ABSTRACT
Discussion of tourism supply has been conducted largely outside economics, with the result that coverage of economic issues is patchy and there is no coherent overview. Many texts directed at practitioners, particularly in the hospitality sector, touch on supply and associated issues in discussing fi nancial structures, management, marketing, quality and training. At a very specifi c and applied level, studies of the planning, development, operation and performance of such enterprises as hotels, guesthouses, holiday villages, ski and timeshare resorts and theme parks have been undertaken. At a more general level, attempts have been made to model tourism locations, for example by geographers who aim to identify key factors determining growth or decline. With the exception of transport sectors, economists’ interest in the industry has been peripheral, largely arising from research into industrial structure or organization, for instance multinational enterprises in the hotel and airline sectors (Dunning and McQueen, 1982a). Economists’ tendency to neglect the service sector in general, and tourism in particular, creates diffi culties because there are large gaps in the empirical evaluation of parts of the industry.
