Controversies in Tourism - Ultimate Kashmir€¦ · controversies in tourism are both ample and widespread. For example, regarding devel-opment, Spretnak (1999) asks whether the discourse

Controversiesin Tourism

Edited by Omar Moufakkir and Peter M. Burns

Controversies in Tourism

Paper Ironsresponsible sources

F5C CO13504

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Controversies in Tourism

Edited by

Omar Moufakkir

International Centre for Peace through Tourism Research (ICPTR),School of Leisure and Tourism Management, Stenden University,

the Netherlands

and

Peter M. Burns

Centre for Tourism Policy Studies (CENTOPS),Tourism and International Development, University of Brighton,

United Kingdom

0 biwww.cabi.org

CABI is a trading name of CAB International

CABI CABINosworthy Way 875 Massachusetts AvenueWallingford 7th FloorOxfordshire OX10 8DE Cambridge, MA 02139UK USA

Tel: +44 (0)1491 832111 Tel: +1 617 395 4056Fax: +44 (0)1491 833508 Fax: +1 617 354 6875E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected]: www.cabi.org

© CAB International 2012. All rights reserved. No part of this publication maybe reproduced in any form or by any means, electronically, mechanically,by photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of thecopyright owners.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library,London, UK.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Controversies in tourism / edited by Omar Moufakkir and Peter Burns.p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.ISBN 978-1-84593-813-0 (alk. paper)

1. Tourism. 2. Tourism--Social aspects. I. Moufakkir, Omar. II. Burns, Peter(Peter M.) III. Title.

G155.A10658 2012338.4'791--dc23

2011026536

ISBN-13: 978 1 84593 813 0

Commissioning editor: Sarah HulbertEditorial assistant: Alexandra LainsburyProduction editor: Holly Beaumont

Typeset by SPI Publisher Services, Pondicherry, India.Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon CR0 4YY.

Contents

Contributors vii

Acknowledgements ix

Introduction 1

0. Moufakkir and P.M. Burns

1 Of Ethics, Leisure and Tourism: The 'Serious Fun of Doing Tourism' 7

0. Moufakkir

2 A Common Tourism Policy for the European Union:A Historical Perspective 23S. Mehter Aykin

3 Authenticity and Commodification: The Selling of Mayan Culturein Mexico's Mayan Riviera 41A.E. Papanicolaou

4 Authenticity Versus Development: Tourism to the Hill Tribes of Thailand 54M. Novelli and A. Tisch-Rottensteiner

5 Controversies in Medical Tourism 73D.G. Vequist IV, M. Guiry and B. Ipock

6 Ethical Issues in Trophy Hunting 86J. Dobson

7 Ecotourism: A Maturing Discourse with Some Established Controversy 99S.W. Boyd

8 Ethnic Panopticon: A Controversy in Aboriginal Tourism 115P.F. Xie

9 Gaming in the USA: Historical Development, Controversiesand Current Status0. Moufakkir and D.F. Holecek

125

v

vi Contents

10 Golf Tourism: The Case of Cyprus 144N. Boukas, G. Boustras and A. Sinka

11 Residential Tourism or Lifestyle Migration: Social Problems Linkedto the Non-Definition of the Situation 160R. Huete and A. Mantecon

12 Surrealist Pilgrims, Melting Clocks in Marble Halls: Dark Tourismfor a Postmodern World 174D. Craig and C. Thompson

13 The Golden Jubilee of Independence and Panafest in Ghana:Àll that Glitters is not Gold' 186E. Addo

14 The Ideological Role of Intergovernmental Organizationsin the Promotion of International Tourism 201J. Ferraz

15 The Paradoxes of Tourism Encounters in the Mass Tourism Spacesof the Gambia 216H. Pattison

16 Tourism or Conservation? A Controversy in Chitwan National Park,Nepal 229K. Bhandari

17 Volunteer Tourism: Commodified Trend or New Phenomenon? 242A.M. Benson and S. Wearing

Conclusion 255

Index 259

Contributors

Dr Edward Addo, Assistant Professor, Tourism Department, Memorial University ofNewfoundland, Grenfell Campus, Corner Brook, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.E-mail: [email protected]

Dr Angela M. Benson, Tourism and Travel, University of Brighton, School of ServiceManagement, Eastbourne, UK. E-mail: [email protected]

Dr Kalyan Bhandari, Nepal Centre for Tourism Research, Biratnagar, Nepal and School ofInterdisciplinary Studies, University of Glasgow, Dumfries Campus, Scotland, UK.E-mail: [email protected]

Dr Niko laos Boukas, The School of Business Administration, European University Cyprus,Cyprus. E-mail: [email protected]

Dr George Boustras, The School of Business Administration, European University Cyprus,Cyprus. E-mail: [email protected]

Dr Stephen W. Boyd, Professor, Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management,University of Ulster, Northern Ireland, UK. E-mail: sw.boyd@ ulster.ac.uk

Dr Peter M. Burns, Professor, Tourism and International Development, Centre for TourismPolicy Studies, University of Brighton, UK. E-mail: [email protected]

Dr Don Craig, Professor, International Hotel Management, Stenden University, Leeuwarden,the Netherlands. E-mail: [email protected]

Dr John Dobson, Senior Lecturer, Department of Tourism, Hospitality and EventsManagement, Cardiff School of Management, University of Wales Institute, Cardiff, UK.E-mail: [email protected]

Dr Jorge Ferraz, Professor, Escola Superior de Hotelaria e Turismo do Estoril (Estoril HigherInstitute for Hotel and Tourism Studies), Estoril, Portugal. E-mail: [email protected]

Dr Michael Guiry, Associate Professor, Coordinator of Marketing, International Businessand Business Law, H-E-B School of Business & Administration, University of the IncarnateWord, San Antonio, USA.

Dr Don E Holecek, Professor Emeritus, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan,USA. E-mail: [email protected]

Dr Raquel Huete, Senior Lecturer, Department of Sociology I, University of Alicante,Alicante, Spain. E-mail: [email protected]

Brian Ipock, Center for Medical Tourism Research, University of the Incarnate Word,San Antonio, Texas, USA.

vii

viii Contributors

Dr Alejandro MantecOn, Department of Sociology I, University of Alicante, Alicante, Spain.E-mail: alejandro.mantecon @ua.es

Dr Sibel Mehter Aykin, Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, Faculty of Economicsand Administrative Sciences (IIBF), Akdeniz University, Dumlupinar Bulvari, Campus,Antalya, Turkey. E-mail: [email protected]

Dr Omar Moufakkir, Professor, School of Leisure and Tourism Management, StendenUniversity, Leeuwarden, the Netherlands. E-mail: [email protected]

Dr Marina Novelli, Centre for Tourism Policy Studies, School of Service Management,University of Brighton, Eastbourne, UK. E-mail: [email protected]

Anna E. Papanicolaou, Faculty of Humanities, Centre for Transnational Studies, Universityof Southampton, UK. E-mail: [email protected]

Helen Pattison, Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, UK. E-mail:h.patissonl @lancaster.ac.uk

Alexandros Sinka, Cybarco Ltd, Nicosia, Cyprus.Dr Craig Thompson, Academic Dean, International Hotel Management, Stenden University,

Leeuwarden, the Netherlands. E-mail: [email protected] Tisch-Rottensteiner, Beluga School for Life, Thailand. E-mail: [email protected] David G. Vequist IV, Center for Medical Tourism Research, University of the Incarnate

Word, San Antonio, Texas, USA. E-mail: [email protected] Stephen Wearing, Associate Professor, School of Leisure, Sport and Tourism, Faculty of

University of Technology, Sydney, Kuring-gai Campus, Australia. E-mail: Stephen.Wearing@uts. e du. au

Dr Philip E Xie, School of Human Movement, Sport and Leisure Studies, Bowling GreenState University, Bowling Green, Ohio, USA. E-mail: [email protected]

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Stenden University for giving me the opportunity to work on thisbook. I would also like to thank colleagues at the International Centre for Peace throughTourism Research. A special thank you goes to Julija Prigunova for her assistance throughthe journey. Also, our thanks to the following people at CABI for their support: RachelCutts, Holly Beaumont and Alexandra Lainsbury.

ix

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Introduction

Omar Moufakkir' and Peter M. Burns2'Stenden University, Leeuwarden, the Netherlands;

2University of Brighton, Brighton, UK

Tourism is a dynamic global phenomenon:an agent of change, harbinger of controversy,and a significant factor in social, culturaland technical evolution. Such evolutions,especially those driven by tourism, arealmost certainly followed by a variety ofinduced controversies. In order to gain fur-ther insight into how societies and cultureswork and interact, critical analysis of thecontexts, causes and consequences of thecontroversies is required. Failure to com-prehend the basis of a tourism controversymay (more than not) produce myopic tour-ism development policies of the sort seen incountries ranging from Turkey to Kenya. Atworst, failure to recognize and deal withcontroversy can lead to the systemic failureof tourism to meet the expectations of inves-tors, politicians and citizens.

This book will make a substantial con-tribution to the understanding of tourismcontroversies. Its purpose is to provide aplatform for open debate and intellectualdiscourse with a variety of views on per-ceived controversies or manifest conflictsfirstly within tourism (endogenous contro-versies), but also in the multidimensionalcontexts of environment and civil society(exogenous contexts). The focus of the bookis on established controversies in tourismand new and emerging conflicts, dilemmas,paradoxes and disputes within tourism

contexts. As a caveat to the reader, no sin-gle volume can hope to deal with all theissues, so the contents of this book repre-sent examples that set the stage for furthercases to be identified and published.

The 'classic' controversies derivedfrom, and rooted in, tourism such as dark/thanatourism, inappropriate tourism devel-opment, poor tourism planning, exploita-tive employment, malpractice with tourismstatistics, appropriation of heritage for tour-ism, unsustainable tourism, sport and megaevents that overwhelm locales, sex tourism,gaming linked with organized crime, com-modification of culture, are well establishedin the tourism literature, whereas contem-porary or emerging examples (such as medi-cal tourism, political tourism, tourismrelated to poverty, volunteer tourism, wild-life tourism) are less documented and some-what under-researched in academia.

Certainly, as there is a multitude of typesof tourism, tourists and stakeholders, thecontroversies in tourism are both ample andwidespread. For example, regarding devel-opment, Spretnak (1999) asks whether thediscourse of development and action is sim-ply a matter of economics rather than liveli-hood, positing that the real effect of moderndevelopment policies has been a substantiveincrease in the economic disparity betweenthe minority economically rich countries

©CAB International 2012. Controversies in Tourism (eds 0. Moufakkir and P. Burns) 1

2 0. Moufakkir and P.M. Burns

and the economically disadvantaged worldmajority. If development advances only thematerialism conception of the world, thequestions become: what are the objectivesand aims of development?

Tourism's alleged contribution to devel-opment is widely accepted but a number offundamental questions remain unanswered(Butler, 1996). Reid (2003) states that`Historically, however, tourism has not beena positive experience for all parties engagedin the development process, or treated allstakeholders in the enterprise equally.While trans-national corporations andentrepreneurs benefit greatly from tourismdevelopment, local people often bear thecost of that development without adequatereward' (p. 1). More interestingly, accordingto Swarbrooke (1999), investment in tour-ism by foreign entrepreneurs is sometimesseen as undesirable by the internationalcommunity and may pose an ethicaldilemma (although of course this flies in theface of the foreign direct investment argumentput forward by development economists).

The controversies inherent in tourismdevelopment are also internal and external.External controversies are manifested in thedevelopment discourse that discusses therelational economic, cultural and environ-mental development interplay between theMajority World and Minority World (Burnsand Novel li, 2008). Internal controversiesare manifested inside the 'black box' of tour-ism policy and planning (Hall 1994; Veal,2002). Policy and planning decisions intourism are shaped by the complexity anddiversity of the tourism environment(Holden, 2005), which encompasses inter-est groups beyond financial stakeholders, toalso include residents, businesses, arts andhumanities, cultural and natural resources,protection advocates, civil leaders, and pro-fessional designers and planners (Gunn andVar, 2002).

Looking at tourism through the sustain-ability prism, like many authors, Butler(1996), for example, has noted that its majorbinary divide, concept and practice are miredin contradictions and controversies, whendiscussing preservation and developmentissues. Among several others, Conlin and

Baum (2003, p. 118) asked whethersustainability as a concept has been 'hijackedby the tourism industry through eco-labelingand eco-selling', and by 'the prevailing modelof development and capitalism' (Mowforthand Munt, 2003, p. 113). While environmen-tal and social impacts are not new to thetourism industry, they can be exacerbated bynewly developed types of tourism suppos-edly developed as alternative to the mostdamaging mass tourism. One of these nichesis adventure tourism. In the adventure tour-ism setting, due to the need for pristine envi-ronments, often intense connection with thelocal population and culture can stimulatetension between the adventurous and thenature and culture of the local community(Ewert and Jamieson, 2003).

The purpose of this brief overview is tolift the lid on the rather disorganized box oftricks that frames tourism's obvious and notso obvious controversies. To reiterate, manyvolumes would be needed to include all theexisting controversies in tourism. Thepresent volume then enables authors topresent and discuss controversies with theidea of providing readers with a cohesive (ifnot fully comprehensive) perspective ontourism and its many controversies.

Content Overview

In the introductory chapter, Moufakkir setsthe scene of the book by initiating a discus-sion about the nature of freedom in leisureand tourism. Discussing the moralization oftourism, he proposes that while someauthors are enthusiastic about this moraliz-ing drive for a more ethically orientedtourism, others have criticized the over-simplification of this moralization, main-taining that there is too much criticism ofmass tourism while too much credit is givento alternative types of tourism, which areperceived to be but micro solutions to macroproblems. The author stimulates a discus-sion about the controversies related to eth-ics in tourism in a style that will set theground for the discussed controversies inthis book.

Introduction 3

In the first case (Chapter 2), Aykinexamines controversies related to a com-mon tourism policy of the European Union.Most of the studies addressing the extent ofthe European Union's involvement in tour-ism and the depth of its tourism policyargue that the European Union must play aproactive role in tourism, while the restworry about centralization, claiming thatthe existing political framework is effectualand sufficient. This chapter attempts toassess approaches of various groups to acommon tourism policy of the EuropeanUnion from a historical perspective, with aspecial emphasis on the recent develop-ments brought about by the Reform Treaty.

Moving from complex European poli-tics to the equally complex controversy oftourism, social identity and culture,Papanicolau (Chapter 3) discusses the con-troversies surrounding tourism and thecommodification of culture. She uses thecase of tourism to Mexico's Mayan Riviera -the 130km stretch of land situated directlybeneath Cancun, in Mexico's Yucatanpeninsula - to illustrate her analysis.Launched by state officials in the middle1990s, the destination was designed to con-jure up images of a 'Cote D'Azurian' sophis-tication blended with the 'culture' of one ofthe most celebrated civilizations of theAmericas: the Mayans. Although Mayancommunities have resided in the interior ofthe peninsula for centuries, they had beenlargely excluded from the tourist gaze untilthe end of the 1990s, when the 'selling' ofculture, particularly authentic Mayan cul-ture, began to gain ground. Drawing fromfieldwork data gathered in 2009, this chap-ter examines this phenomenon, looking atissues of commodification, marketizationand authenticity in the context of touristattractions premised on the (re)presentationof culture, particularly Mayan culture.

In Chapter 4, Novel li and Tisch-Rottensteiner contribute a case study thatfocuses on the extent to which tourism leadsto local development or whether the tour-ists' quest for authenticity holds back devel-opment. By using the hill tribes of NorthernThailand as a representative case, theirstudy highlights the need for governmental

institutions to recognize the substantialadded value provided by the hill tribes toThai tourism, tourists to be made moreaware of what to expect, how to behave andhow to interact when travelling to the local-ity, and finally, the need for tour operatorsto exercise their moral and ethical obliga-tions to ensure that tourism truly benefitslocal communities.

Another sort of moral or ethical dimen-sion is dealt with by Vequist, Guiry andIpock (Chapter 5) who focus on the medicaltourism industry and some of the interest-ing controversies that underlie the growthof this industry. Defined as individuals trav-elling outside of their immediate geographi-cal area and even across internationalborders to obtain healthcare, medical tour-ism is a growing type of tourism. Medicaltourism is suggested to be a rapidly growingindustry and is affecting traditional health-care delivery in many ways that are not yetfully understood. The authors provideinsights into the controversies in the field ofmedical tourism and also determine whatcategories of controversies are well coveredand which areas still need more research.

Discussing the controversies surround-ing wildlife tourism and trophy hunting,Dobson (Chapter 6) offers an overview ofthe definitional dilemmas with which this`leisure activity' is faced. He then presentsarguments in support of this activity andarguments against it, and looks at trophyhunting from an ethical lens to analyse thetrophy-hunting debate.

Definitional ambiguities also frame theecotourism discourse even after 20 years ofresearch. Issues related to definitions, thecontext and spaces in which ecotourism takesplace frame Boyd's analysis of the controver-sies related to ecotourism in Chapter 7.

Returning to the question of social iden-tity and cultural ethics, Xie (Chapter 8)argues that the popularity of aboriginal tour-ism has created a series of tensions and con-flicts when ethnic culture is commoditizedas a tourism resource. This chapter proposesa term 'ethnic panopticon' by using Foucault'seye-of-power to describe a controversy whenaboriginal resources are used for tourism.Through the concept of ethnic panopticon,


the participant/observer becomes the objectto view and be viewed. The argument is thataboriginal tourism involves technologies ofgazes in order to create, reify and reinvent afantasy world of cultural difference for tour-ists' consumption. It has investigated an abo-riginal folk village on Hainan Island, China,where tourism has become the major sourceof income.

Casinos have always attracted contro-versy and Chapter 9 sees Moufakkir andHoleck attempting to delineate major con-troversies surrounding casino gaming devel-opment, and discuss in-depth a set ofimportant issues. The authors argue thatdespite the proliferation of casinos, espe-cially in the USA, whenever and wherevercasino gaming legislation has been intro-duced and discussed, heated debates arisebetween gaming's advocates and adversar-ies. This is partly because of the activityitself, which still connotes moral, religious,economic, political and social issues, andpartly because of how the benefits are dis-tributed. The authors conclude that it is,however, difficult, if not misleading, to dis-cuss the impacts of gaming in general termsbecause different casino development mod-els generate different outcomes.

While many of the chapters in this bookare concerned with issues of culture andnurture, Chapter 10 takes on a major envi-ronmental issue with Boukas, Boustras andSinka discussing the case of Golf Tourism inCyprus. The overdependence of Cyprus ontourism, the decrease of tourist flows, andthe recent economic crisis harming theCypriot tourism sector are some of the majorissues that have emerged as being in need ofcoping strategies. While Cyprus has beenfacing a water shortage for a number ofyears, the official tourism policy responseaims to reposition the country in the globaltourism market with the development of anumber of world-class golf courses. This isinherently controversial, leading to strongdisagreement between various parties.Although the construction of golf coursescould be a solution for the economic recov-ery, there is no denying the potential eco-logical disaster resulting from thisgovernment policy decision. The chapter

aims to discover different views for thisissue based on recent data from differentperspectives: tourism and environmentalplanning, marketing and policy, crisis man-agement and sustainable development.Finally, it gives alternative solutions inorder to harmonize any possible contradic-tions resulting from this strategy.

The concept of residential tourism hasbeen used since the late 1970s to explainthe transformations brought about by theconstruction of property and expatriatehomes in tourist areas, and the configura-tion of two types of human mobility: tour-ism and lifestyle migration. In Chapter 11,Huete and Mantecon present their research,which has been carried out in the Alicanteprovince (Spain). A total of 872 face-to-faceinterviews in the respondents' homes wereconducted. The operational classificationpresented here could become a useful toolin resource management and regional plan-ning. It is worth noting that the towns wheresuch process has been more intense experi-ence great difficulties in explaining thecomplex system of residential mobilitytypes with which they deal on a daily basis.The description of the mobility types hereidentified can also help to justify theresources necessary for the local adminis-tration of these areas where the boundariesbetween tourism and migration are blurred.

Addressing a major aspect of tourismcontroversies, Craig and Thompson (Chapter12) examine the phenomenon of dark tour-ism, and, in doing so, distinguish differentdegrees of darkness and therewith sevendestination categories: sites of mass murderand genocide, war museums and exhibi-tions, graveyards and cemeteries, simulateddungeons, battlefields, slavery tourism andre-enactments. To satisfy curiosity and itseducational aspect are of utmost importanceand to some degree Dark Tourism is finan-cially beneficial to any destination. Thechapter goes deeper into the contribution ofmedia and how the so-called 'CNN phe-nomenon', global communications, socialmedia and technology encourage death-related events to be reported in real-time,thus creating a frisson of excitement thathas the potential to turn into tourism.

Introduction 5

Furthermore, it clarifies why one experiencesobserving violence and death as 'enjoyment'and how this experience differs from timeto time and from tourist to tourist.

Returning to the field of politics andtourism, Addo (Chapter 13) addresses thecontroversies surrounding the significanceof events with a focus on Ghana's celebra-tion of colonial independence. Celebrativeevents, like independence anniversariesand festivals, are ubiquitous in sub-SaharanAfrica and often linked to European coloni-zation and trade in commodities and slavesthat characterized the sub-region over fivecenturies. Ghana, the first country to gainindependence from colonial rule in the sub-region, celebrates the event and someDiaspora-related festivals. The 50th inde-pendence anniversary and Panafest, aDiaspora-related event, are the focus of thischapter. The events are economically, cul-turally and politically significant to Ghana'stourism industry. However, the experientialeconomic, political and ethnocentric con-troversies surrounding the events tend toovershadow their cultural significance.

The ideological role of intergovernmen-tal organizations on the promotion of inter-national tourism has caused controversiesas governments try to balance regionalobjectives with national self-interest. InChapter 14, Ferraz uses content analysis toinvestigate one of the most significant dec-larations and propositions of the main inter-governmental organizations regardinginternational tourism during the past 50years: he assesses its ideological dimen-sions. His findings support the assumptionthat the discourses of intergovernmentalorganizations sustain the ideological natureof international tourism whilst promotingtopics, products, practices and tourismmodels that contributes to an unequal inter-dependence between the different societiesat stake, benefiting the most developed ones.

The tourist gaze will be familiar totourism and cultural scholars in its origi-nal form set out by John Urry in his semi-nal work. However, in Chapter 15, Pattisonturns the concept upside down by visitingthe paradoxes of tourism encounters inThe Gambia, with a focus on the host gaze

instead of the tourist gaze. Exploring thecomplexity of becoming a 'host' in TheGambia, she has been able to (re)inscribemeaning to the term gaze with its (largely)one-dimensional utilization within tour-ism studies, and (re)conceptualize thetraditional host-guest paradigm. In thischapter, binaries of 'us' and 'them', 'sub-ject' and 'object' are deconstructed as thehost's paradoxical gaze upon the West ismanifested in host-tourist encounters thatare dynamic, ambivalent and complex. Theend result is the creation of a confused het-erogeneous place.

Conservation has also been a significantcontroversy in tourism with conflictinginterests at the heart of the matter. In Chapter16, Bhandari reflects on whether tourismand conservation in Nepal's ChitwanNational Park can exist in mutual harmony.His case study examines conflictual issuesbetween tourism entrepreneurs and conser-vation activists. He looks into the case of therenewal of a 15-year contract to operateconcessionaires within Chitwan NationalPark that became a national controversy andleft more than half a dozen hotels (eco-lodges) inside the park shut for 6 months.His chapter identifies four dimensions tounderstand this controversy and offers rec-ommendations for policymakers and otherstakeholders engaged in the tourism plan-ning process.

In Chapter 17, Benson and Wearingargue that volunteer tourism has become aglobal phenomenon, with market predic-tions indicating growth in both size andvalue and with this growth has come theinevitable controversies that surround newtrends or phenomena. They explain that inexamining this phenomenon there is a needto examine a wider agenda beyond that ofits size and growth. This chapter attempts tobuild around the ideas on the volunteerexperiences from both their experiencesand the experiences of the communitieswith which they interact. They also suggestthat volunteer tourists cannot solely bealigned with neo-colonialism or neo-liberalism. Volunteer tourism sits at theintersection of a great many areas such asmass tourism, international development


and sustainability, and as such it is essentialthat we do not isolate our ideas to singulartheories, approaches or practices, as thiswould then limit our ability to research and

appreciate this phenomenon. This chapterprovides an overview of this area andattempts to provide the reader with an anal-ysis of its function and characteristics.

References

Burns, P. and Novel li, M. (2008) Tourism Development: Growth, Myths and Inequalities. CABI Publishing,Wallingford, UK.

Butler, R.W. (1996) Problems and possibilities of sustainable tourism: the case of the Shetland Islands. In:Briguglio, L., Butler, R., Harrison, D. and Filho, W.L. (eds) Sustainable Tourism in Islands and SmallStates: Case Studies. Pinter, London, pp.11-31.

Conlin, M.V. and Baum, T. (2003) Comprehensive human resource planning: an essential key to sustainabletourism in small island settings. In: Cooper, C. (ed.) Aspects of Tourism. Classic Review in Tourism.Channel View Publications, Clevedon, UK, pp. 115-129.

Ewert, A. and Jamieson, L. (2003) Current status and future directions in the adventure tourism industry. In:Wilks, J. and Page, S.J. (eds) Managing Tourist Health and Safety in the New Millennium. Pergamon,Oxford, UK, pp. 67-84.

Gunn, C.A. and Var, T. (2002) Tourism Planning: Basics, Concepts, Cases. Rout ledge, London.Hall, C.M. (1994) Tourism and Politics: Policy, Power and Place. Wiley and Sons, Chichester, UK.Holden, A. (2005) Tourism Studies and the Social Sciences. Routledge, London.Mowforth, M. and Munt, I. (2003) Tourism and Sustainability: New Tourism in the Third World, 2nd edn.

Routledge, London.Reid, D.G. (2003) Tourism, Globalization and Development: Responsible Tourism Planning. Pluto Press,

London.Spretnak, C. (1999) The Resurgence of the Real: Body, Nature and Place in a Hypermodern World. Addison-

Wesley, New York.Swarbrooke, J. (1999) Sustainable Tourism Management. CABI Publishing, Wallingford, UK.Veal, A.J. (2002) Leisure and Tourism Policy and Planning, 2nd edn. CABI Publishing, Wallingford, UK.

