new green lighted proposals

• 2010/11 – Analysis of new regional tourism governance frameworks as they emerge

• 2011 – Interviews with key informants• 2011 – Establishment of key indicators for

monitoring seaside LEP arrangements against CPT / tourism indicators