Destination tourism: critical debates, research gaps and the need for a new research agenda

[Extract] Destinations are central to the tourism experience and, for this reason, present researchers with a large range of issues to investigate. As the following discussion highlights, issues related to growth, function and spatial relationships have been of particular interest. It is also apparent that many gaps remain in our understanding of the destination phenomenon. This chapter will briefly consider factors that currently influence the direction of destination development, the antecedents of our current understanding of destinations, highlight the current direction of research and suggest destination-related issues that need to be considered in the future