Chapter I
1. Introduction: A brief on its Historical Overview
Sociology is the science of society focusing largely on the analysis of social
institutions, and social relationships. Visitors to a community or area create social
relationships that typically differ greatly from the affiliations among the
indigenous population. Travel and tourism have been usually considered social
phenomena. As a result, it inevitably lends itself to sociological analysis. Some of
the key thinkers in tourism, such as Erik Cohen and John Urry, are themselves
sociologists. Many of the ideas underpinning the sociology of tourism originated in
Continental Europe during the 1920s and 1930s, particularly the pioneering work
carried out in Germany and its later spread to Switzerland and parts of
Scandinavia.
In this regard, it would be fascinating to consider the gradual emergence of
sociological insights of tourism through contributions from different parts of
Europe, involving theories, the prominent figures of scientists, institutions,
important congresses, international events, and simple everyday realities in a
variety of languages from post-World War I period onwards. Yet in spite of this
wide spatial and temporal coverage, there still seems to be a gap between the
sociological evolution of tourism and its theories.
It was during the 1920s and 1930s that sociology of tourism comes to academia in
Berlin. As far as European theorizing was concerned, Berlin could claim
supremacy,especially in the person and activity of Robert Glucksmann, the founder
of the Institute of TourismResearch in 1929, and with it, the establishment of a
journal, Archiv(Archive) and the emergence of a scientific community, including
high profile individuals such as Bormann (1931) and Von Wiese (1930).
Even if Glucksmann might not nowadays be described as a trained sociologist,
within his aspiration to provide a scientific definition of tourism, as the sum of the
relationships between a person who finds himself only temporarily at the place of
his sojourn and the people of that place, he emphasized that interpersonal
relationships were more important than individual mobility.
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During the 1940s and 1950s the Swiss Connection with practices of sociological
tourism grows. After the short life of the Berlin Institute, further sociological
developments were transferred to Switzerland (especially during World War II),
with a continued emphasis on doctrine, systematization, and a general theory,
efforts that would not have been possible without the pioneering work of
Glucksmann.
On the way toward sociology of tourism, a number of noteworthy attempts were
pointed out in the 1950s, such as those ofLeugger (1956, 1958). In fact, the 1950s
also witnessed some more brief sporadic contributions, which were indicative of a
changing climate. It was Ramaker (1951) whohinted at broader economic and
sociological problems such as those associated with demand and consumption.
Moreover, and as regards the new field of the sociology of tourism, he argued that,
if sociology were concerned with human groups, tourism should deal with the
behavior of these groups as they relate to tourism. In the meantime, sociological
developments like technology and social welfare were also briefly identified as
factors of tourist development.
It is in fact necessary to wait until France during the 1960s to discover the
conditions and the symptoms of a new scientific community. One of the most
important European contributions to the sociology of tourism cannot be fully
appreciated without the background of the great French sociological tradition, the
promising sociological structural studies of the 1960s, along with sociology of
leisure and the useful criticisms of Marie-Francoise Lanfant. Through her vivid
descriptions, the images of the French scholars and milieu are evoked, and an upto-date path of the sociology of tourism is traced.
Tourism was singled out as important and ideal-typical case of consumption. It is
not surprising that a sociological interest was linked to that of marketing, a field
that was taking its first steps in Europe. It was probably no mere coincidence that
the Swiss Krippendorf published in 1970 the first European handbook of tourism
marketing. Focusing on consumption, Krippendorf further asserted that the study
of tourism could only be understood if consumption and the factors which
determined it were always kept in mind.
The broad sociological discussion that developed in Europe, especially in the
1960s, which was concerned with mass consumption and with the new habits of
the ‘‘affluent society,’’ involved more indirectly than directly the sociology of
tourism. While the vast front of the protest was to lead to the revolutionary
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movement of 1968, mass tourism was marching ahead on its triumphal path. The
orientation of the Frankfurt School could only be against mass tourism, judging
leisure and tourism critically as products of the consumer society.
From the foregoing elaborations of this historical overview, it is quite clear that the
elements of sociology of tourism had their origins dating back to the 1930s in
Continental Europe and continuing to develop thereafter. Forty or more years still
had to pass before Anglophone writers made their equivalent theoretical mark on
the academic scene, and even then they either felt obliged to acknowledge their
reliance on the prior insights of their European colleagues or else were simply
unaware of the seminal ideas of the latter. It is also demonstrated that while France
tended to take another direction in originally locating the sociology of tourism
within the sociology of leisure, that position at least had the advantage of opening
up its development to extra-European dialog.
As fascinating, and sometimes emotive, as the socio-cultural study of travel and
tourism is, it is important to bear in mind why we study it. Certainly, there is much
to learn from tourism about social behavior, consumer culture, and inter-cultural
exchange and so on but, from a travel and tourism perspective, the purpose is
simply to understand, and better manage, the tourist. There is, essentially, a twoway relationship between the tourist and the society/cultures which both generate
and receive tourists. On the one hand, tourists are influenced by their home society
and culture; the motivation to participate in tourism in the first place is largely
determined by society, while tourist behavior – the needs, expectations,
perceptions and actual consumer behavior of tourists, is socially and culturally
defined.
Often overlooked, but nevertheless imperative, is the impact of destination
societies on tourists. That is, tourists’ attitudes, beliefs and cultural behavior may
be transformed by their socio-cultural experiences in destinations. On the other
hand, tourists impact both negatively and positively upon destination societies.
Some of the earliest work in this area explored the social impacts and it remains an
area of significant concern within tourism studies, particularly in the context of
tourism-related prostitution and child sex.
There are, then, three key issues to focus on when looking at tourism, society and
culture:
i. Social influences of society on tourism,
ii. The tourist–host relationship, and
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iii.
Socio-cultural impacts of tourism.
I.
Social influences on tourism
Society provides both the means to a tourist (time, income, transport) and the
motivation to participate in tourism. The influence of society on tourist behavior is
manifested in a number of ways, most of which are explored in the context of
tourism demand and motivations. These can be summarized as:
1. Tourist typologies. The work of Erik Cohen, for example, is based upon a
tourist’s relationship with his/her home society and the consequential desire
to seek the familiar or the unfamiliar.
2. Tourist motivation. A number of extrinsic socio-cultural factors influence
tourist motivation. These include family influences, reference groups, social
class/background and wider cultural influences. The work–tourism
relationship is also a significant factor in determining both the motivation for
tourism and tourist behavior.
3. Modern society. Modern society allegedly creates a sense of
alienation/anomie; that is, people suffer a sense of meaningless. This can be
felt in:
 Alienation at work: separation from the outcome/product of work
 Alienation from community: mobility and information technology
have reduced face-to-face communication and a sense of community
 Alienation from nature: urban living separates people from nature and
the natural world.
As a result of the alleged alienation, tourists suffer in modern societies; they are
motivated to seek authenticity (a sense of meaning or purposefulness) through
tourism. This may be found in authentic places (usually associated with less
developed or pre-modern societies) and/or authentic forms of travel (niche travel
experiences, usually overland). Authenticity has, therefore, become a powerful
marketing tool in travel and tourism. It is also important to be aware of the link
between tourism and postmodern culture. At one level, this represents a way of
describing particular types of tourism or tourist attractions which reflect the
characteristics of post modernity. More specifically, however, the identification of
the self through consumption (or consumer culture) is considered to be a defining
feature of post modernity. Therefore, the way in which tourism is consumed may
be influenced by postmodern consumer culture.
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In effect, any one type or form of tourism may be consumed in a number of
different ways by different tourists, depending on what they hope to gain from the
experience. There are four categories of tourism consumption that are worth
considering:
1. Consuming as experience. The consumption of tourism is influenced by the
meaning attached to tourism in the tourist’s own society,
2. Consuming as play. Tourism is used as a means of interacting (playing) with
other tourists,
3. Consuming as integration. This is the attempt to integrate oneself into the
destination or the tourism activity,
4. Consuming as classification. Consuming to create status or self-identity.
II.
The Tourist–Host Relationship
Tourists inevitably come into contact with local people at the destination. This
contact is referred to as the tourist–host encounter or tourist–host relationship. The
nature of this relationship may determine the extent to which negative social
impacts are experienced in the destination and, therefore, understanding the
processes involved in tourist–host encounters/relationships may help to minimize
such impacts.
There are two concepts that you need to be aware of when looking at the tourist–
host relationship:
1. The Tourist Area Life Cycle (TALC). As destinations pass through different
stages of the life cycle, local people’s perceptions of tourists may vary from
initial welcome and openness to eventual distrust and antagonism.
2. Similar to the TALC, it is suggested that local communities progress through
four stages as tourism develops: euphoria, apathy, irritation and antagonism.
A number of studies have been undertaken into host attitudes towards tourists. Not
surprisingly, perhaps, local people feel more positive about tourists the more they
are dependent upon tourism as a source of income.
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III.
Socio-Cultural Impacts and Consequences
Throughout the course of history, people have travelled for purposes of trade,
religious conviction, economic gain, war, migration, and other equally compelling
motivations. In the Roman era, wealthy aristocrats and high government officials
also travelled for pleasure. Travel, except during, the Dark Ages, has continued to
grow, and throughout recorded history has played a vital role in the development
of civilizations.
Tourism as we know it today is distinctly a twentieth-century phenomenon.
Historians suggest that the advent of mass tourism began in England during the
industrial revolution with the rise of the middle class and relatively inexpensive
transportation. The creation of the commercial air line industry following World
War II and the subsequent development of the jet aircraft in the 1950s signaled the
rapid growth and expansion of international travel. This growth led to the
development of a major new industry: tourism. In turn, international tourism
became the concern of a number of world governments because it not only
provided new employment opportunities, but it also produced a means of earning
foreign exchange.
Today tourism has grown significantly in both economic and social importance.
The fastest growing economic sector of most industrialized countries over the past
several years has been in the area of services. One of the largest segments of the
service industry, although largely unrecognized as an entity in some of these
countries, is travel and tourism. According to the World Travel & Tourism
Council (2003) (WTTC), travel and tourism is the biggest industry in the world on
virtually any economic measure, including gross output, value added, capital
investment, employment, and tax contributions.
However, one of the major problems of the travel and tourism industry that has
obscured its economic impact is the diversity and fragmentation of the industry
itself. The travel industry includes Hotels, Motels, and other types of
accommodation; restaurants and other food services; transportation services and
facilities; amusements, attractions, and other leisure facilities; gift shops; and a
large number of other enterprises. Because many of these businesses also serve
local residents, the impact of spending by visitors can easily be overlooked or
underestimated.
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In addition, the tourism industry involves concepts that have remained amorphous
to both analysts and decision makers. Moreover, in all nations, this problem has
made it difficult for the industry to develop any type of reliable or credible tourism
information base in order to estimate the contribution it makes to regional,
national, and global economies. In any regard, however, the nature of this very
diversity makes travel and tourism an ideal vehicle for economic development in a
wide variety of countries, regions, or communities.
1.2. The Definitions of Concepts
Difficulties appear to define precisely the words tourist and tourism because these
terms represent different meanings to different people, and no universal definition
has yet been adopted.
Etymologically, literatures demonstrate that the word tour is derived from the
Latin ‘tornare’ and the Greek ‘tornos,’ meaning ‘a lathe or circle; the movement
around a central point or axis.’ This meaning changed in modern English to
represent ‘one’s turn.’ The suffix -ism is defined as ‘an action or process; typical
behavior or quality’ whereas the suffix -istdenotes one that performs a given
action. When the word tour and the suffixes -ism and -istare combined, they
suggest the action of movement around a circle. One can argue that a circle
represents a starting point, which ultimately returns back to its beginning.
Therefore, like a circle, a tour represents a journey that is a round trip, i.e., the act
of leaving and then returning to the original starting point, and therefore, one who
takes such a journey can be called a tourist.
Tourism has also been variously defined (or refined) by governments and
academics to relate to such fields as economics, sociology, cultural anthropology,
and geography. Economists are concerned with tourism’s contributions to the
economy and economic development of a destination area, and focus on
supply/demand, foreign exchange and balance of payments, employment, and
other monetary factors. Sociologists and cultural anthropologists study the travel
behavior of individuals and groups of people, and focus on the customs, habits,
traditions, and lifestyles of both hosts and guests. Geographers are concerned with
the spatial aspects of tourism, and study travel flows and locations, development
dispersion, land use, and changes in the physical environment.
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It is generally recognized that there are two different types of tourism definitions,
each with its own rationale and intended usage. Burkart and Medlick (1981)
suggest that there are conceptual definitions that attempt to provide a theoretical
framework in order to identify the essential characteristics of tourism, and what
distinguishes it from similar, sometimes related, but different activity. Examples of
such a conceptual definition would include that tourism is a study of man away
from his usual habitat, of the industry which responds to his needs, and of the
impacts that both he and the industry have on the host socio-cultural, economic,
and physical environments. Generally asserting, tourism is the temporary
movement of people to destinations outside of their normal places of work and
residence, the activities undertaken during their stay in those destinations, and the
facilities created to cater to their needs.’
There are also technical definitions that provide tourism information for statistical
or legislative purposes. The various technical definitions of tourism provide
meaning or clarification that can be applied in both international and domestic
settings. This later approach, technical definitions, can be seen in the actions taken
to help standardize comparative international tourism data collection.
Finally, Leiper (1979) postulated that there are three approaches in defining
tourism: economic, technical, and holistic. Economic definitions view tourism as
both a business and an industry. Technical definitions identify the tourist in order
to provide a common basis by which to collect data. Holistic definitions attempt to
include the entire essence of the subject.
Although technical definitions such as suggested previously should be applicable
to both international and domestic tourism, such definitions are not necessarily
used by all countries with respect to domestic tourism. However, most have
adopted the three elements of the international definition:
1. Purpose of trip,
2. Distance travelled,
3. Duration of trip. In addition, two other dimensions or elements are
sometimes used to define travelers. One that is often used is
4. Residence of traveler and one that is used less often
5. Mode of transportation.
In the subsequent sections, the intention is to briefly provide an account of each
one of the dimensions of tourism enumerated above,
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1. Purpose of trip: The notion behind this tourism dimension was to include the
major components of most travel today. However, there are a number of
destination areas that only include non-obligated or discretionary travel in
defining tourists. They view only leisure travelers as tourists, and purposely
excluded travel solely for business purposes. However, one might well argue
that business travel is often combined with some amount of pleasure travel.
In addition, business travel to attend meetings or conferences should be
included because it is considered to be discretionary travel rather than part of
the normal, daily business routine.
2. Distance travelled: for statistical purposes, when measuring travel away
from home (non-local travel), a number of national, regional, and local
agencies use total round-trip distance between place of residence and
destination as the distinguishing statistical measurement factor. These
distances can and do vary from 0 to 160 kilometers. Therefore, attractions
that are less than the minimum prescribed distance(s) travelled are not
counted in official estimates of tourism, thereby creating both artificial and
arbitrary standards.
3. Duration of trip: In order to meet the written criteria for defining travelers,
most definitions of tourists and/or visitors include at least one overnight stay
at the destination area. However, this overnight restriction then excludes
many leisure-related one-day trips that often generate substantial business
for attractions, restaurants, and other recreation resources.
4. Residence of traveler: When businesses attempt to identify markets and
associated marketing strategies, it is often more important for their business
to identify where people live than to determine other demographic factors
such as their nationality or citizenship.
5. Mode of transportation: Used primarily for planning purposes of destination
areas collect information on visitor travel patterns by collecting information
on their mode of transportation, such as air, train, ship, coach, auto, or other
means.
In most regards, each national tourist organization record different types of
information and profiles. For example, duration of stay, mode of travel,
expenditure, age, socioeconomic group, and number of accompanying persons are
all important aspects of tourism but these are not recorded in all tourist
enumerations.
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The growth of world receipts from international tourism that occurred between the
two world wars led to the need for a more precise statistical definition of tourism.
An international forum held in 1936, The Committee of Statistical Experts of the
League of Nations, first proposed that a ‘foreign tourist’ is one who ‘visits a
country other than that in which he habitually lives for a period of at least twentyfour hours.’ In 1945, the UN (which had replaced the League of Nations) endorsed
this definition, but added to it a maximum duration of stay of less than six months.
Other international bodies have chosen to extend this to one year or less. A UN
Conference on International Travel and Tourism held in Rome in 1963 and
sponsored by the International Union of Official Travel Organizations (IUOTO)
(now the WTO) recommended that a new word, ‘visitor’ be adopted, which would
define tourists as ‘any person visiting a country other than that in which he has his
usual place of residence, for any reason other than following an occupation
remunerated from within the country visited.’
Visitors included two distinct categories of travelers:
1. tourists: temporary visitors staying at least 24 hours in the country visited,
and whose purpose was for leisure, business, family, mission, or meeting;
and
2. Excursionists: temporary visitors staying less than 24 hours in the
destination visited and not staying overnight (including cruise ship
travelers).
The definition of the term visitor, refined in 1963, refers to only international
tourism. However, although it is more difficult to measure, it is quite obvious that
it is also applicable to national (domestic) tourism as well. Although the majority
of countries use these definitions, unfortunately, not all adhere to them.
Specifically dealing with each one of the terms/concepts, the subsequently
forwarded definitions were applied:
1. Visitor : Any person travelling to a place other than that of his/her usual
environment for up to 12 months and whose main purpose of trip is leisure,
business, pilgrimage, health, etc., other than the exercise of an activity
remunerated from within the place visited or migration. Transport Crew and
Commercial Travelers (even those travelling to different destinations over
the year) may be regarded as travelling in their usual environment and
excluded from visitors (Transport Crew are usually excluded from Frontier
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2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Control), also those travelling year round (or most of the year) between two
places of residence (e.g., weekend homes, residential study).
Tourist (stay-over/overnight): A visitor staying at least one night in the place
visited (not necessarily in paid accommodation).
Same-day visitor (SDV, Excursionist, Day-visitor): A visitor who does not
stay overnight in the place visited, e.g.:(a) Cruise Visitor (CV), who may
tour for one or more days, staying overnight on the ship (includes foreign
naval personnel off duty).(b) Border Shopper (BS), who may have high
expenditures on purchases of food, drink, tobacco, petrol, etc.; excluding
border workers.
Travelers: Visitors and (a) Direct Transit Travelers (DT, e.g., at an airport,
between two nearby ports) ;(b) Commuters, routine travel for work, study,
shopping, etc.;(c) Other Non-commuting Travel (ONT), e.g., occasional
local travel, transport crew or commercial traveler (to various destinations),
migrants (including temporary work), diplomats (to/from their duty station).
Passengers: Travelers excluding crew, non-revenue (or low revenue)
travelers e.g., infants, free or travelling on a discount of up to 25%.
Tourism: The activities of visitors, persons travelling to and staying in places
outside their usual environment for up to 12 months for leisure, business,
pilgrimage,etc.
International: (i) Inbound, (ii) Outbound: may include overnight stay(s) in
country of residence,(b) Domestic (in country of residence).
Tourism Industry: Establishments providing services and goods to visitors,
including:(a) Hospitality (hotels, restaurants, etc.),(b) Transport,(c) Tour
Operators and Travel Agents, Attractions,(d) Other branches of the
economy supplying visitors (some of these may also provide a significant
volume of services and goods to non-visitors, and the proportion of revenue
etc. due to visitors is important in estimating receipts from tourism).
The Travel and Tourism Industry (TTI): The tourism industry (and receipts
from tourism, etc.) together with the provision of goods and services by
establishments to other non-commuting travelers occasional local travelers.
Forms of Tourism
For a given country, three basic forms of tourism were first identified, and then
defined as:
1. Domestic tourism: residents visiting their own country,
2. Inbound tourism: non-residents travelling in a given country, and
3. Outbound tourism: residents travelling in another country.
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These forms can be combined in a number of ways in order to derive the following
categories of tourism:
1. Internal tourism: involves both domestic and inbound tourism,
2. National tourism: involves both domestic and outbound tourism, and
3. International tourism: involves both inbound and outbound tourism.
Tourism as an Industry
‘Industry’ was a positive term connoting work, productivity, employment, income,
economic health—all attributes that tourism wanted but did not have. Under this
‘industry’ view, the tourism industry is made up of a clearly defined grouping of
firms that are perceived to be primarily in the business of selling to or serving
tourists. Hotels, restaurants, transportation, and amusements are examples of the
types of firms that comprise the tourism industry.
What are the advantages of designating tourism as an industry? Let me suggest
three.
1. The first advantage is the need to gain respect, respect based on
understanding the contribution that tourism makes to economic health.
Tourism has an image problem. It is not really perceived as a legitimate part
of economic development. For some, tourism is not even a legitimate part of
government and in today’s budget crises, not worthy of funding. If tourism
can argue that it really is an industry worthy of being considered on the same
terms as other recognized industries, then the image of and the support for
tourism will improve.
2. The next advantage is the need for a sound framework to tabulate, analyze,
and publish data about tourism—data that are accurate, meaningful, and
believable. Historically, economists have used the ‘industry’ as the basis for
measurement and study. If tourism wants to be measured and studied
seriously, it follows then that tourism must be an industry. Only by treating
tourism as an industry can tourism be compared with other industries in the
world economy.
3. There is a need among some in ‘tourism’ for a format for self-identity. Being
part of an industry is a clear and easy way to achieve identity and the selfesteem that goes with identity. Tourism is beset by many outside pressures:
world events; budget problems and mounting deficits; recession; the
staggering need for funds to support education, health care, social needs, and
crime prevention; and the maturing, competitive tourism marketplace. In this
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environment, a great effort has been devoted to legitimizing tourism as a key
industry in today’s service economy.
The underlying focuses of ‘industry’ embrace:
 Individual business establishments grouped together,
 The revenue received by these economic units, and
 Producing and selling a common product, i.e., the product of one firm is a
substitute for the product of any other firm in the same industry.
From the viewpoint of economic development and/or economic impact, a visitor,
nominally called a tourist, is someone who comes to an area, spends money, and
leaves. We employ an economic framework to be comparable with the concept of
‘industry,’ which is an economic term. The reasons for the visit, length of stay,
length of trip, or distances from home are immaterial.
Thus, a tourist is a person who travels outside of his or her normal routine, either
normal living or normal working routine, who spends money. Thisdefinition of
visitor/tourist includes:
 People who stay in hotels, motels, resorts, or campgrounds;
 People who visit friends or relatives;
 People who visit while just passing through going somewhere else;
 People who are on a day trip (do not stay overnight); and
 An ‘all other’ category of people on boats, who sleep in a vehicle of some
sort, or who otherwise do not fit the above.
Note that visitors/tourists can:
 Be attending a meeting or convention;
 Be business travelers outside of their home office area; be on a group tour;
 Be on an individual leisure or vacation trip, including recreational shopping;
or
 Be travelling for personal or family-related reasons.
In sum, defining tourism as an industry is incorrect; and further, this definition
demeans what tourism really is. Tourism is a social/economic phenomenon that
acts both as an engine of economic progress and as a social force. Tourism is much
more than an industry. Tourism is more like a ‘sector’ that impacts a wide range of
industries. Tourism is not just businesses or governments—it is people. Supporting
rational tourism growth and development needs to be viewed in this broader
context.
