Abstract
The goal of the study is to identify tourism spatial structures, their development processes and interaction for spatial consideration of place marketing. Authors Hall and Page (2009) stress that many of previous researches about a life cycle of touristic area have totally ignored spatial dimension of it. Referring to Urry (2004) who calls mobility ?the new social physics?, Hall (2005a) argues that if we use the analogy with physics, the quantitative mobility of people can be understood by classical physics of Newton. It gives characteristics and prognoses of flow of travelling tourists in international scale with rather high level of trustability. However expressions of micro level in behaviour of an individual can be seen as quanta physics with more uncertain approach to choice of destination of an individual traveller. Probably significant addition of tourism geographers to a general knowledge about spatial expressions of individual travellers would light up person and vice versa (Hall, 2005b). This statement served as one of main impulses for to start this research that substantiates the spatial system of tourism and linkage between its processes and place marketing. Another connection is discrepancy of formal and functional regional borders. It is strenuous to solute it, though probably it could stimulate organizing of destinations more adjusted to a market situation. Therefore identifying of tourism spatial structures as such is not seen as an end in itself, but it is orientated to searching of practically applicable results. Using cognitive mapping techniques, spatial analysis of the visitors flows and tourism-related process with GIS and broad set of data from interviews of tourism service providers and visitors an in-depth study of local tourism destinations and place marketing has been carried out. Latvia has been taken as a case study thus the approach could be repeated extensively. Local tourism destination is presumed as functional region and linkages between tourism cluster initiatives are investigated stressing co-operation among stakeholders as one of the spatial functions. Although the spatial shape of the tourism destination is primarily dependent on sequent choices made by tourists, there is systematic logic to identify it on the basis of the functional tourism region. Strategic cooperation between proximal municipalities based on the destination characteristics, common tourism flows, and existing (or encouraging) network of stakeholders is essential for destination marketing. The study established that the elaborated approach of tourism spatial analysis and interpretation of obtained results provides a wide range of meaningful use for the planning, managing and promoting of tourism spatial structures and developing tourism cluster initiatives. Results of this research have been integrated into the strategic outline of Latvian tourism management system.