A procedure of evaluating the feasibility of tourist accommodation development as applied to southern Ontario

Abstract

This study is an analysis of the distribution of tourist accommodations in Southern Ontario. It addresses regional locational questions in tourist accommodation development. The primary objective is to develop a procedure that can provide guidelines as to the locational feasibility of tourist accommodations at the subregional level. It stems from the concern that tourist accommodation feasibility studies fail to look beyond the site and its immediate surroundings. More specifically, the study seeks to develop a procedure for designating, (1) subregions which have a potential for additional tourist accommodations and, (2) which types of tourist accommodations are suitable for a given subregion. The first step involves dividing tourist accommodations into seven categories and examining the distribution of each. The seven categories are: (i) tourist cabins, (ii) commercial cottages, (iii) lodges, (iv) commercial campsites, (v) motels, (vi) hotels, and (vii) motor-hotels. Following this initial examination it was suggested that the level of tourist accommodation development in any county is a function of the recreation-resources base and the accessibility of that county to population centers. The second step therefore, was to operationalize the concepts of recreation-resources base and accessibility by developing indices which could serve as surrogates for the tourist accommodation locational factors. Using principal component, analysis to define and measure the recreation-resources base, and Stewart's population potential formula to measure accessibility, five indices were derived. They were as follows: (i) the Urban Recreation-resources Index, (ii) the Natural Recreation-resources Index, (iii) the Specialized Recreation-resources Index, (iv) the Developed Recreation-resources Index, and (v) the Accessibility Index..