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"Spend. Spend. Spend. Work. Work. Work." This is how the tourist industry and government agencies promote tourism-as a vital and growing sector of the economy, an important provider of jobs and of infrastructure. In some respects, the way tourism is pushed as an effective long term solution to national, state or local economic problems, mirrors some of the recent arguments for increased support for the arts industry – and ever more frequently the two sectors are being linked. In between headlines announcing "Tourist dollars stay here" and "Tourism boom leads economic recovery", we find "Tourists pinpointed as culture lovers" or "Masterpiece of tourism reaps $7m".
The story attached to this last headline concerned the estimated benefit to the New South Wales economy generated by the Masterpieces from the Guggenheim exhibition staged at the Art Gallery of New South Wales-"the turnover generated by the exhibition flowed from tourist and retail business ... research had shown that ten percent of those visitors to the exhibition had made a special visit to Sydney to see the masterpieces ... according to tourist industry figures, that figure would have led to $7 million in added revenue from Sydney's hotels, restaurants and shops" (Australian, 3 March, 1992, p.4). The preceding headline concerned cultural activity and spending by tourists, beginning with the interesting statistic that "one filth of all international tourists-about half a million people-buy works of art during their visits to Australia" (Australian, 9 October, 1990, p.7).
Clearly then, there are links between tourist activity and the arts industry, and a growing body of research has been attempting to find out just what they are. However, the first point that needs to... The rest of this article is available to subscribers of Eyeline