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1.3. Institutionalisation of Tourism Studies
Tourism studies are becoming institutionalized in academic terms. Arguably, one
of the reasons for conceptual confusion is because of the multiplicity of
disciplinary and paradigmatic approaches that have been brought to bear on
tourism phenomena, as indeed is true of many of the phenomena which are studied
in the social sciences.
Tourism studies, ‘‘like its customers who do not recognize geographical
boundaries, does not recognize disciplinary demarcations.’’ Some scholars have
described tourism analysis as interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary, and ‘‘conscious
of its youthfulness.’’ Yet while such statements about the state of tourism studies
are widespread, they fail to understand that the study of tourism within the social
sciences has a far longer history than is often imagined, and is less ‘‘youthful’’.
On the other hand, tourism is usually viewed as an application of established
disciplines, because it does not possess sufficient doctrine to be classified as a fullfledged academic discipline.’’ There is an increasing recognition that tourism is
becoming seen as a legitimate area of study in its own right, and that – at least
superficially – it has many of the characteristics of a discipline.
Three key characteristics that define a given discipline are:
 A well-established presence in Universities and Colleges, including the
appointment of professorial positions;
 Formal institutional structures of academic associations and university
departments; and
 Avenues for Academic publication, in terms of books and journals. Indeed,
‘‘It is the advancement of knowledge – through the conduct of fundamental
research and the publication of its original findings – which identifies an
academic discipline; the nature of its teaching follows from the nature of its
research.’’
Specialty tourism research groups also operate within national academic
associations, such as the Association of American Geographers, the Canadian
Association of Geographers, the Institute of British Geographers, and similar
groups in Germany, China, and elsewhere. At the international level social
scientific unions in the fields of anthropology and ethnology, economic history,
geography, history, and sociology have tourism commissions or working groups.
For example, the International Geographical Union’s Commission on Tourism,
Leisure and Global Change, which was established in 2000, has existed in various
guises as a commission or study group since 1972.
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In analyzing the list of journals, it is also noticeable that the journal field has been
marked by increased specialization in subject matter. For example, there are
specific journals on geography, ecotourism, sports tourism, and tourism planning,
as well as regionally oriented academic journals. To academic tourism journals can
be added the many trade publications in which some research may be reported,
while many researchers also publish their tourism work in non-tourism, disciplinebased journals.
There are contradictions in several of the social sciences, but they are particularly
sharp in tourism, because of the very nature of the subject matter (which is often
regarded as ‘‘fun’’) and the weak institutionalization of tourism early on within
those academic centers that were at the forefront of critical social science.
Nevertheless, it is possible to be too pessimistic. As already noted the field of
tourism has a considerably longer history as is often realized and there is a
substantial and growing volume of research funded by national research councils
and others beyond the direct influence of the tourism industry. This is not to say
that there is theoretical and methodological convergence in tourism studies. Rather,
the understanding of a field as complex and multi-scalar as tourism is unlikely to
be the sole domain of either a single paradigm or a single discipline.
1.4. Tourism Studies: the Issues in Focus
Tourism is widely recognized as a dynamic process, and tourism studies have for a
long time been interested in tourist destinations and changes occurring in them.
During the past decades the need to study and understand tourism and its change
and impacts has grown considerably. Tourism and tourists have become
increasingly a characteristic feature of contemporary societies and global markets,
and the economic significance of tourism and the fact that tourism is developing
fast mean that new destinations, attractions and facilities are constantly evolving.
Places and regions are being planned and transformed in order to attract more
tourists, and also to attract non-local investors in tourism. Even whole national
economies can be highly dependent on the needs of modern tourists and the tourist
trade, which makes tourism and its development a highly political and sociocultural activity.
Indeed, tourism has become an important element in a social process of change in
which human systems, values and communities are being integrated towards global
social and economic networks. Tourism has been ‘global’ from the very beginning
of its modern existence, and distant places and regions have always communicated
in matters of tourism development and have been dependent on each other through
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the movement of people, capital, ideas, values and goods. The present scale,
growth and nature of the intensification of such linkages are much more dramatic
than ever before, however, and they have led to increasing spatial differentiation.
Disciplines and fields of study change over time, and areas of specialization come
and go depending on intrinsic and extrinsic factors. For example, issues such as
‘‘sustainability’’ or ‘‘safety and security’’ rise or fall on the tourism agenda of
academics, as well as governments, in response to external factors such as
terrorism or environmental concerns, as well as on the availability of specific
funding opportunities.
There are also shifts in research priorities arising out of debates in tourism studies,
and in surrounding areas of study and established disciplines. There is a long
history of concern with environmental topics in tourism. In contrast, specific
concerns with space and spatiality have only received limited attention, perhaps
reflecting the relative shift away from positivism.
The idea of sustainability has been a major research theme in tourism studies and
was eagerly adopted from the late 1980s as a focal point for journal articles, many
of which appeared in the Journal of Sustainable Tourism. Perhaps surprisingly,
other concepts which have been significant in the broader social sciences, such as
post modernity and globalization appear to have had less or no impact on tourism
studies.
Postmodernism is also an explicit theme in the contents of many of the articles on
heritage. But they have not become central unifying concepts in tourism. Similarly,
concerns over sexuality and gay-related issues in tourism, although significant for
post-structural ‘‘cultural’’ approaches to tourism appear as a relatively marginal
topic in tourism journals. Ethnic tourism and ethnicity have a higher profile, in part
because of interest in cultural tourism, related to the role of heritage as an
important object of tourism studies. Studies of the economic impact of tourism
appear to dominate while the significance of the subject of economic evaluation
appears to ebb and flow. Nevertheless, in terms of sheer volume, the economic
analysis of tourism does not appear any greater than studies of the physical
environment within the main tourism journals, although there are considerably
more economically oriented studies than those concerned with the cultural turn.
The study of tourism now occupies a significant academic space in the same way
that tourism as an industry and as a social practice occupies significant economic
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and socio-cultural space. Yet its boundaries are constantly changing and will
continue to change in light of internal discourses, engagement with debates across
boundaries, and exogenous factors. For good or bad, it is also almost inevitable
that, given how academic institutions function in capitalist societies, industry and
government agencies (including research funding) will continue to shape the
agenda of tourism research, alongside the tradition of critical social and theoretical
social scientific enquiry. These permeable boundaries, and the space within them,
lie at the heart of this work.
The article aims to provide a theoretically informed conceptual framework for
analyzing the transformation of tourist destinations as socially constructed, deeply
socio-spatial units. The idea of tourist destination as a social construction is not a
new one, but the transformation process of a tourist destination has been a less
conceptualized issue from this perspective. By emphasizing the role of space in
tourism studies, it is possible and fruitful to conceptualize the transformation
process by understanding the different elements of change as discourses with
related practices and power issues based on the idea of a destination as a dynamic
and socially constructed spatial unit, which development is also a subject for
ethical considerations in tourism research.
In a wide-ranging historiography critique of social science method that the social
world is a messy place where ‘simple clear descriptions don’t work if what they
are describing is not itself very coherent’. Precision and clarity may be desirable
and comforting for some academics and research managers, but realities are fluid,
dynamic, and vague, socially constructed and multiply constituted. Rather than
disadvantageous and inhibiting, the recognition of complexity is vital to the future
organization of social enquiry; single disciplines in their current constitution are
rarely capable alone of delivering the contrasting and multiple perspectives that are
so necessary to unraveling social life and dealing with ‘wicked’ and ‘messy’
problems so characteristic of environmental and trans-boundary issues.
Chapter II: Perspectives on Tourism
As it was stated in the introduction section, tourism studies have grown out of a
multitude of perspectives and approaches. It is also a fact that, some of those
perspectives have survived the flow of changes and some have given way for new
perspectives. The present chapter would make an attempt to look at these
evolutionary processes and try to identify the major themes and perspectives that
17
highlight each of those approaches. However, the emphasis would be more on the
approach of sociology of tourism.
2.1 Geographical Approaches in Tourism Studies.
Tourism involves the movement of people through time and place either between
their home and destinations, or within destination areas. Hence, understanding
tourist movements and the factors that influence the time/space relationships that
tourist have with destinations has profound implications for infrastructure and
transport development, tourism product development, the commercial viability of
the tourism industry, and the management of the social, environment and cultural
impacts of tourism. As a consequence to this fact, the discipline of geography has
played a central role in the evolution of tourism studies as a field of study.
Geography is fundamental to the study of tourism, because tourism is geographical
in nature. Tourism occurs in places, it involves movement and activities between
places and it is an activity in which both place characteristics and personal selfidentities are formed, through the relationships that are created among places,
landscapes and people. Physical geography provides the essential background
against which tourism places are created and environmental impacts and concerns
are major issues that must be considered in managing the development of tourism
places. The desire to understand the spatial interactions of tourists with a
destination and the movement of tourists between destinations has played a critical
role in developing investigation of the phenomenon of tourism.
The tourism geography approach focuses on both the geographic setting of the
process of tourism and upon the intimate connection of the inner tourist experience
with the external geography present at the destination. The geographic approach to
tourism begins with a focus on the key natural and cultural elements that make-up
the external geographic context of a destination. It then asks the following key
questions:
“How will the tourist actually experience the natural and cultural elements of the
destination’s geography?
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“Specifically, what geographic images and expectations might the tourist carry
internally images and expectation that will color their transactions with the nature
and culture of that destination?
“Further, what planning and presentational means will almost successfully allow
the tourist to fully experience and remember that destination’s unique geography?
In other words, tourism geography is that branch of science which deals with the
study of travel and impact on places. Obviously, an intricate relationship exists
between time, space and tourism movements. Over the years, a variety of models
have been developed by tourism geographers to portray this movement of tourists
from their homes to destination areas. These models, in general recognize that
tourism movement involves two components: a destination component and a
transit component which may or may not be integrated into the destination
component. The movement of tourists is moderated by a number of factor
including the frictional effect of distance on demand, the number of intervening
opportunities available, tourist’s total time budget and how they chose to spend
that time and the socio-cultural makeup of the tourist.
2.2. Behavioral Approaches to Tourism
Tourism is in many ways an activity that is emblematic of the 21 st century. It’s is
also something that involves millions of people worldwide, creating major
employment opportunities and having significant both positive and negative. It’s is
this significance that attracted the attention of social scientist to the field of tourism
studies. Studying the behavior of tourists is one such concern and has constituted
one of the most complex dimensions of tourism studies.
On the face of it behavior seems an unproblematic term. Reality is more complex
as there exists many different ways in which behavior can be studied. The field of
tourism research therefore faces an intellectual challenge in teasing out the
difference behavioral approaches that can be adopted. This challenge is best met in
a series of binary distinctions. One of the most obvious ways of looking at
behavior distinguishes ‘obligatory’ from ‘discretionary’ activity. The former
presents things that an individual is obliged to do, (e.g. eating, sleeping, working).
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Whereas the latter covers activities that can be indulged in at the discretion of the
individual concerned (e.g. leisure, recreation). In reality, this distinction could even
be challenged. For instance, it is our discretion to decide how much to eat and also
how much to sleep and even work. Nevertheless, looking at the issue of leisure we
find it at the discretionary end of this distinction and tourism easily falls under this
category. In other words there is a major element of voluntarism in much tourist
behavior. Consequent to this is a fact that, the tourist behavior is likely to be
diverse in character because it reflects the whims and choices of the individual
involved.
A second binary distinction is between studying ‘behavior in space’ and analyzing
‘spatial behavior’. Behavior in space involves description of the context in which
the behavior in question occurs and the relating of behavior to that specific context.
In simple terms, they tend to answer the question ‘who does what where?’,
sometimes adding the question ‘when, why and with what effect?’ Such studies
tend to be very descriptive. Examples are to be seen in descriptive accounts of who
uses which tourist facilities in a particular holiday area. In contrast, advocates of
the study of ‘spatial behavior’ focuses on trying to find the general in the particular
in the sense of distilling the rules, principles and laws that describe behavior
independently of the context in which it occurs. In other words, with ‘spatial
behavior’ the search is for general principles of people environment interaction and
for understanding of how humans as a whole behave in certain types of settings
(e.g. shopping centers, theme parks) rather than with particular contexts (e.g.
London, Disneyland)
Still another form of binary distinction is between the ‘behavior in aggregate’ and
approaches that focus on the ‘behavior of the individual tourists’. With studies of
behavior in the aggregate, the goal is to identify regularities in overall patterns. The
underlying principle in the study of aggregate behavior is that there are behavioral
characteristics that are observable irrespective of the individuals under study.
According to this view, studies of individual behavior are inefficient and time
consuming because what is important can be seen in aggregate patterns. However,
there are critics of this approach who argue that studies of aggregate behavior have
little predictive power because no casual links are established between the
environment and human actions. Therefore, it is unclear whether a change in
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contextual conditions would lead to a change in behavioral outcomes. For example,
a new facility or a different advertisement strategy for an existing facility might
well produce a different pattern of aggregate behavior. According to many
researches, what seems to be needed in order to remedy these shortcomings in
aggregate scale study is an approach which is focused on the individual and which
recognizes that individuals have modicum (small amount) of free will in
interpreting ascribing to the environment. In other words, researches need to
recognize that humans are reflexive actors who reflect upon and think about their
behavior is constrained and that behavioral outcomes are the product of both
reflexive human agencies the structures within which humans operate.
These approaches are sometimes known as micro-scale behavioral approaches or
more commonly actor oriented approaches. Within the tourism context they are in
principle applied more commonly to understand the behavior of the visitors rather
than hosts. They are also criticized for focusing on behavior as it is rather than on
how behavior might be changed and how it is changed by exterior conditions. In
fact, one of the key issues to be confronted is the changing role of leisure in
advanced societies. Centuries ago, leisure was viewed as a preserve of the rich who
were wealthy enough not to need to work. Today this is extended to include
technological change which increases the productivity of labor, contributing to an
increase in tourism activities. In this regard, behavioral researches need to pay
special attention to the emergence of leisure sub cultures.
In short, behavioral research has come an integral part of tourism research has
become an integral part of tourism research. It is also an intellectually challenging
undertaking. Micro-scale behavioral approaches have advanced the understanding
of tourist behavior greatly. However, more needs to be done in these and other
fields of tourism studies.
2.3. Cultural Approaches to Tourism Studies
Cultural studies, with its traditions of studying regional cultures, has tended to
position ‘tourism’ as a problem as something that homogenizes local cultures
towards one undifferentiated aggregate- a thesis where change is seen only as
diminishing original cultures and reducing global differences. However, recent
work has tried to open up this grim account in two main directions: first,
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examining tourism not simply as consuming places but also as a dynamic force
creating them- which still leaves room for conflict, exploitation and resistance but
takes a more neutral start-point; second, looking at tourism as a modern culture in
and of itself. Tourism mobilizes powerful social dreams and desires as the currency
in which it trades, by offering dream holidays, romance, paradise on earth, thirteen
months of sunshine gods own country and so on. These are social imaginaries,
maps of what people believe and hope for –but they are rarely examined as such.
These analyses of how tourism shapes places can become locked into a ‘coercive
conceptual schema’ of tourism ‘impacting’ local cultures which sees a local culture
as pitted against a global industry where ‘cultural changes arising from tourism are
produced by the intrusion of a superior socio-cultural system in a supposedly
weaker receiving milieu (meaning weaker local culture)
Tourism is an active agent in the destruction of places in what can be a violent,
contested unequal but sometimes welcomed, transformative and productive
process. The process is one of co-construction where the destination is shaped up
between different actors. This does not necessarily mean in an equal or harmonious
fashion but it is important not to start by denying locals or tourists any agency in
the process since that leads not only to a negative view of tourism but to a
pessimism about the possibilities for people to shape it. Tourism is part of a
reflexive process where all the actors learn from experiences (good, bad and
indifferent). Thus the industry adapts and develops, tourists respond with changing
tastes and preferences and locals rework their identities and strategies in changing
conditions. Tourism in Bali (an Indonesian Island which is famous in the tourism
map, typically characterized by a strong Hindu religious presence with its customs
and rituals) is an example of it. At one level Balinese culture was being replaces by
touristic culture with local rituals repackaged for tourists. At this level we can see a
commodification of a culture turned into a bankable asset and given a new value in
terms of its earning potential rather than any intrinsic value. Looking at this
slightly differently we can see a more intricate set of developments. For a start,
touristic interest and marketing of Balinese culture has intersected with a Hindu
caste system, whose preservation has enabled powerful Hindus to counter possible
Islamic growth on the Island as ‘un-Balinese’. Indeed, there has been a
‘Balinization’ of Bali and the aesthetic interest of tourists has prompted locals to
22
reinvigorate cultural activities and celebrate their roles as cultural artist. So, that far
from eroding traditional forms, a new vitality and interest has developed in them.
For the cultural tourist analysts it is not just the destinations that are scripted
(shaped) by tourism but also the practices that comprise being a tourist. If we take
the example of beach resorts the norms and expectations of behavior have clearly
evolved through history. The practices associated with beach tourism have marked
changing notions of social propriety and cultures of the body. (For instance,
nobody goes to a beach with a formal dressing style and if you do that you will
find all those (at least partially naked beauties and virile stalwarts) sun bathers
starting and laughing at you).
In short, what the cultural analysts of tourism largely presents to us today is a
picture of destination and tourist cultures, both being transformed and produced
through tourism. Places are made, done and performed and through making, doing
and performing those tourists become well tourists.
2.4. Sociology of Tourism, Approaches and Issues
The sociology of tourism is an emergent specialty concerned with the study of
touristic motivations, roles, relationships and institutions and of their impact on
tourists and on the communities who receive them. The scientific study of tourism
originated in continental Europe, which was the first region to experience the
impact of mass tourism. The subject, however, received little attention until well
into the post-World War II period when the rapid expansion of tourism provoked
some spirited, critical writings. Nevertheless, the study of tourism as a sociological
specially rather than merely as an exotic, marginal topic emerged only in the 1970s
with Eric Cohen’s (1972) typological essay and McCann ell’s (1973) theoretical
synthesis.
Since then, the field has grown rapidly, which is manifested by the road range of
publications that followed. However, this expansion was also marked by a
multitude of conceptual and theoretical positions among the tourism analysts.
Cohen aptly classifies them into eight very prominent perspectives.
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1. Tourism as commercialized hospitality. The focus is on the visitor component
of the tourist's role. Its proponents conceive of the touristic process as a
commercialization of the traditional guest-host relationship through which
strangers were given a temporary role and status in the society they visited.
Tourism is thus viewed as a commercialized and eventually industrialized form of
hospitality. This approach proved fruitful in studying the evolution and dynamics
of relationships between tourists and locals and in analyzing conflicts within roles
and institutions dealing with tourists.
2. Tourism as democratized travel: The emphasis is on the traveler component of
the tourist role; the tourist is viewed as a kind of traveler marked by some distinct
analytical traits. The authors who pioneered this approach saw modern mass
tourism as a democratized expansion of the aristocratic travel of an earlier age.
Though anchoring tourism in an area-namely travel-that has not been explored by
sociologists, this perspective generated some important work on the historical
transformation of touristic roles.
3. Tourism as a modern leisure activity. Tourism is seen as a type of leisure and
the tourist as a "person at leisure who also travels". Its protagonists see leisure as
an activity free of obligations, but they usually abstain from investigating the
deeper cultural significance of leisure activities. They take a functionalist view,
identifying leisure-and hence tourism-with recreation. This approach informs much
of the macro-sociological and institutional research on modem tourism.
4. Tourism as a modern variety of the traditional pilgrimage: This perspective
focuses on the deeper structural significance of modem tourism and identifies it
with pilgrimages in traditional societies; it was proposed by McConnell
(1973:589). Graburn's (1977) paper, identifying tourism as a form of the "sacred
journey," brings the study of tourism even closer to that of the pilgrimage.
5. Tourism as an expression of basic cultural themes: The emphasis here is on the
deeper cultural meaning of tourism. Rejecting the general, "etic" approach to
tourism (e.g. Nash 1981), its advocates are trying to reach an "emic" understanding
of its culture-specific, symbolic meaning that is "based on the views of the
vacationers themselves". The program implicit in such an approach would
eventually do away with tourism as an analytic concept and would lead to a
comparative study of different, culture-specific varieties of travel.
24
6. Tourism as an acculturative process: Proponents of this viewpoint focus upon
the effects that tourists have on their hosts and strive to integrate the study of
tourism into the wider framework of the theory of acculturation. It has not been
very popular, however, even though tourists in many remote areas appear to be
important agents of an often caricatured form of Westernization.
7. Tourism as a type of ethnic relations: Advocates of this approach strive to
integrate the analysis of the tourist-host relationship into the wider field of
ethnicity and ethnic relations. Its major proponent is van den Berghe (1980). This
approach dovetails with some work on the impact of the production of ethnic arts
for the tourist market on ethnic identities.
8. Tourism as a form of neocolonialism: The focus is on the role of tourism in
creating dependencies between tourism-generating," metropolitan" countries and
tourism-receiving," peripheral" nations that replicate colonial or "imperialist"
forms of domination and structural underdevelopment. This approach was
explicitly formulated in a paper by Nash (1977).
These perspectives do represent the considerable differences that characterize the
tourism studies. They still persist together and sociology of tourism needs to be
understood against this background of complex and diverse conceptual and
theoretical approaches to tourism.
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2.14. Principle issues in Sociology of Tourism
Sociological research on tourism falls naturally into four principal issue areas: the
tourist, relations between tourists and locals, the structure and functioning of the
tourist system, and the consequences of tourism.
A. The Tourist
The Tourist Research on the tourist is extremely varied, but the bulk of work in
this area consists of purely empirical, "touristological" surveys and trend analyses
that are oriented toward meeting the practical needs of governments and the tourist
industry. They deal primarily with the demographic and socioeconomic
characteristics of tourists; the frequency, purpose, length, and type of trip; and the
nature of tourists' destinations and the kinds of activities undertaken. Though of
rather limited sociological relevance in themselves, such data are important
resources for secondary analysis, enabling scholars to identify the major trends in
modern tourism.
International tourism became a major modern mass phenomenon after World War
II when it came to embrace practically all social classes in industrialized Western
societies. This expansion was made possible by rising standards of living and the
shortening of the work year, which were accompanied by longer paid vacations in
the industrialized Western countries and a rapid improvement in the means of
transportation. To these factors the enhanced motivation to travel should also be
added; it will be discussed below.
The rate of expansion since World War II has been spectacular: in 1950 there were
still only 25.3 million international tourists; in 1960, 75.3 million; in 1970, 169.0
million; and in 1981, 291 million. Domestic tourism apparently grew at an even
steeper rate and was estimated at 2.3 billion in 1981. The major destinations of
international tourism are still North America and Europe. The share captured by
other world regions, while still miniscule, is rapidly growing. On the whole, men
travel more than women; older people travel somewhat less than younger and
middle-aged ones; and the number of younger tourists is on the increase. Urban
residents take far more yearly holiday trips than rural inhabitants. A greater
proportion of people in the higher income categories take yearly holiday trips,
26
while those in the highest brackets take more than one trip a year on the average.
Despite the democratization of travel, significant class differences still exist in the
industrialized Western countries, not only in the propensity to travel but also in the
distance and type of destination, the organization of the trip, the motivations and
traveling style, and the deeper cultural motifs informing tourism.
