ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to move beyond uncritical accounts of New Regionalism as a policy prescription, and beyond international and national level discourses, to reflect upon the nature of New Regionalism as it is played out on the ground in the micro-regional context of tourism. It focuses on the territorial dimensions of the global-local dialectic associated with the New Regionalism, and explores the implications of this dialectic on tourism development. A case study of tourism in the Hunter Region, New South Wales, is undertaken. The chapter builds the case that greater attention needs to be placed on understanding the economic and institutional notions of 'the region' and that New Regionalism cannot proceed unless these different conceptions of region and destination can be reconciled. It illustrates that there are significant instabilities arising out of the State's production of 'the region' versus local production and reassertion of local destination identity that are not easily reconciled.