1 Of Ethics, Leisure and Tourism:The 'Serious Fun of Doing Tourism'

Omar Moufakkir''School of Leisure and Tourism Management, Stenden University,

Leeuwarden, the Netherlands

Introduction

It is no longer good enough to travelfootloose and fancy free. Tourism isaccompanied by constant warnings tolimit one's behaviour and to be ethical.From the environmental group Arc'spamphlet 'Sun, Sea, Sand and Saving theWorld' to Friends of the Earth's advice toquestion whether you 'need' to travel atall, tourism is now the terrain of moralcodes and not a little guilt-tripping. Theoften impulsive and reckless desire tostrike out across Europe or further afield isno longer a good enough reason. A love ofmusic, dancing and drinking provides nodefence against the charge of immoraltourism. Excess moral baggage has to belugged around if tourism is to beacceptable to some.

Butcher (2002, p. 71)

Now the mass of mankind are evidentlyquite slavish in their tastes, preferring a lifesuitable to beasts.

Aristotle (Book 1, Chapter 5)

In the words of poet Alexander Pope:Àmusement is the happiness of those whocannot think.'

Goodale and Witt (1991, p. 3)

The only lesson of morality appropriateto childhood, and the most importantfor every age, is never to harm anyone.

The very precept of doing good, if it is notsubordinated to this one, is dangerous, false,and contradictory.

J.J. Rousseau (Book 1, p. 104).

Like the cover, quotations do not necessarilydo justice to the content of a book; neither dothey justify the meaning of its thesis whentaken out of their context. We use quotations,however, to give sense to our thinking, sup-port our ideas and guide our reasoning. Theselected quotations are profound in theirmeaning. They are complementary, yet dif-ferent and possibly contradictory. Theyare used here to epitomize the controversiessurrounding the theme of this chapter -tourism ethics. They are all concerned withfreedom - the freedom to have, to be and tobecome.

Freedom and Tourism

Perceived freedom and intrinsic motivationare central to any definition of leisure (Iso-Ahola, 1999) and could also apply to defini-tions of tourism. Bregha (1991,47) asks sinceleisure and freedom are in a profound rela-tionship, 'does freedom, in fact, mean theability of doing what one wants to do whenone wants to? Is professional intervention inleisure services enhanced or limited by the


8 0. Moufakkir

ethos of freedom?' Many questions arise inrelation to the moralization of tourism. Towhat extent are tourists free? Are mass tour-ists freer than those engaged in alternativetourism? To what extent is the moralizationof tourism antithetical to freedom? Shouldtourists behave ethically in their tourismaction? Leisure scholars have examined suchconcepts as leisure in one's life and educa-tion for leisure. Is tourism any different fromleisure? What is freedom in this sense?Leisure scholars talk about deviant leisure orpurple recreation (see, for example, Rojek,1999). Is there something which might betermed deviant or purple tourism? Leisurescholars talk about the leisure ideal (see, forexample, Goodale, 1991; Dustin and Goodale,1999; Sylvester, 1999). Is there somethinglike the tourism ideal? It is unfortunate thattourism academics have not yet taken fulladvantage of leisure studies, and that leisureacademics themselves have not given theneeded attention to tourism in their assem-blage of importance.

This chapter is about the role of ethicsin tourism. It is not about ethical tourism(Weeden, 2002), which may be defined as atype of niche tourism that has some ethicalelements to it. If ethics is about right andwrong, then what is right and what is wrongabout tourism, including mass/packagetourism and its alternative types? The cen-tral question of this chapter is whether ornot there is a place for moral considerationsin tourism. I will argue that while someauthors criticize the moralization of tour-ism (e.g. Butcher, 2002), paradoxically,tourism stakeholders do not seem to bothersimply because this moralization is not suf-ficiently visible. I will then argue for moreeducation about the ethics of tourism intourism education. I have also asked many(normative) questions, but could not answerthem all. After all, ethics is about wrongand right; who are we to decide what is andwhat is not?

The Moralization of Tourism

Tourism has an effect on people and theenvironment. Tourism is big business. Big

business involves commercial enterprisesorganized and financed on a scale largeenough to influence social and politicaldecision making. Putting aside the socialand political implications, production andconsumption, and what comes with them,including possibly profit, competition,labour, exploitation and corruption, we cansimply focus on tourism as big businessfrom a demand perspective with the numberof international tourists forecast to reach1.6 billion by 2020. Most tourism commen-taries regard this as a great achievement fortourism stakeholders. Others argue that`Wariness rather than celebration typicallyaccompanies accounts of the growth oftravel for leisure' (Butcher, 2002, p. 7). ToButcher, it is 'this emphasis on tourism as acultural and environmental problem thatinforms the moralization of tourism' (2002,p. 7). Should it not?

The concern here is not about thenumber of tourists per se, and neither is itabout their behaviour, more than it is aboutthe attitudes displayed in their tourismactivities. Some would argue that touristsare human beings before they become tour-ists, and that human beings are guided by aset of moral principles that affect how theymake decisions and lead their lives. Theseprinciples concern the past, present andfuture of humanity, and they forge our atti-tudes and behaviours towards becoming, ifnot more human, then a little less animal-like in our lives (Neulinger, 1990).

The concern of those who support suchthinking is about moulding the behaviour ofthe 1.6 billion tourists who will be travel-ling the earth to visit famous, familiar andless familiar places. Some of them will stayclose to home while others will boldly gowhere few have gone before. Some will fol-low in the footsteps of the explorers, tamingthe continents - their people, flora andfauna - and be driven by a constant need tofind and cross new frontiers.

The Moralisation of Tourism by JimButcher (2002) has set the ground for thischapter, which is rooted in the ethicalapproach to leisure and leisure studies.Tourism is indeed an agent of change, forbetter or worse. 'Tourism produces change.

Of Ethics, Leisure and Tourism 9

It changes the tourist, the tourist site, and theeconomy of the host community' (Godbey,1994, p. 213). The nature of this changeshould not go uncriticized. Some have shownfrustration with what is seen as exaggeratedcriticism of mass tourism (Butcher, 2002),others have sought to uncover the limitationsof alternative types of tourism (e.g. Liu,2003), while a few lament not only the ethi-cal deficit in our tourism behaviour but inour lives (e.g. Smith and Duffy, 2003).

This is what Dea Birkett has to say onthe cover of The Moralisation of Tourism:`Don't go on your next holiday without it'.Certainly, others might say if you think aboutthe future, this book is a 'must read', notonly because of what it says, but also becauseof the opposite of what it says. Could some-thing like the serious fun of doing tourismsave the world - if not the day? Indeed, 'anoble task, yet also one that is bound to leadto confusion if performed by those who arenot free themselves' (Bregha, 1985, p. 48).

The Paradox: The Ethical Deficitin Tourism

The ethical deficit seems to be a feature ofmany areas of modern society includingpublic policy, scientific research and busi-ness practices. 'Some consumers even doubtthe applicability of ethics to such areas atall' (Smith and Duffy, 2003, p. 8). Someauthors lament the ethical deficit while oth-ers enthuse about the new ethical orienta-tion of tourists. While some organizationshave developed codes of ethics (e.g. WTO,WTTC, UNEP and the Tourism IndustryAssociation of Canada), others have indi-cated their discontent with such endeav-ours, and oppose 'the vocabulary of the NewMoral Tourist' (e.g. Butcher, 2002, p. 71).

In response to an early Tearfund (2002)report which indicated that tourists havebecome more interested in alternative typesof tourism, Josephides (2002), the managingdirector of Sunvil Holidays, argued that`British tourists have absolutely no interestin supporting a host country's economy,respecting local customs or acting responsi-ble while on holiday ... They also want it

cheap and to hell with who or what isexploited to get the price down.' A fewauthors have also indicated the irony that`despite the frequency of our everyday use ofethical terms to describe certain states ofaffairs as right or wrong, good or evil, just orunjust, and so on, such evaluations oftenseem to carry little weight with key decisionmakers' (Smith and Duffy, 2003, p. 8).

Moreover, forms of tourism that are alterna-tives to mass tourism and which claim to bemore responsible have been criticized for analmost exclusive focus on localized, small-scale development projects which rarelytranscend local or regional boundaries, or onparticular industry sectors (Sharpley, 2000).

As tourism is a global phenomenon,critics of alternative types of tourism haveindicated a need to go beyond niche mar-keting, and to incorporate ethics into tour-ism in general (e.g. Butler, 1998; Sharpley,2000; Tribe, 2002; Liu, 2003). On the otherhand, some commentators have arguedthat because of the problems associatedwith mass tourism, tourists are movingaway from the 'traditional irresponsible'towards more responsible, 'green'(Krippendorf, 1987), 'new' (Poon, 1993),èthical', 'environmentally responsible',`good' (Swarbrooke and Homer, 1999),ènlightened' (Tearfund, 2002), and 'experi-ential' (King, 2002) types of tourism. Thisshift has reflected and enhanced recentinterest in the ethical conduct of the tour-ism industry and tourists. For Krippendorf(1987) green tourism opposed developmentof an area without proper planning. Greentourism protects fine landscapes, reusesexisting buildings and sets limits on theamount of development in an area. Wherepossible, only residents of the area operateas developers. The economic, ecologicaland social issues surrounding tourist devel-opment are all considered rather than justthe economic ones. Traffic plans favourpublic transportation. Developers arerequired to bear the social costs of theirdevelopment, and the architecture, histori-cal sites and natural sites are retained evenif they are an obstacle to tourism growth(Godbey, 1994, p. 213). Is there an elementof moralization in this vision?

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The argument that any form of respon-sible travel, if not tourism ethics in general,remains a myth (Josephides, 2002) is coun-tered to some extent by those who claimthat ethical principles create for tour opera-tors who embrace them an opportunity forcompetitive advantage (Tearfund, 2001;Weeden, 2002; Goodwin and Francis, 2003).Tearfund's (2000) UK Market ResearchReport indicates that many consumerswould opt for a tour company that offeredpositive guarantees, and would be willingto pay more for their holiday if necessary,and that tourists want more informationabout their destination so that they canbehave responsibly and support the localeconomy. Similar research conducted byTearfund in 2001 and more recently TUI(2010) shows a rising demand for ethicalholidays.

The Irony of the Moralizationof Tourism: Mass Tourism

Butcher is, rightly, infuriated by criticsdehumanizing mass tourism while exagger-ating the value of alternative types of tour-ism. The irony is that it is the democratizationof leisure and tourism that has brought themto the masses, and that this so much desiredachievement has become part of the prob-lem rather than the solution. Paradoxicallyif we do not moralize tourism what can wedo to minimize the problems emanatingfrom its impacts? (see also Brian Wheeler,1991, when he argued that responsible tour-ism is not the answer to tourism problems).

Many countries have adopted tourismas a strategy for economic development andincreasingly have chosen to develop theirtourism product and aggressively promotetourism resources to attract more tourists.However, tourism has also been recognizedas having negative impacts on host commu-nities, their cultures and natural environ-ments (UNEP; UNWTO). Most of thenegative impacts are attributed to masspackage tourism. It is the most commontype of tourism, perceived and criticized as`crude, homogenous, insensitive to hosts,involving resorts that alter the landscape,

crowded, frivolous' (Butcher, 2002, p. 21).Mass tourists are criticized and caricaturedas 'unthinking and blind to both the damagethey do and the better time they could behaving if only they would adopt more ethi-cal practices' (p. 19).

While mass tourism is one of the out-comes of technological ingenuity, prosperityand democratization, it now carries morenegative connotations than positive ones.However, if the negative impacts of tourismare generally attributed to visits to develop-ing and economically poor countries, the out-cry against mass tourism is ironic, consideringthe comparatively small number of touristswho visit Africa, South East Asia or LatinAmerica, or even underdeveloped regions inEurope. In 2009, international tourist arrivalsreached 880 million (Europe: 459.7; Asia andthe Pacific: 181.2; the Americas: 140.7 withNorth America topping 92.1; Africa: 45.6;and the Middle East: 52.9). International tour-ism generated US$ 852 billion (611 billion)in export earnings (Europe: 413; Asia and thePacific: 203.7; Americas: 165.2, of which118.9 goes to the USA; Africa: 28.9; and theMiddle East: 41.2) (UNWTO, 2010). In 2020the regions that will be receiving the lowestnumber of tourists are in developing coun-tries. Why then should we warn peopleagainst visiting these places that are in des-perate need of tourist flows, new dollars,investment and development?

Graburn (1989, p. 35) believes that masstourists 'are likely to have the greatestimpact on the culture and environment ofthe host peoples both by virtue of theirgreater numbers and by their demands forextensions of their home environments forwhich they are willing to pay handsomely'.Macleod (2004), however, argues that thesetourists 'do not mix with local people and,therefore, are less likely to have deep cul-tural influence on them than the 'alterna-tives' who, although smaller in number, doactually interact with the host communityat a more personal level' (p. 221).

Tourism is not only about business anddevelopment. It is also about discovery.Tourism can bring cultures together to benefitfrom each other. There are many studies oftourism encounters, cross-cultural behaviourand understanding in the tourism literature.


More recently, a revival of the tourism andpeace proposition has been making progressin academia, politics and policy. Yet touristsare advised not to get too close to endogenouspopulations to safeguard local cultures andenvironments against culture contamination.

However, can the tourist ignore culturaldiversity? How can we suppress the desire tovisit other cultures and mingle with thelocals, a motivation that is so much appreci-ated by the proponents of alternative tour-ism, and yet remain distant? How can welive in a rolling transparent bubble withoutguilt feelings, even when contact is minimal?Is tourism to blame for culture fluidity,a process which is praised by a lot of people?

It may be argued that the role of tourism inshaping, re-shaping and negotiating betweencultures is negligible, considering that evenremote parts of the world have access totelevision, the Internet or mobile phones.Where communication has no borders, onemust seriously question the role of tourism -in both mass and alternative forms - and itsimpacts on shaping cultures for better orworse. There is one thing to acknowledgehere: tourism does at least have the potentialto bring people closer to the authentic, whenthe authentic is desired.

Butcher asks: 'But what is deemed tobe so wrong with package [mass] tourism?'The development of the mass tourism

Box 1.1. Famous quotes depicting controversies in tourism (different sources).

'Traveling makes a man wiser, but less happy.' Thomas Jefferson

The fool wanders, a wise man travels.' Thomas Fuller

Your true traveler finds boredom rather agreeable than painful. It is the symbol of his liberty - his exces-sive freedom. He accepts his boredom, when it comes, not merely philosophically, but almost withpleasure.' Aldous Huxley

'Though there are some disagreeable things in Venice there is nothing so disagreeable as the visitors.' HenryJames

'A man who leaves home to mend himself and others is a philosopher; but he who goes from country tocountry, guided by the blind impulse of curiosity, is a vagabond.' Oliver Goldsmith

'I am not much an advocate for traveling, and I observe that men run away to other countries becausethey are not good in their own, and run back to their own because they pass for nothing in the newplaces. For the most part, only the light characters travel. Who are you that have no task to keep you athome?' Ralph Waldo Emerson

The traveler sees what he sees, the tourist sees what he has come to see.' Gilbert Keith Chesterton

in travelling a man must carry knowledge with him, if he would bring home knowledge.' Samuel Johnson

'Life on board a pleasure steamer violates every moral and physical condition of healthy life except freshair. It is a guzzling, lounging, gambling, dog's life. The only alternative to excitement is irritability.' GeorgeBernard Shaw

'Tourism is like fire. You can cook your dinner on it; or it can burn your house down.' Anonymous

'Tourism is like being a little bit pregnant. It's fun getting there - but it poses increasing problems as thechild grows and threatens to take over the parent.' Richard Butler

'Tourism is like a secularised or unconscious form of pilgrimage, and the attitude of the pilgrim, the 'intentionto learn', should be consciously reinscribed into tourism.' Rupert Sheldrake

'Tourism is like seasoning on food. Some can make an improvement; a little more can make it perfect. A lotruins it and makes a good thing disgusting.' Anonymous

if you are motivated by a relief that tourism is prone to damage cultures and environments, wouldn't yoube better off at home?' Jim Butcher

'Those who do travel are advised to 'travel well' -to seek out and revere the culture of your hosts ... butnot to get too close, for fear of offending cultural sensibilities.' Jim Butcher

'Tourism is like a bridge. It connects our countries and it can connect people to each other.' Karen Chen

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industry has brought needed developmentto many poor regions and poor countries.However, this positive aspect of mass tour-ism has been overshadowed by the negativeaspects, which are too often exaggerated. Inhis book, he identifies many interesting fac-ets of the exaggeration and the ironies thatfollow it.

Alternative Tourism

One response to these ethical tensions hasbeen the recognition of the need for sustain-able tourism, generally defined as manage-ment to ensure that its benefits can beenjoyed by consumers without adverseeffects on the environment that maintainsand nurtures the industry, and also that itcan be enjoyed by future generations(Hawkes and Williams, 1993; Frank andBowerman, 1994; WTO, 2001). Under theumbrella of sustainability, several forms oftourism have emerged as alternatives withthe objective to minimize the negativeimpacts of tourism and optimize the posi-tive ones. Liu (2003), however, suggests thatso-called sustainable forms of tourism arenot fulfilling their promise to transform theway in which modern conventional tourismis conducted, that they are mainly promotedfor marketing rather than conservation pur-poses, and are 'at best a micro solution towhat is essentially a macro problem' (Liu,2003, p. 471). It is noted that even relativelysmall-scale niche types of tourism can haveserious negative impacts (Smith and Duffy,2003, p. 135).

Ecotourism, sustainable tourism, greentourism, alternative tourism and mostrecently community tourism [and ethicaltourism] have been presented as morallysuperior alternatives to package holidays.The package holiday revolution, celebratedby some, is increasingly condemned asdestructive by a host of campaigns,academics and commentators.

Butcher (2002, p.1)

Refuting the claim that mass tourism(e.g. Graburn, 1989; Smith, 1989) has agreater impact on the local community,

Mcleod (2004) argues that, despite theirsmaller numbers, alternative tourists suchas backpackers can have a greater influenceon a local community than mass packagetourism, because of 'the propensity for alter-native tourists to mix more with the locals,communicate with them, meet them on anequal level (not customer servant), spendmoney on services provided by local people(not owned by big business) and enter intoemotional relationships with them'(Macleod, 2004, p. 221). This contrastsdirectly with the views of Smith (1989) andGraburn (1989) who attribute the greatestimpact to mass tourists because of theirnumbers, economic clout and tendency toexpect Western amenities.

The Irony of the Ironies

Criticizing the moralization of tourism anddiscussing the ironies surrounding thismoralization is one thing; but the irony ofthese ironies is that this moralization dwellsin books and journals and hardly everreaches the target. So, the moralization oftourism and its critique is thus much adoabout nothing. The majority of consumershave absolutely no knowledge about thismoralization, ethical tourism or ethics intourism. This tendency is also apparent intourism education programmes. Some mayeven argue that this deficit is in itselfimmoral, knowing the effects that thenegative impacts of tourism have oncommunities.

Consumers' knowledge about ethicsin tourism

Most of the time, when we talk about thenegative impacts of tourism, the term 'sus-tainability' emerges. According to a surveyby TUI (2010) of 3887 respondents fromeight countries, over one-half indicatedtheir familiarity with the term sustainabil-ity. However, only a small number (20%)were familiar with the concept of sustaina-ble holidays. Of these only a small portion


(26%) had actually taken such a holidaytrip in the past four years. The strongest bar-riers to booking such holidays are perceivedprice and perceived lack of availability. Themost important sustainability issues for hol-iday consumers were pollution, biodiver-sity and nature protection, climate changeand carbon emissions. Of the total sampleabout one-half (45%) were interested in sus-tainability. Since sustainability is a concepthard to define, even among academics andpractitioners, the statistics presented here,although somewhat revealing, remaininconclusive.

Ethics is as old as the history of human-kind and it is certain that a concern withethics in tourism is older than the conceptof tourism sustainability, so one mightexpect the term tourism ethics to be morefamiliar to consumers. We randomly askeda sample of 200 people from four countrieswhether they were familiar with ethics intourism, and the result was not surprising;only a small percentage answered in theaffirmative (Table 1.1).

The question which arises is: is it pos-sible for people to support, adopt andembrace sustainable tourism practices ifthey are not ethically aware? To be ethicalin their tourism action, people need to bereminded again and again about the moralprinciples by which our lives should beguided.

Consumers' predispositionson ethical tourism

The general criteria for selecting a holidayseem to count for more than the ethics-oriented criteria (TUI, 2010). Our surveyalso supports the literature. The traditionalcriteria for selecting a holiday - price,weather, quality of accommodation and

Table 1.1. Familiarity with ethics in tourism.

service - ranked greater in importancethan the criteria directly related to ethicalissues, such as a trip that presents lessdamage to the environment, booking witha company that has ethical policies, orholidays that provide opportunities tointeract with local consumers.

Academic coverage of ethics in tourism

Lynn (2009) performed a content analysison the tourism and hospitality literature forthe period 1990-2008, and found that theresults, for academic tourism journals inparticular, are meagre compared to theattention that tourism ethics is given amongacademics (Table 1.2). For example, theJournal of Vacation Marketing features onlytwo articles about tourism ethics, one in2002 and the other in 2003. TourismGeographies contains only one in 2008.Tourism Management includes only one in1995. The Journal of Travel Research con-tains only three articles (1993, 1995, 1998).Tourism and Hospitality Research pub-lished only one in 2005. Tourism Analysisincludes only one (2003). Annals of TourismResearch contained six articles, one appear-ing in each of these years: 1993, 1995, 1999,2003, 2005 and 2008. Tourism RecreationResearch published seven tourism ethicsarticles (2003, 2004, 2005, 2005, 2008, 2008and 2008).

Furthermore, even with regards toresearch aspects, Tribe (2008), for example,found that critical tourism is still marginal interms of the whole effort of tourism research.Key distinguishing feature of critical theoryare its interest in: critical enlightenment;rejection of economic determinism; criticalemancipation; critique of technical rational-ity; desire; ideology; hegemony; discursivepower; culture, power and domination;

Are you familiar with ethicsin tourism? Swiss (N =200) Dutch (N =200) Lithuanian (N =200) German (N =200)

Per cent `1\lo' 81.0 95.0 95.0 86.0

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Table 1.2. A content analysis of tourism ethicsarticles in academic journals. (From Lynn, 2009).

Year

Total number ofarticles in the 12

ethics-related topics

1990 13

1991 14

1992 221993 11

1994 131995 51996 8

1997 7

1998 8

1999 132000 8

2001 10

2002 322003 382004 532005 462006 322007 552008 83

Total number ofarticles categorizedas 'tourism ethics'

0

05

8

98

4

410

'For the period 1990-1999 only six articles focused ontourism ethics. No detailed data available.

cultural pedagogy; and general domain ofcritical theory. These features of critical the-ory help us to be more critical in tourism, inthat 'critical theory deliberately seeks toengage with normative questions of valuesand desired ends' (p. 247); ends towards themoralization of tourism.

Ethics in tourism programmes

Ring, Dickinger and Wober (2009) performeda content analysis of 64 bachelor degree pro-grammes taught in English, and their resultsshow that there are discrepancies betweenexisting programmes and what academicsand industry professionals perceive as beingimportant. Whereas 72% of the programmesfocus predominantly on management, only9% focus on environmental or nature tour-ism, ecotourism, or a related area. 'In addi-tion, no tourism marketing program refersto sustainability. This is surprising sincesustainability has become an increasingly

popular topic and is regarded as one of themost sensitive issues for the present andthe future in various sectors' (p.110).Investigating what components of tourismprogrammes are most favoured by industryplayers and academics, the authors foundethics was given a very low priority. In sup-port of the literature (e.g. Tribe, 2001, 2002;Inui et al., 2006; Lynn, 2007) the authorsconclude: 'tourism curricula should alsooffer students the chance to emerge as"future-shapers" equipped for the presentbut also able and willing to make a differ-ence in the future' (p. 118). Perhaps it is nowonder that a gap exists between what thestudents think is ethical and what is reallyethical (Lynn et al., 2007). Lynn and col-leagues bluntly put it:

The literature states again and again thatethics must be taught in universityhospitality programs. The inconsistentethics instruction currently found in mosthospitality programs does not adequatelyprepare students for the ethical demands oftoday's business environment. This studysuggests that maturation alone will notmake students ethically aware. They mustbe taught, and the literature supports anintegrated case study approach. (p. 10).

Tribe (2001) explains that for worthwhileeducation, reflective philosophical methodin hospitality and tourism curriculumdesign becomes necessary. In his vision fora worthwhile education he supports that a`curriculum for tourism needs to develop atourism society not just as society for busi-ness but one of society for all its Stakeholders'(p. 447).

Codes of conduct and consumers

Concerns about the negative impacts oftourism have led to the development ofcodes of ethics or conduct, aimed atenhancing the behaviour of consumers andproviders of tourism experiences. It is sug-gested that they have become necessary inview of the extent and influence of tour-ism, the need to sustain the resources onwhich it depends, the sociocultural costs


Box 1.2. The Global Code of Ethics for Tourism.

The Global Code of Ethics for Tourism was adopted on 1 October 1999 at the General Assembly of theWorld Tourism Organization (WTO). The Code of Ethics is a set of basic principles whose purpose is toguide tourism development and to serve as a frame of reference for the different stakeholders in thetourism sector, with the objective of minimizing the negative impact of tourism on the environment andon cultural heritage while maximizing the benefits of tourism in promoting sustainable development.The Code of Ethics is not a legally binding instrument and therefore its acceptance is voluntary (WTOJuly 25, 2005).

involved and the service orientation of theindustry. It is also submitted that, despitethe disparate nature of tourism, a code ofethics may contribute to overall profes-sionalism among those employed in theindustry.

