The old adage says that “you can only manage what you can measure”. Yet, it is also perhaps true that in the tourism space, where the public and private domains collide, perhaps a little more imagination is required, and sustainable tourism management tools may be required to cover the intangible aspects of tourism as well as the more tangible aspects. This is because the public domain, as highlighted in Chapter 2, holds places and spaces in the public trust – the places and spaces that we share with family and friends, that recharge and rejuvenate, that hold aesthetic, recreational, functional and emotional values for us, as residents of those spaces and places. Meanwhile, the private sector sees those same places and spaces as opportunities to generate a return on investment, often transforming them into economically productive areas through processes of urban regeneration or concessions on public land.
A History of the Public Land Policies