Peripheral Area Tourism: A European Perspective

At any one time the European Union has a tourism programme containing a series of actionable measures which it sees as improving the quality and competitiveness of tourism services amongst Member States. But, it appears to be generally accepted that the most important impact of the Union on tourism arises not from specific tourism-related policies, but rather from mainstream policies and measures targeted at business in general. The focus of this paper is on tourism in peripheral areas, with the emphasis on the contribution made by the Community's regional policy. In so doing, it builds on earlier work in this Journal by Lowyck and Wanhill in 1992. Recent debates and trends in policy are reported , together with the economic underpinnings and evaluation methodologies. There is considerable discussion on the position of small tourism businesses (SMEs), which dominate the operational aspects of the industry in peripheral areas and should be significant co-partners in the implementation of any development strategy. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.