Malloy and Fennell (1998), in theiranalysis of tourism codes of ethics, distin-guish between those that are deontological(i.e. prescribing behaviour according to aset of rules or procedures) and those thatare teleological (i.e. aiming for the bestoutcomes and incorporating a rationale forparticular actions). Codes of ethics havebeen criticized as platitudinous and devel-oped for public relations purposes, toogeneral to be applied in specific situations,and impossible to enforce. Despite WTO'scall for the implementation of the princi-ples of the Global Code of Ethics forTourism by public and private stakehold-ers in tourism development and the moni-toring of these principles and their effectiveapplication (WTO, 2001; see Box 1.2.), thedissemination of the code appeared to beminimal. For example, only 30% (29 coun-tries) of the 94 countries who answeredthe WTO questionnaire about the imple-mentation of the code to stakeholders indi-cated that they had disseminated thecodes' material to tourists, a low figurecompared to that of other stakeholders(WTO, 2005). The pattern distribution isshown in Fig. 1.1).

It seems rather doubtful that the morali-zation of tourism has had an impact on con-sumer behaviour. There is a need forresearch into the level of abidance and theeffectiveness of code implementation. Thereis also a need for more explanatory informa-tion on the reasons for inclusion of code

statements, and to ensure coordinationamong stakeholders in each destination.

The Morality of Tourism

While The Moralisation of Tourism is anexpansive criticism of alternative tourismin all its forms and contradictions, theauthor of the book asserts that it 'is not acritique of morality of tourism, but of themoralisation of tourism' (Butcher, 2002,p. 3). The moralization of tourism as elabo-rated by Butcher concerns the act of moral-izing about tourism, the act of dehumanizingmass tourism, and the act of exaggeratingthe moral values of alternative types of tour-ism. But what is morality of tourism? Whatis morality without moralization -a religionwithout scriptures?

Morality, originating from the Latinmoralitas (manner, character, proper behav-iour) is concerned with the distinctionbetween good and evil or right and wrong;in tourism it concerns the distinctionbetween right and wrong tourism actions.The morality of tourism may be said to beingrained in the ten articles of the GlobalCode of Ethics for Tourism (see Box 1.3.).

Many of the problems faced by the tour-ism industry, including destruction of theenvironment, pollution, depletion of natu-ral resources, economic imperialism, sexualexploitation (Payne and Dimanche, 1996;Holden, 2003) and working conditions ofemployees (Tearfund, 2002) have an ethicalelement and pose challenges to tourismstakeholders (WTO, 1999; Contour Sunday,2003). The articles of the Code summarizeethics in tourism and these are reflected inwhat is now known as Responsible Travel.

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Dissemination to stakeholders

71

5748

42

2920

3

0- s§.- 66 0- , <0 4,- .0- <ss0

-`3° s).cr ()GI> 1)-cf -'(-1 e,,cs. 06- 6

,<:(` 005* Os 43k iti°

QuoP

Stakeholders

Fig. 1.1. Dissemination of the Global Code of Ethics for Tourism. According to the replies received, nationaltourism administrations (NTAs) have predominantly distributed the Global Code of Ethics for Tourism totourism industry associations (mentioned in 71 cases). The dissemination of the Code was also carried outamong tourism education institutes (in 57 cases); regional or local tourism authorities (in 55 cases); tourismpromotion boards (in 53 cases); tourism workers' unions and non-governmental organizations (eachcategory was mentioned in 50 cases); researchers/academics (in 48 cases); the media (in 42 cases); touristsand visitors (in 29 cases); and, lastly, financing institutions (only mentioned in 20 cases).

Box 1.3. Articles of the Global Code of Ethics for Tourism. (From WTO, 1999). 111

Tourism's contribution to mutual understanding and respect between peoples and societies;Tourism as a vehicle for individual and collective fulfilment;Tourism, a factor of sustainable development;Tourism, a user of the cultural heritage of mankind and a contributor to its enhancement;Tourism, a beneficial activity for host countries and communities;Obligations of stakeholders in tourism development;Right to tourism;Liberty of tourist movements;Rights of the workers and entrepreneurs in the tourism industry;Implementation of the principles of the Global Code of Ethics for Tourism.

Responsible Travel (www.responsibletravel.corn) offers tips to travellers before, duringand after holiday trips, valuable enough toguide the most novice or tourism-ethics-conscious ones and detailed enough to irri-tate the least sensitive among the critiquesof the moralization of tourism.

Tourism Education

Moral guidelines can be made operational intourism education. Tribe (2002) calls for an

ethical tourism education, where 'the disci-pline of philosophy and particularly itsbranches of ethics and aesthetics (...) mustbe included in the curriculum to underpinreflection for and in ethical tourism' (p. 320).What value do park, recreation, leisure andtourism associations, programmes and cur-ricula have? Like many other scholars, Dustinand Goodale (1999) assert that leisure educa-tion is drifting away from its philosophicalmoorings. We speak of recreation businessand leisure industry; we also speak of educa-tion as a business. 'Degrees and certificateshave become commodities one buys because,


like a car, they can get you somewhere and,like a suit, they make you presentable'(p. 483). Leisure and tourism education isabout career orientation rather than educa-tion for citizenship and life: 'Broad andhighly integrative thinking is sacrificed fornarrow and highly technical thinking, andcurricular offerings are shaped by marketforces more so than by any particular questfor truth or understanding' (p. 483).

Education for tourism...

In the natural order men are all equal andtheir common calling is that of manhood, sothat well-educated man cannot fail to dowell in that calling and those related to it.It matters little to me whether my pupil isintended for the army, the church, [tourism]or the law. Before his parents chose acalling for him nature called him to be aman. Life is a trade I would teach himWhen he leaves me, I grant you, he will beneither a magistrate, a soldier, nor a priest;he will be a man.

J.J. Rousseau (Book 1, 15).

To Rousseau, Emile [or every human] isborn free. Yet, this freedom is challenged atthe very moment the child was born. Humanbeings have the potential to become freeagain through education. The world environ-ment has changed and so has tourism, and sotoo must the principles on which tourism isbased. Tourists must become well-educatedtourists, and through tourism education theyhave another opportunity to be men. Whatthen is tourism education for?

Discussing tourism in the Grand Toursperiod as an ideal tends to ignore thecontinuous flow of development and newenvironments. In the beginning tourism wasfree from today's moralization. It was benignby the very nature of its numbers and impacts.Today, tourism is free no more. Tourism, inwhatever form, has impacts on people andtheir environments, but it also has the power,not only to minimize those undesirableimpacts, but to contribute to freedom, thefreedom to become what we are supposed tobe: humans - with the ability to use our left

brain and to distance ourselves from otherprimates, to live the genuinely good life(Bregha, 1991). According to Bregha, acquir-ing the ability to experience leisure [in tour-ism] requires: (a) knowledge of what isavailable or permissible; (b) the ability to dis-criminate between what is good and what iswrong; and (c) the ability to acknowledge thevarious options and their consequences.Ìndeed were such knowledge absent, thenevery choice would of necessity be a blindone (...) This leisure is linked to knowledgeand to wisdom, both of which form part ofthe ability to choose with intelligence andresponsibility. Furthermore, this analysissuggests the need for education for leisure[and tourism]' (p. 48).

Bregha further argues that throughouthistory we have increasingly accepted edu-cation for work. History attests to humanachievements in this domain of life, but`Can humanity be left to its own devices inregard to leisure [and tourism] if we wish tooccupy our leisure [and tourism] with intel-ligence and responsibility?' (p. 49).

In most instances, it is created needs thatinfluence our ability to decide what we wantto do or become. Our ability to be free ismanipulated by 'the thousand and one mir-rors used by politicians, salesmen and propa-gandists of all hues to disorient us' (Bregha,1991, p. 49). It may be that if people genu-inely knew what they wanted they would notwant most of what they have. In this sense, inthe absence of education, people's choicesare limited, irrational, if not no choices at all.The exercise of freedom and hence of leisuremay then be 'masked in the nurture of a falseconsciousness in which freedom to becomeis surrendered to marketplace consumption'(Kelly, 1987, p. 229).

Leisure education is not about learningnew tricks; neither is it about adding 'anotherbrick in the wall'. Rather, it is about drawingout of people the best they already have.Smith (1999), when discussing the differ-ence between human and animals main-tains: 'These are unpleasant words, but wemust face the truth, even if unpleasant, if weare to progress as human beings. The truthis: members of Homo sapiens often engagein decidedly sub-human acts' (p. 78).

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Therefore if a society holds the philosophythat the state exists to enable people tobecome as human as they can be, toemphasize and nurture good and enduringhuman values, then those socialinstitutions that provide leisure servicesshould take a careful look at theirprograms. Public recreation agencies, parkdepartments, athletic leagues, youthgroups, churches and schools (includinguniversities) have the responsibility toevaluate their offerings in term of theirlocation on the sub-human to humanspectrum (pp. 78-79).

Turning to Greece and particularly thewritings of Aristotle for discourse on lei-sure and its ideals, we find that leisure wasseen as a basis for culture. Leisure pro-vided a way of personal growth and socialattainment of the 'good life' (Arnold, 1999,p. 12). Leisure for the Greeks centred onnot only freedom from labour but also free-dom from mundane unleisure activities;the freedom to reach the state of arete orvirtue. Àrete... symbolized the ideal forwhich all citizens must strive: attainmentof the highest good of which humans werecapable. Leisure, therefore was 'opportu-nity' for realization of that ideal'. Thisemphasizes the importance of educatingpeople who will be able to make a differ-ence in the future rather than just functionin the current situation. 'In our rapidlyevolving world, leisure is as much aboutthe search for meaning as it is the searchfor pleasure' (Godbey, 1999, p. vii).

...Education for freedom

The conceptions of leisure as free time,idleness or enjoyment are prevalent in ourdefinitions of leisure. Leisure is, however,also an opportunity for self-fulfilment orschooling in noble values (Cooper, 1999).`When we do our best work we lift peopleup and out of their self-absorption to revealthe beauty, complexity, and mystery of thelarger world (...) What better role for recrea-tion, park and leisure studies to play as wevoyage into the new millennium?' (Dustinand Goodale, 1999, p. 485).

Travel is need related. Studies of thedifferent motivational factors, tourist typol-ogies and markets attest to this. Generally,when we criticize tourism there is a ten-dency to focus more on the needs of thelocal community and less on the needs ofthe tourists themselves.

Tourism has been explained as:

Novelty-seeking behavior, as play, as theseeking of the authentic, as relations amongstrangers, as a form of imperialism, aspleasure-seeking (sometimes called the four Stheory of tourism - sun, sand, surf, and sex).It also may be motivated by the desire foranonymity or to fulfil fantasies. A study byCrompton (1981) of motivations for pleasurevacation found that such motivationsincluded: escape from a mundaneenvironment, exploration and evaluation ofself, relaxation, prestige, regression,enhancement of kinship relations, socialinteraction, cultural motives, novelty, andcertainly, many tourist experiences areundertaken due to a variety of motives.

Godbey (1994, p. 209)

Are all these motives stimulated byneeds or simply strong desires? A 'need isborn out of a physical, psychological, emo-tional, spiritual, or social deficiency an indi-vidual is currently experiencing' (De Graafet al., 1999, p. 76-78). Which ones are genu-ine needs and which are artificial needs cre-ated by clever marketing and promotion?De Graaf and colleagues submit that many ofus have difficulties in differentiatingbetween needs and desires/wants. The latterare perceived as being needed but do 'notnecessarily address the physical, psycho-logical, emotional, spiritual, or social needsof a human being' (p. 78). Those who believethat most of the motives cited above addresscertain normative human needs may rejectthe idea of relinquishing proximate needs inorder to guarantee the needs of others per-ceived as remote. Proximate needs may bedefined as those needs that directly relate topersonal benefits of the tourist, while remoteneeds may refer to benefits accruing to thehost community. In a world in metamorpho-sis (Neulinger, 1990), to what extent is thenatural selfishness of the individual strongerthan social responsibility?


Viewing the changes taking place in ourenvironment as a metamorphosis of theenvironment only, is taking us, humanbeings, out of the picture. It places us, onceagain, above and beyond nature.Reluctantly acknowledging a changingworld, but not a changing human being, isperhaps the latest and hopefully last standin this effort. We still cannot face the ideaof being a slightly advanced species of apesdesperately in need of progressing at leastone step further.

Neu linger (1990, p. 11)

In the Social Contract, Rousseau dis-cusses two types of freedom: personalfreedom and social freedom. Is the lattertoo idealistic to achieve in tourism,despite the environmental metamor-phoses? Is not the will to sustain human-ity natural - also in tourism? Freedom intourism is a means not an end. Tourism isalso 'a search for meaning -a search to tryand make sense of the entire world. Whilethis idea seems to have some merit, it maybe argued that many tourists are not inter-ested in such broad objectives. They may,for instance, seek merely to find a warmbeach or a good time in a new location'(Godbey, 1994, p. 209). What is amoral orimmoral about fulfilling one's proximateneeds (or having pleasure without happi-ness)? Cooper (1999, p. 3) asks: 'is thefreedom of leisure [or tourism] the absenceof causal determinism, as an undetermin-ist philosopher might suggest? Or is it thefreedom to exercise one's faculties as onewants, without care for the instrumentalvalues of doing so?'

People are consumers, education is abusiness, global warming is a reality, yetwe do not only ignore the moralization oftourism, we are irritated by it. The shiftfrom Fordist to post-Fordist society hasmarked progress from freedom to consumeto the realization that consumer cultureinvolves delusions relating to fulfilmentand happiness (Rojek, 1999: 92). The socialand moral categories of tourism constructedunder Fordism (and 19th century GrandTours) cease to have purchase in post-Fordist conditions. Coalter (1999) suggeststhat 'the concentration on individual satis-

factions and benefits present us withleisure without society, and recent debatesidentify a need for broader analyses basedon a conception of leisure in society'(p. 510).

Education for tourism is education forfreedom. To J.J. Rousseau freedom is thegoal of education. To Aristotle the ultimategoal of life is happiness and true happi-ness comes only when we are free.Education is about becoming free toachieve the ultimate goal of happiness.`Through the work we do we can equippeople with the necessary education tomake a difference in day-to-day lives'(Dustin and Goodale, 1999, p. 485).

If Tourism is to Matter

It is maintained that with the growth oftourism arrivals there is growing demandon the destination's infrastructure. Thegrowth of infrastructure significantly altersthe natural landscape and ecosystem, andputs much pressure on natural resourcessuch as water and land. Coral reefs andother sensitive marine habitats are damagedby the sewage and wastes from touristresorts. Recreational activities such as boat-ing, diving, snorkelling and fishing havesubstantially damaged coral reefs in manyparts of the world. Marine animals are dis-turbed by people approaching them closely.The examples of the negative impacts ondestinations are substantial. On the otherhand, some have argued that, in fact, masstourism is less damaging to the natural envi-ronment and the host culture than alterna-tive tourism. Mass tourists mostly engage inactivities that keep them inside the bubbleof packaged holiday tours. The back stage oflocal lives remains, if not inaccessible, oflow or no interest to mass tourists. However,considering the large number of tourists, itis the physical mass that becomes a prob-lem, because of the strains put on the com-munity's infrastructure. Should people thenrefrain from travelling? If the mass is theproblem, then small-scale tourism mightoffer several alternatives. Does it?

20 0. Moufakkir

To many people who are inspired byAristotle (and to those who will be), leisureis a useless notion if it is defined only interms of free time, a time where one doeswhat one wants to do without the exercise ofvirtue. Tourism, for this matter, despite theconcerns of commentators who are againstthe moralization of tourism, can better meetits role as a noble human activity if it incor-porates recognition of moral principles in itspractices. To Goodale (1991), 'Well beingand well doing are parts of a whole; comple-mentary and synergistic' (p. 94). If tourism isto matter, that is, if we consider tourism asan activity that should help us develop ashuman being towards the ideal of who weought to be/come, we need to move tourismfrom tourism in recreation to tourism in lei-sure. If tourism is to matter 'the happiness ofall will be the goal of each, and the aspira-tions of each will be the concern of all'(Neu linger, 1990, p. 51). If tourism is to mat-ter, then tourism should become a matter ofserious fun. In its existential and social pre-dicament (like leisure) tourism is a contextand activity for being and becoming, for theself and society (Kelly, 1987).

Concluding Remarks

While some have argued against the ethicaldeficit in our lives and in our tourismaction, others have criticized the moraliza-tion of tourism, and a few others havedebunked the ethical claims of existingniche types of tourism. Ethics refers tostandards of right and wrong that prescribewhat humans ought to do, with the purposeto refrain from wrong actions. Doing whatfeels good in tourism is not necessarilyright. Despite this consciousness, the real-ity of the actions of the tourist seems lesspromising. Perhaps, to some, this reality iscloser to that of the vagabond: that who isstruggling to lead the good life both outsideand in tourism (Box 1.4).

At the heart of ethics in tourism is aconcern about our environment and futuregenerations. The question becomes notwhether people are ethical in their tourismaction, and subsequently whether our tour-ism freedom is contained. Rather, the ques-tion is about how to build character in andthrough tourism to bring freedom to ourlives.

Box 1.4. Poem of a vagabond.

The vagabondWe like to play golf, we like to fly, we like to climb mountains, we like to swim in lakes and lie on sandybeaches, we like to take pictures of animals and people,We are tired, we like to do things in summer, fall, spring and winter;We like change, we like our comfort, we have made progress,Transgressing into regression, we want to be closer to that which we want to become,Humans... we want pleasure,Pleasure in goodness, we want leisure, leisure in our lives before we rest,Travellers in life we are, and happy is the traveller who is also a touristLucky with this privilege he is another time enlightened in understanding the mystery of existenceBut unhappy is the tourist who unlistens to the voices of nature when it is happy and when it is

hurtingWhat would become of Life if life is a creation without purpose, a beginning without an end, empty whenit starts and empty when it ends,Freedom is the end. Relaxation, finally,Hellas, only a traveller I still am: a vagabond who in tourism remains free,Vagabonding, waiting for Godot..., asking: Freedom, is it too much to ask for, if it is not asking atall,Free,

A free vagabond I want to be,If not what needs be for a vagabond to remain free if he is not free at all?


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2 A Common Tourism Policy for theEuropean Union: A Historical Perspective

Sibel Mehter Aykini'Department of Economics, Faculty of Economics and Administrative

Sciences (118F), Akdeniz University, Antalya, Turkey

Introduction

The European Union (EU) encompasses avast area of both tourist-generating andtourist-receiving countries, and the involve-ment of EU member states in tourism, aswell as their approaches to a common tour-ism policy at the EU level, varies a greatdeal. The views on the extent of the EU'sintervention in tourism may be categorizedinto two groups. The first aspires to estab-lish a tourism policy like other policiesdefined by the founding treaties, such asagriculture, transportation, the environ-ment, and so forth. According to advocatesof this opinion, any decision taken in anyfield at the EU level should somehow havean effect on the tourism industry. However,all decisions and measures are taken regard-less of the needs of this industry. Yet, tour-ism enterprises - mostly small and mediumenterprises (SMEs) - play prominent rolesin achieving the objectives defined in thefounding treaties and need support becauseof their tenuous business structures. Thesecond group, however, argues that theproblems in the tourism industry can beresolved by ensuring more collaborationand coordination among the parties withinthe existing structures, without introducingnew regulations at the EU level. Accordingto supporters of this viewpoint, there are

three separate interest groups in the tourismindustry that act under different motives;namely suppliers, consumers, and environ-mental and cultural enthusiasts. The expec-tations of each interest group are alreadymet separately by the EU's various policieson enterprises, consumers, the environmentand culture. The task of the EU should,according to the second group, be limited toensuring coordination among these separatepolicies. The success of this approachdepends on close collaboration and coop-eration based on the principle of voluntar-ism among all related parties - i.e.representatives of public and private sec-tors, trade unions, voluntary agencies andso forth at local, regional and national lev-els. The history of the European tourismpolicy can be summarized as an impassebetween these two opposing views.Nevertheless, the former prevailed as theEuropean tourism policy and was finallyput into writing with the Treaty of Lisbon,effective from 1 December 2009.

A great number of studies on the extentof the EU's involvement in tourism and thedepth of its tourism policy have been under-taken. Most of these studies argue that theEU must play a proactive role in tourism(Akerhielm, et al., 1990, 2003; Lickorish,1991; Akerhurst, 1992, 1993; Greenwood,1993; Davidson, 1998; Church et al., 2000;


24 S. Mehter Aykin

Mundt, 2000; Anastasiadou, 2006, 2007,2008a,b), while the rest worry about cen-tralization, claiming that the existing politi-cal framework is effectual and sufficient(Downes, 1997, 2000). Although each studycontributed significantly to the literatureduring its own period, recent developmentsin the EU's approach to tourism require aug-mented studies on them.

Two methods are feasible in studies ontourism. The first method involves studyingthe practices that address tourism directlyand reviewing the attempts to establish acommon tourism policy in Europe and theirresults. The second method is to study thefields that influence tourism indirectly, suchas consumer protection, public health, theenvironment, transportation, internal marketand competition, and to identify the prac-tices that affect tourism. To limit the scope,this study partially looks at EU policies thathave an indirect influence on tourism andmainly lays emphasis on past actions toestablish a common tourism policy inEurope. Accordingly, this study discussesapproaches to tourism policies of stakehold-ers with different motives from a historicalperspective and outlines the recently estab-lished common tourism policy.

Actions Directly AddressingTourism Before 1990

A privileged activity of the elite in the 19thcentury, tourism gave birth to a popular glo-bal trend after World War II and was influ-enced by a number of improvements in theworkforce, such as enlargement of the wel-fare state and the acknowledgement of theright to a paid vacation; increased disposa-ble income and the rate of urbanization; andlower transportation costs and popularpackage tours. In the same period, Europewitnessed accelerated efforts to unite thecontinent under a single roof - having suf-fered through two world wars and hoping toprevent a third one. Following the foundingof the European Coal and Steel Communityby the Treaty of Paris, born out of the visionof 'peace through integration', the European

Economic Community (EEC) was broughtinto existence. Its aim was to rapidly raisethe standard of living in Europe. However,this founding stage was too early to encoun-ter any references to tourism activities inthe Treaty of Rome.

In the late 1970s and the early 1980s,on the one hand Europe had achieved hugeadvances in the tourism industry, while onthe other hand was facing serious dangersin terms of environmental pollution. Duringthis period, views were put forward, oneafter the other, to prove the necessity of acomprehensive policy for sustainablegrowth in tourism. Accordingly, theEuropean Commission (hereafter referred toas the Commission) (CEC, 1982) submitteda report outlining proposals for an EEC tour-ism policy. In turn, the Council of theEuropean Union (hereafter referred to as theCouncil) (CEU, 1984a) welcomed the reportand invited the Commission to launch thenecessary actions explained in its resolu-tion. Council Resolution stated that, sincethe tourism industries of member states dif-fer in structure, the Community should notintervene with issues better resolved atnational and regional levels. It should limitits actions in tourism matters to coordina-tion of national policies, and this has beenreflected in the EU's long-lasting viewpointon tourism.

Pursuant to the provisions of the reso-lution, the Council directive on insurancethat had been in force since the 1970s wasrevised and expanded to include tourist vis-its (CEU, 1984b). The Council then estab-lished an Advisory Committee on Tourismcomposed of member state representatives(CEU, 1986a). Functioning under the aus-pices of the Commission, the AdvisoryCommittee was tasked to ensure coopera-tion and information exchange on tourismamong member states. The Committee wasresponsible for reporting new measuresenacted by member states, especially thoseaffecting tourists, to the Commission andfor convening at least once a year to discussthe reports. However, for effective involve-ment in decision making, neither the pres-ence of a tourism unit in the Commissionnor the establishment of the Advisory

Tourism Policy for the European Union 25

Committee could provide an adequate basisfor an institutional structure in which coor-dinated and cooperative tasks could beaccomplished. In fact, ill-equipped with thenecessary resources and power, the tourismunit failed to meet the interests of tourismenterprises (Greenwood, 1993).

As another step forward, the Council(CEC, 1986b) announced its resolution onimproving the seasonal and geographicaldistribution of tourism, and made a recom-mendation on standardizing hotel informa-tion and charged the Commission withinquiring into the necessity of a centralhotel classification system at the Communitylevel (CEU, 1986c). Soon, the Council (CEC,1986d) made another recommendation onhotel fire security, emphasizing that thisrecommendation should by no means leadto practices that could technically poseobstacles to trade in services. The argumentthat a harmonizing approach to the tourismindustry at the European level would createthe greatest threat to national and regionaldiversity caused tourism policy to fallbehind all other Community policies, i.e.consumer protection, the environment,transport, to name a few.

Entered into force in 1987, the SingleEuropean Act envisaged comprehensiveamendments to the founding treaties, butfailed to include any such action on behalfof the tourism industry. In brief, the periodfrom the 1970s to 1990s outwardly saw thepredominant argument that the Community'sintervention in tourism should be limited tocoordination among national tourism poli-cies; as a consequence, any action on behalfof this industry merely consisted of recom-mendations having no sanctions.

Actions Directly Addressing Tourismin the Decade from 1990 to 2000

First half of the 1990s: years of progress

The 1990s were the years in which signifi-cant steps were taken to establish a commontourism policy at the EU level. Throughoutthe preparatory work for the Maastricht

Treaty, which catapulted the EEC beyond amere economic entity, the Council (CEU,1989) sought to benefit from tourism's abil-ity to bring together subtly diverse cultures,therefore declaring 1990 as the 'EuropeanYear of Tourism'. This notion was to servetwo essential purposes: first, to benefit fromtourism's creative power in merging peoplefrom different cultural backgrounds into a`People's Europe', thus building an expan-sive borderless area; and second to furtherincrease tourism's contributions to eco-nomic and social policies, especially interms of regional development and employ-ment. A fund of 5 million EuropeanCurrency Units (ECUs) was allocated fromthe Community budget and used for financ-ing several projects involving tourismawards, promotional campaigns, and vari-ous pilot projects in cultural, rural andsocial tourism. However, lacking a coherenttourism strategy and policy, the projectsfunded throughout the European Year ofTourism were said to have marginal effects(Davidson, 1998). Worse than ever, duringaudits of the European Court of Auditors(1997), conducted between 1994 and 1996,irregularities were identified in the alloca-tion and spending of the funds in the fieldof tourism. Resulting in the arrests of anumber of people, including senior officers,this incident created a negative impressionof tourism activities at the EU level.

