Life Cycle Model

Much has been written about the successful application or otherwise of Butler's Life Cycle Model ( 1990) to tourism destinations around the globe. In offering up this model he found some areas to substantiate his theories, but nevertheless saw that the arguments were general and would need further testing. A recent research undertaking (Russell 1995) examined the value of Butler's model in the real world, synthesizing various cases of substantial conformity to, and apparent deviation from, the model. Russell and most (if not all) other researchers who have written on the area (and indeed Butler himself in a 1993 paper) see the real value of the model as being but one tool in con­ceptualizing the dynamics of tourism destination change. The aim of this research note is to add yet another perspective to the Butler Life Cycle Model debate in an area which has received scant attention, namely Australian alpine tourism in the Thredbo River Valley. The author undertook her undergraduate honors project in the area in 1988 (Digance 1989), revisiting the site in I 995, using (in part) her 1988 work as a benchmark to determine levels of change (Digance and Norris 1995 ). Because of space constraints, it is assumed that Butler's model needs no explanation, the case study providing a brief history of the destination and the application of his typology.No Full Tex