The Cyclical Representation of the UK Conference Sector's Life Cycle: The Use of Refurbishments as Rejuvenation Triggers

Abstract

Butler's tourism area life cycle (TALC) model is one of the most influential and frequently quoted tourism-related life cycle frameworks. Extensively applied and critiqued, it remains a cornerstone in tourism research. The model classifies the hypothetical temporal development of a destination into a series of stages, these being exploration, involvement, development, consolidation, stagnation and decline, and/or rejuvenation, which when aggregated are represented diagrammatically as a S-shaped curve. This article presents a theoretical extension of the TALC model, based on the decade in which UK conference venues initiated their conference product life cycle, and the use of refurbishments as state changing triggers to rejuvenate the conference product life cycle. This theoretical extension is applied to the four conference venue classifications that together constitute the UK conference sector, namely purpose-built venues, hotels, educational establishments, and visitor attractions. Each of these venue types initiated its life cycle at different times, with individual venues progressing through their life cycle and either stagnating or rejuvenating through the use of refurbishments at differing times throughout the last five decades. Based on these findings, a linear model can be applied to the development of the UK conference sector. However, undertaking refurbishments, and thus the rejuvenation of the conference venues' life cycle, are occurring at differing times, and therefore this article forwards the view that today a cyclical model is more appropriate to the UK conference sector.