With the declaration of the tourism yearin Europe, a directive passed by the Council(CEC, 1990) came into focus. Stipulating thecreation, pricing, proper announcement andsales of package tours and compensating forpossible losses, the directive was consid-ered a significant step in protecting the con-sumer and regulating the tourism industry.Protecting the health and economic inter-ests of tourism consumers in the Europeaninternal market has always been easier andsignificantly more legitimate than protect-ing the interests of tourism entrepreneurs,in view of the provisions stipulated by thefounding treaties (Maastricht Treaty, Articles100, 129 and 129a; Amsterdam and NiceTreaties, Articles 94, 152 and 153).

Entered into force on 1 November 1993,the Maastricht Treaty (Treaty on European

26 S. Mehter Aykin

Union O.J. C 191 of 29 July 1992) includedprovisions on the tourism industry for thefirst time, though inadequate. Nonetheless,the aims were defined in Article 2 of thisfounding treaty as follows:

The Community shall have as its task, byestablishing a common market and aneconomic and monetary union and byimplementing common policies oractivities referred to in Articles 3 and 4, topromote throughout the Community aharmonious, balanced and sustainabledevelopment of economic activities, a highlevel of employment and of socialprotection, equality between men andwomen, sustainable and non-inflationarygrowth, a high degree of competitivenessand convergence of economic performance,a high level of protection and improvementof the quality of the environment, theraising of the standard of living and qualityof life, and economic and social cohesionand solidarity among Member States.

Moreover, Article 3(t) of the treaty(Amsterdam and Nice Treaties, Article 3(u))stated:

For the purposes set out in Article 2, theactivities of the Community shall include,as provided in this Treaty and in accordancewith the timetable set out therein: measuresin the spheres of energy, civil protectionand tourism.

The treaty also specified, in Article 235,the procedure to be followed in taking anyaction in the tourism industry (Amsterdamand Nice Treaties, Article 308), as follows:

If action by the Community should provenecessary to attain, in the course of theoperation of the common market, one ofthe objectives of the Community, and thisTreaty has not provided the necessarypowers, the Council shall, actingunanimously on a proposal from theCommission and after consulting theEuropean Parliament, take the appropriatemeasures.

Further, with Declaration No. 1 attachedto the treaty, it was stipulated that theinclusion of a 'Tourism' section in the found-ing treaty would be discussed at theforthcoming Intergovernmental Conference,

according to a report to be drawn up by theCommission and submitted to the Councilnot later than 1996. The Declaration indi-rectly referred to the principle of subsidi-arity as defined in Article 3(b) of the treaty(Amsterdam and Nice Treaties, Article 5), asfollows:

The Community shall act within the limitsof the powers conferred upon it by thisTreaty and of the objectives assigned to ittherein. In areas which do not fall withinits exclusive competence, the Communityshall take action, in accordance with theprinciple of subsidiarity, only if and in sofar as the objectives of the proposed actioncannot be sufficiently achieved by theMember States and can therefore, byreason of the scale or effects of theproposed action, be better achieved by theCommunity. Any action by the Communityshall not go beyond what is necessary toachieve the objectives of this Treaty.

Obviously, Articles 2 and 3 of theMaastricht Treaty did not define tourism asa mere objective but as a means to achieveother objectives of the Community.Unfortunately, the principle of subsidiarity -whose practice was attempted under theunanimity clause - could not guarantee thatEU institutions and bodies would compe-tently or even conditionally enhance com-petitiveness of tourism enterprises. AsAnastasiadou (2006) indicated, the princi-ple of subsidiarity has been largely used as arestrictive mechanism on expansionist incli-nations rather than supporting tourismundertakings.

Above mentioned provisions in theMaastricht Treaty as well as initiativeslaunched by ministers of tourism of themember states meeting at Gymnich providethe basis for significant steps towards estab-lishing a European tourism policy. In effect,the first and only Tourism Action Plan(92/421/EEC) was accepted on 13 July 1992.The plan's objectives were defined as out-lining a Europe tourism policy, tailoringCommunity instruments so as to assist theEuropean tourism industry, and ensuringthe industry's compliance with new cir-cumstances arising from the creation of aninternal market and the economic monetary


union. Scheduled to be implemented over athree-year period starting 1 January 1993,and allocated 18 million ECUs, the actionplan specified that the principle of subsidi-arity would be observed and that coordina-tion would be ensured among differentCommunity policies. The action planresolved in principle to support those initi-atives that promote the development oftourism enterprises, especially SMEs; thatimprove the quality of tourism services; thatencourage competition within the EU andenable tourism services to gain a competi-tive advantage in global markets; that pro-tect natural environments, cultural heritagesand local communities in their entirety; thatcontribute to improved delivery of informa-tion and services within the tourism indus-try; and that assure the safety and securityof tourists. It was stipulated that upon expi-ration the Council could extend the planupon delivery of a favourable report by theCommission (CEU, 1992).

According to Davidson (1998), theTourism Action Plan was ineffective inmany priority areas. In fact, expecting theplan to ensure anything beyond the provi-sions of the Maastricht Treaty would befoolhardy. As expected, in instances whereEU institutions and bodies were not specifi-cally commissioned, actions to facilitate thetourism industry's gaining a competitiveadvantage fell short of any legitimacy; inother words, legislatures did not pursueunsanctioned recommendations or resolu-tions pertaining to the tourism industry orany action plans beyond assistance that hadno strategic or political legitimacy.

Green paper on the role of the EuropeanUnion in tourism

Published in late 1993, a white paper ongrowth, competitiveness and employmentidentified strategies to provide 15 millionnew jobs on the eve of the 21st century (CEC,1993). The implications of this white paperincreasingly pointed to the contributions oftourism to economic growth andemployment. In this period, various groups

continuously expressed the necessity of aconsistent tripartite policy: tourismenterprises, consumers, and natural and cul-tural heritage. The belief that decisions ontourism, as a horizontal policy area, wouldbe more effective if made at the EU levelrather than at the level of member statesbecame widespread over time, leading tonew initiatives. Following the Gymnich oftourism ministers held in Athens in 1994,the Commission (1995) published and sub-mitted to all relevant parties a green paperon the role of the Union in the field of tour-ism to discuss the level of EU actions.

The green paper was composed of threemain sections. The first section covered anoverall assessment. Following an assess-ment of European tourism in light of recentworldwide developments, the paper con-sidered both direct and indirect initiativescarried out and instruments used by the EUin tourism. The second section discussedpotential advantages to be gained if a tour-ism policy were established at the EU level.In other words, by looking at the opinionsof various groups, this section considered indetail how the tourism industry had con-tributed to attaining the objectives definedby the founding treaties and what potentialroles the EU might undertake in tourism.Accordingly, tourism could be used as animportant tool in achieving the basic objec-tives and targets of the EU: a balanceddevelopment of economic activities; non-inflationary and sustainable growth;improvement of economic performance,employment levels and the quality of life;and economic and social harmony amongmember states. The tourism industry con-tributed significantly both to the removal ofborders among member states and to theirtransition to the economic monetary union.

Across the EU, tourism played a lead-ing role in social and economic harmonytogether with the integration of interregionalimbalances and the creation of new jobopportunities. The presence and competi-tiveness of tourism was predicated on his-torical, cultural and environmental values.Therefore, sustainable growth formed thecentral pillar of tourism. Tourism estab-lished mutual tolerance and understanding

28 S. Mehter Aykin

among people from different backgroundsand created a substantial political influencein managing cultural diversity and in estab-lishing a European awareness and identity. Inbrief, tourism could be employed as an essen-tial tool in Europe's political and economicreorganization. The tourism industry com-prised three separate players: suppliers, con-sumers, and natural and cultural heritages, allof which represented different interests.Consequently, actions related to the tourismindustry could be planned around three poles:first, to improve service quality to protect theinterests of consumers; second, to diversifyactivities to improve competitiveness andprofitability; third, to juxtapose the concept ofsustainable growth with tourism to protectnatural and cultural heritages. Reconcilingdifferent interests or rather simultaneouslyfulfilling these three conditions was only pos-sible if measures were taken at the EU level.

The third and last section of the greenpaper presented four options in terms of thescope and extent of EU actions and asked allrelated parties especially member states todeliver their opinions. These options wereas follows:

The first option proposed to reduce oreliminate any specific EU actions on tour-ism. It argued that individual policies wereestablished for each of the three separateinterest groups within the tourism industry,however scattered they might be. Touristswere already supported under the consumerprotection policy; tourism enterprises,under the enterprise policy; and natural andcultural heritages comprising tourist attrac-tions, under environmental and culturalpolicies. The required financial tool wasprovided by structural funds. Under thesecircumstances, if the requirements of exist-ing policies were met in areas such as con-sumer protection, the environment, culture,enterprises, competition, the internal mar-ket and so forth, tourism would not requireadditional action at the EU level.

The second option suggested that thecurrent legal framework and level of inter-vention be retained. This option claimed thatexisting provisions on tourism in the found-ing treaties facilitated the implementation ofthe Tourism Action Plan, which in turn

provided the necessary basis for establishingdialogue, cooperation and coordination bothamong member states and within the indus-try. In consequence, a platform was createdin which opinions were exchanged, experi-ence and know-how shared, commonprojects implemented, and common strate-gies developed. Therefore, preserving theexisting legal framework and the involve-ment level would be sufficient for growth inthe tourism industry. The success of the sys-tem proposed by this option depended oninstituting a strong climate of dialogue andcooperation among the parties, withoutinterfering with each party's competence.Only if such a climate were created could thebest practices in the areas of tourism be iden-tified and models built. Moreover, the found-ing of partnerships would allow the tourismindustry to further benefit from EU funds.

The third option recommended strength-ening the EU's actions, without making anyamendments to the founding treaties. Thisoption maintained that the inadequacies ofthe tourism action plan could be overcomeby integrating tourism into existing policiesand by increasing fund allocations to tour-ism. Any attempts to grow the industry andenable tourism to gain a competitive advan-tage should be supported within existingrules stipulated by the founding treaties,with tourist security and safety guaranteedand protection of natural and cultural herit-ages encouraged. The greatest effort shouldbe exerted to protect the interests of industryplayers in the EU's political practices inother spheres, while various other EU instru-ments could be used to support tourism.Finally, the existence of a powerful EU ini-tiative to ensure the coordination of differ-ent policies and actions at different levelswould create a multiplying effect on tourismwith contributions from other policy areas.

The fourth option posed a number ofquestions, implying greater EU interven-tion to support tourism and aiming to pavethe way towards establishing a tourism pol-icy defined by the founding treaties. Thesequestions required answers: Would the EUin its present state act as mediator to ensuremutual consultation, cooperation andcoordination among all concerned parties


at international, national, regional and locallevels? Would the EU take any initiative itconsidered useful in duly performing thisresponsibility? Would the EU play a sec-ondary role if European tourism were dam-aged as a whole or if national policies fellshort? Following the logic of sustainabledevelopment, is it feasible to build a tour-ism policy - complementing national poli-cies and based on other EU policies affectingtourism - that would supplement and rec-oncile the interests of all parties?

Following the publication of this greenpaper, 160 reports reflecting the opinions ofvarious groups reached the Commission. Whilesome of these reports are summarized in Fig.2.1, the opinions of EU institutions were as fol-lows: in its opinion, the European Parliament(European Parliament, 1995) expressed itsbelief in the necessity of including a section on

The First Option: No

advocates

The Third Option:

Luxembourg, Austria,

Portugal, Finland, IFTO*

(International Federation

of Tour Operators), EFCO

(European Federation of

Camping Site

Organisations), CEMR

(Council of European

Municipalities and

Regions), FEG*(European

Federation of Tourist

Guide Associations), ETC

(European Travel

Commission)

tourism in a revised founding treaty. Similarly,the European Economic and Social Committee(ECOSOC, 1995) presenting its opinion empha-sized the necessity of devoting an individualsection to tourism in the treaty, believing thatthe EU must build an active policy in tourism.By contrast, in stating its opinion, theCommittee of Regions (COR, 1995) consideredit useless to change the EU's current legalframework to include the tourism industry. AsAnastasiadou (2008b) specifically points out,as a result of the incompetency matter facingEU institutions, members of the EuropeanParliament and the Commission had lost inter-est in tourism and were eventually caught upin a vicious circle.

Among professional organizations, theInternational Tourism Alliance and theInternational Automobile Federation (AIT &FIA, 1996) wrote a joint report and even went

'VThe Second Option: Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, the UK, COR

(Committee of Regions), IFTO* (International Federation of Tour

Operators), FEG* (European Federation of Tourist Guide Associations)

The Fourth Option: Belgium, Greece, Ireland, Italy, European

Parliament, ECOSOC (Economic and Social Committee), AIT (Alliance

Internationale de Tourisme), FIA (Federation Internationale de

('Automobile), HOTREC (Hotels, Restaurants and Cafés in Europe),

ETAG (European Tourism Action Group), EFCT (European Federation

of Conference Towns), IATM (International Association of Tour

Managers), FECTO (Federation of European Cities Tourist Offices),

EUFED (European Union Federation of Youth Hostel Associations),

ICCA (International Congress and Convention Association), ETOA

(European Tour Operators Association), IAPCO (International

Association of Professional Congress Organizers), EUROGITES

(European Federation for Farm and Village Tourism), EUROTER

(Tourisme en Europe Rurale), EUROPARKS (European Federation of

Leisure Parks), BITS (Bureau International du Tourisme Social), ETLC

(European Tourism Liaison Committee), WTTC (World Travel and

Tourism Council), EUTO (European Union of Tourist Officers)

Abstention: Denmark, France, Sweden, ACI (Airport Council International), I RU (International Road

Transport Union), EUROCHAMBERS (Association of European Chambers of Commerce and Industry)

..)

* IFTO and FEG were in favour of both second and third options.

Fig. 2.1. Positions of the EU Institutions, the member states and the non-governmental organizations.

30 S. Mehter Aykin

so far as to propose a draft document as a basisfor a tourism section they wanted the found-ing treaty to include (available at http://europa. eu.int/en/agenda/igc-home/instdoc/industry/ait-en.htm). On the other hand, theConfederation of National Associations ofHotels, Restaurants, Cafés, and SimilarEstablishments in Europe (HOTREC, no date)stated that the best option would be a revisionof Article 130 (Ìndustry'), if the EU agreed toinclude provisions on tourism in the treaty.

The preferences of member states regard-ing the options in the green paper were as fol-lows: while no countries delivered an opinionin favour of the first option, Germany, Spain,the Netherlands and the UK favoured the sec-ond; Luxembourg, Austria, Portugal andFinland, the third; Belgium, Greece, Irelandand Italy, the fourth; and Denmark, Franceand Sweden abstained. Anastasiadou (2006,2008b) categorizes the approaches of memberstates within a three-sided conceptual frame-work: financial, perceptual and pragmatic.The approaches of the member states varydepending on budget concerns, fear of cen-tralization, their Euro-sceptic or Euro-enthusiast attitudes, and a decentralized orcentralized administration of tourism.

Neither the green paper nor theCommission's welcomed report on strategicrecommendations for the future of Europeantourism (CEC, 2001b; CEU, 2002) could pro-vide a solid basis for establishing a commontourism policy in Europe. The limitedactions carried out at that time were two-fold: the approval of two Council directives(CEU, 1995, 1994), the former on collectingstatistical data on tourism and the latter onminimum requirements for timeshare con-tracts; and the creation of a system of 'tour-ism satellite accounts' in cooperation withthe World Tourism Organization, the UnitedNations, and the Organisation for EconomicCo-operation and Development.

The second half of the 1990s:years of recession

As previously stated, the Tourism ActionPlan would last three years, expiring in

early 1996, and the Council would decidewhether to extend it depending on theCommission's report. Accordingly, theCommission, stating that a loophole existedin tourism and that to include provisions ona common tourism policy in the foundingtreaties would serve only to ensure consist-ency and effectiveness of EU actions, sub-mitted a proposal on Philoxenia: The 1stMultiannual Programme to Assist EuropeanTourism' to relevant parties for considera-tion and subsequent decision by the Council(CEC, 1996a). In its opinion, the ECOSOCfound the goals of the programme consistentand well-defined but the allocated fundinadequate, but, nevertheless, approved it asa good starting point for Europe, which hadyet to come up with a tourism policy(Bulletin EU 9-1996). The COR, also deliver-ing its opinion as required by protocol,found the Commission's proposal favourableand listed all the issues that must be includedin the programme (Bulletin EU 11-1996).Recommending a number of modificationsin its first opinion (Bulletin EU 10-1996), theEuropean Parliament stated, in its opinionon the modified programme, that a separatechapter on tourism should be introduced tothe founding treaties. Further, the EuropeanParliament summoned the Council toapprove the Philoxenia Programme withoutany further delay (Bulletin EU 6-1997).

Planned for a four-year period startingon 1 January 1997, and allocated 25 millionECUs, the Philoxenia Programme aimed tocontribute to economic growth and employ-ment by improving the quality and competi-tiveness of European tourism throughcooperation and coordination among rele-vant parties and policies. The priorities forachieving this aim were defined as thecumulative knowledge of tourism, improve-ment of the legal and financial frameworks,enhancement of the service quality, and theincrease of the number of tourists fromabroad. Consequently, the programme sug-gested that projects be endorsed that were inharmony with cost-benefit analyses and thatwould build international partnerships,yield noteworthy results in reorganizing theEuropean tourism industry and comply withsustainable development (CEC, 1996b).


Meeting on 26 November 1997, theCouncil could not reach consensus on thePhiloxenia Programme, thus the Commissionhad to withdraw its proposal. Similarly,another attempt to include a tourism sectionin the treaty, pursuant to DeclarationI attached to the Maastricht Treaty, remainedinconclusive. Failure to implement thePhiloxenia Programme and to introduce atourism chapter in the Amsterdam Treatywas interpreted in the industry as proof ofnon-compliance with the principle of pro-portionality in the treaty. The decision-mak-ing mechanism of the EU was primarilycriticized for requiring a majority vote ondecisions concerning policy areas thathave effects on tourism - such as con-sumer protection, the environment and trans-portation - while decisions on tourism alonehad to be taken unanimously (Mundt, 2000).

The Intergovernmental Conference con-vened at Turin in 1996, whereby amend-ments to the founding treaties werediscussed, ending up with the signing of theAmsterdam Treaty that set the priority tar-get of ensuring macroeconomic stability atthe eve of economic and monetary union.Though unable to bring the expected resultson behalf of tourism, the objective of achiev-ing a high level of employment put on theEU agenda at the Amsterdam Summit andsucceeding meetings on employment andtourism resulted in setting up a High-LevelGroup (HLG), composed of top tourism pro-fessionals commissioned to substantiatetourism's contribution to employment.

Based on the recommendations of theHLG, the Commission (CEC, 1999) submit-ted its own report to the Council. Thereport, which contained actions considerednecessary by the Commission, could besummarized as follows: a common visionwas not ascertained regarding the future ofthe European tourism industry, whichencompassed a diffusion of national indus-tries. Neither did the EU have a recognizedand defined tourism policy. However, max-imizing the contributions of European tour-ism to employment and balanced growthwas viable by improving industry competi-tiveness. The EU should deal more pro-foundly with tourism and develop more

rational methods. Accordingly, EU instru-ments should be used more logically, pro-cedures simplified and the impact of otherEU policies identified more thoroughly.A consultancy and cooperation mechanismshould be established among industry play-ers at the EU level and cross-border part-nerships encouraged. With implementingthe General Agreement on Trade in Services(GATS), concluded at the Uruguay Round,tourism increasingly took an internationaldimension. EU candidate and partnershipcountries signed cooperation agreements inthe sphere of tourism under the leadershipand auspices of the EU. At this point, theneed to create a comprehensive tourismvision became even more apparent. Aninnovative system, transparent in planningand legislation, became increasingly morenecessary for setting targets through discus-sions and information exchange. The reporthad significant consequences in concernedcircles. In its 2193rd session in 1999, aCouncil meeting on the internal marketdecided to set up special interest groups(SIGs) to examine various issues such astechnology, environment, education andsustainable development in order to maxi-mize tourism's contributions to employ-ment and economic growth. The findings ofthese SIGs provided the basis of a reportsubmitted by the European Commission tothe Council in 2001.

International measures in tourismtaken before 2000 included a joint action ofthe EU Council (European Council, 1997)that stipulated establishing a code of con-duct in tourism under the leadership of theWorld Tourism Organization and in thestruggle against human trafficking andchild abuse. This same period distinguisheditself with the inclusion of tourismprojects in the Mediterranean EconomicDevelopment Area (MEDA) scheme, basedon a Council resolution (CEU, 1996)envisaging the development of Euro-Mediterranean cooperation. In this period,current political instruments and practiceswere extended to include tourism insteadof initiating special instruments and prac-tices. In other words, reactive practiceswere followed based on changes in the EU

32 S. Mehter Aykin

agenda rather than adopting proactiveapproaches to set a new agenda on tourism.

Actions Directly AddressingTourism After 2000

The Prodi period: years of collapse

Taking over the presidency of the EuropeanCommission from Jacques Santer, RomanoProdi grouped the strategic targets of theperiod 2000-2005 into four categories: pro-mote new forms of European governance;stabilize Europe and boost Europe's globalvoice; set a new economic and social agendameeting the requirements of the digital age;and ensure a better quality of life (CEC,2000a). In his work programme for 2000,Prodi emphasized that sustainable devel-opment based on full employment, andsocial and territorial cohesion could beachieved only by setting a long-term strat-egy that would meet the requirements of anew economic and social order built oncompetition, innovation and information(CEC, 2000b).

The year 2000 started with rapid eco-nomic recovery but it was not sustained.Increased oil prices triggered an increase ininflation and interest rates in Europe. Foodprices skyrocketed, and disposable incomeand individual consumption declined.Consequently, the economic recovery inearly 2000 gradually gave way to recessionin the second half of the year. The combinedeffect of the recession and the security con-cerns, stemming from the September 11 ter-rorist attacks, caused international tourismarrivals to experience a negative growth of- 0.6% in 2001 for the first time since 1982,as opposed to the outstanding growth of6.8% in 2000. Similarly, international tour-ism revenue - with prices pegged to the USdollar - decreased by 5.2% worldwide in2001, compared with that of the previousyear (WTO, 2003). Europe was not exemptfrom this global trend. Not only cancelledbusiness trips and incentive tours but adecreasing number of wealthy tourists fromfar distances such as Japan and the Middle

East affected European tourism industries atdifferent levels. Circulation of the euro in2002 and gaining more ascendancy encour-aged trade with the USA to develop but tothe detriment of the EU, causing the reces-sion to deepen further in the euro zone. Theuse of a single currency also took effect inEuropean travel markets and yielded twodifferent results: the strong position of theeuro against other currencies made European expensive destination, thus impedingforeign tourism activities; on the other hand,the use of a single currency over a large geo-graphical area made the euro zone attractiveas an integrated destination for internaltourism activities. The economic downturnprofoundly affected all tourism sub-indus-tries, especially transportation. In particu-lar, the airlines industry was on the verge ofbankruptcy, failing to stand under the incre-mental costs of high insurance premiumsand additional security measures, whileyacht tourism companies operating in theMediterranean region transferred theiractivities to the Caribbean (CEC, 2001a,c).These successive adverse events tended tothwart the goal of creating a global competi-tive economy based on the principle of sus-tainability and driven by knowledge andinnovation, as suggested in theLisbon Presidency Conclusions (EuropeanCouncil, 2000).

In light of these facts, the Commission(2001b) submitted a strategy paper to theCouncil outlining its recommendationson the future of the European industrybased on opinions previously declared inearly 2001 by the HLG. The report brieflylisted actions to be taken to improve com-petitiveness in the tourism industrywhile contributing to employment andsustainable development as follows: amechanism should be established to ena-ble the priorities of all interest groups tobe included on an equal basis in the EU'spolicy and actions under the cooperationand coordination of member states. Adialogue with the tourism industryshould be reinforced by holding a yearlytourism forum with broader participationand by further extending the area of com-petency of the Advisory Committee on


Tourism. Volunteer partnerships andcooperative networks should be pro-moted among the different players on alocal, regional and national basis. Thetourism industry should be providedwith consultancy services through spe-cialist organizations to include monitor-ing, research and consultancy centres.The EU's financial instruments should beused in a rational way to serve the tour-ism industry, with the participation oflocal, regional and national agencies.Cooperation should be built among mem-ber states and all other concerned partiesto create tourism satellite accounts.Awareness of sustainable development,to be created under the principles ofAgenda 21, should be spread acrossEurope. An initiative of 'Tourism for All'should be developed to satisfy the needsof impaired citizens. 'Learning Areas'should be created, where theory andpractice merge, and best practices shouldbe identified and given precedence todevelop models. Various methods andinstruments should be designed to assessthe quality of tourism services and desti-nations; accordingly, quality indicatorsshould be defined, best practices identi-fied, and a system of benchmarkingdisseminated.

Welcomed and fully endorsed, theCouncil (2002) acknowledged for the firsttime in its resolution as response to theCommission that the lack of a commontourism policy had caused the needs of theindustry to be overlooked in decision-making processes. The Council furtherstated that this could be remedied onlythrough greater coordination among differ-ent areas of policy and high-level involve-ment of all the players in the tourismindustry and member states. The resolutionstrongly emphasized the necessity toobserve the 'principle of subsidiarity' anduse current structures and instrumentsaccording to the 'open method of coordina-tion', all in one constituting a system thatobserved national competency to set policywhile enabling EU policy making as well.Nonetheless, Council resolution did notprovide the necessary basis for a road map

to establish a common tourism policy pro-tecting the interests of the suppliers untilthe second half of the 2000s. Nor was thesystem, that seemed favourable to Europeantourism, properly managed during theProdi period -a time that witnessed manyfailures.

The draft treaty establishinga constitution for Europe

Another failed initiative of the Prodi periodwas an attempt to implement a Europeanconstitution. Convened under the presi-dency of Valery Giscard d'Estaing to elimi-nate potential problems with theforthcoming enlargement of 2004 (i.e. cen-tral and southern European countries) theEuropean Convention was entrusted withpreparing a draft constitution. Althoughcompleted by mid-2003 and officiallysigned by the heads of governments andstates in 2004, the ratification process ofDraft Treaty establishing a Constitution forEurope (European Union, 2003), antici-pated to end between 2004 and 2006, wassuspended due to the 'no' votes of both theNetherlands and France.

