Tourism and the economic development of Cornwall

This paper explores the contribution made by accommodation-centered tourism in the UK periphery. The analysis is set in a linear programming framework with Leontief coefficients derived from an input-output model for Cornwall forming the basis for the constraints. The empirical results suggest that where tourism is accommodation-centered, an expansion of tourism may not be an optimal strategy in the development of a peripheral economy. In addition, the study finds that such an approach may have a negative impact on indigenous industries. Further, it establishes that tourism has an important role in generating positive external balances bur that there may be a trade-off between the generation of these balances and economic development. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.