Cluster-BasedDevelopmentintheTourismIndustryPutting.pdfVIP

Cluster-Based Development in the Tourism Industry: Putting Practice into Theory Mark M. Miller* Professor of Economic Development and Geography University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg ler@ Lay James Gibson University Distinguished Outreach Professor of Geography and Regional Development University of Arizona ljgibson@A *Primary Contact Person Tourism is one of the world’s largest and fastest growing industries. Industrial cluster theory is perhaps the leading model for economic development today. Despite this, the academic literature of industrial cluster theory has paid relatively little attention to the tourism industry. Meanwhile, practitioners of tourism development are experimenting with the cluster concept across the US and around the world, in innovative but generally isolated and unsystematic applications. This paper brings together academic cluster research and practitioner experience to provide a theoretical framework for cluster-based tourism development. This theoretical framework, in turn, provides a basis for recommendations on the effective application of tourism clustering in professional development practice. Introduction (Miller Evans, 2000), across the Most readers of this journal—scholars United States and around the world. and practitioners alike—will be abundantly familiar with modern Tourism ranks as one of the world’s industrial cluster theory. As codified largest and fastest growing industries. and widely popularized in Michael The tourism industry provides the major Porter’s classic 1990 text The