The draft constitution, a highly con-troversial document, included neither aspecific chapter on tourism nor Article3(t) of the Maastricht Treaty composed ofa single sentence. In the draft constitu-tion, the EU's areas of activity weregrouped into three categories: (i) exclu-sive competencies (as in the monetarypolicy for the euro zone, the establishingof competition rules, a common commer-cial policy, the customs union and conser-vation of marine biological resources); (ii)shared competencies (as in the internalmarket; freedom, security and justice;agriculture and fisheries; transportationand trans-European networks; energy;social policy; economic, social and terri-torial cohesion; the environment; con-sumer protection; public health; researchand technology; space; development; andhumanitarian aid); and (iii) supporting,coordinating or complementary actions

34 S. Mehter Aykin

(as in industry, public health, education,vocational training, youth and sports,culture, and civil protection).

Totally ignored in the draft constitu-tion, tourism was considered a marginalsubject that should be included under theEU policy on enterprise and industry.Anastasiadou (2008b) referred to the com-petencies exercised by the EU in tourismas 'creeping competency', since the tour-ism policy in Europe was largely set up bylocal authorities and even national gov-ernments were not generally involved intourism. Article 1-17 (`Flexibility Clause')of the constitution authorized the EU'sinstitutions to take actions, for example,in tourism, even if the necessary powerhad not been granted, and conditions forsuch an authorization were defined in the`Flexibility Clause'. Accordingly, theCouncil, acting unanimously on a pro-posal from the Commission and afterobtaining consent from the EuropeanParliament, would adopt appropriatemeasures, even if the constitution did notprovide EU institutions with necessarypowers or if action by the EU were deemednecessary to attain the objectives of vari-ous spheres of policy, such as the internalmarket and the economic monetary union.However, as was the case in the PhiloxeniaProgramme, it was common knowledgethat similar Articles previously insertedin the founding treaties could not havebeen easily executed to set a tourism pol-icy that protected the supplier in the inter-nal market. In the EU where involvementin tourism varied a great deal, the una-nimity clause unfortunately denied thepossibility to 'stretch' the treaty; there-fore, tourism suppliers could not be ade-quately represented at the EU level.

Under these circumstances, the onlyway to set a common tourism policy wasto amend the constitution in line withArticle IV-7, a cumbersome process evencalling forth convening an intergovern-mental conference. The draft constitution,which did not consider tourism a primarypolicy area, was suspended without theneed to actuate these processes; neverthe-less, this was largely compensated for by

amendments to the Lisbon Treaty in thesubsequent period.

Sustainable and competitive tourism

In the 2000s, the strategy papers on tour-ism began to cover the poles of sustainabil-ity and competitiveness inspired by therevised sustainable development strategyin addition to Lisbon strategy of growthand employment, purely complying withthe EU's agenda. Emphasizing the neces-sity to ensure cohesion among variousCommunity policies to make Europeantourism economically, socially and envi-ronmentally sustainable, the strategy paperof the Commission (2003a) soon led to thesetting up of a Tourism SustainabilityGroup (TSG). Composed of representativesof member states, local authorities, tradeunions, social partners and academicsalong with representatives from interna-tional organizations such as the UnitedNations World Tourism Organization andthe United Nations Environment Program,the TSG was mandated to make concretesuggestions on the sustainability ofEuropean tourism and to schedule andmonitor the efforts of all stakeholders. Inits report, the TSG (2007) defined the roleof tourism in sustainable development,challenges faced by European tourism, theroles of all stakeholders, and measures tobe taken at the European level. Expandingthe priorities on three axes, i.e. economicprosperity, social equality and cohesion,and environmental and cultural protection,and defining the roles of major players aswell as suggesting a work schedule cover-ing a period through late 2011, the TSGreport provided the basis for a strategypaper by the Commission (2007). TheCommission's strategy paper officiallylaunched the medium- and long-term agen-das processed from the bottom up.

This same period remarkably witnessedthe issuance of the Commission's (2003b)decision that stipulated the require-ments for tourist accommodations to beawarded the eco-label, defining two groups of


criteria - 37 obligatory and 47 optional.On the other hand, 'Calypso' (social tour-ism), 'EDEN' (European Destinations ofExcellence) and the 'Iron Curtain Trail' werethree other instruments developed for rais-ing awareness of sustainable tourism devel-opment. Efforts to ensure visibility oftourism at the EU level, dating back to the1990s, gained momentum with attempts torevitalize the Lisbon process and the sus-tainable development strategy in the secondhalf of the 2000s, finally reaching a happyending with the Lisbon Treaty.

The Barroso period: the revival

Jose Manuel Barroso, who presided overthe European Commission from 2005 to2009, grouped the strategic targets of hismandate into four categories: prosperity,solidarity, security and freedom, andEurope as a world partner, and defined therevitalization of the Lisbon process as thenew mission of the Commission (2005).Soon came the strategy paper by theCommission (2006) in which the aims ofthe renewed EU tourism policy weredefined as improving the competitivenessof European tourism, ensuring strong andsustainable development, and thus provid-ing better and more jobs. It would not bewrong to conclude that this strategy paperinitiated the EU tourism policy material-ized by the Lisbon Treaty.

Convening at the spring EuropeanCouncil in 2006, the heads of governmentsand states agreed on reinitiating the unfin-ished approval procedure of the constitu-tion. In a revision of the draft constitution,previously rejected by the Netherlands andFrance, the Lisbon or Reform Treaty wasofficially signed by the heads of govern-ments and states on 13 December 2007, andentered into force on 1 December 2009, pur-suant to Article 6 of the treaty. Inserted forthe first time into the founding treaties ofthe Community with the Maastricht Treaty,tourism was turned into a comprehensivesphere of policy and notably documentedby the Lisbon Treaty.

The Lisbon Treaty: towardsa consolidated tourism policy

Globalization, diverse demographics, cli-mate change, demands for sustainableenergy resources and new-found securitythreats all constitute the challengesEurope faces in an ever-changing andcomplex 21st century. Under these restric-tions, Europe is believed to have attainedthrough the Lisbon or Reform Treaty(European Union, 2010) a more demo-cratic and transparent structure thatensures involvement and effectiveness ingovernance, guaranteeing rights, values,freedoms, solidarity and security, andenabling the continent to be a leadingactor on the global stage. The treaty isconsidered a key factor in successfullyturning the EU into a political integrationrather than remaining a mere economicunion. As Article 2 of the Treaty on EUspecifies, commitment to the principles ofprotection of human rights, freedom,democracy, equality and the rule of lawconstitutes the keystone of 'the EU systemof values'. These values put all memberstates on common ground in Europe wherepluralism, struggle against discrimina-tion, tolerance, justice, solidarity and gen-der equality dominate.

The aim of the EU is defined in sucha way in Article 3 of the Treaty on EU toinclude various issues, such as homeaffairs and justice, socio-economic struc-ture, foreign security and defence, andexercise of power. Accordingly, the EU isresponsible for sustaining peace and basicvalues and for the welfare of its citizenswithin a borderless zone where freedom,justice and security are ensured. The EUwill create an internal market acrossEurope. An internal market of sustainedeconomic growth and price stability anda highly competitive social market econ-omy will dominate, aiming at full employ-ment and social progress. The EU willalso exert every effort to ensure an eco-friendly sustainable development andsupport scientific and technologicaldevelopment. The union will struggleagainst social exclusion and discrimination,

36 S. Mehter Aykin

and make solidarity and economic, socialand territorial cohesion dominant amongmember states. It will respect the enrichedcultural and linguistic diversity and con-serve and improve European cultural her-itage. It will protect the rights of itscitizens around the world, while contrib-uting to peace, security and sustainabledevelopment. It will help to establish sol-idarity and understanding among people,and will contribute to the predominanceof fair and free competition, to the strug-gle against poverty and to the protectionof human rights. In the achievement ofthese objectives, the EU will act withinthe limits of power conferred, and willcertainly abstain from actions contrary toits fundamental objective and to the pro-visions of the Treaty defining various pol-icies including those on tourism.

The EU is responsible for exercising itsdelegated competency in fostering synergyamong many targets and policies defined inthe treaty, according to the 'communitymethod'. Pursuant to Article 5 of the Treaty onEU, delegation and exercise of competenciesevolve from three principles in the EU.According to the first, the 'principle of confer-ral', the EU acts within the sphere of compe-tencies conferred upon it by member states toattain the objectives set out in the foundingtreaties. In areas where the EU does not havecompetencies, the right to act is reserved bymember states. According to the 'principle ofsubsidiarity, in areas where the EU has notbeen given exclusive competencies, the EUcan take action only if anticipated objectivescannot effectively be attained by memberstates (on a centralized, regional or local basis)but achieved at the EU level by reason of thescale and outcome of the proposed action.Finally, according to the 'principle of propor-tionality', the content and form of EU actionscannot exceed that which is necessary toachieve the targets of the treaties. These prin-ciples of conferral, subsidiarity and propor-tionality were inserted into the MaastrichtTreaty; however, lacking a special chapter ontourism contrary to Lisbon compromise, theycould not provide an adequate basis on theirown to establish a comprehensive and coher-ent tourism policy at the EU level.

With Articles 2 and 6 of the Treaty onthe Functioning of the EU, tourism isincluded in the EU's 'supporting, coordi-nating or complementary actions'.Accordingly, the EU is responsible for tak-ing actions supporting, coordinating orcomplementing those of member statesunder conditions stipulated in the treatiesand provided that the areas of competencyare not transgressed. However, the bindingsecondary legal norms, such as Europeanlaws and framework laws pursuant torelated provisions in the treaties, must notentail harmonization of member state lawsand regulations. The treaty also validatesordinary legislative procedure in decisionmaking on tourism (Articles 195, 289(1) and294). Not requiring the unanimity clause indecision making is a significant improve-ment, which may be correctly interpreted astransforming the EU's competencies in tour-ism from what Anastasiadou (2008b) calls`creeping competency' to literally 'comple-mentary competency'.

Title XXII of the Treaty on theFunctioning of the EU is devoted to the EU'stourism policy. Although Article 3(t) ontourism in the Maastricht Treaty wasremoved from the draft treaty establishing aconstitution for Europe, Article 195 of theTreaty on the Functioning of the EU hasrestored significance to tourism. This Articlefinally led to the creation of a commonstandpoint supporting tourism entrepre-neurs, for which tourism suppliers havebeen fighting since the 1990s. The Articlereads as follows:

1. The Union shall complement the action ofthe Member States in the tourism sector inparticular by promoting the competitivenessof Union undertakings in that sector.

To that end, Union action shall be aimed at:

(a) encouraging the creation of a favourableenvironment for the development ofundertakings in this sector;

(b) promoting cooperation between theMember States, particularly by theexchange of good practice.

2. The European Parliament and theCouncil, acting in accordance with the


ordinary legislative procedure, shallestablish specific measures to complementactions within the Member States toachieve the objectives referred to in thisArticle, excluding any harmonization ofthe laws and regulations of the MemberStates.

Article 195 of the Treaty on theFunctioning of the EU mandates that theEU take complementary actions to ensurecompetitiveness of tourism enterprises inthe international market, by way of creat-ing a favourable environment and promot-ing cooperation through sharing bestpractices, without ignoring the differencesin the approaches of member states to tour-ism and their individual areas of compe-tency. It also stipulates that the measurestaken by the EU to complement the actionsof member states will be resolved with aqualified majority vote. Consequently, thiswill accommodate an 'integrated tourismpolicy' at the EU level, while secondarylegal norms will be legitimized to create abusiness environment that guarantees thetourism undertakings gain competitivepower.

With the momentum created by theprovisions of the Lisbon Treaty, the TourismGymnich, convening on 15 April 2010,signed the Madrid Declaration which con-tained a number of recommendations onimplementing a 'consolidated EU tourismpolicy framework'. Subsequently, theEuropean Commission (2010) issued a strat-egy paper outlining the tourism policy to bepursued and concrete actions to be taken.This strategy paper stated that in order tocreate a competitive, sustainable, modernand socially responsible European tourismindustry, a concept of sustainable, responsi-ble and high-quality tourism will be pro-moted throughout the EU, an integratedEuropean image of sustainable and high-quality destinations would be created, and

EU's financial instruments would be utilizedfor the benefit of the tourism industry.

Conclusions

Although efforts to set up a common tourismpolicy in Europe date back as far as the 1990s,the concerned parties had to wait until theenforcement of the Lisbon Treaty thatreformed the situation of tourism undertak-ings by putting producers on equal footingswith consumers and environmental and cul-tural enthusiasts in the decision-makingprocess. In fact, the Treaty does not imply ashift in the EU's standpoint on its tourismpolicy, but rather legitimizes action by theEU. Totally endorsing the motto of 'united indiversity', the EU recognizes the competen-cies of member states to set up tourism poli-cies, while assuming the responsibility totake actions that would increase the compet-itiveness of European tourism, and docu-ments this effort. In effect, this creates anexpectation of the EU to henceforth identifystrategic targets and priorities for increasedcompetitiveness of tourism enterprises andto set up secondary legal norms directlyaddressing tourism, pursuant to the provi-sions of the Treaty. Achieving coordinationamong various European policies affectingtourism for the benefit of the industry as awhole, and consolidating the European tour-ism policy to accommodate considerationsof all stakeholders would be the next stanceof the EU. Apparently, getting prepared tointroduce a number of complementaryactions, the EU would create a more inte-grated, highly competitive and sustainabletourism industry, providing better and morejobs, and reinforce its position as a globalactor in international tourism markets; thuswould be attaining the 'Lisbon andMillennium goals' via tourism.

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3 Authenticity and Commodification:The Selling of Mayan Culture

in Mexico's Mayan Riviera

Anna E. Papanicolaou'Faculty of Humanities, Centre for Transnational Studies,

University of Southampton, Southampton, UK

Introduction

South of Cancun, in Mexico's state ofQuintana-Roo on the country's Caribbeancoast, lies the Mayan Riviera, a 130 kmstretch of land that represents one of thecountry's foremost sites for internationaltourism. Renowned for its luxurious resortsand extravagant natural backdrop, it is diffi-cult to envisage that only a generation ago,the area that today includes both Cancunand the Mayan Riviera, aside from beinginhabited by a small number of families andfishing communities, was virtually unpopu-lated (Marti, 1985; Hiernaux-Nicolas, 1999;Torres, 2002). Designed to become one of thebiggest 'sun and beach' destinations inthe region, Cancun's construction began inthe 1970s and its popularity quickly gainedmomentum shortly after its first resortopened its doors in 1974 (Marti, 1985). Theconstruction of Cancun attracted migrantworkers from all across the state of Quintana-Roo, including Mayan farmers who wouldtravel from their communities in the interiorof the peninsula to the coast to join Cancun'sburgeoning workforce. According to DanielOrtiz, one of Cancun's founding engineers,the presence of Mayans was notable:

The Mayan farmers, we call them Mayitaswith a certain pejorative inflection, literally

make a millenarian jump when theyabandon their jungle habitat and incorporatethemselves in the world of Cancun.

Marti (1985, p75, author's translation)

As more and more hotels began risingon its shore, Cancun's powder-whitebeaches, turquoise waves and vibrantnightlife turned the city from a populartourist site into one of the world's mosteminent tourist destinations. Torres arguesthat, 'during the 1970s, Cancun became anexpensive, exotic, and exclusive `sun-and-sand' playground for the international 'jet-set' community' (2002, p.95). Yet, by the1980s, she adds, 'Cancun began to exhibitsigns of overdevelopment and loss ofexclusivity... as the tourism industrystarted to offer packages and discounts topredominantly American middle-classtourists in an attempt to fill the explodingnumber of rooms'. As the internationaltourism market witnessed the rise of otherupscale tourist destinations by the turn ofthe century, Cancun's allure began to fade.Wanting to maintain a stable inflow oftourists to the region, however, andresponding to an increasing desire withintourist discourses for diversification anddifferentiation, Cancun's Tourism Boardbegan to expand Cancun's image to includemore region-specific cultural elements.Consequently, nearby archaeological ruins


42 Al. Papanicolaou

and Mayan motifs began to be further inte-grated into Cancun's 'brand', while, at thesame time, Cancun's touristic perimeterwas expanded `from a resort enclave to anopen urban center' by the reconceptualiza-tion of Cancun's urban centre as a touristattraction in its own right (see Hiernaux-Nicolas, 1999).

It was around this time, in the late1990s, that the Mayan Riviera, a region pre-viously known simply as the 'Cancun-Tulum corridor', was introduced to theinternational tourism market. As a destina-tion that could offer a sense of 'CoteD'Azurian' sophistication while celebratingone of the best-known civilizations of theAmericas, the Mayan Riviera quickly gainedinternational notoriety. Its name notwith-standing, however, the Mayan Riviera,much like its neighbour, Cancun, was notdesigned to incorporate contemporaryMayan communities. Indeed, living inextreme poverty and social isolation, thevery presence of Mayans in the interior ofthe state of Quintana-Roo did not enter thetourist imaginaries through which theregion was promoted. This is not to say thatMayan culture was not widely celebrated inthe area. Indeed, the achievements of theancient Mayans, represented predominatelyas a long-extinguished civilization, were -and continue to be - widely heralded asmarkers of the cultural richness of the regionand celebrated through visits to world-renowned archaeological ruins such asChichen-Itza, Tulum and Coba.

Although during Cancun's early years,the Mayans living in Quintana-Roo werelargely marginalized and excluded from theregion's tourist scapes, this began to changewhen, at the beginning of the 21st century,attention began to shift from historicalaccounts of Mayan culture to contemporaryMayan people as the 'authentic torchbear-ers' of Mayan culture. As a result of thischange in discourse, contemporary Mayancommunities began to enter the tourism cir-cuit of the region, not as the industry's invis-ible subjects, but as tourist attractions intheir own right - as objects of what JohnUrry called 'the tourist gaze' (Urry, 1990).From the late 1990s onwards, `living culture'

was re-conceptualized as a marketable com-modity by companies who sought to bringMayan communities into the tourism cir-cuit of the Mayan Riviera, thereby extend-ing the 'spoils of tourism' to areas that, fordecades, have suffered extreme poverty andmarginalization. The potential of tourism toact as an avenue for poverty alleviation wasnoted by Andres Ramirez, a representativeof the World Tourism Organization, whoclaimed that tourism to indigenous commu-nities in the interior of Quintana-Roo couldboth increase the flow of tourists to theMayan Riviera and bring about economicgrowth to the state's poorest areas (seeNoticias Caribe, 2007).

The marketing of indigenous culture,and the portrayal of indigenous peoplesas 'authentic' embodiments of culturalOtherness, particularly within the confinesof ethnic or cultural tourism', has beenmuch debated in academic literature. Today,issues of cultural commodification2, alongwith discussions of tourism as a 'quest forauthenticity' have become central themes intourism research, particularly in relation tocultural tourism where the primary objectof interest lies not exclusively on theforeignness of a place but on the exclusiveforeignness of its peoples.

In an attempt to contribute to this debatesurrounding tourism's controversial incor-poration of indigenous cultural elementsas commodities and the representation ofindigenous peoples in tourist discourses asàuthentic' paragons of cultural Otherness,this chapter focuses on the case of touristattractions that 'sell' Mayan culture in theMayan Riviera. Specifically, my focus is onhow issues of authenticity and commodifi-cation relate to two of the region's most pop-ular cultural tourist attractions: Xcaret, aneco-theme park largely premised on the pro-motion of Mayan culture, and Alltournative,a leading ecotourism company whose 'MayaEncounter Expeditions' pioneered the incor-poration of Mayan communities into main-stream tourism in the Mayan Riviera. Foursections make up this chapter. In the firstsection, I provide a brief overview of someof the key concepts and theoretical frame-works informing contemporary debates on

Authenticity and Commodification 43

authenticity and commodification in thecontext of cultural and ethnic tourism. Inthe second section, I provide a brief historyof the Mayan Riviera's development as atourism destination. In the third and fourthsections, I introduce my two case studies.Here, I discuss how Mayan culture has beenincorporated into the tourist-scapes of Xcaretand Alltournative by drawing on fieldworkdata I collected in 2009. Additionally, inthese two sections, I discuss how issues ofauthenticity and commodification relate tospecific cultural attractions that are prem-ised on the staging and selling of Mayan cul-ture. Finally, in the conclusion I discuss thebenefits and challenges that arise from thistype of tourism, touching on some of theconcerns related to the staging and selling ofindigenous culture in the Mayan Riviera,particularly in the context of Xcaret andAlltournative's incorporation of 'Mayan cul-ture' as a tourist attraction.

Authenticity, Commodificationand the Selling of Indigenous Culture

When looking at the contemporary litera-ture on authenticity and commodificationin the context of a cultural tourism based onthe selling of indigenous culture, two argu-ments become apparent. One of the mostprevalent arguments that has been made inrelation to ethnic or cultural tourism arguesthat tourism's promotion of indigenous cul-ture and of indigenous communities asobjects for touristic consumption is invari-ably detrimental to the culture's purity,authenticity, preservation and, ultimately,its intrinsic value. This is an idea that drawsfrom MacCannell's theory of tourism as aquest for the authentic, as a search for the`real' (1976).

According to MacCannell, modernWestern societies have engendered a deep-seated sense of alienation in its members asa result of the all-pervasive nature of its pre-configured social forms (MacCannell, 1976).In an attempt to overcome this profoundsense of detachment, he argued, peoplewould travel to foreign lands hoping toexperience authentic forms of cultural

Otherness 'elsewhere', 'in other historicalperiods and other cultures, in purer, simplerlifestyles' (MacCannell, 1976, p.3). However,this quest, he theorized, was too often jeop-ardized by the staging and the ensuing com-modification of culture (MacCannell, 1976).In other words, as a result of a culture'sauthentic elements being staged and conse-quently `commodified', local adaptations/dependencies were generated and the cul-ture's very authenticity was compromised.Watson and Kopachevsky (1994) argued thatexperiences, objects, activities and even thesimple act of gazing are often commodifiedin tourism discourse and practice, i.e. theyare turned into commodities to be boughtand sold; commodities to be consumed. Bybeing packaged, marketed and exchangedwithin a capitalist framework, they argue,the cultural elements that were initiallysought-after for their authenticity cease to beauthentic at all. Consequently, echoingMacCannell, they suggest that, as a result ofthe 'manipulations undertaken by manytourism establishments', 'the tourist rarely,if at all, achieves the sought after experienceof authenticity' (Watson and Kopachevsky1994, p.651). The idea that tourism repre-sents a 'quest for authenticity' and the notionthat, through tourism's commodification ofculture, a culture's intrinsic authenticity canbecome endangered, though commonlydebated, continue to run throughout the lit-erature on tourism and commodification(see Mathieson and Wall, 1982; Cohen, 1988;Harrison, 1994; Tomaselli and Wang, 2001).In his study of ethnic tourism to San Cristobalde las Casas (in Mexico's state of Chiapas),Pierre Van den Berghe (1995) discussed howissues of authenticity and commodification,particularly in the context of ethnic tourism,related to the case of 'living Mayans' as cul-tural attractions. He argued that, once localentrepreneurs realized the marketability ofthe region's indigenous culture, they beganto ' commodify' it by linking contemporaryindigenous peoples to their Mayan ances-tors, i.e. by making an 'explicit linkagebetween living and dead Mayas' (Van denBerghe, 1995, p.580). In San Cristobal de lasCasas, he noted, this became a profitableventure owing to the fact that the 'mystique

44 Al. Papanicolaou

of living Indians as pure authentic descend-ants of an indigenous tradition appealsenormously to the tourist quest for authen-ticity' (p.576).

Critics have argued that the commodi-fication and commercialization of indige-nous culture, i.e. its treatment as acommodity to be bought and sold, is prob-lematic, particularly when it involvesthe marketization of indigenous people,because it can result in the 'dilution' oftheir culture and the loss of authenticity(MacCannell, 1976; Shepherd, 2002). Thecategorization of indigenous groups asàuthentic' descendants of an ancient cul-ture has also been criticized on the groundsthat it cultivates a myth of 'purity' that isgrounded in the obfuscation of wider socio-economic realities (MacCannell, 1976;Shepherd, 2002). Indeed, the argument goesthat the very conceptualization of tourismas a 'polluting force' is controversial as itsustains what Frank land calls a kind of 'tel-eological conceit' which quintessentiallyrelies on the idea that 'tourism causesdependency; dependency de-authenticatesculture; culture is destroyed by tourism'(Frank land, 2009, p. 96). In other words, itis an idea that sustains the notion that 'anyEden found must soon be lost, preciselybecause it has been discovered; any Adamor any Eve will soon be polluted, theirpurity compromised by the very act of con-tact' (Frank land, 2009).

Many have argued that the conceptuali-zation of tourism as a 'polluting agent' ofauthenticity is fundamentally problematicprimarily because it commonly mobilizes atype of 'cultural cryonics' that discursivelyfixes indigenous peoples in an ancient,romanticized past. As Cole argues, 'follow-ing this logic, to preserve the tourism prod-uct, is to maintain the lack of economicdevelopment and hence to preserve poverty'(2007, p.495). Echoing Butcher (2001), shemaintains that this type of tourism can cre-ate a 'straitjacket for communities' whereeconomic development and inequality ispreserved to maintain the 'authentic feel'of the 'tourism product' (Butcher, 2001;Shepherd, 2002, p.186; Cole, 2007).According to Cole, however, ethnic tourism

and the commodification of culture is notalways detrimental to the indigenous com-munities in question. Indeed, she maintains,the selling and promoting of culture cancontribute to their socio-economic empow-erment and promote the revitalization ofcultural traditions and ethnic identities.