B. Tourist and Locals
A large number of publications deal either primarily or incidentally with relations
between locals and tourists or "Hosts and Guests," in the somewhat ironic title of
V. L. Smith's (1977c) book on the subject. Few studies deal specifically, however,
with the nature and dynamics of the tourist-local relationship, which has three
principal dimensions: people's interactions, perceptions and attitudes. Sutton
initiated the analysis of the distinct character of the tourist-local interaction and
Characterized it as a "series of encounters [between] visitors who are on the move
to enjoy themselves and hosts who are relatively stationary and who have the
function of catering to these visitors' needs and wishes". Such encounters are
essentially transitory, non-repetitive and asymmetrical; the participants are oriented
toward achieving immediate gratification rather than toward maintaining a
continuous relationship. These basic traits of the "encounter" have been further
amplified in later research. Due to the transitory and non-repetitive nature of the
relationship, the participants do not have to take account of the effects their present
actions will have on the relationship in the future; hence, there is neither a felt
necessity nor an opportunity to create mutual trust. Consequently, such
"relationships are particularly open to deceit, exploitation and mistrust, since both
tourists and natives can easily escape the consequences of hostility and
dishonesty". The asymmetry of the relationship and the quest for immediate
gratification compound these possibilities. Sutton focused mainly on the
asymmetry of knowledge where the host has an advantage over the visitor, which
accounts for tourists' alleged "gullibility". But other asymmetries also exist. For
example, the meaning of the encounter is different for each of the participants:
tourism means work for most locals, leisure for the visitors, and this situation
creates misunderstandings and conflicts of interest.
27
The tourist-local relationship is, to varying degrees, embedded in and regulated by
two sociocultural systems: a native system, which is invaded by tourism, and the
emergent tourist system itself. The principal evolutionary dynamics of the
relationship consist of a transition from the former to the latter. Studies of this
evolution usually present the process as a commercialization or "commoditization"
of hospitality: Tourists are initially treated as part of the traditional guest-host
relationship, but as their numbers increase, they become less and less welcome.
Pressures then build up that transform the guest-host relationship that is based on
customary, but neither precise nor obligatory, reciprocity into a commercial one
that is based on remuneration. This transformation involves incorporating
hospitality-an area that many societies view as founded on values that are the very
opposite of economic ones-into the economic domain. Therefore, it is frequently a
slow and tortuous process.
As tourism moves out of the realm of native hospitality, it often passes through an
anomic stage during which locals develop what Sutton (1967:221) has termed a
predatory orientation toward tourists. They strive to extract as much gain as
possible from each encounter, irrespective of the long-term consequences that such
conduct may have on the tourist flow. During this stage, this is often marked by
Considerable hostility to tourists, a significant increase in tourist-oriented
discrimination, deviance, and petty crime takes place. Such occurrences, however,
are detrimental to the long-term development of tourism, and they give rise to
efforts-on the part of either tourist entrepreneurs or the authorities-to create and
institutionalize a professionalized tourist system. The principal motive of
professionalization is to preserve and enhance the area's reputation and thereby
ensure the long-term benefits of a continuous and growing flow of tourists. Though
economically motivated, a professionalized local-tourist relationship does not take
on the character of a wholly depersonalized, neutral economic exchange. Rather, it
becomes professionally "staged" in McConnell’s sense, with the locals "playing the
natives" and the tourist establishment's personnel correctly providing a
competently "personalized" service. Professionalization thus consists of the effort
to surmount the potential conflict between the economic and the social components
of the service role. While this conflict is never completely resolved,
professionalization may prevent or attenuate host hostility more often, however, it
merely becomes an outer veneer of exaggerated servility, and considerable host
hostility lingers on beneath it. The attitudes and mutual perceptions of tourists and
locals have been studied primarily from the locals' perspective; there is little
reliable information on the impact of touring on the tourist. In the past, advocates
of tourism claimed that it improves international understanding while their critics
28
denied this, but both claims remain largely unsubstantiated. P. L. Pearce suggests,
on the basis of the meager evidence available, that" tourists do develop, albeit
margin-ally, more positive attitudes to their hosts as a consequence of their
travelling"; but he also thinks that "holiday experiences tend to confirm preexisting attitudes" negative as well as positive ones.
C. The Development and Structure of the Tourist System
Modern tourism is an ecological, economic, and political system that is complex
and global. As it matures, it attains a degree of separation from the rest of society.
The system is marked by a centrifugal tendency as it constantly expands into new
areas, whether in a spontaneous" organic" pattern as a result of some inner impetus
or in a sponsored, induced form through the efforts of the national authorities or
large-scale developers. The core of the global tourist system is located in the major
tourism-generating countries; its modern roots reach back to the Grand Tour,
which provided the geographical backbone from which the system expanded into
more and more peripheral areas. It is presently penetrating the most remote and
hitherto inaccessible areas of the Third World and the polar regions. Speculation
on tourism in space has already begun. Socioeconomically, the system hinges on a
group of national and increasingly transnational corporate actors and governmental
and intergovernmental agencies, such as airlines; travel companies, travel agencies,
and tour operators; hotel chains; international travel organizations (e.g.
International Association of Travel Agents (IATA) and IUOTO); and various
governmental and intergovernmental organizations). Studies of the major corporate
actors on the global scene reveal extensive metropolitan domination of the tourist
industry. The tourist industry is thus becoming internationalized. The structure of
the tourist industry on the global level has important repercussions at the national
and local levels in the host countries.
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D. The Impact of Tourism
The impact of tourism is by far the most intensively researched issue area within
the sociology of tourism. The great bulk of the impact studies focus on the host
community or society; the effect on the tourists' country of origin is neglected.
Most authors distinguish between the socioeconomic and sociocultural effects of
tourism.
The socioeconomic studies cover primarily eight major topics: foreign exchange,
income, employment, prices, the distribution of benefits, ownership and control,
development, and government revenue. There is considerable agreement on the
impact tourism has on them. It is well established that tourism generates foreign
exchange, income for the host country, and employment for the local population.
Tourism often becomes an important source of governmental revenue as well,
which may be one of the reasons why many governments are eager to encourage
its rapid development. Nonetheless, the positive economic effects of tourism
frequently fall significantly short of expectations or predictions. In addition,
tourism generates or reinforces inflationary tendencies by put-ting pressure upon
resources whose supply is inelastic-particularly some types of food. Thus, while
tourism frequently benefits those locals who are directly involved in it, it may
cause hardships for the rest of the population. The development of a tourist
industry often involves the penetration of outsiders and both national and foreign
outside financial interests. This process frequently leads to a loss of local control
over the industry. Beyond these points of general agreement, the findings vary a
great deal. Tourism has the most serious dislocating effects and yields the smallest
relative benefits for locals when large-scale, high-standard facilities are rapidly
introduced by outside developers into an otherwise poorly developed area;
dependency, rather than development, then results. Under such conditions, the
disproportionate growth of the tourist sector fails to engender linkages with other
sectors, particularly with agriculture; rather, it causes dislocations, thus
institutionalizing structural underdevelopment. Where small-scale, locally owned,
lower-standard, "craft" tourism is slowly introduced into a less-developed context,
gross earnings may be smaller, but a greater percentage will be locally retained and
there will be fewer disruptive effects.
There is a better chance that linkages with the local economy will be established.
The impetus such tourism provides may not suffice to stimulate sustained local
development, however, in the absence of sufficient local capital and technical and
30
entrepreneurial resources. The sociocultural impacts of tourism are numerous and
varied, but most of them can be classified under one of ten major topics:
community involvement in wider frameworks, the nature of interpersonal relations,
the bases of social organization, the rhythm of social life, migration, the division of
labor, stratification, the distribution of power, deviance, and customs and the arts.
There is a broad agreement among scholars on the findings about most of these
topics. Under tourism the local community becomes increasingly involved in the
wider national and international systems, with a concomitant loss of local
autonomy; the community's welfare comes to depend more and more upon external
factors (such as changing fashions and worldwide prosperity or recession) over
which it has no control. On the level of local interpersonal relations, tourism tends
to loosen diffuse solidarities and increase individualization and creates stress and
conflicts; these in turn generate pressures for a greater formalization of local life.
But under some circumstances, especially among marginal ecological or ethnic
groups, it also produces a reaction in the opposite direction-i. e. a strengthening of
group solidarity in the face of the intruding foreigners.
Tourism's major impact on the bases of social organization, particularly in simple
and traditional societies, consists of an expansion of the economic domain: some
areas of life that were not primarily regulated by economic criteria become
commercialized or "commoditized". Moreover, considerations of economic gain
take a more prominent place in locals' attitudes and relationships-not only in their
dealings with tourists, but also among themselves. Many researchers have noted
the impact that tourism has on the rhythm of social life. Tourism is a highly
seasonal activity that drastically affects the traditional way of life in agricultural
communities. It also changes the daily division of time between work and leisure
for employees in the industry, which may, in turn, affect family life. Tourism
creates new employment opportunities in the host area and hence influences
migration patterns in two principal directions: it helps the community retain
members who would otherwise migrate away, particularly unemployed or
underemployed youths in economically marginal areas such as islands or
mountains but it also attracts outsiders who a researching for work or economic
opportunity and who often come from other branches of the economy, particularly
agriculture. Thus, in mature tourist areas, tourism spurs urbanization. One of the
most ubiquitously noted effects of tourism is its impact on the division of labor,
particularly between the sexes. By creating new kinds of employment, tourism
draws into the labor force parts of the local population previously outside itspecifically, young women who now find employment either in tourist services,
such as hotels; in the production of crafts and souvenirs for the market; or in
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tourism-oriented prostitution. This change, in turn, affects not only the division of
labor within the household but also the status of women vis-a-vis their families and
husbands, and the control of parents over children. It occasionally leads to
increased conflict and deviance within the family. The impact of tourism on
stratification has been noted by many researchers, but the issues involved have not
always been analytically distinguished. Tourism certainly promotes a change in the
criteria of stratification (e.g. Stott 1978:81): by placing greater emphasis on the
economic domain, it enhances the value of money as a criterion of stratification as
more traditional criteria such as a person's origin or status-honor. It thus tends to
effect a transformation of the existing stratification system. Moreover, even when
its consequences are less profound, it creates new social strata, particularly middle
classes. The revaluation of local resources because of the new uses to which they
are put as a result of tourism may produce fortuitous changes in the standing of
some individuals, including local elites-e. g. poor or hitherto unused land may
suddenly acquire considerable value. As a rule, however, the new tourist
entrepreneurs do not come from the established local elites but are members of the
urban middle classes. The most general impact that tourism has on stratification is
that it augments social disparities and hence widens the span of the local
stratification system. This change reflects both the increased division of labor
engendered by tourism and the unequal distribution of benefits that usually
accompany it.
Tourism is not a particularly effective mechanism of social mobility: while some
individuals may greatly benefit from it, rank and file employees of the industry
have limited chances for SM 387 advancement, due to the peculiar employment
structure; it has a broad base of unskilled and semiskilled workers and narrow
upper echelons. Moreover, in poorly developed areas these echelons tend to be
occupied by outsiders, to the detriment of local employees. Tourism does,
however, encourage new economic activities in ancillary and complementary
services and thus indirectly creates new opportunities for economic mobility
among the locals. The specific political consequences of tourism have only
received scant attention. It appears that tourism gives rise to new kinds of political
interests and leads to a pluralization of local power structures by creating new
Centers of power, new political offices, and new types of leaders who often
compete with the traditional leadership. The frequent result is increased
community conflict around novel issues. The argument that tourism encourages
deviance of various sorts has frequently been made. While various kinds of
32
tourism-oriented deviance such as theft, begging, prostitution have been reported,
the role of tourism in the etiology of such activities appears to have been much
exaggerated, particularly in the case of prostitution. The impact of tourism on
customs and the arts has been extensively examined, but it can only be reviewed
briefly here. Customs and the arts are frequently drawn into the economic domain
or "commoditized" as resources to encourage tourism. While the fact that this
occurs is commonly accepted, the question of their transformation and debasement
through tourism is still hotly debated. "Commoditization" does not, in itself,
necessarily change customs or the arts-indeed, in some instances it may conserve
them in the interests of tourism. In most cases, customs and the arts have, in fact,
undergone changes as they have been addressed to a new "external" public that
does not share the cultural background, language, and values of the traditional,
"internal" public. Dances and rituals have been shortened or embellished, and folk
customs or arts altered, faked, and occasionally invented for the benefit of tourists.
Tourism has often been presented as a major debaser and destroyer of customs and
the arts that leads to the emergence of a "phony-folk-culture" (Forster 1964:226)
and to the mass production of cheap, artless souvenirs and fake "airport art"
adapted to tourists' expectations. While such phenomena are indeed quite
widespread, there are, however, other developments that the culture critics have
over-looked. In particular, there are instances where tourism furthered the survival
of an otherwise moribund folk art or stimulated the development of new arts or
styles, occasionally of considerable artistic merit.
In conclusion, rather than looking at transformations engendered by tourism in
customs and the arts as mere aberrations, it is more useful to approach them as
another, albeit accelerated, stage in the continuous process of cultural change. It
presently gives rise to a variety of "transitional arts "created for the tourist market
and meriting attention on their own terms as genuinely new artistic creations.
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2.4.2. Theories of Sociology
Functionalism
Within a functionalist perspective society is viewed as a complex system whose
various parts work together to produce stability and solidarity. Social institutions
such as the family and the church are therefore analyzed as part of a social system
and are understood in terms of the contribution they make to the system as a
whole. In the case of tourism, it would subsequently be analyzed in terms of the
role it plays in society and in the wider social system rather than being treated as a
separate activity that has no relationship to other parts of the social system.
Using the analogy of the human body functionalist compare the workings of
society to the workings of an organism. Just as the efficient working of the various
organs of the body in an interrelated fashion is necessary for its well-being,
functionalist argue that the various parts or items of society work together in a
similar way for the benefit of society as a whole. Subsequently, an understanding
of any part of society requires an analysis of its relationship to other parts and most
importantly of its contribution to the maintenance of society. Functionalist also
emphasize the importance of a moral consensus as part of maintaining order and
stability in society, which they argue as its normal state and they argue that
consensus exists when most people in a society share the same values.
Similar to Comte, Durkheim was French and also believed that social life should
be studied with the same objectivity which scientists study the natural world.
Durkheim argued that society has a reality of its own and that individuals are
controlled by social facts that exist externally to the individual. Social facts are
social forces such as the state of the economy or the influence of religion which
compel people to follow certain pattern of behavior.
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Conflict Theory
Conflict theory also emphasizes the importance of structures within the society but
rejects functionalists’ emphasis on consensus, instead highlights the importance of
division of labour in society. A common critique of functionalism is that it unduly
Stresses factors that lead to social cohesion at the expense of those producing
division and conflict. The focus on stability and order means that divisions or
inequalities in society-based on factors such as race, class and gender-are
minimized.
In contrast to functionalists, conflict theorists concentrate upon issues of power,
inequality and struggle, interpreting society as being composed of different groups
pursuing their own interests. Consequently, the pursuit of separate interests means
that the potential for conflict is always present and that certain groups in a society
will benefit more than others. The values and norms of society are founded upon
the ability of a dominant group in society to impose their values and behavior onto
subordinate groups, in turn enabling them to maintain their dominate position.
Subsequently, conflict theory seeks to examine tensions between dominant and
disadvantaged groups within society, seeking to understand how relationships of
control are established and perpetuated. The development of conflict theory is
especially associated with Karl Marx, who although it can be argued that he was as
much a political economist as a sociologist is undoubtedly one of the key
influences on modern sociology and society. Marx interpreted differences of
interest and conflict in society as a consequence of class differences and inherent
power relationships. That is in all societies there is a difference between those who
hold authority and power and those who are largely excluded from it; between the
rulers and the ruled.
From the perspective of conflict theory, the tourism system could be viewed as
having a variety of power struggles taking place within it. These include concerns
over the influence and power of transnational tourism corporations in lesser
developed countries; the denial of resources by the powerful to the less powerful,
e.g. villages being denied water for agriculture because it is needed to irrigate golf
courses for tourists; the use of indigenous vultures against their wishes by central
government to promote tourism and the power and the gender dynamics of sex
tourism.
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Phenomenology
The positivism that is an inherent part of structuralism, in both functionalism and
conflict theory has increasingly been attacked since 1960’s. A major criticism of
structuralism is its treatment of humans as being governed by invariable laws. In
contrast to functionalism an conflict theory which are referred to as macro theories,
because of their concentration upon offering an explanation of society as a whole,
phenomenology is an alternative sociological paradigm to knowing and
understanding the world, phenomenology is an alternative sociological paradigm to
knowing and understanding the world. Although phenomenology is an alternative
sociological paradigm of ideas, a basic agreement rests upon an emphasis of the
study of the social world as being fundamentally different to that of the natural
world. Subsequently the focus of phenomenology is on how we give meaning to
and interpret the world rather than trying to discover the social laws and facts that
explain and govern it.
The founding of phenomenology in a sociological context is associated with
Edumnd Husserl (1858-1938), who advocated that it is impossible to say anything
very certain about the external world and was keen to demonstrate the falsity of the
assumed separation of scientific knowledge from people’s experiences and actions.
Phenomenologists argue that society does not exist but is created through routine
human interaction and shared assumptions. Emphasis is therefore placed on trying
to understand how an individual interprets and creates their world through
perceptions, feelings, motives, imagination and other mental processes. A further
major difference to positivism is that emphasis is placed upon the ability of the
individual to be able to influence and control their own world, rather than being
controlled by external or causal effects.
Influential in this line of thinking was Alfred Schutz (1889-1995) who, in his
theory of social action viewed people as active agents who create and shape their
society. Consequently, an assumption of social action theory is that actions is
meaningful to the individual, therefore understanding the action requires an
interpretation of the meanings that actors give to their activities. Thus, from a
social action perspective tourism is a meaningful behavior and to understand it
requires that we attempt to get into the mind of the tourist. Therefore, reliance is
placed upon an interpretation of the consciousness. Since it is not possible to get
inside the heads of actors, the discovery of meaning must be on interpretation and
36
Intuition. Instrumental in developing an interpretative approach of human action
was Max Weber, who in his concept of Verstehen, emphasizes placing oneself in
the position of other people to see what meaning they give to their actions.
Phenomenologists argue that sociologists try to understand the meaning that
individuals give to a particular phenomenon. Emphasis is therefore placed not on
searching for the explanations of a phenomenon for example crime and tourism,
but upon understanding how crime or tourism is defined. The end product of
phenomenological research is thus an understanding of the meanings employed by
members of their society in everyday life. Hence, in the case of tourism, within a
phenomenological perspective emphasis would be placed upon attempting to
understand the meaning and definition of tourism held by individuals, rather than
trying to establish the rules of society that govern participation within it.
However, phenomenology has been criticized for lack of scientific rigor and a
subsequent subjectivism in its interpretation. Additionally, its research projects
have been criticized for being small scale, concentrating on small group activity
and interaction and lacking the development of theory to analyze the whole of
society. Subsequently, neither of the major sociological paradigms of
functionalism or phenomenology provides definitive theories of how to understand
the world or for that matter tourism. They illustrate that trying to understand and
make sense of what is happening around us remains a contentious philosophical
issue.
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Chapter III: Impacts of Tourism and the Sustainability Issues
3.1. Dimensions of the Impacts of Tourism Practices
Tourism creates impacts and consequences; but there is a need to plan and manage
to minimize the negative impacts and accentuate the positive impacts of tourism.
These impacts occur because tourism, both international and domestic, brings
about an intermingling of people from diverse social and cultural backgrounds, and
also a considerable spatial redistribution of spending power, which has a
significant impact on the economy of the destination. Early work on the impact of
tourism on destinations focused primarily on economic aspects. This was not only
because such impacts are more readily quantifiable and measurable, but also there
was a pervading climate of optimism that these studies would show that tourism
was of net economic benefit to host destinations. In many cases, this was indeed
true. Yet tourism, by its very nature, is attracted to unique and fragile environments
and societies and it became apparent that in some cases the economic benefits of
tourism may be offset by adverse and previously unmeasured environmental and
social consequences.
The benefits and costs of tourism accrue to two quite distinct groups of people. On
the one hand, the visitors themselves receive benefits and incur costs in taking
holidays. On the other hand, the resident populations of the host region benefit
from tourism (not only financially) but at the same time incur costs of various
types.
The general issues central to any discussion of the positive and negative impacts of
tourism must include notions of carrying capacity and also of how impacts can be
assessed. Carrying capacity is a relatively straightforward concept—in simple
terms it refers to a point beyond which further levels of visitation or development
would lead to an unacceptable deterioration in the physical environment and of the
visitor’s experience. The concept of carrying capacity in tourism maintains an
illusion of control when it is a seductive fiction, a social trap, or policy myth.’ Yet,
despite this debate and discussion in the literature, the basic conceptual framework
of carrying capacity remains the same, and however it is approached, there is no
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doubt that any consideration of the impact of tourism must recognize the pivotal
role that carrying capacity plays by intervening in the relationship between visitor
and resource.
Effectively, the impact made by tourism depends on both the volume and profile
characteristics of the tourists (including their length of stay, activity, mode of
transport, and travel arrangement). A range of variables, therefore, needs to be
taken into account in any determination of the impact of tourism. In economics,
impact methodology has a long pedigree, but the measurement of environmental
and social impacts has not progressed anywhere near as far. Indeed, in all forms of
impact analysis, it is important to distinguish tourism-induced events from other
agents of change, ensure that secondary and tertiary effects are considered, and
have a view as to what the situation was before tourism intervened.
In part, the difficulty of quantifying the environmental and social impacts of
tourism has delayed the development of impact methodologies. But the rising tide
of environmentalism has caught up with tourism and has lent support to the view
that in some cases the economic benefits of tourism are more than outweighed by
the environmental and social costs of tourism. Concepts such as ‘sustainable
tourism development’ and ‘the responsible consumption of tourism’ are seen by
many as the answer, along with the enhanced planning and management of
tourism. Nonetheless, the issue of management is closely related to the notion of
carrying capacity because a destination can be ‘managed’ to take any number of
visitors. Simply ‘hardening’ the environment and managing the visitor can
accommodate large volumes without an unacceptable decline in the environment
or the experience.
After all, tourism takes place within political and social contexts of power,
relationships, and governance. However, endeavors have been made to balance
between the positive and negative effects of tourism. This balance has also been
influenced by the events of the early years of the twenty-first century including the
terrorist attacks on New York and the bombings in Bali. It could be said that these
‘shocks’ to the tourism system have acted to reduce the impacts of tourism in some
parts of the world because levels of international travel have reduced and tourists
have switched to domestic travel or opted for destinations that are perceived as
‘safe.’
39
1. Economic dimensions
The economic advantages and disadvantages of tourism have been extensively
documented.International tourism is an invisible export in that it creates a flow of
foreign currency into the economy of a destination country, thereby contributing
directly to the current account of the balance of payments. Like other export
industries, this inflow of revenue creates business turnover, household income,
employment, and government revenue.
However, the generation process does not stop at this point. Some portion of the
money received by the business establishments, individuals, and government
agencies is re-spent within the destination economy, thereby creating further
rounds of economic activity. These secondary effects can in total considerably
exceed in magnitude the initial direct effects. Indeed any study purporting to show
the economic impact made by tourism must attempt to measure the overall effect
made by the successive rounds of economic activity generated by the initial
expenditure.
