Recreation is a means to another end, whether status or making ready for future work, while leisure is an end in itself. Recreation and leisure are different things, and the need for leisure is not necessarily satisfied by recreation. There is a vast range of policies a government can pursue in relation to the natural resources of the region governed and the use of these natural resources by and for the citizens. Most government policies probably fall between these two extremes, forming a continuum. In order to evaluate this, it is necessary to look more closely at both extremes.
Industrial tourism is a big business for public and private agencies.
It arises out of the view of natural resources as mainly money-producing units. Those agencies point with pride to their past programs and facilities and anxiously envision bigger projects in the future. On the other end of the continuum from Industrial Tourism is emphasis on social well-being. This is an emerging view in which the central interest is not activities or facilities or programs, but rather what happens to people. Emphasis here goes from policy of maximizing the dollar return per dollar expended to one of maximizing the number of persons served.