REJUVENATION / DECLINE STAGE

Rejuvenation

After all of the stages as suggested by the Butler theory has passed, there would only be two follow ups of consequences. One is the rejuvenation where a tourist destination is renewed and made improvements. In many cases, combined government and private efforts are necessary, and the new market may be not the allocentric section of the population (which would suggest a recommencement of the complete cycle), but rather a specific interest or activity group.

Ultimately, however, it can be expected that even the attractions of the rejuvenated tourist area will lose their competitiveness. Only in the case of the truly unique area could one anticipate an almost timeless attractiveness, able to withstand the pressures of visitation. Even in such a case, human tastes and preferences would have to remain constant over time for visitors to be attracted.

Many established tourist areas in Kuala Lumpur, and elsewhere attract visitors who have spent their vacations in these areas consistently for several decades, and the preferences of these repeat visitors show little sign of changing. In the majority of cases, though, the initial selection of the area to be visited by these people was determined by cost and accessibility rather than specific preferences.

Declines

As for the declining stage of tourist spots which can be predicted as the opposing results from the rejuvenation , Research by Plog into the psychology of travel, and the characterization of travellers as allocentrics, mid-centrics, and psychocentrics, substantiates Christaller’s argument.6 Plog suggests that tourist areas are attractive to different types of visitors as the areas evolve, beginning with small numbers of adventuresome allocentrics, followed by increasing numbers of mid-centrics as the area becomes accessible, better serviced, and well known, and giving way to declining numbers of psychocentrics as the area becomes older, more outdated, and less different to the areas of origin of visitors.

While the actual numbers of visitors may not decline for a long time, the potential market will reduce in size as the area has to compete with others that are more recently developed. Plog sums up his argument thus: ‘We can visualize a destination moving across a spectrum, however gradually or slowly, but far too often inexorably toward the potential of its own demise. Destination areas carry with them the potential seeds of their own destruction, as they allow themselves to become more commercialized and lose their qualities which originally attracted tourists.’