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564 sun, sand, sea and sex
sun, sand, sea and sex
The expression `sun, sand, sea and sex' is normally
used as a mnemonic to denote mass tourism. It
is associated �rightly) with the environmental
threats of ill-planned free market mass tourist
development. The `unholy quartet' has also been
used by some commentators, nostalgic for a time
when travel was the exclusive domain of the upper
and middle classes, to cast pejorative aspersions on
mass tourism itself.
sunlust
TOM SELWYN, UK
The term `sunlust' coined in the early 1970s to
describe tourism that is resort-based and motivated
by the desire for rest, relaxation and `sun, sand,
sea and sex'. Important features of sunlust
tourism are climate, comfort and familiarity of
accommodation and cuisine. It is normally
associated with mass, package tourism as opposed
to independent, explorer-type travel.
See also: ludic; liminality; play
supply
RICHARD SHARPLEY, UK
Supply, in economic terms, is a schedule showing
the amount of a product that will be made
available for purchase at various price levels. Its
opposite, demand, is a schedule showing the
amount of a product purchased at various price
levels. The intersection of the two is an equilibrium
point where the amount produced and purchased
at a certain price level equal each other. This
microeconomic view is vitally important to planning
at the individual firm level, including tourism
dependent businesses. Because the experiential
tourism product is, in effect, produced and
consumed at the same time, it is highly perishable.
Oversupply of its marketable physical components
�such as hotel rooms) is a costly situation. On the
other hand, too few of the physical components
lead to lost sales that cannot be made up at some
time in the future.
Most economists would argue that supply of
tourism products is dependent on demand. That is
not entirely the case in other industries. A farmer
can use high-yield farming practices to produce
additional corn that is then sold at a marketdetermined
price. Even if the majority of farmers
adopted high-yield practices and demand remained
constant, an individual farmer's revenue
could increase if the cost of new farming practices
were less than the increased revenue from the
additional product produced. Since tourism is a
service-oriented business, it is very difficult to
employ new `high yield practices'. Demand for
tourism products is to a large extent dependent on
factors outside of the individual manager's control.
For example, the image an area projects may have
more to do with demand than the products of any
one business within the destination area. However,
there are some things businesses and the
communities in which they are located can do to
increase demand for the product and, consequently,
supply.
Clustering similar type businesses, a process
known as organic bunching, can lead to a
synergistic effect where total sales would exceed
the sum of what could be obtained by a number of
individual businesses working independently. Developing
a theme adopted by each business and
represented in their building design has also been
shown to increase demand. In the tourism season,
lengthening strategies could also be employed.
Developing enough of the physical components of
the tourism product to serve a high-use season can
be a risky strategy especially when those components
are expensive to construct and maintain �like
accommodations). Destination areas with historically
high and low-use periods �including alpine
resorts) are continually searching for touristic
offerings, such as off-peak festivals, which allow for
season lengthening. When such strategies are
employed, supply shifts from a microeconomic
perspective to that of a macroeconomic one. The
conglomeration of businesses within a region or
destination area forms the physical components of
its tourism supply base.
Tourism supply is a function of an area's natural
and socioeconomic characteristics as well. In fact,