Domestic tourism has somewhat similar economic effects on the host regions of a
country. Whereas, however, international tourism brings a flow of foreign currency
into a country, domestic tourism redistributes currency spatially within the
boundaries of a country. From the point of view of a tourist region within a
country, however, domestic tourism is a form of invisible export. Money earned in
other regions is spent within the host region creating additional business revenue,
income, jobs, and revenue to local government. The process of secondary revenue,
income, and employment generation within the host region is then the same as for
a national economy. The principal difference during these secondary stages,
however, is that respective regions within a country are usually less economically
self-contained, and, hence, a far greater proportion of the money is likely to leak
out of the regional system into other regions.
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The secondary effects in respective regions are far lower in magnitude than for the
national economy as a whole. Moreover, tourism seems to be more effective than
other industries in generating employment and income in the less developed, often
peripheral, regions of a country where alternative opportunities for development
are more limited. Indeed, it is in these areas that tourism can make its most
significant impact. In such places, many of the local people are subsistence farmers
or fishermen, and if they become involved in the tourism industry their household
incomes increase by a very large amount. The growth of tourism in such areas may
provide also a monetary incentive for the continuance of many local crafts,
whereas the tourist hotels may create a market for local produce. Indeed, the
introduction of a tourism industry into such areas can have a proportionally greater
effect on the welfare of the resident population than the same amount of tourism
might have on the more developed parts of the same country.
The development of tourism, especially in a previously underdeveloped part of a
country, requires the existence of an infrastructure, as well as hotel accommodation
and other facilities specific to tourism. In many cases, these utilities are
economically indivisible in the sense that, in providing them for the tourism
industry, they at the same time become available for the use of local people. Thus,
in many countries, highways and airfields, constructed primarily to cater for
tourism, now provide an access to wider markets for many locally produced goods.
Unfortunately, in many cases the local people still receive little direct benefit from
these developments. This in essence is a problem of both physical and economic
distribution (i.e., of the extent to which, and the speed at which, these facilities
should be made more generally available).
Market forces do not necessarily ensure that development keeps pace with demand.
There is a need for realistic planning and the effective enforcement of planning
regulations to reduce possible conflicts of interest and, where appropriate, to
conserve unique and unusual features for the enjoyment of future generations of
visitors and residents alike. This is a lesson that has been learned rather late in
many developed countries. Superficially at least the economic ‘benefits’ of tourism
seem self-evident. Yet in recent years several writers have expressed reservations
about the nature and size of the benefits attributable to tourism and have become
increasingly skeptical about the potentialities of tourism as a tool for development
and growth and as a means of maximizing the welfare of the indigenous
population.
41
In cost-benefit terms, the economic benefits gained by a recipient country from
tourism have been outlined previously. Again, these benefits have to be offset
against the economic costs involved. Apart from the purchase of import
requirements, the earnings of expatriate workers, and the overseas expenses
incurred by the foreign companies concerned during both the construction and
operating phases of the development, none of which benefits the resident
population, the country itself incurs considerable costs internally. The real cost to
society of employing resources and factors of production in any one sector,
including the construction and operation of hotels and other associated tourism
services, is the value of the output that could have been obtained from their use in
other sectors of the economy.
Because capital and skilled labor are rarely, abundant in such countries, the
development of a tourism industry requires some of these scarce resources to be
diverted from their alternative uses. Admittedly, some factors of production might
otherwise be unemployed, in which case their use in tourism involves no real cost
to society, but in most cases the opportunity cost incurred is the value of the
production lost in other sectors. Whether or not tourism creates greater net benefits
to society than other forms of development depends primarily on the nature of the
country’s economy and what alternative forms of development are practicable.
Also, in the interests of diversification, it is sometimes considered desirable to
promote several forms of development even though one or more of these may offer
relatively lower net benefits.
There is a need for research in the following areas:
 A more balanced view of the economic effects of tourism demands a deeper
understanding of the human issues surrounding the impact made by tourism.
This requires joint work by economists, sociologists, political scientists, and
others. In particular, economists should work more closely with sociologists
in analyzing and quantifying the social costs and benefits of tourism.
 The long-term advantages and disadvantages of tourism can be better
understood if economists work more closely with environmentalists as well
as specialists in the various humanities.
 The economic analysis of tourism will be improved if more economists
apply their efforts to improving the methodology of existing techniques
rather than merely replicating them in a succession of case studies.
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Finally, in addition to the economic costs and benefits already mentioned, tourism
also imposes political, cultural, social, moral, and environmental changes on the
host country. The fact that such costs are rarely quantifiable in money terms has
prevented more all-embracing considerations of the impact of tourism on
destinations.
2. Political dimensions
Whereas the virtues of international tourism have been extolled as a major force
for peace and understanding between nations, the reality is often far removed from
this utopian image. Long-haul travel between developed and developing countries
is increasing annually and is bringing into direct contact with each other people
from widely different backgrounds and with very contrasting lifestyles and levels
of income. Where these disparities are very great, the political as well as the sociocultural consequences may be severe.
In extreme cases international tourism has imposed a form of ‘neo-colonial’ type
development on emerging nations. Quite simply, this neo-colonialism takes power
from the local and regional levels and concentrates it into the hands of
multinational companies. These companies will negotiate only at the national level
and expect any ‘problems’ to be solved by national governments, otherwise
investment will be withdrawn. At the operational level, the higher paid, more
‘respectable’ posts in hotels and other establishments are sometimes occupied by
expatriates who possess the necessary expertise and experience. Although the
lower paid, more menial jobs are frequently reserved for the indigenous
population, it is possible that such apparent discrimination can foster resentment
and can sour international relationships. Such development can even inhibit the
growth of a national consciousness in a country.
Domestic tourism, on the other hand, can act as an integrating force strengthening
national sentiment. Peoples in outlying areas are traditionally more preoccupied
with local village affairs and, in consequence, sometimes prove easy prey to
separatist agitators. If, by travel to other parts of the same country, such people can
begin to experience pride in their national heritage, a sense of national unity may
help to prevent regional fragmentation. In the more developed countries, visits to
national historical monuments, stately homes, and ancient battlefields form a
significant motivation for domestic travel, and similar developments are already
taking place in other parts of the world. In many developing countries, students and
groups of schoolchildren travel to other regions of their homelands, and such
movements of people can do much in the long run to strengthen the political unity
43
of a country. Provided that the individual characteristics and identities of the
various regions are not submerged and lost, such travel can benefit both tourists
and residents alike.
Unfortunately, contact between peoples of different backgrounds is not always
beneficial and may in some cases generate additional cultural, social, and moral
stresses. Although the mixing of people from different regions of a country can
produce a better understanding of each other’s way of life and a better appreciation
of problems specific to particular regions, it can at the same time create
misunderstandings and even distrust.
So far political scientists have contributed relatively little to the analysis of
tourism, and most of the work in this field has been concerned with the situation in
particular countries. Two major issues in tourism can be addressed by political
scientists.
1. A fuller understanding of the human impact of tourism on destination areas
can be achieved only by a much greater integration of the work of political
scientists with specialists in other disciplines and with tourism practitioners.
2. Knowledge of the impact of tourism on many aspects of human life and
organization can be improved if more political scientists are willing to use
their expertise to study tourism as an independent variable affecting areas of
concern in public administration, comparative politics, political theory,
international relations, and national politics. Specific work is needed in a
variety of areas but particularly welcome would be:
 Studies examining the influence of tourism on the roots of power in
communities and the implications for community-based investment
and the integration of tourism into the community. A major
contribution here would be in terms of examining the many political
interests involved in the development of tourism and the role of
conflict resolution and consensus models;
 Work examining the stage of destination life cycle at which
community involvement is most appropriate, and the stages at which
communities are most vulnerable to external political and commercial
decision making; and
 Further examination of policy impact analysis within a tourism and
event context.
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3. Socio-cultural dimensions
Although political effects are influential, it is difficult to disentangle them from the
social and cultural effects of tourism. For example, the influence of local social
structures, particularly the family, on both tourism development and policy in the
Greek islands and coastal areas have led to unplanned and rapid tourism
development, partly driven by the pressures of mass tourism and the downgrading
of agriculture as an economic sector.
Wide cultural differences occur between different countries and sometimes
between different regions within the same country. Indeed the existence of such
differences may be one of the principal stimulants of a tourism industry. In some
developing countries such traditional cultural behavior patterns of particular groups
of people form one focus of the tourism industry. Sometimes, however, differences
in physical appearance and, perhaps more importantly, differences in cultural
behavior between visitors and residents, are so great that mutual understanding is
replaced by antipathy.
The problem is exacerbated because tourists are, by definition, strangers in the
destination. Their dress codes and patterns of behavior are different to the residents
and, often, different from those that the tourist would display at home; inhibitions
are shed and the consequent problems of prostitution; drugs, gambling, and
sometimes vandalism ensue. As strangers, tourists are also vulnerable and fall
victim to robbery and crimes perpetrated by the local community who may see
these activities as a way to ‘redress the balance.’
When the cultural distinctions between the residents and tourists from more
prosperous countries and regions are strongly marked, local culture and customs
may be exploited to satisfy the visitor, sometimes at the expense of local pride and
dignity. Here the issue of staged authenticity is an important one where the host
destination is able to convince tourists that festivals and activities in the ‘front
region’ of the destination (e.g., public areas such as hotel lobbies or restaurants are
authentic and thus they protect the real ‘back region’, i.e., residents’ homes and
areas where life continues).
Tourists are increasingly motivated by a quest for authenticity. With good
management and planning, however, tourism can provide an impetus for the
preservation of ancient cultures, but too often the local way of life degenerates into
a commercially organized effigy of its former self. The traditional dances and the
45
Skilled craftwork give way to cheap imitations to satisfy the needs of the visitor
and to obtain money with the least possible effort. Indigenous peoples even access
new channels (such as archaeologists) to research and revive their traditional
practices. In some cases, this is merely an initial response and, later, tourism can
stimulate high quality revivals of crafts in particular. Nonetheless, there is a
constant tension in countries wishing to be part of the global tourism movement
but also to retain their cultural authenticity.
In primitive and isolated areas, the arrival of too many visitors can even cause local
people to leave their settlements and move to new areas where they can remain
undisturbed. To combat this in vulnerable areas such as North American Indian
reservations, ‘governing rules’ for visitors have been formulated. In more
developed areas, in extreme cases, tourism has disrupted completely the way of life
of the local people. The institution of the national park system in some parts of
Africa, although justifiable on the grounds of wildlife conservation and tourism,
has in some cases seriously affected the hunting and nomadic existence of the local
people. The problem is not confined, however, to developing countries.
Insufficient research has been carried out so far to disentangle the social and
cultural side effects of tourism development. Where the cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds of the tourists are very different from those of the local
population, the results of their intermingling may be favorable but it can be
explosive. The so-called demonstration effect of prosperity amid poverty may
create a desire among local people to work harder or to achieve higher levels of
education in order to emulate the way of life of the tourists. On the other hand, in
many cases the inability of the local people to achieve the same level of affluence
may create a sense of deprivation and frustration, which may find an outlet in
hostility and even aggression.
The merit of social interaction between tourists and the indigenous population as a
means toward fostering better understanding and goodwill between nations has
been extolled as a major social benefit obtained from tourism. Some writers have
rejected the term ‘demonstration effect’ and substituted the term ‘confrontation
effect.’ Perhaps the most significant and one of the least desirable by-products of
this confrontation is the effect on the moral standards of the local people. In
extreme cases, crime, prostitution, gambling, and drug traffic may be imported into
the holiday areas from other regions. Many of the social conventions and
constraints imposed on tourists in their home areas are absent when they visit
46
another region, and in consequence their moral behavior can deteriorate without
undue censure
Tourists have been blamed for assisting the spread of sexually transmitted diseases
and AIDS in many countries, but their contribution is probably very small in
relation to the part played by the local population. Indeed, visitors themselves do
not always emerge unscathed from their interaction with the local community.
Poor hygienic conditions in many tourist resorts create suitable conditions for the
spread of various intestinal diseases, typhoid, cholera, and hepatitis. Lack of
forethought and ignorance result in cases of severe sunstroke and skin cancer.
Inappropriate precautions result in infection by the AIDS virus, which already
affects a significant percentage of the population of some countries in Africa.
Governments, tour operators, airlines, and resort operators have a duty to visitors
and residents alike to provide adequate information to ensure that these risks are
known and minimized. Many of the other socio-cultural problems associated with
tourism are related to the degree of intensity of tourism development.
Although difficult to measure, there is a relationship between tourism density and
the growth of local resentment toward tourism. The flow of tourists into a region
increases the densities at which people live and overcrowds the facilities that
tourists share with the local population. Overcrowding reduces the value of the
holiday experience and creates additional strain for the resident population. In
extreme cases, local people may be debarred from enjoying the natural facilities of
their own country or region. Along part of the Mediterranean, for example, almost
half of the coastline has been acquired by hotels for the sole use of their visitors,
and in consequence the local publics denied easy access.
The literature on the socio-cultural effects of tourism is quite extensive, although
the majority of the contributions are concerned with specific cases in particular
countries.
The reactions of the host community to the influx of tourists and the changes that
tourism brings has been quite diverse, ranging from an active resistance to the
complete acceptance and even adoption of the tourists’ culture patterns. The choice
of strategies, deliberate or otherwise, to cope with the changes depends on both the
nature of the socio-cultural characteristics of the host community and the
magnitude of the changes themselves. His conclusion is that even in the case of a
previously homogenous community that adopts a particular response to tourism,
the community will itself become diversified and groups will emerge within the
community exhibiting very different responses to tourism developments.
47
Two major issues require the attention of sociologists.
1. There is a need for many more multidisciplinary studies where sociologists
can contribute the insights of their discipline to the study of particular
aspects of the tourism phenomenon or to the analysis of tourism in specific
countries and regions. Here there is a clear need for work to examine the
social-carrying capacity of destinations; work that must be closely linked to
community-based models of tourism planning and the ‘limits of acceptable
change’. Mechanisms of community integration and empowerment into the
planning process demand further research.
2. The quantification of the socio-economic costs and benefits of tourism
requires the joint efforts of sociologists and economists. At present this work
is being carried out almost entirely by economists, who are not always in the
best position to identify all of the phenomena requiring quantification or the
appropriate weightings to apply to each.
4. Environmental dimensions
The extent and nature of the environmental and ecological damage done by tourists
is related to the magnitude of the development and the volume of visitors, the
concentration of usage both spatially and temporally, the nature of the environment
in question, and the nature of the planning and management practices adopted
before and after development takes place. Excessive and badly planned tourism
development affects the physical environment of destinations. In many areas the
uncontrolled commercial exploitation of tourism has produced unsightly hotels of
alien design that intrude into the surrounding cultural and scenic environment. In
such cases the architectural design has been planned to meet the supposed wishes
of the visitor rather than to blend into the local environment. The effects,
moreover, are not solely scenic, because the waste and sewage from these
developments are often discharged in an unprocessed form and pollute the rivers
and seas of the holiday areas.
Poor and ill-conceived forms of tourism development also destroy irreplaceable
natural environments, the true and long-term benefits of which may not have been
properly evaluated. Thus, for example, marshlands and mangrove swamps, which
provide both outlets for flood control and also the basic ingredients for local
fishing industries, have been drained to create tourist marinas. Water resources
needed by local farmers and villages have been diverted for the use of tourist
hotels and golf courses, and, in some mountainous areas, forests have been
48
depleted to create ski slopes with much resultant soil erosion, flooding, and mud
slips causing substantial loss of life and damage to property.
Furthermore, the tourists themselves are often guilty of helping to destroy the
surrounding environment—the more attractive a site, then the more popular it
becomes and the more likely it is that it will be degraded by heavy visitation. In
many areas tourists, sometimes ignorantly, sometimes deliberately, damage crops
and farm equipment, frighten farm animals, and bestrew large quantities of garbage
over the countryside.
Lest the picture appear too bleak, it should be remembered that tourism, both
domestic and international, is at the same time a positive force in helping to
conserve the environment of the holiday regions. In the twenty-first century, for
example, new forms if tourism, such as ‘clean up’ tourism, are combating these
problems, leaving the destination in a better environmental condition than they
found it—a form of ‘enhanced sustainability.’ Many of the disadvantages
mentioned previously can be offset by high quality planning, design and
management, and by educating tourists to appreciate the environment. Tourists are
attracted to areas of high scenic beauty, regions of historical and architectural
interest, and areas with abundant and interesting wildlife. Some of the money spent
by tourists in the region, in particular the revenue received from entry fees, can be
used to conserve and improve the natural and manmade heritage (as is the case for
example in the Kenyan game reserves), whereas tourism may also provide a use
for otherwise redundant historic buildings.
There is obviously a need for research to examine the environmental impact of
tourism, particularly in regions and environments that have been neglected in past
work. Research on the environmental impacts of tourism is still ‘relatively
immature and a true multidisciplinary approach to investigate has yet to be
developed.’ A list of the research priorities in this area include:
 A need to better understand the elements that comprise environmental
attractiveness and quality;
 Integration of research in the physical sciences into tourism planning and
management, particularly in terms of the causes of impacts rather than their
effects; and
 Assessment of ‘the real impacts of tourism and the level of sustainability
achieved require in-depth longitudinal research and environmental,
economic and social auditing.’ This demands long-term funding
commitments.
49
3.1 Tourism and Sustainability
3.1. 1 towards a Definition of Sustainable Tourism
The debate over the concept of sustainable tourism is a phenomenon of the 1990s.
However, their origins lie in the wider concept of sustainable development which
has been with us for many centuries. There is no widely accepted definition of
sustainable tourism. It is a form of tourism which meets the needs of tourists, the
tourism industry, and host communities today without compromising the ability of
future generations to meet their own needs.
It is usually thought vital that any definition of sustainable tourism emphasizes the
environmental, social and economic elements of the tourism system.
Sustainable tourism means tourism which is economically viable but does not
destroy the resources on which the future tourism will depend, notably the physical
environment and the social fabric of the host community.
Some observers feel that trying to produce definitions of sustainable tourism is
dangerous because (general definitions) can give the impressions of simplicity in
what is a complex area. Tight definitions might also limit the range of issues to be
covered under the heading of sustainable tourism. …definitions tend to be
irrelevant, misleading and over-changing.
Sustainable tourism is tourism which develops as quickly as possible, taking
account of current accommodation capacity, the local population and the
environment….the development of tourism and new investment in the tourism
sector should not detract/take away from tourism itself….New tourism facilities
should be integrated with the environment.
The Rationale for Sustainable Tourism
A list of benefits of sustainable tourism has been compiled as follows:
o Sustainable tourism encourages an understanding of the impacts of tourism
on the natural, cultural and human environments,
o Sustainable tourism ensures a fair distribution of costs and benefits,
o Tourism generates employment, both directly in the tourism sector, and in
various support and resources management sectors,
o Tourism stimulates profitable domestic industries-hotels and other
lodging/accommodation facilities, restaurants and other food services,
transportation systems, handicrafts and guide services.
o Tourism generates foreign exchange for the country, and injects capital and
new money in the local economy.
o Tourism diversifies the local economy, particularly in the rural areas where
agricultural employment is sporadic or insufficient.
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o Sustainable tourism seeks decision making among all the segments of the
society, including local populations, so that tourism and other resource users
can coexist. It incorporates planning which ensure tourism development
appropriate to the carrying capacity of the ecosystem.
o Tourism stimulates improvements to local transportation, communications
and other basic community infrastructure.
o Tourism creates recreational facilities which can be used by local
communities as well as domestic and international visitors. It also
encourages and helps pay for preservation of archaeological sites, and
historic buildings and districts.
o Nature tourism encourages productive use of lands which are marginal for
agriculture, enabling large tracts to remain covered in natural vegetation.
o Cultural tourism enhances local community esteem and provides the
opportunity for greater understanding and communication among peoples of
diverse backgrounds.
o Environmentally sustainable tourism demonstrates the importance of natural
and cultural resources to community’s economic social and wellbeing and
can help to preserve them.
o Sustainable tourism monitors, assesses, and manages the impacts of tourism,
develops reliable methods of environmental accountability, and counters any
negative effects.
The apparent growing interest of tourism organizations in sustainable tourism has
been fueled by the advocacy of:
o Professional bodies,
o Pressure groups including the Campaign for
Environmentally Responsible Tourism, and
o The media
The Scope of Sustainable Tourism
Sustainable tourism is clearly a broad, ill-defined area that encompasses many of
the elements of the tourism system. Hence, sustainable tourism encompasses the
following areas:
o Pollution-air, water, noise,
o Resource use-water, land, food
o Wildlife- safari/expedition, hunting, zoos, habitats
o Operational practices of tourism organizations- recycling, purchasing, waste
disposal, energy conservation
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o The host community- distribution of the benefits of tourism, degree of
control over local tourism
o The tourist- concerns, behavior
o The industry- self-regulation, codes of practice, relations with the host
community, sustainable tourism related initiatives, employment policies
o Public sector policy- funding, legislation, planning
o Conservation policies and practices- landscapes, townscapes, wildlife
There are multitudes of stakeholders in the field of sustainable tourism. The major
areas are: The host community, Governmental bodies at various levels, Tourism
industry (with all its sub industries), Tourists, Media, Experts and academic
associations and Voluntary/ philanthropic sector
3.1.2 Sustaining Culture and Life Styles /Social sustainability
The social dimension of tourism has been given less attention in the sustainable
tourism debate. Perhaps this is because the socio-cultural impacts of tourism
usually occur slowly overtime. They are also largely invisible and difficult to
define. But the social impacts of tourism are definitely present, with little or no
opportunity to reverse the change once it has taken place.
When the social impact of sustainable tourism has been considered, the focus has
normally been the ‘host community’. There has been a strong- almost paternalisticdesire to ‘protect’ the host communities from the negative effects of tourism.
Some ‘social’ issues involved in sustainable tourism for various stakeholders
The tourist
 Who can and who can’t afford a holiday?
 Visiting destinations with poor human rights records
 The need to feel safe and secure
 Interactions with other tourists and host community
 Attitudes towards staff
 Exploiting low wage earners to enjoy cheap holiday
Foreign Tour Operators
 Relations with local tourism industry and host community
 Exploiting low cost economies to reduce their costs
 Images and expectations created by their promotional activities
 Doing business with destinations with poor human rights
 Doing business with entrepreneurs who may have a poor record as
employers
 Lack of long term commitment to local communities
52
Destination governments
 Devoting resources to tourism that could otherwise be allocated to other
priorities (health, education)
 Subsidizing the costs of holidays for tourists
 Creating images of the destination for tourists through promotional activities
 Degree and nature of regulation of the tourism industry
 Attitudes to traditional cultures and indigenous people in the destination
 Deciding how tax revenues from tourists will be used.
