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8—3 <br />Orange County Comprehensive Parks and Recreation Master Plan <br /> CHAPTER 8 - Economic, Health and Environmental Impacts of Parks and Recreation 8 <br />B. The Linkage of Public Parks and Recreation <br /> with Community Tourism (UNC-Greensboro) <br /> <br />Crompton explains that “[m]any regard tourism as a <br />commercial phenomenon concerned with economic <br />development that is rooted in the private domain. In <br />contrast, parks and recreation typically is viewed as <br />being concerned with social and resource issues and <br />being rooted in the public domain.”12 In this light, <br />some may not see the connection between public <br />parks and recreation and tourism. However, there is <br />a clear and strong relationship between public parks <br />and recreation facilities and services with a <br />community’s tourism potential. To better under- <br />stand this relationship it is important to begin by <br />defining tourism. There is oflen a misconception <br />that tourism is a simple process commonly associat- <br />ed with “going on vacation,” “being a tourist,” and <br />“staying in a hotel.” The truth is that the process is <br />more complex, and involves much more than a <br />person traveling. Tourism is defined as the <br />“processes, activities, and outcomes arising from <br />the relationship and the interactions among tourist, <br />tourism supplies, host governments, host <br />communities, and surrounding environments that <br />are involved and hosting of visitors.”13 <br />Figure 8-1: The Tourism Destination System (modified from Gunn & Var, 2002) <br /> <br />As the definition indicates, tourism encompasses <br />much more than the economic and financial aspect <br />of a person traveling. Tourism is the processes and <br />activities, the relationships and partnerships of its <br />stakeholders, and the impacts of these processes <br />and activities on the host community. Because of <br />this, tourism is best understood as a system with all <br />its components and the interaction of those <br />components.14 15 Figure 8-1 illustrates that tourism <br />system has two main drivers: demand and supply. <br />Demand is based on the visitors’ demand for a <br />leisure experience in a place that is away from their <br />home. The supply can be broken into multiple <br />elements that work together to provide the tourism <br />(leisure) experience. This system also includes, but is <br />not limited to, impacts of tourism (social and <br />environment), spatial planning and policy <br />development, programming of activities, the part- <br />nership development, and enhancement of the <br />quality of life for all stakeholders. <br /> <br />87