Spatial Behavior in a Bahamian Resort

The purpose of this study is to understand better the spatial behavior of tourists visiting spatially confined resort destinations. Based on a time-budget study of the intradestination travel patterns of 795 tourists visiting Paradise Island (Bahamas), the travel behavior of tourists was found to be heterogeneous. The spatial equivalent of the allocentric tourist seemed more likely to venture beyond the Paradise Island resort area during their stay. Only the psychocentric tourist seemed reluctant to leave the island under any conditions. In the context of international resort tourism, the space-time constraints are found to be more important than the socioeconomic descriptors in explaining the different typologies of spatial behavior