Local Tourism Industry
 Human resource issues, such as payment, working conditions, and
promotion opportunities,
 Influencing government decision makers,
 Representation of local cultures for tourists,
Host community
 Attitudes towards and relations with tourists,
 Level of involvement and degree of influence on public sector decision
making in relation to tourism,
 Impact of tourism on the society and culture,
 Strength of and commitment towards conserving the society and culture
The social dimensions of the desire to develop more sustainable forms of tourism
is best illustrated when presenting the four E’s,
Equity- ensuring that all stakeholders in tourism are treated fairly,
Equal opportunities-for both the employees involved in the tourism industry
and the tourists,
Ethics-this involves the tourism industry being honest with tourists and
ethical in dealing with its suppliers. Also, destination governments being
ethical towards their host population and tourists, and
Equal partners- tourists treating those who serve them as equal partners, and
not as inferiors.
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3.2.
Environmental/ Ecological Sustainability
The scope of the environment in relation to tourism falls under five types. The
natural resources, Wildlife, The natural environment, The framed environment and
The built environment .This distinction is partly artificial and that there are strong
links among them.
The Natural Resources: Tourism makes use of a range of natural resources, and in
many cases, the core attractions of destination’s product may be natural resources,
such as:
 Clean, pure mountain air
 Land
 The mineral waters which have healing properties and are the focus of spa
development
 The water in lakes and seas, if it is relatively warm and clean, and therefore
suitable for bathing.
Yet while tourism can provide an economic rationale for protecting such resources,
it can also be a threat to their survival. For example, think about the growth of a
new resort complex on a coast in an arid coastal region. The development could:
 Divert water from the local community to fill the swimming pool, provide
showers and irrigate the golf course.
 Pollute the sea with sewage and fuel from the boats in the marina.
 Mean building on land, thus destroying the vegetation and disrupting the
wildlife which was previously found on the site.
The Natural Environment: The natural landscape represents the core of the
tourism product in many areas, including
o Natural forests like the Amazonian rainforests
o Regions which attract tourists because of their rivers and lakes
o Mountains which are perceived to be particularly beautiful.
The Farmed Environment: The farmed environment can cover a diverse range of
agricultural systems, including, for example:
o Rice fields of south east Asia
o Traditional mixed farming such as wine and olives being cultivated
alongside the grazing of sheep and goats.
o Mono-cultural cash crops such as bananas of Caribbean islands or coffee
plantation in Ethiopia.
54
o Nomadic communities of people engaged in livestock rising such as the
Massai people in Kenya or Afar people in Ethiopia.
o Areas where timber is farmed, e.g. SE Asia
Wildlife: In the context of this chapter, the concept of wildlife has a number of
dimensions as follows:
A. Areas where wildlife is a major attraction for tourists, including:
 The big game of Kenya, Tanzania and Botswana
 The bird life of many countries
 Natural woodland and unusual flora in the Amazon basin
 Unusual creatures such as the giant turtles of the Galapagos Islands.
B. Marine life which attracts tourists to take trips o the sea to view it, such as the
whales of New Zealand, Iceland.
C. Tourism which is based on hunting wildlife including fishing
D. Visitor attractions such as zoos
E. Traditional events which tourists are invited to attend which involve wildlife,
notably bullfighting in Spain.
The Built Environment: The built environment exists at three levels:
i. Individual buildings and structures-castles, monuments, obelisks
ii. Small scale settlements such as villages
iii. Large scale settlements such as towns and cities
Manners to improve the relationship between tourism and the environment might
involve the following.
1. Holistic thinking- the concept of ecosystem
Usually, we think about the environment in terms of separate/self-contained
compartments such as wildlife, rainforests, mountains, etc. however, the
environment is a complex phenomenon, made up of a set of inter-relationships
between the physical environment and the flora and fauna species, and human
beings are one of those species. To manage the link between tourism and the
environment more effectively, we need to recognize this concept of ‘ecosystem’
and plan accordingly.
2. Regulation of the negative impacts
There is a clear need for legislation and a system of land-use planning and building
control to reduce the negative impacts of tourism on the environment. However,
regulation can help prevent negative outcomes, but can do little to stimulate the
creation of positive impacts.
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3. Encouraging good practice
It is more pro-active and positive to encourage good practice rather than merely
preventing bad practice. In relation to the built environment, this could mean, for
example, ensuring that all new developments are:
 Built on an appropriate site, in terms of the existence of on-site services and
infrastructure.
 Of a suitable scale for the sight and locality.
 Constructed of recycled and locally sourced materials, wherever possible.
 Designed to be energy efficient.
 Developed in a way that minimizes the use of resources like water, and the
disruption of wildlife habitats.
4. Raising awareness among the tourists and the industry
5. Paying a price that covers the environmental costs of tourism
Tourism causes environmental problems which costs money to solve them. The
prices paid by the industry for the services they buy, and the tourists for their
holiday, must be high enough to ensure that money is available to cover the
environmental costs of tourism. Otherwise, either the local community will have to
subsidize the tourist or the environmental problems will not be tackled.
6. Maintain a balance between conservation and development
We need to find a balance between conserving the environment as it is today and
the development which is needed to provide jobs and social benefits.
3.3.
Economic Sustainability
In the debate over sustainable tourism, the economic dimension is often given
relatively scant attention compared to the environmental issue. Yet tourism is an
economic phenomenon of great potency worldwide. It
o Is the major industry and foreign currency earner in many developing
countries.
o Is the basis of the growth of many transnational corporations.
o Accounts for a significant proportion of the annual disposable income of
many people in the so-called developed countries.
o Swallows up billions of pounds every year in public sector infrastructure
investment.
Developing more sustainable forms of tourism will involve several main priorities
in economic terms.
56
i.
ii.
iii.
iv.
v.
vi.
Developing forms of tourism which optimize the economic benefits of
tourism while minimizing the economic costs.
Ensuring that the benefits of tourism are spread as widely as possible
throughout the host community, particularly amongst the most economically
disadvantaged sections of the local community.
Making sure that the tourist pays a fair price for their holiday experience.
Taking action to share the costs of attracting and meeting the needs of
tourists fairly between the tourism industry and the government agencies in
the destination.
Protecting local businesses from unfair competition from larger, externally
owned enterprises which have little commitment to the destination.
Reducing leakages from the local economy.
Economic Trends and Sustainability
The problem for sustainable tourism is that several economic trends are not
compatible with the concept of sustainable tourism, including:
o Globalization: the world is becoming one big market place, where
everything is possible for everyone. The trend towards globalization which
is leading towards product standardization and a reduction to national,
regional and local cultural and geographical differences. This is threatening
diversity which is implicit in the concept of sustainability.
o Multinationals: are those big business organizations having many branches
in different parts of the world. E.g. Sheraton Addis and Sheraton Nairobi.
The rise of multinational enterprises (MNEs) is also a potential threat to the
idea of sustainability in tourism. MNEs have the advantage of economies of
scale against local businesses which make them (local businesses) out of the
market and competition. MNEs are also less committed to the area.
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3.4.
The Tools of Sustainability in Tourism
Area protection
As applied to the field of tourism and for the purposes of this chapter, we use the
term ‘tools or techniques of sustainability’ in a general sense. Even the designation
of an area of land as a national park or as some other category of protected area can
be seen as a tool of sustainable tourism. Those countries with high proportions of
their land area under some form of legislated protection might be considered as
practicing more sustainable tourism than those with low proportions of their land
protected. This assumption can of course be questioned. Some governments, for
instance, have designated large areas of land as national parks or wildlife reserves
but have failed to provide the resources required to afford an appropriate level of
protection on the ground. Guatemala and Brazil may be cited as examples here, but
they are not alone. It is difficult to blame such governments—they simply do not
have the capital resources to pay for land protection, which after all has become a
fashionable policy to pursue only in recent years.
Indeed, the very idea of protected areas begs the questions of who is protecting the
area for whom and from whom. Many such areas have been so designated as a
result of the tide of environmental consciousness that has been promoted,
especially by environmentalists and conservationists, over the last thirty years (see
Figure 6.3, p. 177). In 1994, for instance, WWF International began a fundraising
and recruitment campaign with the patronizing slogan: ‘He’s destroying his own
rainforest. To stop him, do you send in the army or an anthropologist?’ The
advertisement that followed was, as Survival International observed, ‘glibly “pronature” and implicitly anti-people’ (Survival International, 1996:1). This example
is detailed further in Box 6.2 (p. 174).
This consciousness portrays areas of natural beauty as wilderness areas, unspoiled
by contact with humans, and reserved for visits by the ‘discerning’ and
appreciative urban dweller in need of rest and recuperation. This view
conveniently ignores both the indigenous inhabitants of such areas and the
proportion of the national population in search of and in need of land for survival.
Lorenzo Cardenal, a Nicaraguan environmentalist, has characterized this approach
58
as ‘parquismo(Cardenal, 1991). He suggests that a progressive, integrated
approach should replace it, referring to the integration of humanity and nature
rather than their separation or compartmentalization as typified by parquismo.
Industry regulation
Regulation of the tourism industry can come from local governments in the form of
planning restrictions, national governments in the form of laws relating to business
practice, professional associations in the form of articles of affiliation, and
international bodies in the form of international agreements and guidelines to
governments. It is axiomatic that government legislation is intrinsically political in
multi-party democracies. International agreements may also be explicitly or
implicitly political, especially when they stem from a body such as the World
Tourism Organization (WTO) whose ‘overall goal is the promotion and
development of travel and tourism as a means of stimulating business and
economic development’ (WTO, 1991).
Other international agreements and guidelines, especially those stemming from the
work of the scientific community, such as agreements to reduce carbon dioxide
emissions, may suffer from a lack of commitment without statutory legislation on
the part of national governments and a difficulty in enforcement. Regulation
imposed on the industry by industry associations is normally promoted as a more
effective way of preventing unethical or illegal activity than is government
legislation. In 1986 the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) produced a set
of Principles of Professional Conduct and Ethics. They added weight to these with
the threat of disciplinary action against those failing to live up to the
responsibilities embodied in the set of Principles. With this type of discipline, the
industry tries to promote voluntary self-regulation and to fend off what it sees as
restrictive government legislation. On the one hand, it seems to be an intrinsic part
of the doctrine of monetarism that any form of regulation should be voluntary and
Conducted by the industry itself. This accompanies other planks of the doctrine,
such as the right to corporate privacy, reduction in public expenditure, transfer of
national assets from public to private hands, deregulation of industry, and
wholesale support for the notion of ‘free trade’ which is currently sweeping the
59
globe ‘as the key to planetary prosperity and environmental protection’ (Carothers,
1993:15). On the other hand:
It has to be appreciated that tourism is an industry and, as such, is much like
any other industry…. There is no more reason to expect tourism, on its own
accord, to be ‘responsible’, than there is to expect the beer industry to
discourage drinking or the tobacco industry to discourage smoking—even
though many agree that such steps would be socially desirable. (Butler,
1991:208)
The tool of regulation is clearly one which allows specific groups to take control of
the industry. The argument around regulation represents a power struggle between
different interest groups. So should the industry be regulated, presumably by a
branch of government? Or should it be left to regulate itself voluntarily?
Visitor management techniques
A range of visitor management techniques exists for use by those who cater for and
control the movements of tourists. Some of these are listed in Box 4.11. There are
several texts which outline these in depth (Lavery, 1971; Elkington and Hailes,
1992; Lindberg and Hawkins, 1993; Witt and Moutinho, 1994).
Worthy of particular note is the current trend towards the restriction of motorized
vehicles in areas normally attractive to lovers of the beauty of nature. On the
premise that the motor car as currently run is inherently unsustainable, this trend
would seem like a move which the scientific community, the hosts, and the
Planners could all agree works towards the goal of sustainability.1 This particular
issue is currently of topical concern in countries like the UK and USA where levels
of car ownership and use are high. It is also a topical issue in many cities in Third
World countries, although in national parks and protected areas in the Third World
the problems have generally not yet prompted the same level of concern as those of
the national parks in the developed countries. There are exceptions to this, as for
instance in the case of the highway currently being built through the Metropolitan
National Park in Panama City, the largest area of tropical rainforest within the
boundaries of a city. Wildlife safari vehicles in East Africa have also created
problems sufficient to be widely noticed and publicized in recent years.
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Another interesting visitor management technique is that of differential charging
for foreign and national visitors. Such a policy is not always understood by the
visiting professionals from the north, but makes explicit the condition of local
participation as an inherent aspect of sustainability.
Environmental impact assessment (EIA)
A technique which has attained fissionability and respect relatively recently is that
of environmental impact assessment (EIA). It has been described as ‘Among the
foremost tools available to national decision makers in their efforts to prevent
further environmental deterioration’ (Sniffen, 1995). But it can be used at more
than just the national scale: ‘the EIA process is seen as a means not only of
identifying potential impacts, but also of enabling the integration of the
environment and development’ (Green and Hunter, 1992:36).
According to Tourism Concern, ‘For the tourism industry to develop and survive in
a sustainable and responsible manner, an anticipatory approach is essential’
(1992:34–5). This is eminently sensible, as is Goodall’s pronouncement that ‘Only
where the result of the EIA clearly demonstrates that the development will be
environmentally responsible and sustain the destination’s primary tourism
resources should planning permission to proceed normally be granted’ (1992:62).
But EIAs can be manipulated like most other techniques. Their results are
responsive to those factors used as inputs. The choice of input, then, is crucial, and
it is vital that we recognize that ‘If we are to account for environment,… then the
idea of a politically neutral social science has to be dropped’ (Mulberg, 1993:110).
Mulberg’s statement is a reference to the externalization of unquantifiable factors
by the practitioners (accountants) of capitalist economics. For ‘externalization’ we
could read ‘ignoring’, a practice which has indirectly led to many of the world’s
worst environmental catastrophes.
Carrying capacity calculations
Carrying capacity calculations have already been briefly discussed in this chapter
(pp. 106–9), and an example given in Box 4.8. It is worth adding, however, that
Mulberg’s point about political and social neutrality, which can be extended to
include commercial neutrality, is as applicable to carrying capacity calculations as
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it is to EIAs. Calculations can be manipulated by, for instance, tour operators,
protected area officials, officers of conservation organizations, or government
officers, to promote either a destination’s exclusivity (a low carrying capacity) or
its ability and potential to absorb more visitors (a high carrying capacity). Both
these strategies might be seen as in the interests of different parties under different
circumstances. And it is interesting to note how upper thresholds of visitors,
arrived at as a result of carrying capacity calculations, have increased as time
progresses.
It should also be remarked that the notion of carrying capacity reflects the
prevailing relationships of dominance between First World and Third World.
Management of the carrying capacity of a particular national park or other
protected area gives considerable power to those who have that control. And
control of the technique itself offers academics their own degree of power in the
debate.
Consultation/participation techniques
Stewart and Hams (1991) argue that ‘Sustainable development must be built by,
through and with the commitment of local communities. The requirements of
sustainable development cannot merely be imposed; active participation by local
communities is needed.’ In the field of tourism, those who speak of sustainable
development almost always include the participation of the host communities as
one essential element or principle of that sustainability. For this reason, techniques
for promoting public participation and involvement in development projects are
included in Box 4.11 as one type of tool available for the measurement of
sustainability. Furthermore, techniques for measuring public perceptions, attitudes
and values (such as contingent valuation techniques and stated preference surveys)
are seen here as a necessary stage in the measurement of sustainability.
Techniques which allow for consultation and participation (of those people
affected) are still young in their development and flawed. They are vulnerable to
the type of distortion and bias which is introduced in the selection of inputs. They
can also be hijacked to give an appearance of consultation with local people while
in reality there is only consultation with so-called ‘experts’. Additionally, the point
should be made that talk of consultation with local people has become fashionable,
62
especially among conservationists; but as Survival International point out in
relation to the role of indigenous people in managing protected areas, ‘This looks
good on paper, but they are hardly an adequate substitute for land ownership rights
and self-determination’ (1996:2).
Attempts to value social costs and benefits include surveys of public perceptions
of, expectations of and attitudes towards a range of social problems and
manifestations such as shopping opportunities, access to recreational facilities,
noise levels, litter, standard of living, and vandalism. Measurements of perceptions
are placed on a scale, generally extending from highly positive (strongly in favour
of) to deeply negative (strongly opposed to). Perceptions, attitudes, expectations
and values, however, vary from person to person and from group to group.
Difficulties therefore arise with the interpretation of results, which often appear
weak and ambiguous, but which are nevertheless often used and excused as
participation and consultation.
Codes of conduct
Recent years have seen a rising tide of codes of conduct for use in the tourist
industry. Their design, promotion, contents, relevance, uptake, effectiveness and
monitoring have become important features of the industry and are all worthy of
attention. There are two general points that can be made about almost all codes.
First, they attempt to influence attitudes and modify behaviour. Second, almost all
codes are voluntary; statutory codes, backed by law, are very rare (Mason and
Mow forth, 1995).
Many codes of conduct are very impressive in their range of issues and in their
depth of discussion and information. But they can be abused by the industry as
marketing ploys or as veils extending over many of its impacts. There exist a
number of problems associated with the use of codes of conduct which can be
summarized under the following descriptions: the monitoring and evaluation of
codes of conduct; the conflict between codes as a form of marketing and codes as
genuine attempts to improve the practice of tourism; regulation or voluntary selfregulation of the industry; and the variability between codes and the need for
coordination.
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Sustainability indicators
The youngest of all the tools of sustainability are those now described as
sustainability indicators, the development of which arose from the Rio Summit of
1992. It is now commonly accepted that conventional indicators of ‘well-being’
(such as gross national product— GNP) give a restricted, partial and one-sided
view of development. It is the search for indicators which show the linkages
between economic, social and environmental issues and the power relationships
behind them which has given rise to the development of so-called ‘sustainability
indicators’. Thus far, such indicators have been developed as trials and are
currently applied only at local authority level. One important aspect that has been
built into these indicators from their inception has been the participation of local
community members in their formulation. There is no doubting here the genuine
and diligent attempt to promote such participation as part of the development of
sustainability indicators. There is also no doubting that it is precisely this
participation which has led to the use of indicators which are much less remote and
much more comprehensible to people than are nationally and internationally
derived measures such as GNP, gross domestic investment, and the like.
But their acceptance will face an uphill struggle. The measures most frequently
used at the level of the national economy relate precisely to that: the economy.
Other relevant factors are externalized (that is, ignored). Moreover, their use is
well entrenched and perpetuated by conservative media which accept new ideas
with great reluctance unless they are forced to do so by a public that has already
moved ahead. The need to include the social, cultural, environmental and aesthetic
factors which our commercial world and controllers normally externalize has not
led to a quick redress for such factors, despite public debate of the issue.
Furthermore, it has yet to be proved that these more locally accountable, more
relevant and less remote indicators are less likely to be subject to bias and
manipulation to suit the ends of those who use them.
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WHITHER SUSTAINABILITY IN TOURISM?
It is worth restating here the point that the notion of sustainability has to be taken
beyond its current bland usage and interpretation, as best illustrated by politicians
and daily media pundits. If it remains a ‘buzzword’ which can be so widely
interpreted that people of very different outlooks on a given issue can use it to
support their cause, then it will suffer the same distortions to which olderestablished words such as ‘freedom’ and ‘democracy’ are subjected. Both of these
terms, and others, are frequently and regularly distorted by most of our
politicians—see Chomsky (1989), Postman (1985), and Curran et al. (1986) for
analyses of such distortions.
We move on, then, to the question of how sustainability should be taken beyond its
current usage and how it should be given a substantial, tangible and unequivocal
meaning. This further leads us on to the question of whether we should be
promoting the principles and tools of sustainability, as outlined above, towards this
end. It has already been pointed out that the principles of sustainable tourism are
open to manipulation in the service of operators and others in the industry. That is
not to say that the principles are not worthy of attention by all those involved in the
industry; but it does suggest that the motives of those who apply them should also
be scrutinized.
On the assumption that the use of the techniques of measurement and description
will help a move towards a clearer, workable and meaningful analysis of
sustainability, awareness of the limitations and immaturity of the techniques is also
necessary. This means that they are susceptible to manipulation for partisan
purposes. In turn, this raises the need to politicize the tourism industry in order to
promote its movement towards sustainability and away from its tendency to
dominate, corrupt and transform nature, culture and society. The politicization of
the tourism industry would require a clarification and emphasis of the associations
between the prevailing power structures and the control of tourism developments,
and a clear linking of the goal of reducing uneven and unequal development with
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The policies pursued by the tourism industry and the governments and
international institutions which promote it.
Without this politicization, sustainability will continue to be hijacked by the
prevailing model of development, capitalism, and will increasingly fall into the
service of the controllers of capital, the boards of directors of major transnational
companies and other organizations which manage the industry. This tendency has
already become apparent. And as the new forms of tourism gather ground and
increase their share of the tourism market, as seems likely, the current power
structure and the processes by which power is held and retained will attempt to
subsume them, as has already been shown. Concurrent with this trend in many
areas of the Third World, however, is a grassroots groundswell to take control of
and exploit tourist opportunities at the community level. Currently this tendency
seems to assume automatically that ‘sustainability’ is their prerogative, and use of
the term is as loose as it is in other tendencies. Automatic assumptions are often
used to cover over awkward questions. The existence of these different tendencies
highlights the debate between a tourism that is industry-controlled and one that is
community controlled.
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Chapter IV: New Trends in Tourism
4.1. Ecotourism
The emergence of ecotourism in the mid-1980s is closely associated with the
Mexican consultant Hector Ceballos-Lascuráin, who defined the sector as
involving travel ‘to relatively undisturbed or uncontaminated natural areas with the
specific object of studying, admiring and enjoying the scenery and its wild plants
and animals, as well as any existing cultural aspects (both past and present) found
in these areas’. This oft-quoted definition captures two criteria – nature-based
attractions and educational or appreciative motivations – that have since become
almost universally recognized as two of the three core prerequisites of an
ecotourism experience (Blamey, 1997, 2001; Wearing and Neil, 1999; Page and
Dowling, 2002). The third criterion, environmental and socio-cultural
sustainability, is implicit in most of the definitions that have been subsequently put
forward. Epler Wood, for example, defines ecotourism as ‘purposeful travel to
natural areas to understand the cultural and natural history of the environment,
taking care not to alter the integrity of the ecosystem while producing economic
opportunities that make the conservation of natural resources financially beneficial
to local citizens’. Fennell regards ecotourism as ‘a sustainable form of natural
resource-based tourism that focuses primarily on experiencing and learning about
nature and which is ethically managed to be low-impact, non-consumptive and
locally oriented’. Each of these three criteria will now be considered in more detail.
A. Nature-based attractions
The nature-based or ecological attractions that are the focus of ecotourism can
range from an Emphasis on an entire ecosystem such as a rainforest or coral reef to
selected components of the ecosystem. In the latter scenario, which may be
described as an elemental approach, ecotourism destinations focus on non-captive
charismatic megafaunasuch as giant pandas (Sichuan Province, China), quetzals
(Central America) or mountain gorillas (Rwanda, Uganda and Congo DR) that are
especially attractive to ecotourists. More rarely, charismatic megaflorasuch as
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redwood trees (California) or the giant Rafflesiaflower (Indonesia and Malaysia)
are featured. The former scenario, in contrast, can be described as a holistic
approach in which these mega fauna and mega flora are contextualized within their
ecosystem, but are given no more weight than any other interdependent element of
that ecosystem.
