Book reviews

Attention all governments!

AN INTEGRATED APPROACH TO RESORT DEVELOPMENT by Edward lnskeep and Mark Kallenberger WTO, Madrid, 1992, 129 pages, $170

Edward Inskeep and Mark Kallenber- ger have carried out a detailed evalua- tion of the development of six tourist resort areas which have benefited from an integrated planning and de- velopment approach. The growth of tourism has brought considerable eco- nomic and social benefits to each of the areas studied, although not always within the timescale originally antici- pated, and there are lessons to be learnt from all six.

The projects selected include Nusa Dua Resort in Bali, in Indonesia; Pomun Lake Resort, Kyongju, Re- public of Korea; Cancun in Mexico; Peurto Plata Resort Project in the Dominican Republic; South Antalya Tourism Development Project in Tur- key; and the Lanzarote Tourism Plan- ning Project in the Canary Islands. Most of these date back 20 years and more to the early 1970s when tourism internationally was expanding at a rate never previously experienced, where opportunities for developing countries were beginning to be widely recog- nized, and when governments (and entrepreneurially minded internation- al consultants) were anxious to capi- talize on these.

There are a number of common threads: each programme was govern- ment sponsored, most calling on UN or World Bank finance; each was part of a wider economic plan for the coun- try concerned; each recognized the need to protect the environment of the area and to conserve (or exploit) their cultural heritage; most required the creation of a separate agency for their planning and implementation; each, although pump-primed by public fi- nance, and in most cases backed by incentives, depended on the ability to

attract private sector development; each was planned over a long term with 20-year targets.

Nusa Dua has nine hotels with a total of 3750 rooms, all of 4 or 5 star category, with a further 1350 rooms planned. In the early stages there were major difficulties .in attracting hotel investors, although confidence in-

creased from the mid-1980s. Educa- tion and training of resort employees was seen as a vital part of the total project, and a small 50 bedroom hotel is part of the highly successful training school. There is considerable competi- tion for places at this school, with about 3000 applicants each year for 250 places available. The Bali Tourism Development Corporation, set up in 1972, has been operating profitably since 1987, and some of these profits are being used to finance BTDC resort projects elsewhere. The project has received assistance from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the World Bank. Some- thing of the order of 6000 jobs have been created. This was the first inte- grated resort to be developed in In- donesia and is seen as a model for the future.

Pomun Lake Resort is part of a programme for the Kyongju region of Korea, which, according to the Presi- dent’s instruction in 1971 ‘shall be rehabilitated so as to preserve and nurture the prominent natural scenic beauty, to revive the atmosphere of magnificence, brilliance, exquisite- ness, magnanimity, progressiveness, composure, elegance and profundity of the ancient capital of the Silla Dynasty, thereby developing Kyongju as an international cultural and tourist centre’. It is a little difficult to know whether this ambition has been achieved, but the area now has 1200 hotel bedrooms, with a further 1900 under construction or planned. The authors conclude that the project has been a success, and draw attention particularly to the role performed by

the Ministry of Culture in conserving the historic, cultural and religious sites, and the importance also of an efficient hotel school so as to provide the trained employees essential for the type of service necessary in a high- quality resort.

Cancun has been heavily criticized by environmentalists as endangering and in places destroying the fragile environment of the Yucatan Peninsu- la, and through failing in its early years to provide adequate housing for those employed on construction and within the emerging tourism industry. In the 1970s the project attracted mig- rant workers from all over Mexico, and the area was characterized by illegal squatter camps which took some years to replace with permanent accommodation. Today Cancun City, which is away from the main resort area, has 300 000 inhabitants, and this is expected to increase to 400 OO& 500 000 when the resort is completed - compare this with that other well- known, but much smaller new town, Milton Keynes, with some 90 000 population and one can understand the massive problems which have had to be faced!

Many of the earlier mistakes have now been overcome, including pollu- tion of the lagoon which is a major feature of the resort, and further de- velopment from the current 18 000 bedrooms to the planned 25 000 is likely to be more carefully planned, targeting more affluent tourists. The authors conclude that Cancun, despite initial difficulties, has succeeded in both planning and economic terms, and this could not have been achieved without an organization such as FONATUR which both financed and managed the development.

Puerto Plata in the Dominican Re- public is probably the least successful of the six projects studied. Yet even this is given the benefit of the doubt. Financed and managed by an offshoot of the Dominican Republic Central Bank, known as INFRATURE, this was an ambitious project, planned like Cancun in the early 1970s and envis- aged the development of two separate resorts, Playa Dorada and Playa Grande , some 15 miles apart. Playa Grande. the more upmarket of the

81 Tourism Management 1994 Volume 15 Number I

Book reviews

two resorts, has so far failed to mater- ialize, but 12 hotels with over 3000 rooms between them have been de- veloped in Playa Dorada. This has, however, given rise to considerable land speculation and the failure of other tourism projects in the sur- rounding area.

