ABSTRACT
Geography's contribution to the study of tourism has traditionally involved mainly environmental, regional, spatial, and evolutionary considerations. The environmental considerations include the impact of tourism in the natural environment. Development of the orientation is the emergence of the study of eco-tourism from the end of the 80s. The regional orientation has appeared mainly as interest in tourism as a means of economic development. The spatial orientation deals with spatial gravity models and the spatial perception of tourists. From the traditional orientations, the behaviourist quest for explaining the development of tourists' cognition of the destination comes closest to understanding of the tourist's experience. However, the experience involves much more than just spatial cognition. During the 1980s the humanistic agenda in geography has largely been replaced by post-structural interest in structures of power and meaning. The perspective of tourist's experience has been dealt within the framework of consumption and representation.