Many ecotourism definitions, including that of Ceballos-Lascuráin (see above),
recognize
The role of associated cultural influences as secondary ecotourism attractions. This
role may be cursory in the elemental approach, but central in the holistic approach,
given the argument that direct and indirect human influences critically affect the
dynamics of any contemporary ecosystem and therefore form a vital part of
ecosystems’ interpretation and understanding. This is especially relevant in the
case of indigenous territories. Hence, the cultural component is an essential and not
just secondary part of the ecotourism product in destinations such as Uluru
(Australia) and the Queen Charlotte Islands (Canada). The incorporation of the
cultural element more broadly also implies that ecotourism venues are not
restricted to ‘relatively undisturbed’
Settings as argued by Ceballos-Lascuráin, but can potentially be located within
substantially modified environments as well.
B. Educational interaction
Motivations of education and learning about the natural environment distinguish
ecotourism from other nature-based tourism products such as beach resorts, where
the natural environment provides a convenient setting for the fulfillment of
hedonistic or similar impulses. As with nature-based attractions, educational
opportunities and experiences can be ranged along a continuum. At one pole, these
attempt to foster deep understanding through interpretation that conveys complex
messages and seeks to transform the attitudes and behavior of the audience along a
more environmentalist-oriented trajectory. This model, which is evident in the
whale watching tours at Kaikoura, New Zealand, aligns with the holistic approach
to nature-based attractions described above.
At the other pole, shallow understanding is conveyed through relatively simple and
basic messages that focus on charismatic mega fauna. In either case, ecotourism
product managers should provide appropriate interpretation, or at least maintain
conditions (e.g. peacefulness, non-interference) that allow Eco tourists to pursue a
more self-directed or contemplative path of learning.
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C. Environmental and sociocultural sustainability
Ecotourism is the only high profile tourism sector where environmentally and
socioeconomically
Sustainable practices, or at least the credible attempt to engage in such practices,
are widely regarded as a prerequisite. It is because of this explicit accountability
and the issues of credibility it raises, that ecotourism is referred to in the title of
this chapter as the conscience of sustainable tourism. The reference to credible
attempts is from Weaver (2001b), who regards as unrealistic any definition that
requires the ecotourism product to be sustainable, given the challenges and issues
of sustainability discussed. These render it effectively impossible to say that any
particular ecotourism product or destination is, without doubt, sustainable,
especially if these products and destinations involve high order protected areas or
similar venues that merit a strong approach to sustainability. Rather, the litmus test
of ecotourism is the application of best practice strategies to
attain optimal sustainability outcomes and the timely remediation of any
inadvertent negative impacts that become apparent to management.
As with other sectors, the engagement with sustainability within ecotourism can
range from a ‘basic’ model that focuses on sustaining the on-site direct impact
status quo, to a deeper approach that focuses on the enhancement of the site and its
surroundings (potentially at a global level), while also taking into account the
amelioration of indirect impacts and the effects of external forces and systems.
Potential costs and Benefits of Ecotourism
All tourism entails costs as well as benefits and ecotourism is no exception. What
distinguishes ecotourism from other forms of tourism in this respect, however, is
that to qualify as such, every effort must be made to ensure that environmentally
and sociocultural sustainable practices are undertaken. Hence, most of the negative
impacts that do arise from ecotourism are inadvertent, while the positive impacts
are generally deliberate. The sub-sections below adopt this perspective and do not
consider negative impacts associated with products that are deliberately or
inadvertently labeled as ecotourism but do not meet any or all of the three core
criteria.
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In potential perhaps more than practice, ecotourism’s greatest environmental
benefit is its role in providing a direct financial incentive for the preservation of
relatively undisturbed natural habitats that would otherwise be exposed to more
exploitative and profitable (at least in the short term) activities. This effect can also
be indirect, as demonstrated by efforts to protect terrestrial watersheds in parts of
the Philippines from logging in order to protect the clarity and quality of water in
an area used for marine ecotourism. Ecotourism revenues, additionally, are a
critical source of the funding required to undertake basic protected area
management as well as park system expansion and enhancement. The potential of
these revenues to increase is demonstrated by the observation that a $1 increase to
a $4 park entry fee will likely have no dissuasive effect on a potential inbound
visitor spending $2000 on the trip to that park, but represents a very large
growth in revenue flow for a heavily visited park and one that is amenable to
further increases of similar magnitude. All of these effects, it should be noted, are
more likely to be realized from the economies of scale generated by soft rather
than hard ecotourism, although the individual hard Eco tourist may be willing to
pay more in terms of entry fees, licenses, etc. for their experience.
Other potential environmental benefits derive from the capacity of ecotourism to
foster the rehabilitation of modified spaces and to mobilize Eco tourists as
volunteers (e.g. to plant trees, maintain trails and serve as informal auxiliary
police) and a potent source of on-site and ongoing donations. This tendency may
also extend to local residents who take on the role of environmental advocates and
stewards in order to maintain the economic benefits of ecotourism.
Deliberate environmental costs from ecotourism, incurred mainly by the removal
of native vegetation in the construction of ecologies, mediating attractions, trails
and other footprint facilities, are usually regarded as negligible and acceptable
because of the small area affected and the possibilities that exist for site softening
and rehabilitation. Inadvertent costs are mainly associated with the effects of
wildlife viewing and the hiking; driving, riding, flying, boating or swimming that
is carried out in order to access wildlife. A large and growing body of empirical
evidence supports the first assertion. For example, ecotourists are alleged to have
spread human diseases to mountain gorillas in east Africa, while whale watching
has been linked to a wide variety of behavioral changes in targeted cetaceans.
Thorough reviews of the literature pertaining to birds and terrestrial wildlife are
provided respectively by Buckley (2004b,c). The second assertion is also well
supported, as for example in research by Buckley et al. (2004)
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demonstrating the role of ecotourists in facilitating the spread of dieback disease in
Australian vegetation and in Warnken and Buckley (2004), who found increased E.
coli bacteria levels in a remote swimming hole in Lamington National Park,
Australia. Notably, it is the harder ecotourist segment that is most likely to be
inadvertently culpable for the spread of such exotic pathogens into relatively
remote areas, although it can be counter-argued that soft ecotourists account for a
much larger proportion of all wildlife–human interactions and hence stresses
arising from such contact.
With regard to the elemental approach toward natural attractions, Weaver (2002)
cites the dangers that could emerge from constructing implicit or explicit
hierarchies of wildlife species. If for example a giant panda is deemed to be more
attractive and hence more valuable than a particular species of fungus or slime
mould, then managerial priority may be given to the former even though the latter
play an equally important role in the local ecosystem.
4.2. Community Based Tourism
Community-based tourism projects (CBT) have, along with other integrated
conservation and
Development schemes, gained popularity over the last three decades. These
relatively recent methods of development are based on a participatory approach
and ultimately emerged as a result of the failure of “top-down” approaches to both
conservation and development which had
been widely practiced by both conservation and development organizations.
Although such
Community-based projects varied in their methodologies, the common thread
between them was
in their linking environmental conservation and socio-economic development,
most notably in
and around protected areas. They work on the premise that in order for
conservation and
development projects to succeed local communities must be active participants and
direct beneficiaries.
CBT emerged as an alternative to mainstream tourism. Whilst CBT is largely
dependent upon the same tourism infrastructure as mainstream tourism,
particularly for transport, CBT is seen as an alternative and very few CBT
initiatives are connected with the mainstream tourism industry, the market access
of CBT projects is therefore generally poor.
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Associated with this rejection of the market is a commitment to collective
community benefit
and community governance. Although research by Rainforest Alliance suggests
that 40% of
CBT projects in developing countries do not involve communities in decisionmaking, 60% do
involve some form of community engagement in decision making. Mitchell and
Muckosy
associate this with the poor governance which they report as a characteristic of
CBT.
There is insufficient rigor in the use of the concept of community-based tourism.
The conceptis used flexibly. The Mountain Institute uses it very broadly to
“describe a variety of activities that encourage and support a wide range of
objectives in economic and social development and conservation.” The Thailand
Community Based Tourism Institute defines CBT more
Rigorously as:
“Tourism that takes environmental, social and cultural sustainability into account.
It is managed and owned by the community, for the community, with the purpose
of enabling visitors to increase their awareness and learn about the community and
localWays of life.”
WWF defined it as a form of tourism “where the local community has substantial
control over,and involvement in, its development and management, and a major
proportion of the benefitsremain within the community.” It was accepted that the
concept of community depends on local“social and institutional structures” and
accepted that it “must also embrace individual initiativeswithin the community
Generally CBT projects provide collective benefits, for example through
contributions to community funds for the development of community assets such
as schools, clinics or grindingmills. CBT also creates opportunities for paid
employment in the CBT enterprise and microenterprise sales. However, CBT is not
so flexible as to include employment in tourismbusinesses unless they are
communally owned and managed. The acceptable balance between
individual initiatives and community benefits is constantly contested although
generally notovertly. Mann defines community-based tourism so broadly that it
appears to include almost allforms of tourism which involve community members
and benefit them: “anything that involvesgenuine community participation and
benefits.”
CBT can therefore be defined as tourism owned and/or managed by communities
and intendedto deliver wider community benefit.
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4.3. Fair trade, Ethical tourism and pro-poor tourism
4.3.1. Fair Trade and Ethical tourism
Fair trade is a financial relationship between producers, sellers, and consumers
based on the principle of equity within the exchange of goods. Equity is achieved
via creating a platform for trade that is transparent and therefore accountable for
the just treatment of all producers. This includes providing market avenues that
allow marginalized producers the opportunity to sell, ensuring humane working
conditions, and all the while protecting environmental and cultural factors that play
into the production process
A fair trade tourism label would clearly signify that a hotel or tour operator is
committed to fair trade principles, including fair pay and working conditions, fair
purchasing and sharing of benefits, and respect for human rights and the
environment. Such a label would enable consumers to go on holiday in the
knowledge that a fair share of their money was reaching the employees, service
providers and local people in their holiday destination. In other words, ethical
tourism, at its simplest, is a state of mind. It means being aware of the country
you’re in, treading lightly, interacting, communicating and behaving appropriately.
The tourism industry is one of the largest industries in the world, and despite recent
events that have made its operating environment more complex, the industry
continues to grow. It has the potential to bring major benefits to destinations, but
can also be damaging to the people living there and to their environment. Other
industries have already understood this ambivalent nature of trade and have
adopted the triple bottom line of social, environmental and economic
responsibility. It is now time for the tourism industry to rise to this challenge – the
challenge of ethical tourism.
Ethical tourism is in the best interests of all involved. It offers tour operators a
competitive advantage and safeguards the future of the industry by ensuring the
long-term sustainability of a
destination. It offers the tourists a richer experience, as holidays will draw on the
distinctive features of a destination. It is also in the interests of those living there
and those working for development, as it can help to combat poverty and
contribute to sustainable development.
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The tourism industry is highly competitive and tour operators are under increasing
pressure to
differentiate their products. Research suggests that once the main criteria for a
holiday are satisfied (location/facilities, cost and availability), clients will make
choices based on ethical considerations such as working conditions, the
environment and charitable giving. Clients are also looking for increased quality
and experience in their holiday. In this climate, companies would do well to
differentiate their products according to consumer demand i.e. based on ethical
criteria1. In this respect, especially in recent years a new issue is under discussion
called "ethics in tourism" and it calls all the people involved in tourism industry to
follow its codes and help the sustainable development of this industry.
Some Principles of the Global Code of Ethics for Tourism Stakeholders and
Professionals
(** Selected from Ethics in Tourism by Ali DonyadidePost-doctoral student in
tourism at Azerbaijan National Academy of Science)
(1) The understanding and promotion of the ethical values common to humanity,
with an attitude
Of tolerance and respect for the diversity of religious, philosophical and moral
beliefs, are both
the foundation and the consequence of responsible tourism; stakeholders in tourism
development and tourists themselves should observe the social and cultural
traditions and
Practices of all peoples, including those of minorities and indigenous peoples and
to recognizetheir worth;
(2) Tourism activities should be conducted in harmony with the attributes and
traditions of the hostregions and countries and in respect for their laws, practices
and customs;
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(3) The host communities, on the one hand, and local professionals, on the other,
should acquaintthemselves with and respect the tourists who visit them and find
out about their lifestyles, tastesand expectations; the education and training
imparted to professionals contribute to a hospitablewelcome;
(4) It is the task of the public authorities to provide protection for tourists and
visitors and theirbelongings; they must pay particular attention to the safety of
foreign tourists owing to theparticular vulnerability they may have; they should
facilitate the introduction of specific meansof information, prevention, security,
insurance and assistance consistent with their needs; anyattacks, assaults,
kidnappings or threats against tourists or workers in the tourism industry, as
well as the willful destruction of tourism facilities or of elements of cultural or
natural heritageshould be severely condemned and punished in accordance with
their respective national laws;
(5) When travelling, tourists and visitors should not commit any criminal act or
any act considered
criminal by the laws of the country visited and abstain from any conduct felt to be
offensive orinjurious by the local populations, or likely to damage the local
environment; they shouldrefrain from all trafficking in illicit drugs, arms, antiques,
protected species and products andsubstances that are dangerous or prohibited by
national regulations;
(6) Tourists and visitors have the responsibility to acquaint themselves, even
before their departure,
with the characteristics of the countries they are preparing to visit; they must be
aware of thehealth and security risks inherent in any travel outside their usual
environment and behave in
Such a way as to minimize those risks;
(7) All the stakeholders in tourism development should safeguard the natural
environment with a
View to achieving sound, continuous and sustainable economic growth geared to
satisfying
equitably the needs and aspirations of present and future generations;
(**Ethics in Tourism Ali DonyadidePost-doctoral student in tourism at
Azerbaijan National Academy of Science)
4.3.2 Pro poor tourism
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In the tourism sector, national governments and donors have generally aimed to
promote private sector investment, macro-economic growth and foreign exchange
earnings, without specifically taking the needs and opportunities of the poor into
account in tourism development (i.e. what we
term here ‘pro-poor tourism’). Donor-supported tourism master plans focus on
creating infrastructure, stimulating private investment and attracting international
tourists. Investors are often international companies and local élites, whose profits
are generally repatriated abroad or to metropolitan centers. Links with the local
economy are often weak, with the possible exception of employment. Since the
mid-1980s, interest in ‘green’ tourism, eco-tourism
and community tourism has grown rapidly among decision makers, practitioners
and advocates. All of these focus on the need to ensure that tourism does not erode
the environmental and cultural base on which it depends. But these generally do
not consider the full range of impacts on the livelihoods of the poor.
Tourism is a complex industry driven by the private sector, and often by large
international companies. Governments have relatively few instruments to influence
this sector, particularly in developing countries where fiscal and planning
instruments for capturing non-commercial benefits are generally weak.
Nevertheless, as a sector for pro-poor economic growth,
tourism has several advantages:
• The consumer comes to the destination, thereby providing opportunities for
selling additional goods and services.
• Tourism is an important opportunity to diversify local economies. It can develop
in poor and marginal areas with few other export and diversification options.
Remote areas particularly attract tourists because of their high cultural, wildlife
and landscape value.
• It offers labour-intensive and small-scale opportunities compared with other nonagricultural activities (Deloitte and Touche, 1999), employs a high proportion of
women (UNED, 1999), and values natural resources and culture, which may
feature among the few assets belonging to the poor.
However, the poorest may gain few direct benefits from tourism while bearing
many of the costs. It is important to mitigate those costs, while maximizing the
benefits to the fairly poor (e.g. casual workers and the semi-skilled). Strategies for
promoting PPT are emerging, suggesting that there is potential for much more to
be done. In the past, the search for market niches (e.g. community tourism, ecotourism) has been dominant. Strategies to enhance net benefits to the poor need to
be developed across the whole industry, drawing on a range of expertise in propoor growth.
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Moreover, benefits to the poor from tourism depend on whether and how they can
participate economically in the industry. A wide range of factors ranging from the
local (assets, gender, livelihood strategies) to the policy environment (tenure,
regulations) and commercial context (market segments) influence their
participation, and all embody constraints which can be reduced.
How does tourism impact on the livelihoods of the poor?
Assessing the livelihood impacts of tourism is not simply a matter of counting jobs
or wage income. Participatory poverty assessments demonstrate great variety in the
priorities of the poor and factors affecting livelihood security and sustainability.
Tourism can affect many of these, positively and negatively, often indirectly. It is
important to assess these impacts and their distribution.
Economic impacts
Tourism can generate four different types of local cash income generally involving
four distinct categories of people:
• Wages from formal employment.
• Earnings from selling goods, services, or casual labour (e.g. food, crafts, building
materials, guide services).
• Dividends and profits arising from locally-owned enterprises.
• Collective income: this may include profits from a community-run enterprise,
dividends from a private sector partnership and land rental paid by an investor.
Waged employment can be sufficient to lift a household from insecure to secure,
but may only be available to a minority, and not the poor. Casual earnings per
person may be very small, but much more widely spread, and may be enough, for
instance, to cover school fees for one or more children. Guiding work, although
casual, is often high status and relatively well paid. There are few examples of
successful and sustainable collective income from tourism. Cases from Kenya and
Namibia illustrate that it can match wage income in scale, can in principle benefit
all residents, is often particularly significant for communities who do not have
other options to earn collective income, but can be problematic to manage
Negative economic impacts include inflation, dominance by outsiders in land
markets and in-migration which erodes economic opportunities for the local poor.
Impacts on assets and other activities of the poor
Tourism development can change poor people’s access to assets and to related
livelihood options. On the positive side, it can generate funds for investment in
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health, education and other assets, provide infrastructure, stimulate development of
social capital, strengthen sustainable management of natural resources, and create a
demand for improved assets (especially education). On the negative side, tourism
can reduce local access to natural resources, draw
heavily upon local infrastructure, and disrupt social networks.
Social impacts
Local residents often highlight the way tourism affects other livelihood goals –
whether positively or negatively – such as cultural pride, a sense of control, good
health, and reduced
vulnerability. Socio-cultural intrusion by tourists is often cited as a negative
impact. Certainly sexual exploitation particularly affects the poorest women, girls
and young men. The poor
themselves may view other types of cultural change as positive. Tourism can also
increase the value attributed to minority cultures by national policy-makers.
Overall, the cultural impacts of tourism are hard to disentangle from wider
processes of development. The overall balance of positive and negative livelihood
impacts will vary enormously between situations, among
people and over time, and on the extent to which local priorities are able to
influence the planning process.
Taking distribution of livelihood impacts into account
The poor are far from a homogenous group. The range of impacts outlined above
will inevitably be distributed unevenly among poor groups, reflecting different
patterns of assets, activities, opportunities and choices. The most substantial
benefits, particularly jobs, may be concentrated among few. Net benefits are likely
be smallest, or negative, for the poorest. A review of 24 case studies in Asia
indicates economic gains for all sections of the community, but with those already
better off gaining most. Impacts differ between men and women. Women can be
the first to suffer from loss of natural resources (e.g. access to fuel wood) and
cultural/sexual exploitation, but may benefit most from physical infrastructure
improvements (e.g. piped water or a grinding mill) where this is a by-product of
tourism. Where a local élite does not exist, migrants may move in to exploit new
opportunities. The poverty impact of this depends on whether migrants are poorer
groups, more willing to work for lower returns to escape desperate
conditions elsewhere, or skilled entrepreneurs seizing new opportunities before
local skills have a chance to develop.
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Chapter V: Tourism Policy and Planning
Tourism policy: defined as a set of regulations, rules, guidelines, directives, and
development/promotion objectives and strategies that provide a framework within
which the collective and individual decisions directly affecting long - term tourism
and the daily activities within a destination are taken into larger consideration.
5.1.
The Purpose of Tourism Policy
Tourism policy seeks to ensure that visitors are hosted in a way that maximizes the
benefits to stakeholders while minimizing the negative effects. In effect, tourism
policy seeks to provide high - quality visitor experiences that are profitable to
destination stakeholders while ensuring that the destination is not compromised in
terms of its environmental, social, and cultural integrity.
Why Is Tourism Policy Important?
Perhaps most important role of tourism policy is to ensure that a given destination
has a clear idea as to where it is going or what it seeks to become in the long term.
In parallel, it must strive to create a climate in which collaboration among the
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many stakeholders in tourism is both supported and facilitated. In more specific
terms, tourism policy fulfills the following functions:
 It defines the rules of the game — the terms under which tourism operators
must function,
 It sets out activities and behaviors that are acceptable for visitors
 It provides a common direction and guidance for all tourism stakeholders
within destination,
 It facilitates consensus around specific strategies and objectives for a given
destination.
 It provides a framework for public/private discussions on the role and
contributions of the tourism sector to the economy and to society in general.
 It allows tourism to interface more effectively with other sectors of the
economy.
5.1.2 Areas Addressed by Tourism Policy
In general terms, a formal tourism policy for a given destination will address (at
the national level) such areas as:
o The roles of tourism within the overall socioeconomic development of the
destination region,
o The type of destination that will most effectively fulfill the desired roles,
o Taxation — types and levels,
o Financing for the tourism sector — sources and terms,
o The nature and direction of product development and maintenance,
o Transportation access and infrastructure,
o Regulatory practices (e.g., airlines, travel agencies),
o Environmental practices and restrictions,
o Industry image, credibility,
o Community relationships,
o Human resources and labor supply,
o Union and labor legislation,
o Technology,
o Marketing practices, and
o Foreign travel rules.
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The Focus of Tourism Policy
In a complex world of many jurisdictions, it is important to explicitly identify the
geographic area to which a tourism policy applies. We refer to the “generic” entity
in question as the tourism destination. A tourism destination, in its simplest
terms, is a particular geographic region within which the visitor enjoys various
types of travel experiences.Tourism destinations are most commonly defined in
formal terms by recognized political jurisdictions such as:
1. A nation or country,
2. A macro region, consisting of several countries (e.g., Europe) or other
groupings that either transcend national borders (e.g., the European Riviera)
or reflect economic trade zones (e.g., NAFTA [North American Free Trade
Agreement] and the Americas),
3. A province or state within a country
4. A localized region within a country, such as western Canada or the U.S.
Northwest or Southeast,
5. A city or town,
6. A unique locale, such as a national park, a historic site, or a memorial that is
in itself sufficiently significant to attract visitors.
Tourism policies are part of the social, economic, and political policies that govern
and direct the functioning of the overall society within which tourism exists and
functions. In brief, a number of more general policies (regulations, rules,
directives, objectives, strategies) are controlled by governments, as well as other
industry sectors and organizations, and these policies may have a significant effect
on the success of tourism and tourism destinations. These include:
o Passports and visas
o Taxation — affects costs and thus profitability
o Interest rate policy — affects costs and thus profitability
o Bilateral air agreements — determine foreign visitor access
o Environmental policy — limits growth and access to attractive but sensitive
areas
o Customs and immigration policy — can facilitate or hinder international
visitation
o Communications policy — can restrict use of certain advertising media
o Minimum wage policy — can affect labor markets
o Welfare policy — can influence nature and behavior of workforce
o Education policy — can affect quality of workforce
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o Cultural policy — can affect preservation and promotion of national heritage
o Foreign investment policy/regulations — can affect availability of
investment capital
o Local zoning policy/bylaws — can restrict or encourage tourism facility
development
o National/provincial/local policy pertaining to funding support for major
public facilities (e.g., stadiums, convention centers, museums, parks) — can
drastically affect destination attractiveness
o Infrastructure policy — can make destination safer for visitors, or restrict
resident travel to foreign destinations
o Currency/exchange - rate policies — directly affect destination cost
competitiveness
o Legal system — determines consumer/visitor protection legislation (e.g.,
liability for failing to deliver advertised facilities/tours/experiences)
To summarize, a whole range of social, economic, legal, and technological policies
greatly affects the appeal, attractiveness, competitiveness, and sustainability of a
tourism destination. Some are under the control of the tourism sector (such as
visitor satisfaction, guarantee policy, truth - in - advertising policy), but the great
majority are not. Thus, the challenge facing tourism managers is to try to influence
global policies where they can, and adapt to them as effectively as possible where
they cannot.
