Edinburgh Napier University

  Tourism mobility has been discussed in certain contexts in the relevant literature
but has received limited treatment in the context of regional integration schemes.
The purpose of this paper is to establish to what extent such schemes support or
facilitate the deregulation of tourism mobility. Tourism, migration and mobility
are interrelated concepts and in order to understand the factors that influence
tourism mobility, they need to be considered in unison. Using examples of both
micro-regional and regional integration schemes from across the globe, the
analysis demonstrates that tourism mobility has been partially positively affected
by regional integration schemes but barriers to mobility persist even in the most
advanced types of regional integration schemes. In addition, the approach of
each regional integration scheme to the free movement of people ultimately
conditions the deregulation of tourist mobility for intra- and inter-regional
tourists. The paper also highlights the importance of regional consciousness in
improving cross-border relations in regional integration schemes and the
potential contribution tourism could make in the development of a regional
identity. Finally, it is concluded that regional integration schemes simultaneously
remove and increase the barrier effect of borders and are often creating
temporary, asymmetrical and uni-directional mobilities.