The Promise of Cellular Automata as a Class of Models

Tourism researchers together with their counterparts in urban planning and economics have grappled with the complexities of urban destination management and have been on a search for an integrative methodological framework ever since. This paper explores the prospects of cellular automata (CA) models and their use as modeling environments for urban tourism research. The discussion begins by way of an introduction to past applications in the natural and computer sciences. Certain speculations are made with regards to their utility and relevance to the modeling of urban tourism. The economic paradigm features largely together with discussions on the influence of complexity economics and its roots in complex adaptive systems