Tourism to the Mayan Riviera

Records dating from the late 1990s thatdetail the transformation of the 'Cancun-Tulum corridor' into 'the Mayan Riviera'are few. According to Carmela, a local resi-dent of Playa del Carmen who has beeninvolved in tourism promotion to the regionsince the late 1990s, the mayor of themunicipality of Solidaridad3 and a market-ing specialist came up with the name`Mayan Riviera' as a way to re-brand theregion by highlighting its natural and cul-tural resources (Carmela4; my translation).The Mayan Riviera's first resort was openedin 1995, paving the way for the develop-ment of dozens of other four- and five-starhotels along the coast. In 1998, there were150 hotels in the Mayan Riviera; by 2007,that number had risen to 336 (SEDETUR,2008). Tourist flows have since markedlyincreased: in 1998, 595,050 tourists visitedthe region; by the year 2007, that numberrose to 2.8 million (SEDETUR, 2008).

Many of the Mayan Riviera's resorts arelocated miles apart from one another and,because of their relative seclusion, manyresorts are 'all-inclusive', i.e. they enclosetheir own entertainment venues, restau-rants, bars and shops, while offering exclu-sive access to the beach. In addition toall-inclusive resorts, a number of smalltowns in the region have undergone rapiddevelopment and have begun to offer theirown 'alternative' accommodation in theform of small hotels and bungalows.Principal amongst these towns is Playa delCarmen, commonly known as the 'heart ofthe Riviera Maya' because of its centrallocation and popularity with tourists.Notably, it was only 20 years ago that Playadel Carmen was a small and 'sleepy' fishing


village inhabited by fewer than 100 people(Gonzalez, 2007). Today, it has more than100,000 residents and attracts thousands ofinternational tourists, especially 'alternative'tourists, who choose to forsake all-inclusiveaccommodation, opting for smaller-scale lodg-ings from which to explore the region'snatural and cultural resources (INEGI, 2005;DATATUR, 2003).

The Mayan Riviera, however, as I dis-cussed in the introduction to this chapter,was not envisioned, nor was it constructed,as an ethnic or cultural destination. Indeed,even today, it is a destination that contin-ues to be chosen primarily for its luxuriousfacilities and breath-taking Caribbean set-ting. Although cultural or ethnic touristattractions cannot be said to comprise theregion's primary allure, the last decade has,however, witnessed a marked increase inthe incorporation of 'Mayan culture' intothe region's tourist landscapes. Indeed, asTorres notes, 'Mayan motifs' have been fre-quently employed to add a 'cultural dimen-sion' and incorporate a 'Mayan aesthetics'to the Mayan Riviera's many hotels, restau-rants and other tourist venues. What ismore, she notes, 'Mayan hieroglyphicsand images of ancient Maya Indians aredisplayed and sold on everything from cof-fee mugs to T-shirts' (Torres, 2002, p. 111).The incorporation of 'all things Mayan'into the Mayan Riviera's tourism industryand the celebration of contemporary Mayanculture in some of the region's touristattractions has been widely recognizedas adding value to the industry's product.Indeed, Mexico's Tourism Ministry(SECTUR) itself has noted the marketabil-ity of the region's Mayan culture. In 2004,in a report commissioned by SECTUR, theMayan Riviera's main areas for tourismdevelopment were delineated (SECTUR,2004). These included the region's naturaland cultural assets. In relation to the latter,the authors wrote:

Archaeological sites are among thecultural attractions [of the Mayan Riviera],among them those of Tulum and Coba, but[the Mayan Riviera] also counts withMayan groups or communities distributedalong the region, that is, with inhabitants

who populate the actual territory and whoare the depositories of a millenarianculture.

SECTUR (2004, author's translation)

Here, SECTUR also highlighted thepotential for a 'new type of tourist attrac-tion', which had proven to be especiallysuccessful in promoting the region's naturaland cultural attributes: thematic parks, alsoknown as eco-parks. Principal among them,the authors argued, stands Xcaret, a parkthat 'highlights the spaces and manifesta-tions of Mayan culture'; a park that, at thetime the document was released, attracted`more than one million people per year'(SECTUR, 2004).

The Case of Xcaret

Forty-five minutes south of Cancun andonly 10 km from Playa del Carmen is Xcaret,a privately owned, self-enclosed, èco-archaeological theme park' that features itsown underground rivers, lagoons and natu-ral pools, a coral reef aquarium, turtle andbutterfly pavilions, a mushroom farm andan orchid greenhouse. For US$69,5 touristscan swim, snorkel and dive; they canadmire the region's flora and fauna andmingle with dolphins. In addition to par-ticipating in these recreational activities,tourists can learn about the region's Mayancultural heritage in a variety of ways: byvisiting the park's 'Mayan Village', by tak-ing a tour of the on-site archaeologicalMayan ruins, or by watching Xcaret'swidely renowned night show entitled`Mexico Espectacular'6. Each of these sitesand performances portrays Mayan culturein a different, albeit homologous, way. Forexample, when visiting the 'Mayan Village'tourists are invited to:

Walk into the daily life of the Mayapeople and travel through time [by]visiting a replica of a Mayan Village...[where] you will be able to witness theeveryday life of common Maya people atthe time when the Maya civilizationinhabited this land.

XCARET (2010)

46 Al. Papanicolaou

At the 'Mayan Village', tourists can alsowitness:

The magical attraction of Mayan customsand traditions can be experienced throughthe work of their craftsmen and weavers[who] dressed in traditional Maya attire...will amaze you with their creativity as theycarve Mayan sacred animals and godshapes in wood or make beautiful crafts theway they learned from their Mayanancestors.

XCARET (2010)

While the Mayan Village acts as astage re/presenting purportedly 'authentic'Mayan life by its incorporation of 'Mayan'artisans and weavers, Xcaret's other Mayancultural attraction, its archaeological ruinsand their natural surroundings, remainimbued with an emptiness that is meant tostand for an extinguished, long-vanished,phantasmal civilization. When visiting thispart of the park, the aim is not for tourists todiscover the 'way of life' of the Mayan peo-ple, but to 'witness the traces' they leftbehind. With the assistance of a tour guide,they are invited to 'discover the vestiges ofthe rich cultural heritage that the Maya,these incredible mathematicians, astrono-mers, and architects left to mankind'(XCARET, 2010). 'Use your imagination',XCARET proceeds:

To visualize, within the natural shelter ofthe Xcaret inlet, the arrival of hundreds ofboats carrying their sumptuous feathers,incense, jade and gold ornaments,obsidian knives, furs, turtle eggs, shells,agricultural products and great quantitiesof salt, among other merchandise...[and]learn ...that Xcaret was also a veryimportant religious center, where Mayapeople from all over the peninsula came topurify their bodies and souls in the watersof the cenotes.7

XCARET (2010)

In addition to offering tourists thechance to 'learn' about Mayan culture byvisiting its simulated Mayan Village and tak-ing a tour of its archaeological ruins,XCARET presents a depiction of Mayan cul-ture by way of choreographed dance andlive music through its 'Mexico Espectacular

night show'. In addition, en route to the the-atre where the show takes place, tourists canwitness 'Mayan culture' as they walk throughan outside corridor where people dressed inpre-Hispanic outfits play the drums, sing orstatuesquely stand as tourists pose for pho-tographs to take as souvenirs of their encoun-ter with cultural Otherness - however stagedthis may be. Inside the theatre, the showitself begins with a representation of indige-nous life. This is followed by a depiction ofthe Spanish conquest and the MexicanInquisition. By the third and final act, whichrepresents contemporary Mexico's socio-cultural diversity by way of regional musicand dance, 'Mayan culture' ceases to be atall represented.

Scholars' reactions to Xcaret have beenmostly critical. According to Walker, Xcaretìs a highly controversial natural historytheme park' (2005, p.70); it is a spaceenclosing authentic ancient archaeologicalruins that, he argues, 'are treated as oppor-tunities for amusement and unfetteredexploration in the model of Disneylandtheme parks' (2003, p.71); and a site where`tourists are entertained by glamorizedpresentations of the Maya culture'.According to Walker (2005), Xcaret, likemost attractions at the Mayan Riviera(excluding, he contends, the few operatorswho organize tours to contemporary Mayancommunities in addition to visits to archae-ological sites), leave tourists 'with the over-all impression that the Maya are nowextinct (sic.), despite the presence of morethan a million Maya living there today'(Walker, 2005). The connection of Xcaretwith 'Disneyland' is one that has been com-monly made in relation to the park. Torres,for example, writes that Xcaret is commod-itized and packaged' and represents:

A classic example of Ritzer'sMcDisneyfication8 mass tourist product,but ...[it] takes Ritzer's concept one stepfurther by appealing specifically to a newbreed of 'environmentally conscious' massconsumers with specialized tastes.

Torres (2002, p. 110)

Moreover, many tourists I interviewedin the Mayan Riviera alluded to Xcaret as


`Disney-like'. Simon, for example, a touristfrom the USA visiting Playa del Carmen,said that while Xcaret was an 'interestingplace' it was 'too contrived', 'not cultural inany way', and 'too Disney'. Reflecting onthis, he added:

I've just been all over a lot of places in theworld and have been able to witnessvery genuine sort of cultural experienceswhere you're just witnessing daily life,daily rituals or a ceremony that's not puton your behalf and you haven't purchasedsome ticket to go see it, you know...whenever you purchase a ticket to seeculture you know you can pretty much besure to be seeing culture lite.

Simon (2009)

For Simon, 'culture lite' ensued when-ever a cultural product or performance wascreated exclusively for tourists' consump-tion, a process that resulted in its commodi-fication and the consequent loss of itscultural authenticity (Simon, 2009).

It is important to add, however, thatnot all tourists considered the staging ofculture problematic or conducive to a lossof genuineness or authenticity. Carly, a UStourist who was staying at an all-inclusiveresort in the Mayan Riviera, commentedthat Acaret is the best way to get to knowthe history of the country and Mayan cul-ture' (Carly, 2009). Regardless of whetherXcaret's display of culture was deemedauthentic or not, its commodification ofculture was not necessarily received nega-tively by all of its consumers. Indeed, itsinfluence on tourists' appraisal of the cul-ture being staged was by no means uni-formly critical. For example, Maria, a localresident of Playa del Carmen involved inthe tourism industry, considered Xcaret`commercialized' but nevertheless sheadded that:

The show of Xcaret makes me cry... I loveit; it gives me goose bumps... yes, it iscommercialized, and on a mass-scale, buthow amazing that we have a park like that!

(Maria, 2009, author's translation)

Overall, Xcaret makes few overt associa-tions between ancient and contemporaryMayans. Indeed, it is not uncommon for

tourists to leave the park with the impressionthat Mayans continue to abide by ancientcustoms. Xcaret's Mayan Village, a simu-lacrum of 'Mayan life', allows for no interac-tion to unfold between those performingit and those gazing at its performance.The Xcaret night show's portrayal of Mayanculture similarly focuses exclusively onMayan peoples as having lived in pristineenvironmental symbiosis prior to their`defeat' by Spanish forces, leaving no roomfor the representations of Mayans living inMexico today.

The Case of Alltournative

In the mid-1990s, Carlos Marin, a native ofMexico City, envisioned the idea of creatinga tourism venture that would combine out-door recreational activities with visits toarchaeological ruins and contemporaryMayan villages in the Mayan Riviera (Jones,2007). In 1999, this idea became a realityand Alltournative, one of the region's firstecotourism'9 companies, was founded.

I interviewed Roger10, who was involvedwith Alltournative's establishment. Hetalked about the company's mission, its earlyyears, and its impact on local Mayan com-munities. When discussing Alltournative'sfounding, Roger remembered the initialtrepidation with which local tourist agen-cies approached the idea:

They said to us, 'you guys are crazy, we'renot going to let you people take our clientsout into the jungle'... no, they didn't wantto do it at all... 'We're not going to let youtake them, and rope them and lower ourclients down into a hole into the waterdown below where they can swim...No way'.

(Roger, 2009)

Although convincing them 'took a longwhile', he added, 'once it took off, it justboomed'. Alltournative's annual growth intourist customers was considerable, henotes: 'we went from attracting 6,000 clientsin 1998, to 19,000 in 1999, to 42,000 the fol-lowing year, to 58,000 the next year, to 87,000the next year, to 99,000 the following year'

48 Al. Papanicolaou

(Roger, 2009). Since its inception in the late1990s, Alltournative has provided a seriesof tours. From its very beginning, however,the most popular tour has been its `CobaMaya Encounter Expedition'. Here, forUS$119, tourists can follow up a trip to theancient city and archaeological ruins ofCoba with a series of recreational activities(e.g. zip-line flying, swimming, rappellingand canoeing) and a visit to an 'authenticMayan village'. Here, they can 'See how theMayas live and experience with these won-derful people an adventure in their naturalworld' (Alltournative, 2010b). It is afteradmiring and reflecting upon the achieve-ments of the ancient Mayans therefore (bytaking a tour of the ancient archaeologicalruins of Coba and hearing a historicalaccount of the rise and fall of the Mayancivilization) that tourists are introduced tocontemporary Mayan peoples as 'authentic'descendants of ancient Mayan culture. It isthis connection between the past and thepresent that, after all, comprises the primaryallure of Alltournative's 'Maya EncounterExpedition'.

Mauricio, one of Alltournative's tourguides who frequently leads these tours,argues that the 'encounters' between tour-ists and Mayan community members arevery important because of their impact ontourists' imaginaries of Mayan culture andMayan peoples. In fact, he exclaimed, 'a lotof people think that Mayan people nolonger exist!' (Mauricio, 2009; author'stranslation). The 'encounter' includes apurification ritual conducted by a Mayanshaman in a Mayan dialect prior to the tour-ists' descent into the community's cenote.This is followed by the recreational activi-ties mentioned above which take placewithin the Mayan community and finally,tourists are invited to enjoy a traditionalYucatecan meal where they can interactwith the Mayan women who have preparedit and with the Mayan community memberswho have been providing assistance intheir tour.

According to Roger, one of the primarygoals of Alltournative's 'Maya EncounterExpeditions' is to expose tourists to contem-porary forms of Mayan culture and educate

them about the socio-economic conditionsof present-day Mayan communities:

We said, 'hey, let's go into the forest, andlet's walk around and let's see how Mayanpeople are living today. How they used tobe before, we're not going to try to keepthem that way. They are after all, like we, aculture in transition. And they're changingas we change, and you're going to see whatthat looks like today. In two years' time, it'sgoing to be different. They may haveconcrete houses instead of wooden houses,because suddenly they have access tomoney, and they can build concretehouses'.

Roger (2009)

Alltournative's impact on the socio-eco-nomic conditions of the Mayan communitiesthey work with is worthy of note. Onceforced to commute long hours to work in theresorts, hotels and restaurants of Cancun andthe Mayan Riviera, members of the Mayancommunities that work with Alltournativecan remain 'at home' earning 'about 900to 1000 percent more than what they didbefore started with us' (Roger, 2009). In addi-tion to increasing the income received byMayan communities, Alltournative seeks toìmprove the life quality' of its inhabitants bycreating jobs within Mayan communities,protecting the environment, preserving localcustoms, encouraging education in ècotour-ism practices', providing community mem-bers with skills training and fomenting`respect for traditional customs within thecommunity' (Alltournative, 2010a).

Today, the company supports six differ-ent communities and employs 220 peo-ple (Roger, 2009). According to Mauricio,Mayan community members have embracedtourism:

They are very happy to be working withAlltournative... they are like, 'now we canstay at home and look after our family, lookafter our land and our animals, and work'.

Mauricio (2009, author's translation)

The Mayan villages that Alltournativeincludes in its tourist portfolio have experi-enced considerable socio-economic devel-opment. While, to some, changes could be


perceived as detrimental to the product'sàuthenticity', Roger makes a point of empha-sizing the company's non-interventionistapproach to the way in which communitiesdevelop. This being said, however:

We come with our intention to developthem, along the lines that they want todevelop in, not that we want to impose...[but] there are certain things that we dosuggest, especially in terms of uses ofnatural resources, training ...and certainsocial processes like education, child labor,gender equality and access to education.

Roger (2009)

According to Mauricio, there have beenconsiderable positive changes in the Mayancommunities Alltournative works with.`Children begin to know more things andgain more education, become healthier', hesaid. And while exposure to mainstreamtourism is 'a crash' he proceeded, for themto come into contact with tourists and inmany cases with an outside world that untilthat point was unknown to them:

Is a crash that has been good for the Mayancommunities... it is incredible to see howpeople adapt to computers and start doingdifferent things and they like that...somethingcompletely different is being created.


To this, Roger added that:

These Mayan communities that weremarginalized before we met up with them andwho have been treated very badly throughoutthe ages have signed exclusive usage contractswith us, i.e. given Alltournative the exclusiveright to use their natural and culturalresources in a tourism-based economy.They're not allowing anybody else in there.And the fact that they still sign these contractswith us and are happy to do so now for longerand longer periods of time, I think is prettyclear. It clearly reflects their trust in ourcompany and the acceptance of the way wework, which is totally transparent and honestand positive in terms of the impact we'rebringing to their regions.

Roger (2009)

In contrast to the 'Mayan Village' stagedat Xcaret, most people I interviewed who

visited both tourist attractions, felt thatAlltournative's 'Mayan Encounter Expedi-tions' were more 'authentic'. Mauricio arguesthat this is because:

Xcaret... shows you an ancient Mayanworld not the contemporary one... not theone we are living in now which hasnothing to do with the one you see atXcaret...they don't tell you; they say thisis Mayan culture this is what Mayans arelike... then people leave and for examplethey come with us and they say 'eh what adifference! I thought Mayan peoplecontinued painting themselves andhunting'.


Jeremy, a US citizen who visited Playadel Carmen five years ago and decided tobecome a full-time resident, argued that thegrowth of companies like Alltournative isindicative of tourists' interest in experienc-ing something other than the many 'culture-less' activities available in the region. Heclaimed that:

Once tourists have done Cancun and theyhave done the Pirate Ship [i.e. a populardinner cruise in Cancun] and they've donethe Catamaran [which involves a series ofrecreational water activities], you know,then what else are they going to do? I guessthe Mayan thing is the new thing.

Jeremy (2009)

When asked about 'the Mayan thing',particularly in relation to Alltournative'sMaya Expeditions, Jeremy said that whiletours like those of Alltournative can be 'alittle touristy, a little contrived', a lot can belearned by taking part in them and 'experi-encing' the reality of how many Mayancommunities live:

Out there in the villages you know onceyou get off the [tourist] strip it's... I hate touse the term 'third world' because a lot ofpeople consider 'third world' is almost likean insult to some of the indigenouspeople ...but it really is 'third world' if yougo away from here two or three hoursinland you come into the wild ...I thinkthat the culture there is very different andvery strong.

(Jeremy, 2009)

50 Al. Papanicolaou

Ryan, a US tourist who has been visit-ing Playa del Carmen for the last sevenyears, argued that tours like those offered byAlltournative are a positive addition to theregion's tourism industry because, 'Mayanculture here is very prevalent but not inPlaya [del Carmen]' (Ryan, 2003). In otherwords, he said, tours like those offered byAlltournative served to 'open tourists' eyesto the region's real social environment'(Ryan, 2003).

Conclusion

The issue of authenticity and commodifica-tion, in the context of Mayan culture in theMayan Riviera is undeniably complex.While Xcaret and Alltournative both engagein the commodification of Mayan culture,the way in which they re/present otherness,influence individuals' imaginaries ofMayan culture, and engage with Mayanlocal communities dramatically differs. Forexample, while the cultural re/presenta-tions of Mayan culture offered byAlltournative are premised on the selling ofthe 'real' - that is, the 'reality' of contempo-rary Mayan peoples - Xcaret offers a staged,performed and generic re/presentation ofMayans, one that scholars and critics haveequated to a `Disneyfied' version of Mayanculture: sanitized, simulated, romanticizedand packaged.

The way in which tourist attractionssell Mayan culture is by no means inconse-quential. It can, for instance, contribute tothe maintenance of a myth, one that main-tains that Mayan culture is 'extinct' and, bydefinition, worth exploring only within theconfines of staged or performed representa-tions of an idealized past. Essentializedre/presentations that discursively tie con-temporary Mayans to ancient Mayan culturecan also contribute to the wider obfuscationof Mayan communities' recent history bydisregarding the 'political, economic, andcultural relations that integrate them...albeit in a marginal and subordinate posi-tion, in a much larger world of modernMexico and beyond' (Van den Berghe, 1995,

p. 583). Conversely, tourism that is based onthe promotion of cross-cultural 'encounters'can be conducive to the social and economicinclusion of a people who have long beenexcluded from taking advantage of theregion's many opportunities for socio-economic development. Alltournative, forexample, while only impacting a small pro-portion of the region's Mayan communi-ties", has managed to bring substantialsocio-economic benefits to the communitiesthat they work with (CEIDAS, 2009). At thesame time, they have expanded tourists'imaginaries of contemporary Mayan reali-ties by bringing them into contact withindigenous people who they would other-wise never have encountered. However, it isimportant to remember that Alltournative's`Maya Encounter Expeditions', much likeXcaret's stagings and performances ofMayan culture, are structured on the pres-entation of a particular set of commercial-ized and romanticized images of Mayanculture created not by Mayan groups, but bythe companies in charge of selling them.

Both Xcaret and Alltournative are, afterall, tourist attractions that must competewith those around them in order to attracttourists. Although the images they sell, asI argued above, markedly differ, both Xcaretand Alltournative are structured aroundthe idea of Otherness as a marketablecommodity. When assessing their treatmentof culture and looking at the discoursesthrough which Mayan culture and indeedMayan peoples are promoted, companieslike Xcaret and Alltournative mobilizetropes of authenticity and the exotic. Pereiraet al. argue that, with the advent of globali-zation, 'primitive' cultures - cultures thathave been excluded from the 'homogeniz-ing forces of globalization' - have gainedvalue because they 'provide tourists with a"truly authentic" and "intimate" experiencewith another culture' (2002, p. 79; author'stranslation). This idea is consistent with thestatement made by Ramirez who noted that,ethnic or 'indigenous tourism' to rural com-munities in the Mayan Riviera has a greatpotential for development, especially withinforeign markets who find ethnic tourism`greatly appealing because they do not have


that kind of tourism [at homer (Noticaribe,2007; author's translation). The increasing`desire on the part of tourists to experiencethe exotic and primitive "other" embodiedin Mayan culture' (Torres, 2002, p. 111), inthe context of the Mayan Riviera, can by nomeans be denied. Indeed, this is evident inthe rise in popularity of both Xcaret andAlltournative.

Although forms of indigenous culturein the region have become increasinglypopular in the last decade, the vast majorityof re/presentations of Mayan culture in theMayan Riviera continue to be consumedwithin the confines of mainstream enter-tainment venues such as those of Xcaret anddo not involve any meaningful interactionwith contemporary Mayan peoples. Therepresentations encountered here, as aresult, do not have a transformative effecton tourists' imaginaries of Mayan culturenor do they socially or economically benefitthe many Mayan communities located inthe interior of the peninsula, far from theever-growing tourist-scapes of the MayanRiviera and the lavish backdrops of theirresorts.

On the whole, the analysis of the way inwhich Mayan culture is packaged and soldby tourist companies like those examined inthis chapter points to the complex issuessurrounding ethnic or cultural tourism inthe Mayan Riviera. Today, issues of authen-ticity and commodification continue to rep-resent an essential component of touristdiscourses - both within and outside theconfines of academia. Assessing tourismfrom the angle of whether or not it sustainsàuthentic' culture, whether it transforms itinto a 'commodity' and subsequently 'pol-lutes' it, or whether it altogether 'destroys'it, is problematic because such an assess-ment relies upon the presumed idea thatauthenticity can be fixed and is not subject

to contestation. In this context, one mustask: authenticity for whom? In the words ofCole, 'who has the right, authority, or powerto define what is authentic?' (Cole, 2007,p. 495).

Questions of authenticity and commod-ification, as the literature attests, are inter-twined with questions of representation. Inthe context of the Mayan Riviera, it is essen-tial to widen the discussion to include thevoices of the re/presented, the imagined,and the subsequently consumed. Becausetourism's integration of Mayan culturalforms and Mayan people as objects of thetouristic interest in the Mayan Riviera isrelatively recent, research in this area is stillin its nascent stages. Undoubtedly, the sell-ing of Mayan culture in the Mayan Rivierais a controversial phenomenon that inter-weaves many voices, imaginaries and repre-sentations. Although challenging, theincorporation of Mayan culture intothe region's tourist circuits can assist in thetranscendence of the socio-economic dis-parities that have, since their inception,characterized Cancun and the MayanRiviera. The terms of its inclusion, however,are important. While Alltournative'sapproach, for example, does not resolve allthe contradictions of ethnic or cultural tour-ism, their 'Maya Encounter Expeditions'have the potential to expand tourists' under-standing of Mayans' present-day realitieswhile also contributing to the socio-economic development of the communitieswith which they are involved. Xcaret's rep-resentations of Mayan culture, on the otherhand, do little to challenge monolithic rep-resentations of Mayans as 'authentic' para-gons of primitive Otherness, maintainingthus the type Otherness that is commonlypromoted in both Cancun and the MayanRiviera - an Otherness that can be gazed at,consumed, but never truly 'encountered'.

Notes

' Though definitions for both 'ethnic' and 'cultural' often differ, in this chapter, I use 'ethnic' and 'cultural'tourism interchangeably, combining van den Berghe and Keyes' definition of ethnic tourism as 'tourismwherein the prime attraction is the cultural exoticism of the local population and its artifacts' (Keyes andvan den Berghe, 1984, p344) with McKercher and Du Cros' definition of cultural tourism as 'a form of

52 Al. Papanicolaou

special interest tourism where culture forms the basis of either attracting tourists or motivating people totravel' (2002, p. 4).

It is important to bear in mind that, in the literature, 'commodification' and 'commoditization' are oftenused interchangeably to describe the objectification of intangible culture and its concurrent treatment as acommodity that can be bought and sold in the tourism market.

The municipality of Solidaridad, in Quintana-Roo, includes most of the Mayan Riviera's territory.4 For confidentiality reasons, I have replaced the names of personal contacts and interviewees withpseudonyms.

Today's price for a general admission ticket (see: www.Xcaret.com)6 For a critical analysis of this show in relation to its re/presentation of Mexican culture, see Guerrero, 2010.