The Multidisciplinary Nature of Tourism and Tourism Policy
Tourism is, by its very nature, a multidisciplinary phenomenon. The tourism
experience is impacted by a range of economic, psychological, societal,
technological, legal, and political forces. It follows that, in order to formulate
policies that accommodate or address these multiple forces, those involved must
appreciate the complexities of each discipline and their interactions in any given
situation. The disciplines of psychology, economics, sociology, and law are but
some of the disciplines that can enhance our understanding of international
marketing. The environmental sciences, political science, and the behavioral
sciences are essential to the formulation of national park policy that defines the
levels and types of tourism that are appropriate and desirable.
Some Other Characteristics of Tourism Policy
In addition to the multidisciplinary nature of tourism policy, it also possesses
several other essential characteristics:
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i.
ii.
iii.
iv.
v.
vi.
vii.
viii.
ix.
It must focus on macro level policies — that is, be concerned with societal
views of the direction that tourism development should take at the sub
national, national, and even transnational level.
It must be designed to formulate policies having a long time perspective.
It must concentrate on how critical and limited resources can best respond to
perceived needs and opportunities in a changing environment.
It must recognize the intellectual nature of the process of policy formulation.
As such, it must incorporate tacit knowledge and personal experience as
important sources of information, in addition to more conventional methods
of research and study.
It must encourage and stimulate organized creativity so as to avoid policies
based on stereotyped or outmoded perceptions.
It must be constructed to permit and facilitate a continuing dynamic social
process requiring inputs from multiple sources.
It must break down the traditional boundaries between industry sectors in
tourism.
It must relate policies of the tourism subsystem to those of the total
socioeconomic system of a nation or region of which it is a part.
It must acknowledge the destination roles of both competition and
cooperation and seek to identify situations where each is appropriate.
Formulating Policy to Deal With Crises
Despite the best efforts to formulate tourism policies that support destination
development, to plan and execute the development of an attractive tourism
destination, and to effectively manage a tourism destination, sometimes the
unthinkable happens. The September 11, 2001, terrorist bombing of the twin
towers in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.; the 2002 bombing of a
tourist - fuelled nightclub in Bali, Indonesia; the 2004 bombing of the commuter
trains in Madrid, Spain; and the 2003 failure of the electrical grid in eastern North
America all created sudden disruptions in the normally smooth functioning of
tourism. Other less sudden but more widespread happenings such as the Iraq war,
the 2003 outbreaks of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) in China and
Canada, the outbreak of foot - and - mouth disease in the United Kingdom, the
forest fires in the western United States, the threat of the bird flu, and the tsunami,
all affected people’s desire and ability to travel, and thus the well - being of
tourism destinations around the world.
While the above crises were not all directly related to the tourism sector, their
widespread repercussions created situations that seriously affected or interfered
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with people ’ s willingness to travel, or the smooth functioning of the tourism
system. They were thus the root cause of crises that tourism managers needed to
understand or to take account of in their ongoing management of tourism
destinations.
In an effort to help improve the formal understanding of the nature of “crisis
management” related to both unthinkable happenings and major events having
global repercussions, seven comprehensive categorical classifications have been
noted:
1. Economic crises, such as labor strikes, labor shortage, market crashes, major
declines in stock prices, and fluctuations or declines in major earnings,
2. Informational crises, such as a loss of proprietary and confidential
information, tampering with computer records, or the loss of key computer
information with regard to customers and suppliers,
3. Physical crises, such as loss of key equipment, plants, and material
suppliers; breakdowns of key equipment and industrial plants; loss of key
facilities; and major plant disruptions
4. Human resource crises, such as loss of key executives, loss of key personnel,
increased absenteeism, increased vandalism, an increased number of
accidents, and a rise in workplace violence,
5. Reputation crises, such as slander, gossip, rumors, damage to corporate
reputation, and tampering with corporate logos
6. Crises resulting from psychopathic acts, such as product tampering,
kidnapping, hostage taking, terrorism, and workplace violence
7. Natural disasters, such as earthquakes, fires, floods, explosions, typhoons,
and hurricanes.
5.2.
Tourism Planning
Planning follows the policy formulation process. Tourism planners and managers
need to use this process as a framework for the planning and development of a
destination. Good policy and sound planning needs to be conducted to ensure that a
destination will be both competitive and sustainable. Good tourism planning must
be based on a sound understanding of those factors that fundamentally determine
the success of a tourism destination. Some of them are:
5.2.1. The Nature Of Tourism Planning
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Tourism planning seeks to provide a detailed, “on - the - ground” outline as to how
each of the factors affecting the success of a tourism destination should be
developed. Good tourism planning goes far beyond schemes to maximize profit.
While profitable development brings positive economic and social benefits to the
community, it also carries inevitable drawbacks. Therefore, developers must
incorporate ways to enhance human welfare and happiness. These include
insistence on quality architectural, landscape, and environmental design; planning
for transportation; and energy conservation and education.
If such diverse goals are to be achieved, planners must implement a model that will
guide their thinking by incorporating each aspect (including various political
aspects) into a master plan. These include zoning, road maintenance, water and
sewage treatment systems, and promotional expenses. An official body, financed
through tourist earnings, is useful in keeping abreast of socioeconomic activities in
the industry as well as dealing with other problems such as stabilizing prices,
forecasting demand, keeping an inventory of potential national tourist resources,
and arranging publicity campaigns.
5.2.2. Relating Tourism Planning To Tourism Policy
Because tourism policy formulation and tourism planning are very directly related
to each other, it is important to distinguish between the two, to identify their
similarities and their differences in a tourism context. Their similarities are:
o They both deal with the future development of a tourism destination or
region.
o They both emphasize the strategic dimensions of managerial action,
although planning must also address a number of tactical concerns.
Their differences are:
o Policy formulation is definitely “big picture,” while much of planning is
characterized by an attention to detail.
o Policy formulation is a creative, intellectual process, while planning is
generally a more constrained practical exercise.
o Policy, particularly its visioning component, has a very long - term strategic
emphasis, while planning tends to be more restrictive in its time horizon. A
one - year planning cycle is not uncommon, although three - to five - year
plans are a possibility. In contrast, destination visions may have a five - , ten
- , fifth - , or even a hundred - year time horizon.
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o Policy formulation must allow for as - yet - unseen circumstances and
technologies to be considered. In contrast, planning tends to assume current
conditions and technologies, with some allowances for predictable (i.e.,
evolutionary) change.
o Policy formulation tends to emphasize a systematic determination of “what ”
should be done in long - term tourism development, while planning tends to
emphasize the “ how ” for the achievement of specific destination goals.
While policy formulation and planning appear to have certain commonalties, they
are, in effect, quite distinct processes. Failure to acknowledge this reality has been
quite limiting in the past.
It should be noted that the definitions and distinctions related to policy, strategy,
goals, objectives, and planning are ongoing sources of debate in the management
literature. Different scholars and managers frequently debate the exact meaning of
these terminologies. While the debate is not inconsequential, it should not stand in
the way of creative thinking or managerial action.
Integrating Policy and Planning
Although policy formulation and destination planning are different types of
processes, they must nevertheless be seen as integrated components of an ongoing
process of destination management. Keep in mind that the ultimate goal of the
planning process is to identify the exact nature and timing of the specific actions
and activities that must be carried out in efforts to ensure that all the factors that
influence destination success are made as effective as possible. To reiterate, policy
provides the guidelines for the development of tourism facilities, events, and
programs while planning stipulates the details and timing of the specific
actions/activities to develop each component, subcomponent, and element of the
R/C model of destination competitiveness/success. It is essential that both policy
and planning processes be fully integrated so as to avoid both waste and
duplication.
5.2.3. Why Tourism Planning Is Necessary
The decision to develop tourism or expand present tourism development in a
community, a region, or a country must be studied carefully. The socioeconomic
benefits from tourism are powerful. Tourism development looks attractive to both
developed and underdeveloped countries with the right preconditions — some
combination of natural, scenic, historical, archaeological, cultural, and climate
attractions.
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Tourism is one of the world’s greatest and most significant social and economic
forces. But government officials and businesspeople must weigh the economic
benefits against the possible future degradation of human and natural resources.
Tourism development must be guided by carefully planned policy, a policy built
not on balance sheets and profit and loss statements alone, but on the ideals and
principles of human welfare and happiness. Social problems cannot be solved
without a strong and growing economy that tourism can help to create. Sound
development policy can have the happy result of a growing tourist business, along
with the preservation of the natural and cultural resources that attracted the visitors
in the first place.
Planning is critical to have sustainable development and protecting the
environment. Viewed comprehensively, the relationship between tourism and the
community, state, regions, and countries requires consideration of many difficult
issues: the quality of architecture, landscape, and environmental design;
environmental reclamation and amenity; natural conservation; land - use
management; financial strategies for long - term economic development;
employment; transportation; energy conservation; education, information, and
interpretation systems; and more. These are the reasons why sound tourism
planning is essential. Planning can ensure that tourist development has the ability
to realize the advantages of tourism and reduce the disadvantages.
5.2.2. The Planning Process
Proper planning of the physical, legal, promotional, financial, economic, market, management, social, and
environmental aspects will help to deliver the benefits of tourism development — and it can be carried
out much more effectively when fully integrated with the process of policy formulation.
Good planning defines the desired result and works in a systematic manner to achieve success. The
following steps briefly describe a logical sequence.
1. Define the system. What are the scale, size, market, character, and purpose? Formulate
objectives. Without a set of objectives, the development concept has no direction. The objectives
must be comprehensive and specific and should include a timetable for completion.
2. Gathering data. Fact finding, or research, provides basic data that are essential to developing the
plan. Examples of data gathering are preparing a fact book, making market surveys, undertaking
site and infrastructure surveys, and analyzing existing facilities and competition.
3. Analyze and interpret. Once collected, the many fragments of information must be interpreted
so the facts gathered will have meaning. This step leads to a set of conclusions and
recommendations that leads to making or conceptualizing a preliminary plan. Tropical island
resorts require good planning to integrate facilities and protect the environment.
4. Create the preliminary plan. Based on the previous steps, alternatives are considered and
alternative physical solutions are drawn up and tested. Frequently, scale models are developed to
illustrate the land - use plans; sketches are prepared to show the image the development will
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project; financial plans are drafted from the market information, site surveys, and the layout plan
to show the investment needed in each phase of the project and the cash flow expected; and legal
requirements are met.
5. Approve the plan. The parties involved can now look at plans, drawings, scale models, estimates
of costs, and estimates of profits and know what will be involved and what the chances for
success or failure will be. While a great deal of money may have been spent up to this point, the
sum is a relatively small amount compared to the expenditures that will be required once the plan
is approved and master planning and implementation begin.
6. Create the final plan. This phase typically includes a definition of land use; plans for
infrastructure facilities such as roads, airports, bike paths, horse trails, pedestrian walkways,
sewage, water, and utilities; architectural standards; landscape plans; zoning and other land - use
regulations; and economic analysis, market analysis, and financial programming.
7. Implement the plan. Implementation carries out the plan and creates an operational tourism
development. It also follows up and evaluates. Good planning provides mechanisms that give
continuing feedback on the tourism project and the levels of consumer satisfaction achieved.
Good planning should eliminate problems and provide user satisfaction. The final user is the
judge in determining how successful the planning process has been.
Chapter VI: Tourism Landscapes of Ethiopia
6.1. Heritage and Heritage sites
Heritage represents the legacy from the past, what we live with today, and what we
pass on to future generation. Heritages are irreplaceable sources of life and
inspiration.
Generally, the meaning of heritage has taken the following different dimensions:
 A synonym for any relic of the past
 The product of modern conditions that are attributed to, ands influenced by, the
past
 All cultural and artistic productivity produced in the past or present
 Includes elements from the natural environment that are survivals from the past,
seen as original, typically and appropriate to be passed on to future generations
 Any sort of intergenerational exchange or relationship
6.2. Classification (Typology) of Heritages
Heritage can be classified on the bases of significance and values as:
I. Cultural heritage: It is an integration of tradition and activities as well as
properties of humans like habits, customs, stories, skills, dance, and food.
Cultural heritage also can be classified as
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A. Indigenous places and values: indigenous means native /original to a
particular place. It refers to spices unique to a region or cultural traits specific to
a people. A type of tourism conducted to experience such type of people is
called indigenous tourism.
B. Historic places and values: it includes monuments, palaces, historic towns,
buildings as well as structures passing through generation having fundamental
importance on culture and heritage. For instance the battle field of Adwa, Fasil
Castle.
C. Special events: this includes cultural celebration (such as festivals, religious
celebrations, heritage commemorations), arts and entertainments, business and
trade fairs games and sports etc having different advantages for the community.
E.g. serve as tourist attractions, enrich life, and give meaning to the community
and their living culture.
II. Natural heritage: includes fauna, flora and many biological and geological
features. There are four main components of natural heritages to be considered
for conserving, safeguarding, and restoring the ecological balance:A. Ethical component: every living thing has the right to live and man has no
right to destroy them.
B. Affective component: fauna and flora are becoming part of the family in this
modern society.
C. Ecological component: man becomes part of the ecological process, so,
protecting nature means protecting the survival wellbeing of humans.
D. Aesthetic component: since nature and biodiversity are sources of beauty,
enjoyment and learning; protection and conservation of nature is essential
III. Mixed heritages: this type of heritage property consists of both values of
natural and cultural property. These properties are rarely seen all over the world
and most of them are cultural landscapes.
6.2. WORLD HERITAGE SITES
World heritage sites are places of international importance for the conservations of
mankind’s culture and natural heritage, and needed to be preserved for the future
generation. Sites of cultural and natural significance primarily belong to the local
community. However, their importance can encompass a wider regional and
national level. But, what makes world heritage sites exceptional are that their
‘Universal Value’. World heritage sites belong to all peoples of the world,
irrespective of the territory in which they are located.
6.2.1. Strategic Objectives for the World Heritage Site Conservation (5Cs)
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o Strengthen credibility/authority of the world heritage sites(credibility)
o Ensure effective conservation of world heritage properties(conservation)
o Promote the development of effective capacity building measures(capacity
building)
o Increase
public
awareness
and
support
through
communication(communication)
o Participation of local community(community participation)
6.2.2. Criteria for Inclusion in UNESCO’S List of World Heritage Sites
Cultural sites
1. Should represent a master piece of human creative genius.
2. Exhibit an important exchange of human values over a span of time.
3. Bear exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition which is existing or
disappeared.
4. A type of building, landscape or technology which shows human history stages.
5. Exceptional example of traditional human settlement which is vulnerable and
irreversible.
6. Associate directly or tangibly with events, ideas, living traditions, beliefs,
artistic and literary works of outstanding universal importance.
Natural sites
7. Be exceptional example of major stages of the earth’s natural history, including
ongoing geographical process, record of life and geographic features.
8. Exemplify significant ongoing ecological and biological process, such as those
related to marine ecosystems and communities of animals and plants.
9. Contain outstanding natural phenomenon or areas of superlative beauty and
aesthetic importance.
10.Contain the most important and significant natural habitats for conservation of
biological diversity.
6.3. Ethiopian world heritage sites
The world heritage list includes about 830 properties forming part of cultural,
natural and mixed heritage which “the world heritage committee” considers as
having outstanding universal value. i.e.644(cultural), 162(natural) and 24(mixed)
properties. From these 830 properties, Ethiopia has 8 properties which are
registered by the world heritage committee (UNESCO). Efforts are underway by
the Ministry of Culture and Tourism to include more sites in the World heritage
list.
o Lalibela Rock-Hewn Churches
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o
o
o
o
o
o
o
Semien National Park
Fasil royal compound and other monuments of Gonder style
Axum: Historical and archaeological site
Lower valley of Awash pale ontological and pre-historic site
Tiya, prehistoric site
Valley of Omo pre-historic and pale ontological site
HararJegol, the Fortified Historic Town
6.4. Cultural heritages and their categories
Cultural Heritage/Resource refers to anything tangible or intangible which is a
product of creativity and labor of man in the pre-history and history times; that
describes and witnesses to the evolution of nature and which has a major value in
its scientific, historical, cultural, artistic and hand craft content.
Intangible cultural resources: refers to any cultural resource that can’t be felt by
hands but can be seen and heard and includes different kinds of performances and
shows, folklores, religious, belief, weeding and mourning ceremonies, music,
drama, literature and other similar cultural values, traditions and costumes of
nations, nationalities and peoples.
Tangible cultural resources: refer to cultural resources that can be seen and felt.
Tangible movable cultural resource: refers to cultural resources which are not
attached to the foundation and that can be moved from place to place easily and
which are handed down from the past generation. This includes;
o Stone paintings, implements, sculptures and statues made up of gold, silver,
bronze ,copper, wood stone; inscriptions of skin, horn, ivory, archeological
and bone or earth or if any other material and also pale ontological remains.
o Written and graphic documents or cinematographic and photographic
documents.
o Coins
o Ethnographic implement, ornaments and any other cultural objects of
nations nationalities and peoples.
Tangible immovable cultural resources: refer to cultural resources attached to
the ground with a foundation & which can be moved only by dismantling. These
includes
o Sites where cultural heritage have been discovered pale ontological historic
& pre-historic archeological places
o Buildings ,palaces, monuments & memorial places
o Remains of ancient towns, burial places , cave paintings and inscriptions
o Church, monastery, mosque or any other place of worship
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o Battle fields belong to the immovable cultural heritages. As most of the
history of Ethiopia is more or less related to war, battle fields have a
considerable symbolic importance.
6.4.1. Attractions in and Around Aksum
Aksum is the 1st major historically known city in Ethiopia. Some of the attractions
found in and around Aksum are; The Stelae Park, The Great Stele, Ezana’s,
Aksumite tombs , St. Marry of Zion Church (It is the first church on the African
soil and including the Ark of Covenant), Archaeological Museum, Ezana’s
Garden, Mai-Shum reservoir also called the Queen of Sheba’s Bath.
Among the important towns and attractions around Aksum, Adwa where for the
first time heroic black Africans defeated white Europeans, which inspired other
Africans to strengthen their struggle against colonialism. Adwa is also base to visit
Yeha and the Monastery of DebreDamo.Yeha is considered as the birth place of
Ethiopia’s early civilization. The ruins of buildings show its relation with Yemen.
It is believed to be established by colonists from, southern Arabia. There is also a
small museum containing both archaeological and ethnographical treasures. AlNegashi: on a small hill around 10km north of Wukro is the town of Negashi. It is
the oldest and holiest place for Muslims. The mosque was stood in the 7 thc.
Negashi is the first site of Muslim settlement in Ethiopia, by Mohammed’s fellows
fleeing persecution in South Arabia. Every year an important festival takes place at
Negashi, attracting pilgrims and finally Rock- hewn Churches of Tigrai.
6.4.2. Attractions in and Around Lalibela
Lalibela and its rock hewn churches are unarguably the top attractions of Ethiopia.
The churches are thought to date from the 12 th or 13th c. When King Lalibela
constructed the rock hewn churches, his purpose was to build the second
Jerusalem on the African continent and to minimize the sufferings of Christian
society in their journey to Jerusalem. The two international names used for
Lalibela are; 1) The New Jerusalem 2) The Eighth wonder of the world. King
Lalibela built the 11 rock hewn churches within 23 years. Around the town of
Lalibela, there are also other different churches with beautiful setting and valuable
treasures.
6.4.3. Attractions in and Around Gondar
Gondar was the 3rd capital city in Ethiopia next to Aksum and Lalibela
respectively. It was founded by emperor Fasiledes in 1636 and become capital city
for about 200years.Churches and castles are the main attractions of the town. Some
of the main attractions of Gondar include: Royal Enclosure, Fasiladas castle,
Fasiladas Bath, Kuskuam Complex, Falasha Village (Wolleka) and Gorgora.
6.4.4. Attractions around Bahirdar include Churches and monasteries of Lake
Tana (and Around Bahirdar),
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6.4.5. Attraction in Harar
The spiritual heart of Ethiopia’s larger Islamic community, Harar is considered as
the 4th holiest city in the world after Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem.
Harar Wall: Inside the Wall: the walled city of Harar covers an area about
1km.sq. An exploration of the walled town locally known as Jegol begins at the
maim gate (durke’s gate). There are about seven gates in total (Harar gate, showa
gate, Buda gate, sanga gate, erer gate, fallana gate and Duke’s gate). The most
important land mark within the walls, at least for orientation purpose, is the central
square known as “Feresmegala; literally ”horse market”. Some of the main
attractions of the walled old town of Harar include;
 Bête Medhanealem cathedral
 Arthur Rimbaud’s house; currently used as Museum containing series of
panels illustrate about the life history of Rimbaud, old photographs,
traditional Adare arts and crafts.
 RasTafari’s house – the house bears his pre-coronation name.
 Jamia Mosque: Harar’sgreatestmosque built in 16th c.
 GidirMegala; previously known as Muslim Market.
 Traditional Adare houses (Gegar).
 Shrines and tombs of religious leaders and rulers.
Outside the wall; the main attractions include;
 Asma’ addin Bari market or new market (also known as Christian market).
 The center of RasMekonon square; the equestrian statue of the Ras, cast in
bronzy by well known artist AfeworkTekle.
 Hyena feeding: Hyena feeding is possibly becoming Harar’s greatest
attraction & certainly most famous.
6.5.6 Attractions around Sheikh Hussein
It is located north of Sof Omar cave and is one of the most important sites for
Muslim pilgrimages. The complex consists of an attractive little mosques, tombs
and caves. It is said that Sheik Hussein himself used the cave to seek some peace
and quiet for prayers. This peaceful and atmospheric place attracts pilgrimages
mainly during May and Octoberand minor festivals during February and
September. The place is open for all faiths. The journey to the site lets to travel
through some very beautiful scenery, where bird life is abundant.
6.4.7 Tiya
Remarkably little is known about the origin of Tiya or of the meanings of the
symbols that are carved up on them. Listed as a UNESCO world heritage site, the
stele field at Tiya today comprises some 45 stones of up to 2m in height. The
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largest stele on the field originally stood 5m high, but only the base remains in
situ-the top part has been removed to the university in Addis Ababa.
6.4.8. Atractions in Diredawa
It boasts with unusual distinction of town planning. It is the second populous city
in the country. The town features straight, tree lined streets, neat squares and some
interesting colonial architectural influence of Italy, France, and Arab. Indeed,
Diredawa is commercial centre and includes markets such as kafira market: has
some Moorish style of architectural feature, Dire Dawa market is also known as
Taiwan with cheap electronic goods, and Ashawa market.
