Analysis of the Industrial Organisation of the Package Tour Industry: Some Implications for Practitioners

This paper attempts to argue that a better un derstanding of the tourism industry will be achieved by greater linkages between academics and practitioners. Rather than academics imposing generalised theoretical explanations, like the Industrial Organisation paradigm, it is also important that practitioners understanding of the subject matter be drawn upon. It is suggested that there is a need for an alternative logic of inference than implied by the positivism in statistical methods and that appropriate would be a combination of generalised statistical analyses and case specific qualitative investigations. This is discussed in the context of the body of theory known in economics as Industrial Organisation as applied to the U.K. package tour industry. Researchers should work closely with practitioners to fully understand the processes at work within the industry in a symbiotic relationsh ip developing case-specific knowledge and generating new theoretical insights.