The Barossa tourism region: The catch 22 effect of a near periphery location

This chapter examines the development of tourism in the Barossa tourism region of South Australia. Its close proximity to Adelaide, the South Australian state capital, has contributed to a range of location-related challenges that have placed limits on the scope for further development of the Barossa’s tourism industry. Location, local culture and cultural heritage, transport technology, boundary issues, changing agricultural outputs and changing consumer demand constitute the key variables that have influenced the structure and operation of the region’s tourism industry. The problems generated by proximity to the city have been compounded by the emergence of a view that the Barossa is more useful to the state’s tourism industry as an add-on day trip for holidays in Adelaide rather than as a standalone overnight destination that is able to attract interstate and overseas tourists. The chapter draws on the theoretical perspectives of periphery and landscapes to identify issues associated with a destination that is located on a near periphery for its major day trip source market but on a far periphery for overnight source markets