Cenotes are groundwater-filled sinkholes; they can be found above ground, underground (inside caves orcaverns), or partially underground."McDisneyfication' is a concept developed by George Ritzer and Allan Liska to represent commoditized,mass produced, hyperreal 'non places' which lack authenticity and relish in a post modern vacuum ofsimulacra; it is a fusion of Ritzer's concept of McDonalidization and with that of Disneyfication (See: Ritzerand Liska, 1997).9 According to Alltournative, 'ecotourism is of special interest to many travellers because of its relationshipwith conservation, sustainability, and biological diversity. As a developmental tool, ecotourism can advancetwo basic goals: [the conservation of]... biological and cultural diversity, by strengthening protected areamanagement systems (public or private) and increasing the value of sound ecosystems... [and the promo-tion of] sustainable use of biodiversity by generating income, jobs and business opportunities in ecotourismand related business networks' (see Alltounative.com, 2010a). In addition, they add the purpose of ecot-ourism is to allow tourism to develop in a way that is fair and equitable for host communities'.10 All Interviewees have been given a pseudonym." Alltournative works with six communities and employs around 220 people in a state which (according to alocal census in 2007) houses 282 rural communities and thousands of indigenous people living in acute povertyand with a 'high, or very high degree of marginalization' (CEIDAS, 2009, p.15; INEGI, 2007).

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Butcher, J. (2001) Cultural baggage and cultural tourism. In: Butcher, J. (ed.) Proceedings of the 5th ATLASInternational Conference: Innovatory Approaches to Culture and Tourism, Rethymnon, Crete, Greece.ATLAS, Arnhem, The Netherlands, pp. 2-25.

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4 Authenticity Versus Development:Tourism to the Hill Tribes of Thailand

Marina Novellii and Anne Tisch-Rottensteiner2'Centre for Tourism Policy Studies, School of Service Management,

University of Brighton, Eastboune, UK; 2Beluga School for Life, Thailand

Introduction

This chapter examines whether theincreasing demand for authenticity by tour-ists contrasts with the proclaimed efforts touse tourism as a development tool. By usingthe hill tribes of Northern Thailand as a rep-resentative case, this chapter focuses on theextent to which tourism benefits local peo-ple, leads to local development or whetherthe tourists' quest for authenticity holdsback development.

Development is a multifaceted processwith tourism gradually being influenced byvarious theories and emerging as a widelyrecognized development tool. At the sametime, while tourists have increasingly beenseeking what they consider to be authenticexperiences, a growing demand for newforms of tourism such as ethnic/indigenoustourism has come to light, with severalmicro-level implications (Wheeler, 1992;Burns and Figurova, 2005).

Results from the fieldwork revealedthat tourists who visit the hill tribes inNorthern Thailand generally expect anauthentic experience, but their expecta-tions are often not met as the hill tribesare increasingly being influenced byWestern lifestyles and progress, a naturaldevelopment process reinforced byglobalization.

Furthermore, it became evident thattourism impacts both positively and nega-tively on local indigenous communities.The study also concluded that while thereis an urgent need for governmental institu-tions to recognize the substantial addedvalue provided by the hill tribes to Thaitourism, tourists have to be made moreaware of what to expect, how to behave andhow to interact when travelling to the local-ity, with tour operators having the responsi-bility and moral obligation to ensure thattourism truly benefits local communities.

Development and (New) Tourism:Theories and Issues

During the four decades prior to the newmillennium, import and export were satis-factorily seen as the main influencing fac-tors in the economic development of acountry (Mamoozadeh and McKee, 1990).However, as economic growth is just oneaspect of development (Sharpley, 2000;Clayton, 2003; Marcouiller et al., 2004), itbecame obvious that 'the classical approachto the study of development derives fromneoclassical economics and totally [Western]dominated thinking for a period close onforty years' (Potter et al., 2008). This is

54 ©CAB International 2012. Controversies in Tourism (eds 0. Moufakkir and P. Burns)

Authenticity Versus Development 55

linked to the modernization theory, whichis founded on the belief that a country canbe 'developed' through modernization,often based on Western principles (Rostow,1960; Scheyvens, 2002; Potter et al., 2008).More recently, while neo-liberalist struc-tures exist among multinational compa-nies, often criticized for creating unevenpower relationships, inequalities anddependencies through their policies (Amin,1996; Scheyvens, 2002; Higgins-Desbiolles,2006), modernization and economic growthcontinue to be considered the main con-tributors to the development of a destina-tion (Sharp ley, 2002; Jamal and Stronza,2008).

Since 'there is probably no other eco-nomic activity which transects so many sec-tors, levels and interests' (Cater, 1995, p. 21),tourism has been increasingly recognized asa promising tool for development in manycountries (Mamoozadeh and McKee, 1990;Hunter, 1995; Sharpley, 2000; Telfer, 2002;Crick, 2003; de Oliveira, 2005; Brown andHall, 2008). However, tourism has oftenbeen criticized as a new form of colonial-ism, since the industry is characterized byuneven power relationships and leakages(Brohman, 1996; Hall and Brown, 2006;Higgins-Desbiolles, 2006; Burns, 2008a,2008b; Potter et al., 2008; Pattullo, 2009).Based on the controversial issue that 'tour-ism development not only enhances theability of the elite to control dissidentvoices, but encourages the development ofhegemonic consensus that makes controlcheaper and capital investment more profit-able' (Smith 1997, p. 204), the need for tour-ism to become better integrated into broaderdevelopment plans (Hunter, 1995; Brohman,1996; Boxill, 2003; Karagiannis, 2003; Zezzaet al., 2009), the requirement of involvingall stakeholders (Clayton, 2003) and theneed for plans to be long-term rather thanshort-term (Karagiannis, 2003) are part of anongoing debate. Indeed, tourism can lead toan increase in foreign exchange and invest-ment, job creation, infrastructure develop-ment (Mamoozadeh and McKee, 1990;Burns and Holden, 1995; Sharpley, 2002;Hjalager, 2007) and potentially a multipliereffect emerging from the sector's linkages

and networks with positive implications forthe entire destination (Mamoozadeh andMcKee, 1990; Brohman, 1996); but, tourismcan also lead to reverse multipliers as thecosts for local people increase due to tour-ism (Chambers, 2000). Other negative con-sequences of tourism include `... foreigndomination and dependency, socioeco-nomic and spatial polarization, environ-mental destruction, cultural alienation, andthe loss of social control and identity amonghost communities' (Brohman, 1996, p. 48).Economic leakages through the predomi-nantly foreign ownership of most tourismbusinesses are also a major problem(Chambers, 2000; Knowles et al., 2004;Dodman, 2009). Taking those issues intoaccount, 'scholars have posited a shift froma predominately Fordist model of capitalis-tic development to the emergence of post-Fordist and neo-Fordist modes of productionand consumption' (Torres, 2002, p. 87),which has led to a set of new sustainabledevelopment approaches and new forms oftourism.

New development approaches and newforms of tourism have progressivelyincreased over the past 30 years, aiming at' [...]a more realistic possibility of contribut-ing positively to the lives of people in theThird World' (Brown and Hall, 2008, p. 843).Development strategies started lookingbeyond economic growth, by focusing onthe environment and social issues(Schuurman, 1990; Sharpley, 2000; Telfer,2002; Northcote and Macbeth, 2006). 'Sincethe late 1980s, sustainable development hasbecome a buzzword in development studiesin general and in tourism research in par-ticular' (Liu, 2003, p. 459). In 1990,Schuurman (1990, p. 22) had noted that 'theterm sustainable development encompassesdevelopment strategies which range fromlight-green to dark-green, from romanticand nostalgic conservatism to utopiansocialism, from absolute-zero growth in theeconomy to maintaining the present worldeconomic growth rate. As a result, the"green" notion of sustainable developmentcould be incorporated without effort intoboth the "blue" development model (neo-liberal) and the "red" development model

56 M. Novell i and A. Tisch-Rottensteiner

(socialist, and these days social democratic).In a number of cases one can thereforehardly speak of an alternative developmentmodel'. In effect, some may add that sus-tainability can be regarded as a luxury thatthe poor cannot afford, when it comes to thedaily survival of their families (Cater, 1995).In line with sustainable development prin-ciples, new forms of tourism have emergedwith a set of debatable implications for thehost destination (Wheeler, 1992; Lane, 1994;Brohman, 1996; Weaver, 1999; Butcher,2003; Liu, 2003; Beeton, 2006; Fennell,2006; Hall and Brown, 2006; Fennell andMalloy, 2007; Brown and Hall, 2008;Higgins-Desbiolles, 2008; Pattullo, 2009).The controversy is that while there is a ten-dency to refer to those new forms of tourismas 'better' options than mass tourism, mostare practiced on a small scale, thereforewith 'small scale impact and contribution tothe local economy' (Wheeler, 1992, p. 233).

Implementing sustainable tourism isnot easy, due to the number and variety ofstakeholders (Lane, 1994). For instance,more recently, 'Mlle importance of tourismfor poor countries is a widely discussedissue in international development'(Carbone, 2005, p. 559) leading to the emer-gence of concepts such as pro-poor tourismas a strategy to engage the poor, guarantee amore equal distribution of the benefitsresulting from tourism and alleviate poverty(Valdes and Stoller, 2002; Carranza Carbone,2005; Hawkins and Mann, 2007; Brown andHall, 2008; Higgins-Desbiolles, 2008;Mowforth et al., 2008). In this regard,increasing emphasis has been placed on thevalue of community-based tourism (CBT)(Cheong and Miller, 2000; Tosun, 2000),often led by foreign interests (Tosun, 2000;Mowforth and Munt, 2008) with somesevere implementation challenges, such asthe lack of local capacity, which adds to thedebate on the controversy of tourism anddevelopment. One of the dilemmas is thatlocal people often lack expertise, whichmakes it hard to fully incorporate the com-munity into a tourism operation, withapproaches often remaining top-down andtokenistic (Tosun, 2000; Timothy andloannides, 2002; Novel li and Gebhardt

2007; Moscardo, 2008). Moreover, debateson green tourism and ecotourism havebecome very popular (Wheeler, 1992; Liu,2003; Higgins-Desbiolles, 2008), leading tothe fact that ecotourism is often controver-sially used as a marketing tool and at timespractised on the same scale as mass tourism(Wheeler, 1995; Buckley, 2002; Wagner,2005). There is therefore a need for revisit-ing the concept of ecotourism (i.e. carryingcapacity) as, in some cases, it has contrib-uted even more negatively than mass tour-ism on some of the more exotic, unspoilt(Weaver, 1999; Scheyvens, 2002; Liu, 2003;Mowforth and Munt, 2008) and fragileplaces in which it takes place.

Globalization and Authenticityin Tourism

Potter et al. (2008, p. 131) state that `globali-sation is seen by those subscribing to mod-ernisation theory as the outward flow ofWestern know-how, capital and culture tothe rest of the world'. Since globalizationand development are interrelated, manyauthors agree that tourism is both a drivingforce and consequence of globalization(Fayed and Fletcher, 2002; Freyer, 2006;Azarya, 2007; Hjalager, 2007; Cooper andHall, 2008; Potter et al., 2008).

Within the last few decades, new con-cerns over the consumption of goods haveemerged (Urry, 2002; Knowles et al.,2004), which Inglehart and Flanagan(1987) described as post-materialistic.The new consumers are `[...]living ineconomies where their basic needs arequickly and easily satisfied[...1 As a resultthey tend to reject mass-produced andmass-marketed commodities in favor ofproducts and services that can claim to bein some way authentic' (Lewis andBridger, 2001, p. 4). Many agree that tour-ists have therefore become more demand-ing, travel to less well-known and unspoiltplaces and are ever more in search ofauthenticity (Diamantis, 1998; Medina,2003; Smith and Duffy, 2003; Salazar,2005; Azarya, 2007; van Egmond, 2007;


Brown and Hall, 2008; Cole, 2008;Gonzalez, 2008; Telfer and Sharp ley, 2008;Pattullo, 2009).

What is perceived as being authenticdepends on the perception of each individ-ual and his/her cultural background andexperiences. In fact, ' (.. din Western socie-ties, what is and is not authentic is largelythe consequence of replicated interpreta-tions, which although contested by profes-sionals, are commodified for massconsumption' (McIntosh and Prentice, 1999,p. 590). Taylor (2001, p. 9), for example,argues that 'within cultural tourism, andwherever else the production of authentic-ity is dependent on some act of (re)produc-tion, it is conventionally the past which isseen to hold the model of the original'.Therefore, authenticity stands in contrast toour modern world and that past often has tobe artificially recreated to attract tourists(Teo and Yeoh, 1997), what MacCannell(1973) referred to as staged authenticity,through which tourists experience a super-ficiality of performances on a front stage,while the real traditions are kept (in theback) for the local population. In any case,as tourists often cannot distinguish betweenthe real and the set up performances, 'it maybe necessary to discount the importance,and even the existence, of front and backregions except as ideal poles of touristicexperience' (MacCannell, 1973, p. 597).Moreover, tourism can be seen as a way toconserve traditions, since local people con-tinue to pass them on to the next genera-tions as a tourist product (Azarya, 2007).

`Globalization, with its new forms ofproduction, transportation and universal-ized mass media, has led to major culturalchanges and thus transformations of iden-tity... Some identities wane, and others aretransformed' (Langman, 2003, p. 244). Associal identity changes naturally over centu-ries (Schirato and Webb, 2003; Scholte,2005) so does culture (Skelton, 1996;Mowforth and Munt, 2008) and as Langman(2003, p. 223) states 'globalization createsforces that both homogenize and differenti-ate identity', with the preservation of culturebecoming a predominant tourism-focusedactivity (Azarya, 2007; Cole, 2008; Medina,

2003; Schirato and Webb, 2003).Undoubtedly, 'there is a growing desire bymillions of travellers for access to "primi-tive" societies, a hunger to taste if onlybriefly their traditional ways of life, a wishto see, experience and photograph their"exotic" practices'. (Sofield and Birtles,1996, p. 396) and the assumption that 'todevelop is to modernise' becomes contro-versial in the tourism arena as 'if a remotecultural tourist destination modernises, it isno longer "primitive" and it loses its appeal'(Cole, 2008, p. 22). In effect, 'the criticalpoint to such arguments is that commodifi-cation and modernization place traditionand "authenticity" in jeopardy' (Taylor,2001, p.13).

In the context of the above, if develop-ment was to be regarded as modernizationand authenticity as conservation of culture,one could simplistically argue that theincreasing demand for authentic experi-ences on the part of tourists may hold backthe development of destinations, whichmay find (or not) expression in ethnic/indigenous tourism scenarios.

Ethnic/Indigenous Tourism

Yang and Wall (2009, p.235) define ethnictourism as 'motivated primarily by the visi-tor's search for exotic cultural experiencesthrough interaction with distinctive ethnicgroups'. They furthermore state that it ishard to separate an ethnic tourist from themasses since an ethnic activity can also bepart of a mass tourist attraction (Yang andWall, 2009). Ethnic tourism involves whatis often referred to as indigenous people,which are defined as those that are tradi-tionally native to a country (Hinch andButler, 1996). Weaver (2009) argues thatalmost all indigenous people are nowadaysmore or less involved in tourism activities,often leading to the controversial issuesregarding the use of land between tourismbusinesses and indigenous populations(Wall, 1999). The increasing demand forethnic and indigenous tourism originatesfrom tourists' increasing search for more


authentic experiences, with tourism seen asan additional source of income for indige-nous people. Smith (1996, p. 287) talksabout the four 'Hs' of indigenous tourism,namely 'the geographic setting (habitat),the ethnographic traditions (heritage), theeffects of acculturation (history), and themarketable handicrafts' and 'the exposurewhich many tourists now have to indige-nous cultures and peoples is [often] limitedto a master/servant relationship, or to fleet-ing, often staged and inauthentic represen-tations of traditional life styles' (Hinch andButler, 1996, p. 3).

In 2004, the UN declared theÌnternational Decade of the World'sIndigenous People', with the aim of empow-ering indigenous people (United Nations,2008). In 2009, the 'Guidelines on IndigenousPeoples' proposed ways of 'promoting orreinforcing sustainable development, areassuch as cultural tourism, and/or culturaland creative industries, where desired bythe community' (United Nations, 2009,p. 34) to benefit indigenous people and con-tribute to development. In contrast, in thename of authenticity, tourism may holdback development because indigenous peo-ple's marginality is seen as the unique sell-ing proposition for the tourists. Where theyare no longer 'different from the tourists',they would loose their attractiveness and 'tosustain such commodity, continue attract-ing customers, they have to maintain theirdifference' (Azarya, 2007, p. 961).

The experience of the tourists dependson their expectations. In this regard, themanagement of expectations takes shape inwhat Burns and Figurova (2005, p.107)describe as 'honest and clear communica-tion'. Tourism can give marginalized indig-enous populations a rediscovered sense ofself-esteem through the outsiders' recogni-tion of the value of their culture and tradi-tions (Ryan, 2005). Despite the criticism onstaged authenticity, Cohen (1995) arguedthat staged cultural performances can be theway forward to keep tourists outside thereal life of indigenous people, who on theirpart have to adapt to the pressure of globali-zation in order to survive (Ryan, 2005;McCaskill et al., 2008). On reflection, an

adequate preparation of the tourist on whatto expect at the hand of trained local tourguides becomes essential in order to guaran-tee a positive experience for both hosts andguests (Millman, 1995).

Tourism in Thailand: DevelopmentImplications

Thailand was among the first countries inSouth-east Asia to emerge as a tourist desti-nation. Mass tourism began to developunder Marshal Sarit Thanarat's premiershipin the 1950s, and in 1959, the TouristOrganisation of Thailand (TOT) - currentlyTourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), wasestablished (Peleggi, 1996). 'Thailand begannational level tourism planning in 1976 inthe interest of developing the tourism indus-try and based on maximization of the bene-fits of national attractions' (Leepreecha,1997, p. 271). The Vietnam War led to animmense investment boom in the country;however, the image of the country started toreshape into that of a sex tourism destina-tion (Boniface and Cooper, 2001). Thailandfaces increasing competition from its neigh-bouring countries such as Vietnam, Laosand Cambodia, but despite the 2004 Tsunamiand the political unrest of 2010, which ledto a decline in tourist numbers that has notyet recovered (Bangkok Post, 2010), itremains a well-established tourism destina-tion (Forsyth, 1995), generally enjoying 'avery good reputation and ... a safe countryfor foreign tourists' (Cohen, 2009, p. 185).

In response to competition and the neg-ative connotation of sex tourism, the Thaigovernment is increasingly focusing on thedevelopment of more sustainable forms oftourism. Most recently, the TAT published abooklet called 'Learning Through Travelling',featuring 48 projects in different regions ofthe country where tourists can experienceThailand away from the traditional touristroutes (TAT, 2008). Additionally, sinceindigenous communities and their cultureemerged as one of the main reasons whypeople travel to Thailand, CBT becameincreasingly recognized as a way forward to


sustainable development. However, thecomplexity of its implementation remains(Richards and Hall, 2000), with numerousCBT projects being initiated in NorthernThailand despite the lack of strategy and theinexistence of cooperation between stake-holders (Chandraprasert, 1997) often lead-ing to business failures.

The Study Context: Tourism to the HillTribes in Northern Thailand

Six major groups of 'hill tribes' can be foundin Northern Thailand: Karen, Hmong, Mien,Lahu, Akha and Lisu, most of which emi-grated from neighbouring countries such asChina, Burma and Laos. Although the tribesshow similarities in their traditional back-grounds, they have all developed differentcultures and habits. Traditionally, the hilltribes live in a close relationship with natureand spirits play an important role in theirdaily lives. Their way of life has often beencriticized by the government since their tra-ditional slash-and-burn cultivation was seenas the main reason for the deforestation.Furthermore, poppy cultivation and associ-ated drug problems, lack of citizenship anddifferent language were seen as barriers totheir integration (Lewis and Lewis, 1984;Chandraprasert, 1997; McCaskill, 1997;Vater, 2006). Other problems include con-flicts about land uses between governmentand tribes (Chandraprasert, 1997; Jantakadand Carson, 1998; UNFF, 2005), a live debatesince 1953, when 'the Thai Governmentbegan to develop programmes both to guardtheir borders and to ameliorate the problemsof the tribal populations' (Lewis and Lewis,1984, p. 13). More recently progress hasbeen made in this regard, with reducedopium cultivation, a better health and edu-cation system in place, and the RoyalProjects introducing new forms of cultiva-tion and learning centres (Royal ProjectFoundation, 1996; Cummins, 2002), withtourism also contributing to the hill tribes'livelihood.

Tourism to the northern region ofThailand has grown rapidly due to its unique

mountainous landscape and diverse ethnicminorities (Cohen, 1996; Forsyth, 1995).Major attractions in the north include moun-tain treks, elephant camps, adventure activi-ties such as rafting and climbing, andcultural activities including visits to the hilltribes and purchase of their handicrafts.Some villages have even been relocated sothey could be incorporated into a trekkingroute (Leepreecha, 1997). However, thegrowing demand for trekking tours to thehill tribes is also leading to a level of reluc-tance by the hill tribes towards tourists(Chambers, 2000; Dusik, 2008). Althoughpromoted as a major attraction of NorthernThailand, indigenous people hardly benefitfrom tourism and 'continue to suffer fromserious poverty, inadequate healthcare, andlack of access to suitable education'(McCaskill, 1997, p. 33) mainly due to theunequal distribution of tourism profits(Forsyth, 1995). 'For the most part, Thailand'shill tribe tourism has not been developed forthe well-being of the villagers, but for theprofit of outside entrepreneurs who operatethe tour guide services. In some cases, hilltribe villages have become dependent uponthese people, who can bring tourists to themor decide to take tourists to another village'(Chambers, 2000, p. 101).

Indigenous people have, due to theexposure to outside influences and imposeddevelopment plans, developed difficultieswith their identity (McCaskill, 1997). Hilltribes have been often described as 'primi-tive' and 'backward' by Thai society (Cohen,1996; McCaskill, 1997; Cohen, 2000), withtheir representation on postcards and incon-sistent spelling of tribal names often becom-ing a symptom of their undefined place inthe Thai society. Confusion about theiridentity is evident among young hill tribepeople since they are 'caught between twoworlds', namely their historical traditionsand modernization (McCaskill, 1997, p.55),which have led to severe discontent evolv-ing into migration to cities, and even self-destructive behaviours, such as addictionand suicides. In contrast, modernizationhas in some cases led to a stronger senseof identity among indigenous peoplesince 'ethnic identity becomes crucially


important when it is threatened' (McCaskill,1997, p. 57), with tourism interests contrib-uting to recognizing its importance.

Globalization has reached the hilltribes, which finds expression in the use ofnew motorized modes of transport, Westernclothing, modern media and technology,new forms of income from tourism (Lewisand Lewis, 1984) and the loss of traditionalfarming practices (Leepreecha, 1997), whichmay be interpreted as symptoms of the nat-ural course of cultural changes (Millman,1995; Scheyvens, 2002; Wall and Mathieson,2006), with tourism just speeding up theprocess. The real problem is that the hilltribes are struggling with finding a balancebetween the progressive modernizationprocess and the keeping of traditional cos-tumes (McCaskill et al., 2008), with 'the pic-ture of peaceful tribal people living in thepristine beauty of cool, quiet hills - awayfrom urban congestion and pollution' (Lewisand Lewis, 1984, p. 30) becoming nostalgicat best, misleading at worst.

The commercialization of hill tribes'handicrafts leads to additional income forthe local population, but over commerciali-zation has caused problems as 'it hamperedcreativity and change, took away some ofthe spontaneous enjoyment of makinghandicrafts' (Cohen, 2000, p. 43). Many ofthese handicrafts are now mass produced inBangkok factories and sold at local marketsfrom Chiang Mai to Bangkok and theSouthern islands (Lewis and Lewis, 1984) atthe expense of hill tribes' market share.Although positive outcomes from tourismare evident in the income generation,employment and improved livelihood forsome families, over the years it became evi-dent that most of the revenues from tourismgo to foreign-owned tour operators. The hilltribe villagers increasingly try to preserveand present an 'authentic' experience to ful-fil tourist expectations by hiding televisionsand electric devices when tourist groupsarrive (Vater, 2006) and traditional ritualsare performed just for tourists to the loss oftheir true meaning (McCaskill, 1997). Thisepitomizes the hill tribes' fight for survival,in a context where several of them are refu-gees from other countries.

Other social issues are the consump-tion of opium and heroin sometimes toutedas tourist attractions, with tourism feedinginto addiction habits by local people andtour guides. Prostitution is also a problemfor young hill tribe girls, who may be forcedinto the trade. More recently, the Paduanghill tribes, mainly know as `longneck' hilltribes, came under the attention of the mediaand human rights campaigners. They aremainly refugees from Burma and are notallowed to leave a certain area. They dependheavily on tourism although they hardlybenefit from it, and when in 2009 there wasan attempt to set up a museum to give tour-ists the opportunity to learn about their cul-ture and in order to get more revenue fromtourism, 'the museum was reportedlyordered to close by other Burmese commu-nity leaders under pressure from Thai busi-ness interests' (Tourism Concern, 2009).The longneck 'human zoo' (TourismConcern 2008) remains one of the most con-troversial Thai attractions, yet one of themost visited hill tribes.

Methodological Approach

Quantitative and qualitative methods wereused to gain a broader overview of the topic.A total of 11 face-to-face semi-structured/in-depth interviews were conducted,including one professor, one member of theTAT, one member of the Community BasedTourism Institute (CBT-I), two members ofNon-Government Organizations (NGOs)and six tour operators. All interviews wererecorded and transcribed in order to guar-antee a more accurate recollection of find-ings. Two field trips to the hill tribe villagesof Lisu and Akha enabled informal conver-sations with local inhabitants and covertparticipant observation of travellers' behav-iour during a tour with a mass tourism oper-ator. The press conference of the TAT at theInternational Tourism Fair (ITB) in Berlin2010 was also recorded and used to supportprimary research findings.