6.5.9. Attractions in Jimma
Jimma was the capital of the old province of Kaffa and it is the largest town in the
western Ethiopia. Jimma is the capital of fertile region and considered as like an
Ethiopian promised land. Attractions include Jimma Museum it has great
significance of showing the customs and traditions of local people and the life of
kings ruled the region as well as Palace of Aba jiffar.
6.5 Culinary traditions
Ethiopians’ have unique and original verities of culinary delights;”injera” and
“Wot” are the most prominent. Injera is the heart of every meal in Ethiopia. The
national dish of Ethiopia is locally known as “Wot” usually a hot spicy stew which
comes in many varieties. Together with the meal, Ethiopians enjoy a variety of
drinks like Coffee, Tej, Tella, Arake.
6.6. Festivals and special events
These range from those that have international appeal to small seasonal community
based festivals that attract only local interests. A number of festivals are celebrated
throughout the year in Ethiopia. During celebrations of festivals, best clothes are
worn, food and drink are plentiful, musicians play and people dance and sing.
6.7. Pilgrimage
Pilgrimages are travel on particular occasions made by religious people to holy
places in order to get spiritual blessings. Pilgrimages are very common both by
Ethiopian Muslims and Orthodox Christians. This includes Axum Tsion Maryam
(November30/Hidar21), Lalibela; DebreRoha (January7/Tahsas29), kulbby Gabriel
(January28/Tahsas19), Sheik Hussein Shrine and Sof Omar cave in Bale, Negashi
in Tigrai, Harar.
6.8. Traditional art and craft
Traditional paintings are found in the form of icons, as murals in the churches and
in manuscripts. Paintings on wooden panels of sacred objects are called icons.
Murals are paintings on the ceilings, walls and columns of the church. Most
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Ethiopian manuscripts and paintings with the exception of ancient rock carvings
have religious orientations. Of all religious personalities, the painting of Virgin
Mary with her infant son occupies a prominent place.
Crafts are also major aspects of the Ethiopian cultural heritage. They are
reflections of the traditional ways of life of the people. Various ethnic groups of
the country have developed their own peculiar crafts. Basketry, pottery, wood
work, metal work, horn work, weaving and leather work are some of the major
types of crafts in Ethiopia.
6.9. Traditional music
Music in Ethiopia plays an important part of many socio-cultural activities. People
use it in ceremonies, work, personal and social activities to express their feelings
and ideas and to entertain and relax themselves. Music is also part of the
expressions of political and economic relations and mental processes in daily life.
Ethiopians have a very rich tradition of both religious and secular music that
constitute an important part of their cultural life. Music has a considerable
contribution in promoting and preservation of the traditional cultural features of a
region or population.
Religious music is the major manifestation of the beliefs and traditions. There are
different instruments used in this religious music like Drum, Sistrum, Staff,
Embiltae.t.c.
Secular music in Ethiopia has unique feature and largely varied in style and
content. It is usually accompanied by a variety of traditional dances. Music and
dance are the major aspects of the peoples’ socio-cultural activities. Among the
major types of Ethiopian secular music are folk music, Fukera, Musho, and song
(e.g. the national anthem). Various types of traditional instruments are used like
Kirar, Mesinko, Washint, Embilta, Melekete.t.c.
6. 10. Sport
In Ethiopia there are many indigenous cultural sports like horse riding and genna
games. But, long distance running, foot ball, tennis, e.t.c. are also famous.
6.11. Giving respect for elders
Respecting elders is a moral obligation adhered by most of the people of Ethiopia.
Similarly giving any type of assistance for old people in general and the parents in
particular is largely expected from youngsters and children. Example; when an
elderly person enters a room, it is customary to stand up and give him/her a better
seat.
6.12. Welcoming guests (hospitality)
The people of Ethiopia have been well known in hospitality since ancient times.
Guests have been welcomed warmly and have enjoyed a variety of entertainment.
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It is said by many foreigners that the people of Ethiopia are very friendly, smiling
and polite for guests.
6.13. Religious Tolerance
Christianity and Islam have been co-existed peacefully in Ethiopia for more than a
thousand of years. In most of the socio-cultural activities in general and special
occasions in particular including weeding ceremonies, religious feasts and the like,
it is very common to see invitation of one another. In general, Ethiopia is a best
example for the world for the tolerance and peaceful coexistence of different
religions.
6. 14. Culture of the peoples’ in South Omo Valley Villages
It seems facile to label south omo as a living museum. Yet in many senses, that
exactly what it in South omo is often portrayed as some sort of cultural garden. It
is a region where age-old African cultures are still –practiced. Around the omo,
clothing style for men are simple in the extreme; ranging from nothing at all
among the Bume, the Karo and the Galebi; to plain wrap–around clothes and togas
amongst the Amer and Bena. Multiple earnings, elaborated hair style shapes are
also their characteristics. Markets in omo valley are colorful.
This area is almost unique in the world being home to so many people in such a
small area. Quite different ethnic groups like Cushitic, Nilotic, Omotic, and
Semitic met from all directions. The people are known in their body decorations,
lip plate hair style, and different traditional cultures such as:
 Hamer&Bannaperiodic ceremonies (jumping of bulls or Maz); held from
July to September and the 1st half of December. It is performed in areas of
Turmi and Dimeka. It marks the imitation of the young men in to the adult
hood. It is in this ceremony that the fate of a young Hamer man is determined.
Besides the ceremony of Maz, greater attention has been given to hair styling
and decoration of the Hamer people. Hamer night dancing is known as
Evangadi.
 The Karo people: besides the Hamer, ’bull jumping’ is also an important
feature of the Karo people. They call it Pilla. More than other peoples of the
omo valley, body painting and scarification characterize the Karo people. The
Karo are also famous in their traditional dance. They are considered as
endangered groups.
 Mursi and Surmapeople:womenlip plates and the ‘Donga’ (stick fighting) are
the major features of both the Surma and Mursi people of the omo valley. At
present, the practical use of the lip plate is as a sign of beauty. Body painting is
also an important part of these people to make them more attractive to the
opposite sex. The Mursi are more subject to recent television documentaries
and are they most known from the omo valley peoples.
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 Chencha: The famous weavers are known by their best woven cotton and it is a
place where fine cotton Shema (cotton Togas), Gabi (thicker Shema) can be
bought. So that, there is a colorful market that displays woven products of
Chencha.
 Konso: Konso refers to both the land and the people. The town of Konso is the
gate way to Omo valley & beyond. Most of them are pagan societies. The
Konso people have a long tradition of commemorating dead heroes with carved
wooden figures known as ’Waka’ which literally means something of the
grandfather. Konso are most famous in agricultural economy& boast of rich
culture. Surrounding the villages and fields are sturdy stone walls, which serve
as a defense against straying cattle and flash flooding, as well as against
intruders. Visitors must enter a Konso house on hands & knees, via wooden
tunnels. A popular excursion from Konso is to the village of
Gesergio(pronounced as gas-ag-ee-yo) popularly known as ‘New York’.Local
tradition- when a sacred drum is stolen the God himself retrieves it with his
hands.
 Jinka: located 138km north from Konso, is the nearest town to the Omo and
Mago NPs. At 1490m ASL, it feels like a breath of fresh air after travelling in
muggy and muddy lowlands. After a raid in to omo, Jinka can seem like Paris
for its standard in addition to services and facilities.
 Ari: they are known for keeping large livestock and produce large amount of
honey, often used for trade. Women wear skirts made from the Enset tree.
 Banna: most of them practice agriculture, though their diet is supplemented by
hunting. If they manage to kill buffalo, they decorate them selves with clay and
put on a special celebration and feast for the whole village.
 Bumi: they are agro-pastoralists. They are known as war mongers and are at
war with almost every one, particularly 5the Karo, Hamer and the Surma. The
Bumi use scarification for cosmetic purposes, tribal identification and as
indication of prowess in battle.
 Dizi: they are sedentary agriculturalists. They also practice terracing on the
mountain slopes.
 Koygu: they are also known as Muguji. They are known for fishing and for
hunting of the hippo, which they eat. They use both guns and traps for hunting.
6. 15. Museums
Museums as cultural phenomenon are of great antiquity. Museums are the treasure
houses of the human race. They store the memories of the world’s peoples, their cultures,
their dreams and their hopes. Their values have changed through time as political and
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cultural values have altered and developed. Today museums can play a major part in the
cultural and economic life and well-being of a country.
6.16. Major Aspects of Ethiopian Archeological Heritage
Ethiopia is among the countries that are endowed with an immense number of
archeological and paleoanthropological resources. Some of them include
o Human evolution: the oldest evidences of human evaluation are found in
Ethiopia. A very large number of fossils have been discovered in the very
prominent sites of the country mainly around the awash and omo valleys.
Being one of the world’s most productive sources of fossil data, Ethiopian
archeological sites help for the study of human evolution. Fossil of both pre
human ancestors (hominids and Australopithecus species) and the genus
homo (modern human species have been discovered in Ethiopia.
o Stone Tools (Lithic) technology: considering their progress in quality and
chronological order, stone tools are divided as old wan,Achuelan and micro
lithic tools respectively. The earliest tools are called old wan because many
of them were discovered at olduvai George in Tanzania mostly by homo
habiliss. In Ethiopia, they have been discovered in Gona (Afar), lower omo
and melkakunture. Achuelan tools are more complex and standard than old
wan and were mostly done by Homo erectus. Konso-gardula, Gadeb and
melkakunture are the major sites in Ethiopia. There are also other advanced
stone tools in many parts of Ethiopia by Homo sapiens. They are
distinguished by micro lithic blade technology and known as composite
tools.
o Food production: it refers to the ways of obtaining food that involves the
domestication of plants and animals. Domestication is a key cultural
development in Archeology. According to the evidences (archeological and
linguistic) we have so far, domestication took place in Ethiopia and the horn
between 4000 and 6000 years ago.
o Rock art, ceramics and coins. Rock arts are paintings executed on rock
surfaces both in pre-historic and historic periods. A number of rock art have
been discovered in Ethiopia. The major sites are found in many localities of
south eastern, southern and northern Ethiopia. Ceramics comprise pots and
other objects made of clay. Archeologists use ceramics to reconstruct past
life ways and to fill some historical gaps. In Ethiopia, mainly in the northern
part, a large number of ceramic remains were discovered and the oldest is
dated between the 3rd and 2nd c. B.C.
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The minting of coins in Ethiopia is dated back to the Aksumite period since the 3rd
c. we have also coins of Harar in the medieval period and others in the recent past.
The following major features characterize the Aksumite coins;
o The coins were minted from gold, silver and bronze in which the type of the
metal indicates the value of coins. For example; the gold coins were more
valuable than the silver and bronze.
o Ge’ez letters (for domestic markets) and Greek letters (for international
markets) were used on the coins.
o On most of the coins are images of kings surrounded by the stalks of wheat
and barley.
o The coins provide valuable information on the culture, economy, religion,
art and history of Aksumite period.
Inscriptions and monuments: inscription belong to the major archeological
treasures, which can provide valuable information for archeologists and historians
about the political ,social, economic and religious aspects of the historic Ethiopian
society. In Ethiopia, there are several inscriptions in Sabean, Greek, Ge’ez and
Arabic languages. The well known inscriptions of Ezana are a triangular
inscription in Sabean, Greek and Ge’ez scripts.
Ethiopia is also very rich in many other types of archeological treasures including
the ruins of buildings, monuments, temples, palaces and tombs. Example, the stele
of Axum.
6. 17. Damaging factors of the Ethiopian cultural heritage
Both manmade and natural hazards are responsible for the decay and deterioration
of the Ethiopian cultural heritages.
Human factors: this is due to the intervention of humans or their negligence.
These include;
o Negligence/ignorance and poor handling systems
o Theft and illicit trafficking(mainly for movable cultural resources)
o Civil war and foreign invasions (YoditGudit, Ahmed Gragn,
ZemeneMesafint, the British military expedition led by Robert Napier,
Italian occupation, the Derguee.t.c.)
o Unprofessional and unwise conservation works
o Urbanization and development activities
o Impacts of globalization
o Impacts of mass tourism.
Natural factors: these are mainly related to climatic, geological and biological
features like;
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o Climatic and geological factors (solar radiation, seasonal temperature
changes, rainfall, humidity and wind pressure).
o Biological factors (both plants and animals are responsible for the
damages of cultural heritages created by biological factors).
o Other natural disasters like earth quake, flooding, lighting and thunder
6.18. Challenges of Ethiopian Tourism
 Image Problem (stereotyped picture)
 Ethiopia considered as an expensive destination
 Quality of service
 Under developed tourist attractions
 Insufficient tourist activities
 The local community is ignored from the benefits
 Insufficient investment incentives
 Lack of coordination amongst stakeholders
 Inadequate means of transportation with poor quality
 Lack of efficiently and specially trained and hospitable personnel
Reducing mechanisms for the above challenges include;
 Inventory and documentation of heritages
 Promotion and advocacy
 Code of ethics and legislation
 Good heritage interpretation
 Awareness creation, training and education and improving quality facilities
 Establishing museums
 Appropriate conservation
 Local community participation
 Promotion of private investment, domestic tourism and local handicrafts
production
 Maintaining appropriate statistical data.
Opportunities for Tourism development in Ethiopia
 The Diversity of tourist attractions and its proximity to generating countries
 Ethiopia considered as a new destination(hidden jewel of Africa for tourists)
 Tourism taken as part of the millennium development plan
 World Class national Carrier
 Addis is becoming a Hub destination
 Inborn sense of hospitality
Tourism Promotion Activities
Sustainable promotion is done by the government currently. Some of them include;
 Participation in International Tourism Fairs
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Joint Efforts towards promoting Ethiopia as a tourist destination
Stand design and construction that reflects the principal attractions
Different Exhibitions are staged in Ethiopia
Different Familiarization Trips
Publication & distribution of Brochures in different languages
Different Website developments
Chapter VII: Contemporary Themes in Tourism Research and Knowledge
The themes discussed below identify some of the key debates within tourism
studies, and illustrate how these are engaging tourism researchers in some of the
wider concerns of social science endeavor in the contemporary scene.
The objectives of tourism study are constantly changing, presenting new and
shifting challenges for academic research. We outline below some of the current
and emerging concerns of tourism research, not so much delineating an agenda for
future research as illustrating the nature of the challenges facing researchers.
The cultural shift
One of the most persistent themes is the need for more culturally informed
approaches. Many of the contributions are, of course, firmly located within
poststructuralist and cultural theory frameworks. But the ‘‘cultural turn’’ is also
informing other theoretical frameworks, notably political economy leading to
greater incorporation of discourses about non-material relationships into economic
analyses. This interweaving of cultural perspectives can also be found in
discourses about behavioral research. There is a danger here, of course, of falling
into the trap of cultural hegemony, ignoring material relationships, regulatory
frameworks, and the value of behavioral research methods. But this ‘‘trap’’ may be
weaker in tourism than in some other fields of study, for tourism research has a
long tradition of engaging with the cultural, perhaps reflecting the relatively early
and influential role of anthropologists and sociologists.
Scale
Scale constitutes one of the abiding concerns of tourism researchers. Recently this
has become focused on debates about global–local relationships. Indeed, one of the
distinctive features of tourism activities is that they are highly globalized while
necessarily being bound to the specificities of place. Indeed, tourism research has
become increasingly concerned with global–local relationships, although arguably
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rather uncritically. Moreover, there is increasing criticism of the notion of the
global–local as a dichotomy; the local is not separately constituted but is shaped by
how the global and the local are interrelated in particular places.
Again, the context of post-colonialism, reminds us of researchers’ concerns for
how economic, cultural, and other forces originating from metropolitan centers
become hybridized when brought into different places. However, considerable
challenges remain with respect to how tourism researchers engage with current
debates about scale.
Spaces and flows
Places are constituted of local and more spatially stretched relationships. Of
course, tourism researchers have long been interested in tourist flows in their own
right but for some tourism geographers the central interest lies on the implication
that social relationships are – at least temporarily – locked into particular places.
These are the moments in which host–guest, guest–guest, and host–host
relationships are made and remade, thereby contributing to how places and spaces
are constituted. Recently, tourism researchers have shown greater awareness of
how tourism is situated in a complex continuum of mobility, and that there is a
need to understand how different flows are interrelated in particular spaces.
The environment
The environment has long been a central concern for tourism researchers.
However, the research agenda in this area has been dominated in recent years by
the concept of sustainability. That literature has been long on case studies and
advocacy, and short on critical social science content. And yet there is a need to
link debates on sustainability to those on social welfare, social and territorial
justice, and the geographies of power and democracy amongst others.
Contextual conceptualization
Tourism researchers have increasingly sought to socially situate their research. For
example, behavioral studies have examined how holiday behavior relates to other
forms of leisure behavior. Political economy studies have examined how firms are
embedded in local economies, and has posed some penetrating questions as to the
relationships between tourism and other labor markets. Most obviously,
postmodernist studies have made the blurring of divides between social practices
one of the central motifs of their research.
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Multiple voices
In common with much of social science, some voices have been much louder than
others in tourism studies. Quite apart from fundamental notions of equity, this
implicitly means that our understanding of tourism is less complete than it should
be. The contents of tourism journals suggests that there is increased concern with
gender and sexuality issues, although there is still considerable progress required in
this, as there is in the organizations and institutions of tourism. Other voices also
have to be heard more clearly. One of the ironies of most research on indigenous
peoples is the dominance of non-indigenous voices.
Risk and uncertainty/ crisis management/ Health issues
There is the growing concern with risk and uncertainty in response to a variety of
challenges, including terrorism, war, the increasingly rapid and internationalized
diffusion of infectious diseases, and economic uncertainty. The media have had a
particularly strong impact on how policy-makers have responded to increased
risks. Indeed, we can compare the media to a lens which both enlarges and distorts
perceptions of risk and uncertainty. The net outcome has been a shift from the
emphasis on year-on-year growth of international tourism, and forecasts of near
exponential growth, to stuttering or declining levels of international travel, and
gloomy prognoses for future trends. The challenge for tourism researchers is to
unravel some of the complex ways in which these mega shifts are realized on the
ground, in particular places. This requires careful study of all forms of tourism and
leisure activities, and of both complementarities and substitutions.
Changing conditions
The conditions of tourism production and consumption are subject to change
emanating from globalization, technological innovations, and changes in the costs
of production factors such as capital and labor. On the one hand, there has been
seemingly relentless deregulation, hand in hand with privatization. This is most
starkly evident in the air travel sector. However, the reality is not so much
deregulation as re-regulation, with the emergence of new forms of governance,
partnerships, and state entrepreneurship. The challenge for tourism researchers is
to understand how re-regulation relates to the circuits of production and
consumption. And, in particular, we need to better understand the process of
change as one of innovation, whether incremental or paradigm-changing. That
requires far more sophisticated approaches than hitherto to the study of the sociopsychological, technological, and organizational determinants of innovation.
Socially divided/dividing world
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There is a need to address more explicitly that tourism not only occurs in a socially
divided and dividing world, but actively contributes to such processes. There are
sharp divisions in access to, and participation in, various forms of tourism. These
divisions are articulated both socially and spatially, in the north–south divide, and
in regional divides, as much as in class, gender, racial, and age differences. Given
that tourism constitutes an important element in quality of life, this inevitably
means that tourism practices serve to reproduce these inequalities.
Moreover, tourism production in capitalist economies necessarily generates
further unequal social relationships between and within factions/sections/ of capital
and labor. The future challenges of tourism development cannot adequately be
faced unless tourism research explicitly acknowledges such deep and persistent
inequalities. For example, the growing number of international tourists has led to
calls to limit tourism growth, and especially international travel. This may result in
policies which aim at various forms of rationing, to be realized through price
mechanisms or regulatory controls. The outcomes will not be socially neutral.
Instead, most such interventions will likely reproduce or deepen social inequalities
in tourism practices. There is probably no greater challenge for critical tourism
studies than the analysis of these inequalities.
Sustainable tourism development
Since the late 1980s, the concept of sustainable development has dominated
national and international development policy. Similarly, within the specific
context of travel and tourism, the concept of sustainable tourism development has
gained worldwide endorsement as the most appropriate approach to tourism
development. At the international, national, local and industry level, numerous
policy documents, planning guidelines, codes of conduct and statements of good
practice and soon have been produced, all promoting or extolling the virtues of
sustainable tourism development.
However, questions remain over the viability of the concept – many question both
the principles and objectives of sustainable tourism development, particularly as an
alternative to mass tourism, and a number of important questions must be
addressed. For example, can mass tourism be sustainable? Does the responsibility
lie with the tour operators to adopt more responsible practices? Should air transport
be subject to an environmental tax? Does ecotourism offer a genuinely sustainable
approach to tourism development? Can travel and tourism genuinely contribute to
sustainable development, or should it be seen simply as a powerful economic
development agent?
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Ethics in tourism
Related to the concept of sustainable development, the issue of ethics has become
increasingly important in both commercial and social life. Ethics refers to the
codes by which human behavior is guided – how people respond to each other,
how they travel, how business is done. In travel and tourism, ethics is concerned
with how tourism is managed at the level of both the industry and the individual
tourist. Thus, there are two perspectives – human ethics and business ethics, the
latter often embraced by what is referred to as corporate social responsibility.
Information technology
Inevitably, information technology is a major contemporary issue in tourism.
Where travel technology represented the first revolution in tourism, information
technology represents the second.
The impact of information technology, particularly the Internet, has been dramatic
and far reaching, fundamentally changing the manner in which travel and tourism
is marketed and purchased. At the same time, information technology more
generally has made a significant contribution to business practice, underpinning the
development of powerful database marketing systems, more efficient resource use
and yield management, and so on. In short, access to and use of information
through media such as the Internet has revolutionized the business of travel and
tourism.
For tourists, the Internet literally presents a window to the world. It has also
provided them with greater influence in the chain of distribution, inasmuch as the
industry now has to respond to demand rather than creating it – tour operators,
travel agencies and principals all face challenges in the way they do business. For
tourists, the Internet also represents a challenge in that they now design their own
holidays (but also, perhaps, take the responsibility when things go wrong). But
how much further can information technology go? Will customers begin to reject
the Internet in favor of the ‘human touch’? Will virtual travel become a reality?
Changing demands
The demand for tourism has demonstrated consistent growth since the 1950s.
Although the annual rate of increase has slowed, international arrivals are expected
to continue to grow, reaching an estimated 1.6 billion by 2020 (more than twice the
current figure for international arrivals). In other words, continuing growth in
tourism is seen to be a ‘good thing’, particularly if the benefits of tourism, such as
income and employment, are more widely or equitably enjoyed around the world.
However, is it likely that the less developed areas of the world, particularly many
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of the least developed nations, will benefit from tourism, or will the richer nations
or established destinations gains more?
Perhaps more importantly, we need to consider how and where will this growth
occur, and what will be the impacts on travel and tourism infrastructure and the
environment? Many international airports are already operating at capacity, while
air traffic control systems are also stretched at peak periods. As a result, travellers
may begin to experience ever-increasing delays, and safety may be compromised.
Also, will the increase be within regions or will it be global? For example, will the
current economic boom in China result in a significant growth in international
travel by the Chinese? And, overall, what will be the environmental consequences
of more than doubling the number of international travelers, and providing the
facilities and amenities they require?
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