The major criticism by the authors is the lack of an overall land use and economic development plan for the region as a whole, and the scant re- gard for the very considerable infra- structure development needed within the region. Somewhat fortuitously, although planned for the more affluent North American market, the resort has succeeded in attracting the European packaged holiday market which is more easily influenced by price.

The most interesting chapter for many European readers will be the study of the South Antalya tourism project in Turkey. Although there has been much criticism of excessive de- velopment on parts of the Turkish coast, South Antalya is considered to be the most successful tourism project of its type. Plans for the region date from the mid-1970s, and have evolved and expanded over the period. Cur- rent planned bed capacity for the area is 65 000.

It was recognized that conserving the scenic beauty of the area was important, together with conservation of archaeological and historic sites, and this led to the entire region being designated, planned and developed as the Olympus Seashore National Park. Since tourism was developed as part of a total regional development strategy, adequate provision has been made for new housing, community facilities and appropriate services, of which a plentiful water supply was among the most important.

Based on experience gained in South Antalya, Turkey has now adopted an Environmental Protection Law and is preparing environmental impact assessment standards and proc- edures to be applied to specific de- velopment projects.

The final case study is of Lanzarote, where the objective is not so much to develop as to control tourism in an already mature resort area. Measures

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reflect widespread concern that tour- ism development should not go un- checked and that increasingly strin- gent planning and other regulations must apply if prosperity is to be sus- tained in the longer term. The current plan is therefore to limit future expan- sion and to look to future developers to pay their fair share of any addition- al infrastructure costs incurred.

Tourism is expanding world-wide at an ever increasing rate, yet only a tiny proportion of the world’s population currently travel. WTO, together with all those seriously concerned about the future of tourism, is anxious that development should be properly plan- ned, genuinely sustainable in the lon- ger term, spreading economic and so- cial benefits more widely, but avoiding some of the mistakes which have been made in the past. The authors con- clude (hardly surprisingly) that well-

planned resort developments can suc- ceed, and that an integrated approach to their development is the right way forward. This is a fundamental mes- sage for governments, including those currently obsessed with deregulation and leaving everything to market forces. It is particularly relevant to developing countries where gov- ernmental, planning and political sys- tems may be less robust and where there is greatest temptation towards short-term exploitation of natural assets which cannot easily be replaced. It deserves to be widely read.

Stephen Mills ETB

Thames Tower Black’s Road

London W6 9EL UK

THE PAST IN CONTEMPORARY SOCIETY: THEN, NOW by Peter J. Fowler Rout/edge, London, 1992, 192 pp, f40 hb/f 15.99pb

Britain’s heritage is big business, affecting not only the inhabitants of this small island but also the millions of people who visit the British Isles because of our heritage and Professor Peter Fowler underlines this, quoting some of the relevant figures pertaining to the vast numbers who visit historic properties in the introduction to his book The Past in Contemporary Socie-

ty: Then, Now. He also fairly and squarely accepts the fact that he is not able to touch on all aspects of the heritage business and with a style that is both wry and readable I sat back and expected to enjoy a didactic tome with balanced arguments.

As an archaeologist, Professor Fow- ler is basically interested in interpret- ing the past through buildings and the remains of buildings, and as tourists seem to be mainly concerned with visiting buildings for a taste of the past, he is well within his rights. His

aim is also that the reader should be completely aware of how to interpret the past correctly and one soon gains the impression that he feels that he is one of the few people in Britain with the good taste and savvy to be able to do this. Unfortunately, as the book proceeds, the realization begins to dawn that if he does, indeed, possess the secret to the past he is not going to share it with us and, like Dr Who, only he and a few hand-picked friends will be able to see precisely how things really were, with him acting as the Time Lord in his Tardis.

Rather than being a textbook on how to portray aspects of the past, it instead becomes a list of the many aspects of the heritage industry that he dislikes. Professor Fowler is scathing about the antics of organizations like the Sealed Knot and sneers at celebra- tions of the various centenaries that are regularly researched throughout Britain, writing them off as ‘anniversaryism gone mad’.

Thus, reading through the chapters entitled ‘Past with people’ and ‘A day in the life of the past’ one can agree with most of what he says and many of his examples often raise a smile but

Time travel for the few?

Tourism Management I994 Volume 15 Number I