Central place theory and tax revenue from tourism

Many governments, both state and local, attempt to promote tourism as a way of raising revenue and encouraging economic development. This is especially prevalent in Florida, where tourism revenue constitutes a major source of revenue through the sales tax. However, some areas in Florida are considerably more popular as tourist destinations than others. In this article, I use central place theory to provide a theoretical framework for dividing metropolitan areas into categories with similar characteristics and similar levels of tourism in order to provide policy recommendations specific to each category. I conclude that a uniform approach to tourism promotion will have far less meaningful overall effects compared to policies targeted based on this division of tourism destinations.