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The last ten to fifteen years have seen a marked explosion in the literature on tourism. General and specific abstracting journals and bibliographies featuring tourism exist (e.g. GeoAbstracts and Leisure, Recreation and Tourism Abstracts) and literature reviews of different aspects of tourism are frequently undertaken (e.g. Pearce 1981; Graburn 1983; Cohen 1984) but there has been little attempt to analyse the nature of the literature itself. What is actually being used and where it is coming from are questions which have rarely been addressed as the abstracts give no indication of use and most reviews are content oriented. Answers to these questions can provide insights into the nature, structure and boundaries of tourism research.

This paper seeks to analyze the extent to which New Zealand domestic and outbound travelers' book components of their trip in advance or at their destination and to explore the factors that influence this. Furthermore, the paper compares the distribution channels used by domestic and outbound travelers to purchase different travel products and to examine why these channels have been selected.

The study involves the collection and analysis of data on the profiles, trip characteristics and distribution behavior of domestic and outbound travelers based on a nationwide telephone survey of 1,000 respondents.

Little variation was found in the profile characteristics of domestic and outbound travelers but significant differences occurred in terms of the trip characteristics, the extent of booking in advance and at the destination, reasons why advance bookings were not made, how bookings were made and the channels used all exhibited significant differences according to domestic or outbound travel. This pattern was less consistent with regards to the factors influencing how the bookings were made and the factors affecting channel choice.

The findings illustrate the complexity of travel decision‐making issues, underline the need to take account of differences between domestic and outbound travel and across trip components, and to examine the factors that underlie distribution related behavior.

The value and originality of this paper lie in the systematic comparison of the booking and channel choice behavior of domestic and outbound travelers, the search for factors influencing this behavior and a sectoral approach that differentiates transport to and at the destination.

The purpose of this paper is to first outline the central thrust of two currently non-convergent but intrinsically related streams of research – urban management and destination management – and explore the links between them. Both require an approach which coordinates and integrates multiple actors and functions in dynamic settings.

The paper then analyses empirical examples from three New Zealand cities to illustrate relationships between destination management and urban management in practice.

These cases show that without being labelled as such, quite a lot of activity takes place which reflects dimensions of both destination management and urban management, especially in terms of integration and coordination. This raises questions of just what constitutes destination management, a series of discrete ad hoc actions or some broader vision and framework.

Empirical evidence from the three New Zealand cities shows that, with the exception of Dunedin, destination management is not a term or a concept that is explicitly used there. Nevertheless, without being labelled as such, in practice there is quite a lot of activity taking place which reflects dimensions of both destination management and urban management, especially in terms of integration and coordination.

Discussion of international tourist flows has centred on the direction and volume of tourist traffic (Williams and Zelinsky, 1970; Crampon and Tan, 1973; Miossec, 1976), on its economic significance (Peters, 1969; Gray, 1970; Greenwood, 1975) and on its seasonality (BarOn, 1975). Little attention has been directed systematically to the composition of these flows except in terms of nationality. However on a national scale, foreign visitor profiles have been identified by various marking studies (U.S. Chambre of Commerce, 1975) and other research (Pearce, 1977). Schmitt (1968) examined demographic differences between migrants and vacationers in Hawaii and suggested that tourism and migration may be viewed as contrasting expressions of geographic mobility.

While the need to respond to the wide-ranging challenges posed by climate change has been widely emphasized, there is still a relative lack of attention being given to the type, scale, and nature of responses that are taking place in different economic sectors and parts of the world. This chapter provides a review of the tourism-related responses to the implications of climate change in the context of New Zealand. This is a country where tourism is a very important sector of the economy that depends heavily on the credibility of its green and unspoilt destination image. However, due to its relative isolation in the South Pacific, New Zealand requires most international tourists to travel long distances, which results in considerable greenhouse gas emissions. The chapter outlines the private and public sectors' responses to these challenges with particular attention to their collaboration.

Timofey Agarin <Email: t.agarin@ecmi.de> is a Research Fellow at the European Centre for Minority Issues in Flensburg, Germany. His work focuses on central-eastern European states and their relations with national and transnational nongovernmental organizations. His research interests include cooperation between civil society groups and the government across the postsocialist states in the context of global environmental change.

This paper provides an overview of the visiting friends and relatives category in international tourism researchover the last decade. It was delivered as a keynote paper at the international conference, “VFR Tourism: Issues and implications” held at the Victoria University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia, in October 1996.