In order to overcome data qualityissues, great importance was placed on the


preparation of data collection tools sup-ported by extensive desk research in orderto become familiar with the topic, chooseappropriate interviewees and design appro-priate questions. The interviewees had beencontacted well ahead of time and they weregiven the choice of being interviewed eitherat the ITB in Berlin or in a familiar locationin Thailand. Triangulation was applied byusing data collected via a questionnaireconducted with 81 randomly selected tour-ists and the interviews.

At times due to language barriers somequestions had to be simplified and rephrasedduring the interview, and a translator usedduring the interviews with hill tribes villag-ers, leading to possible misunderstandingsor inadequate interpretation of responses.However, the recording proved to be usefulto revisit some of the dialogues.

Since this research involved people,ethical considerations became essential. Allrespondents were informed about the pur-pose of the research and asked for permis-sion to record the interviews. Anonymitywas granted to those who chose to; however,for the purpose of this study respondentswere all coded with 'R' followed by anumber. The research did not aim for repli-cability in terms of specific findings, butrather for a set of specific qualitative infor-mation to contribute to the ongoing debateon tourism, authenticity and development.In this sense, an empirical case study hasbeen developed that can be compared withothers.

Findings: Hill Tribes and ThaiRespondents

When asked about defining 'development',respondents became hesitant, but agreed onit as an improvement of a current situation.Surprisingly none of them mentioned spe-cifically economic gain as main contributorto development. While one respondent spe-cifically expressed that development meansnot only development of material things,but it is also a 'mental' state (R10), otherspointed out that: 'development means

change ... the assumption is that it is changefor the better' (R3); 'it is all about givingpeople opportunities' (R6) and 'it can bethrough economic development, socialdevelopment so development is a broad sortof term 1...1 it can mean obviously betterquality of life, better standards of living...also education and knowledge about theworld and other aspects as well' (R4).

That tourism has the potential to leadto development of a country emerged as acommon understanding. However, it becameobvious that it largely depends upon theway tourism is practised. A general consen-sus about the economic benefits of tourismemerged with specific emphasis placed onthe potential for reinvesting the moneyspent by tourists in projects within thecountry (R10), a controversial issue giventhe leakages produced by foreign dominatedtourism businesses (Hall and Brown, 2006;Potter et al., 2008, Pattullo, 2009).

Different levels of concerns about tour-ism were expressed, from the extensivechanges that it produces to a destination(R4), to defining it as 'a really dangerousthing' (R8). The recognition of ecotourismas a new form of tourism and its potentialto 'develop and help 1...1 if it's done theright way' was matched by the desire to useCBT as a development tool (R1). Whileemphasis was placed on the distinctionbetween the development of a country (eco-nomic contribution) and the developmentof a community, tourism was certainlyseen as a tool to improve communities'livelihood (R3).

The emergence of new consumers withgreater concern about their behaviour andinterest in authentic experiences, the sur-facing of alternative approaches in tourismdevelopment and the materialization of newforms of tourism are aspects of the changingface of Thai tourism too, with an increasingnumber of visitors interested in niches suchas ecotourism and opportunities to getinvolved with local communities (R1).

The connection between tourism andglobalization was drawn by referring to therole of multimedia bringing the world 'intoour lounges every day 1...1 people are nolonger frightened to travel, going through


airports, different cultures, differentcustoms, etc. there is less of a barrier nowa-days so the interest, in special interesttourism - in getting away from the main-stream is becoming greater' (R6). On theincrease is the demand for responsible touroperators because 'people [have] becomemore ethically minded and more green andmore conscious about their choices, not justthrough travel, but in shopping, throughanything now, people become more awareof the consequences of how they behave[...]I think more than ten years ago you didn'tsee signs or adverts for eco tours, things likethat, so it's definitely come about within thelast ten years or so - whether they are realeco tours or not is another thing' (R4).

It appeared that tourists did moreresearch as they show interest in the dailylife of locals and are eager to share experi-ences and knowledge with them (R8, R5).They 'ask for [a] kind of more authentic ortraditional community experience' (R7) andthe increasing demand for CBT may rein-force these views (R11). Furthermore,`where people can give something back tothe community is getting more and morepopular [...] people just don't want to staytwo weeks in a beach resort, lie at the poolor lie at the beach and then go back to theircountry again, but they want to give some-thing back and I think [that] the interactionbetween the local people and the tourists isgetting more and more popular' (R2).

This, however, neglects the fact thatalternative tourists travelling to unspoiltplaces may damage the environment attimes even more than conventional masstourists (Wheeler, 1992; Scheyvens, 2002;Mowforth and Munt, 2008) as there is moredemand for 'off the beaten path areas, sotravellers are getting more adventurous,they wanna explore aside of the main tour-ist spots' (R4).

Tourism versus Development:Thailand and the Hill Tribes

The adaptation of Western ideas into thelocal culture (Schirato and Webb, 2003;

Cohen, 2007; Cole, 2008) emerged as a gen-erally accepted and natural ongoing evolu-tionary and imitative process, as ' [...lone ofthe charms of Thailand, for example, is thatyou have the western infrastructure [...] butit also has this chaotic Asian atmosphere, itis not as organised and structured like forexample in Singapore. They take the goodthings from western countries and try toadapt [them], but of course you have yourtraditions' (R2).

Tourists who visit Thailand for the firsttime focus on its major landmarks andattractions. About a decade ago, the TATstarted to promote sustainable tourismprojects (i.e. the Green Leaf Foundation)also catering for the large number of repeatvisitors by giving them new reasons to visit(R2). However, many tour operators inThailand still believe that sustainable tour-ism is a frivolous concept and is harmingtheir business (R11).

As in many other destinations, the gen-eral inclination of the governor of the TATis to increase the numbers of tourists by alsolooking at more sustainable options includ-ing ecotourism (TAT Press Conference, ITB2010). The potential for ecotourism was fur-ther recognized in the fact that 'when youbalance the access and the other amenitiesand the Thai people, the culture and [therest], the strategic location of Thailand inglobal terms, when you [...] benchmark it,Thailand was far ahead, Northern Thailandwas far ahead' (R6), with clear referencemade to the hill tribes.

Expectations of Tourists

Of the 81 randomly selected tourists (46female and 35 male) who completed thequestionnaire, 67 were between 20 and 30years old, 58 were in Thailand for the firsttime and 23 had already visited the hilltribes. Of the 58 travellers that had not beento the hill tribes yet, 37 were consideringgoing there, and only 20 people indicatedthat they were not planning to go there.Thirty-six people stated that they wereorganizing their visit to the hill tribes


individually, while 19 were planning theirvisit as part of a package tour.

When asked about their expectations,many people referred to the visit to the hilltribes as a 'traditional life-style' and a 'real-life' experience. One respondent stated thathe/she expected 'houses without electricity,no running water, kind people, differentlanguage, peaceful and quiet environmentand happy, with no material stuff' andanother one 'friendly people who live withno modern technology and are still happy'.These views support the rather 'romantic'and 'nostalgic' view of the hill tribe villagesmentioned by Lewis and Lewis (1984) andWang (1999), which may have been influ-enced by the media since one stated 'It willbe remote and like we see on the TV'. Onreflection, the expectations of one of therespondents had not been met as he/sheèxpected the people to be pretty isolated,not really affected by Western culture, butfound that they were quite influenced bythe outside world ... televisions, non-hilltribe clothing, etc.'

One person, for instance, claimed tohave expected a 'relatively authentic [village]but tainted by tourism - slightly, probablyaccustom[ed] to tourists ...I think tourismwill hinder development as for the tribe. [It]may develop them ...but exposure to "mod-ern" values may corrupt their authenticityand make them value money, superficialthings more'. Other tourists recognized somelevel of staged authenticity, by indicating thatìt doesn't seem very authentic to me, more amass tourism activity, with people wearingtraditional clothes for the pictures'.

In general, it became obvious that mosttourists expected an authentic experiencetypically expressed as 'a self-sufficient com-munity that is not influenced by westernculture and technologies (no electricity) andnot yet touristic'. One respondent stated, forexample, Ì'd hoped there wouldn't be any-one wearing an Adidas T-shirt there' (which,in fact, was seen), with some consensus thatWestern influences and tourism change andmostly harm the hill tribes.

Most tourists had a possibly distortedimage of what a hill tribe village would looklike, which maybe linked to the romanticized

description of the TAT website, whichdescribes them as 'isolated', 'remote' andèxotic' (TAT, 2010). When asked about theirmost impressive experience, most touristsstated that the friendly welcome of thelocals left a positive picture in their mind.Those who stayed overnight seemed to havethe most profound experiences: 'Our guideand people from the village were sittingtogether at the fire and singing songs andplaying guitar, and that was so happy andauthentic'. In contrast, many who visitedthe tribes for a short visit felt 'extremelyuncomfortable in the bazaar pseudo-villagethat was set up in order to support tourism'.Several tourists pointed out that they werenot willing to visit the long-neck hill tribesand described them as a 'human zoo'.

The expectations of the tourists emergedduring the observations at the villages.During the 'mass tourism' trip, touristsmainly took pictures of what they consid-ered to be 'authentic', by avoiding satelliteantennas, motorbikes, mobile phones andelectricity posts in their pictures. The idyl-lic picture of villages untouched by civiliza-tion remains a nostalgic representation ofthe postcards sold in Bangkok. As in manyother developing destinations, `[t]he tour-ism industry showed interest in and startedworking with ethnic minorities years ago,but never made them stakeholders' (R6),which was worsened by the fact that manyhill tribe people do not have Thai citizen-ship, making it even harder for them toexercise their rights (R10, R9, R13, R8, R12),with no bargaining power except to acceptexisting business practices (R7). The lack ofcitizenship means restricted land rights (R6,R9, R5, R8, R12), no access to healthcaresystems, restricted ability to move (R8), andtherefore no recognized status in Thai soci-ety (McCaskill, 1997; Cohen, 2000). Anothercontroversial issue is that while the 'nation-alism process of the government' (R7) ofproviding educational opportunities to eth-nic minorities may be seen as a positive steptowards integration, local languages are notallowed in school to the loss of culturalidentity, as 'the bulk of the hill tribes [...]only have an oral history, they don't have awritten language, only the Mien in this area


have a written language - you go throughone or two generations of people who aren'twilling [or able] to learn about the history[and language], their history can be lost'(R8). It was raised that the negative image ofhill tribes associated with the cultivation ofpoppies and the language barriers (Lewisand Lewis, 1984; Chandraprasert, 1997;McCaskill, 1997; Vater, 2006) 'can bechanged through CBT also as a way to pro-vide alternative livelihood to people', butthe lack of cooperation between companiesand local people hinders progress in thisdirection (R9). As a common denominatorwith other developing country destinations,the supply chain emerged as the real prob-lem (R1, R6, R5) as `[...lit is very difficult totell where the money goes when touristsbook a package tour to the hill tribes' (R7),`the locals hardly benefit from conventionaltours to their villages' (R9). During the highseason, about 100 tourists daily visit a localAkha village and an income of about 400Thai Bath (THB) per day is generated onaverage from the sale of handicraft. The vil-lage does not get any money from the touroperators, with mass tour operators not evenasking for permission to visit the village(R13).

As highlighted by Hinch and Butler(1996), tourism can bring additional incometo indigenous people, but this has to beorganized in a way that is fair to those whohold the attractiveness, who provide theproduct - the hill tribes. For example, whilethe home stay at a local Akha village pro-duces substantial revenues that go to a com-munity fund, which is used for infrastructuredevelopment and education for the children(R13), Lisu Lodge directly works with thehill tribe village nearby and is able to gener-ate about 4 million THB (some US$132,000)per year, that goes directly to the local people(R9). However, these good practices cannotbe generalized, as in several other cases theunequal distribution of revenues has causedinequalities amongst villagers and changesin the hierarchical tribal structure (R6).

The risk of tourism creating false expec-tations, conflicts of uses and operationbeyond carrying capacity, with customs andnature being destroyed to cater for tourists

are a reality of Northern Thailand (R1). Forinstance, there was an example where ele-phant owners and local farmers came intoconflict due to the unsustainable number ofelephant camps opened near a hill tribe vil-lage so both attractions could be combinedon a day trip, with the animals increasinglydestroying the crops of local farmers (R7).

In contrast, that tourism could restorevillagers' pride, dignity and reputation inThai society was a given fact, but the loss ofidentity, the increased adversity towards ordependency on tourism was observed whenvillagers hid in their houses and children fol-lowed the visitors even to the next villageincessantly trying to sell their handicrafts,which are now competitively mass producedin Bangkok (Fig. 4.1) and displayed in fair-trade shops all over Thailand (Fig. 4.2).

As handicraft and tour guiding produceinsufficient revenues, prostitution and drugdealing become ways to make extra money,which is encouraged by some tourists' desireto try opium as an 'authentic' experience,worsening local habits. The discussion onthe ethics of the visits to the longneck tribeswas characterized by a clear differentiationwith other hill tribes as the longneck peopleare strongly controlled by outsiders forcingthem to wear traditional costumes, sellhandicrafts that are not produced in the vil-lage and often 'held' in restricted areas fortourism purposes (R8, R1). Further contro-versy emerged when reflecting upon the eth-ics of tourism consumption and their interestin viewing and photographing people withphysical conspicuousness (i.e. long neck,big ears) as a tourism attraction (Fig. 4.3).

Authenticity versus Development

The dichotomy between the hill tribes aspir-ing to profit from a modern life and touristswishing to encounter authenticity was clearthroughout the study. In Lisu village thingshave changed: a truck has been bought andvillagers can enjoy some comforts of mod-ern life (Fig. 4. 4), but traditions are stillmaintained (R12). On the other hand, a localwoman from an Akha village clearly stated


Fig. 4.1. Hill-tribe handicrafts sold on the Night Bazaar in Chiang Mai.

Fig. 4.2. Fairtrade shop in Chiang Rai.

66 M. Novelli and A. Tisch-Rottensteiner

Fig. 4.3. Tourist taking photos at the village of the longneck tribe.

Fig. 4.4. Motorbike parked in front of a local house with electricity and a satellite dish.


that she would prefer the traditionalself-sustaining lifestyle to a monetary one.Each village has different priorities and atti-tudes, 'that people must live in bamboohouses because it's traditional and mustwear traditional clothing, because that'show they should be and, you know, not rideon motorbikes or have mobile phones oranything like that. They should be able todo what they wanna do, as long as they havethe information about the pros and cons ofdoing it[...]' (R8).

On the relationship between develop-ment and authenticity, the general view wasthat tourism accelerates change and touristsshould accept that globalization andprogress have reached the hill tribes ofThailand too. 'In its current format, it [tour-ism] holds back the development. But Ithink if we sort of change the model of tour-ism [...] whether or not the current stake-holders in tourism want it or not, purelybecause of the power of the internet and thesocial media [...] and enough people willingto change it, there's enough people whowant special interest travel [...] I think that[this] will bring about massive change farfaster than we would normally expect, I cansee that happening over the next 5-10 years'(R6). It is the responsibility of the tour oper-ators to inform tourists about progress indestinations as 'a lot of people are a little bitdisappointed when they go to a hill tribevillage and they see that not everybody iswearing the traditional costumes anymore.There are people who walk in jeans, theyhave TV, they have satellite, they have radio,they have internet' (R11). The challenge isthat '[...]ifa remote cultural tourist destinationmodernises, it is no longer "primitive" [...] itloses its appeal' (Cole, 2008, p.22), which iswhat has been happening all over Thailand:as soon as remote villages change to be more`like other lowland Thai people then thetrekking route tends to shift to more primi-tive or authentic cultures' (R7). In responseto this, some may say that staged authentic-ity is a good thing if it makes tourists visitand motivates younger generations to learntraditional dances and other skills (R7), itmay be a good way to preserve traditions(Azarya, 2007), `[...]it's like a performance,

some people like it and some peopledon't[...]' (R4).

As immigrants from neighbouringcountries, the hill tribes have been a greatdraw for tourism to Northern Thailand;however, for many years they have beenmarginalized by Thai society. It has longbeen debated that the government shouldstart recognizing the value that these tribesbring to Thailand as a tourism destination(R10, R6, R7, R8) and attribute them a statusin Thai society (R9) by accepting them asThai citizens (R9). If this became the case,reconsideration over land rights and fullrecognition of their role as stakeholdersshould emerge (R6). On the other hand, ' [T]ourism is really only to supplement them interms of money, but also in terms of knowl-edge, information, education, ideas fromforeigners' (R4). Viable secondary revenuestreams for ethnic rural communities shouldbe sought in order to avoid becomingdependent on a single sector (R6).

Conclusions

The data reported above tell us at least threethings. Firstly, that there is an ongoing con-tradiction between the promotion of tour-ism as a pro-poor development tool and theevident limited benefit of tourism for indig-enous communities such as the hill tribes.Secondly, that the quest for unspoiled loca-tions, authentic settings and unique experi-ences remain amongst the most controversialcontributors to socio-economic and envi-ronmental changes of visited localities.Thirdly, that despite years of empiricalresearch on the effects of globalization ontourism, society and culture and of progressand change on communities' identity inThailand, the role of indigenous peoplesuch as the hill tribes remains marginal.

The evidence also confirmed that, inthis particular case, tourists were indeedlooking for an authentic experience whiletravelling, and more interaction with localpeople. However, from the hill tribe side,findings indicated feelings of inter-ference with local customs and lifestyle.

68 M. Novelli and A. Tisch-Rottensteiner

This study highlighted the failing role oftour operators in properly managing suchencounters. As much as tour operatorshave to adapt to the changing needs oftourists, they should change their attitudetowards hill tribes and become moreresponsive to their needs and avoid exploit-ative practices. For instance, despite thelimited sample of hill tribes visited, thefindings contributed further to the contro-versies surrounding tourist expenditureand local benefit: in the case under study(though limited to two tribes) the moneystill does not reach hill tribe members.

Although the involvement of the com-munity in alternative management ofresources (i.e. the natural environment) is awidely debated multidisciplinary issue, thechallenge remains in the fact that the hilltribes should be enabled through capacitybuilding to better engage with the tourismdevelopment and management process andacquire a set of business skills to operateresponsibly in such a complex sector. Ifafter so many decades of tourism, in a coun-try like Thailand, rural communities are

still marginalized from the tourism planningprocess and are unable to 'control who iscoming to their village, when, and how manypeople' (R3), it is obvious that communityempowerment remains a preached ratherthan practised reality, which would benefitfrom better cooperation between govern-ment, local people and tour operators.

Over the course of this study, while itbecame evident that tourism and the questfor authenticity cannot hold back develop-ment from the hill tribes of NorthernThailand, changes in their way of life can beregarded as a natural process accelerated byglobalization and tourism. It is thereforeimportant for tourists to receive correctinformation about current developmentsand modernization processes occurring inthe hill tribes' villages, so that they knowwhat to expect and how to behave if theydecide to visit. Ultimately, it would remaina decision of those travelling whether toaccept staged authenticity or not, with somearguing that this may be the only way topreserve traditions and generate additionalincome through tourism.

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5 Controversies in Medical Tourism

David G. Vequist IV', Michael Guiry2 and Brian !pock''Center for Medical Tourism Research, University of the Incarnate Word,San Antonio, Texas, USA; 2H-E-B School of Business & Administration,

University of the Incarnate Word, San Antonio, Texas, USA.

Introduction

In this chapter, the authors examine the`medical tourism' phenomenon and some ofthe interesting controversies that underlie thegrowth of the sector. According to a report byFrost and Sullivan (Anonymous, 2011) thethought leadership and consulting firm, themedical tourism sector reached US$78.5 bil-lion in revenues by 2010 and was expected togrow to US$100 billion by 2012. They alsoestimated that more than three millionpatients travelled around the globe for medi-cal care in 2010. The predicted growth ratefor this sector was 20-30% annually andseems to be a sustainable trend that is boundto continue in the years to come. Accordingto this report 'The Middle East is one of thelatent source markets of patients and it is esti-mated that 20 per cent of healthcare seekersworldwide are from Gulf and Arab states'. Inaddition, a separate megatrends report onhealthcare by Frost and Sullivan in 2011 sug-gested that nearly 870,000 Americans trav-elled overseas for surgery in 2010, and thosenumbers were expected to grow to more than1.5 million by 2012.

Vequist, Teachout and Galan (2012) sug-gest that factors that have led to the increasingpopularity of medical tourism include 'thehigh cost of health care, long waiting times forcertain procedures, the ease and affordability

of international travel, and improvements inboth technology and standards of care inmany countries'. Currently, more than 50countries have identified medical tourism asa national sector, although historically, it canbe argued that medical tourism is as old ascivilization itself. More than 2000 years ago,affluent citizens of Rome would often travelto the areas now known as Switzerland andTurkey to take advantage of therapeutic mudbaths and hot-springs found in those areas.

Although very little hard evidence existsof the number of medical tourists, proceduresperformed and/or size of the market (Vequistand Valdez, 2009), there is enough evidenceof a massive disruptive trend in the form ofthe increasing consumerism and globaliza-tion of healthcare. We do have some evidenceof the fact that millions of patients are travel-ling to other countries for various healthcareprocedures and these medical tourists arespending billions of dollars (estimated USdollars) on treatments all over the world typi-cally on a fee-for-service, cash basis.

Controversies

It has been argued by Cohen (2010) that:

Medical tourism is itself part of a largermove towards healthcare globalization,


74 D.G. Vequist IV et al.

encompassing among other things there-importation of drugs from Canada andelsewhere, the importation of healthcareproviders through medical migration (the`brain drain'), research tourism (whereclinical trials by U.S.-based pharmaceuticalcompanies are performed abroad), andtelemedicine (e.g. teleradiology) where boththe patient and provider stay put in theirrespective countries but the service isprovided remotely.

Cohen (2010, p. 1476)

According to Vequist (in press),increasing access to technology (defined ashardware, software and equipment) aroundthe world has a escalating effect on globali-zation, which then creates more choicesfor consumers, or greater amounts of con-sumerism behaviours. Because the field ofmedical tourism is growing so rapidly (it istruly a nascent sector), it has created newcontroversies that cut across fields asdiverse as healthcare, international busi-ness, the law and civil procedures, intel-lectual property, politics, philosophy andethics (Fig. 5.1).

Taxonomies and Categoriesof Controversies

In the following sections, we lay out someof the controversies that have been createdby the growth of this sector, sorted by somepre-existing categorizations gathered fromthe literature. Also, examples from the

Globalization Technology

Consumerism

Fig. 5.1. Drivers of medical tourism (Vequist, 2010).

academic literature that touch on thesecontroversies will be highlighted so thatcurrent readers and future researchers canbuild upon this foundational-level work toexpand upon our understanding of thissector.

In Gray and Poland's (2008) 'Medicaltourism: Crossing borders to access healthcare', which was featured in the KennedyInstitute of Ethics Journal, the authors sug-gested there were three major categories ofethical issues involved in medical tourism,as described below.

Gray and Poland's Three Categoriesof Controversies in Medical Tourism

Economic considerations

Controversies that are listed under this cate-gory include: (i) regarding the ultimate roleof government and private business inhealthcare, or how should government beinvolved in what is primarily a businesstrend brought on by the privatization ofhealthcare; (ii) the assumed (although notwell quantified) argument that medical tour-ism creates an uneven access to healthresources (sometimes referred to as a 'two-tiered' system; see also controversy (xi) inthis category below) in the countries wheremedical travel is being performed (Connell,2006); (iii) the possible economic impact ofmedical tourism to local medical centres,which, according to Dunn (2007), could be`significant or even devastating' if the trendcontinues to flourish; (iv) the legal, ethicaland financial implications of the increasinginternational healthcare workforce in coun-tries worldwide, which is correlated withmedical tourism (Fried and Harris, 2007); (v)the economic development issues regardingthe transfer of healthcare management exper-tise and intellectual property (IP) from devel-oping country's medical centres tointernational sites (primarily in the develop-ing world) that then compete with them forpatients (Schroth and Khawahja, 2007); (vi)Douglas (2007) points out how Americanbusinesses are considering medical tourism,

Controversies in Medical Tourism 75

as an option to provide cost-effective andhigh-quality healthcare for employees, eventhough it would take money and opportuni-ties away from the local community (in termsof local medical facilities and personnel);(vii) Wieners (2007) also suggests that medi-cal tourism shares many of the controversialattributes with the outsourcing model in thetechnology sector; (viii) the controversy ofmedical tourists not 'waiting patiently in thequeue' for access to healthcare (like themajority of their compatriots), and the fur-ther obligations (pre and post) of the primary-care physician to medical travellers, asdiscussed in Horowitz and Rosensweig(2007); (ix) Lee (2007) emphasizes the con-tinuing need for regulation and monitoringof the medical tourism sector, includingeventual certification of staff involved intreating international visitors; (x) Milsteinand Smith (2006) offer that this 'solution'(referring to medical tourism) for obtainingaffordable healthcare is a symptom of badhealthcare systems in the developed world(and not necessarily a positive fix); (xi)Ramirez de Arellano (2007) focuses on thecontroversy of national resources being con-sumed on care for foreigners, which leads tothe possibility of the host country denyingits own citizens equitable access to care(which promotes a two-tiered health systemdefined by the economic means of thepatients); and finally (xii) the controversialpossibility that medical tourism will remainessentially an unregulated global sectordespite concerns over health quality anddata protection, as raised by Terry (2007).

Legal and public policy issues

The rapid growth of international healthtravel has created many fascinating new con-troversies and many of them have a legal orregulatory component. Interestingly, this sec-tor has grown so quickly that it has not gen-erated enough case law to support the needsof legal and policy analysts who can thenpoint to precedents as guidelines. This makeswriting specific regulations or suggestingpossible legislation much more difficult.

Instead, at this time we are still relying, to amajor extent, on academic legal and publicpolicy scholars and thought leaders to workthrough the logic of probable scenarios anddraw from findings in other fields (compara-tive analysis) to try to suggest some muchneeded policy recommendations.

Controversies that are suggested underthis category include the following exam-ples: (i) Brady (2007) offers the possibilitythat if American private insurance compa-nies and health maintenance organizations(HMOs) were to offer medical outsourcing,they would be in violation of the EmployeeRetirement Income Security Act (ERISA) of1974 (a US federal law); (ii) an issue raisedby Derckx is that medical tourism could beconsidered, by some, as the inhuman treat-ment of sick people (sending them to poten-tially less-qualified overseas providers),which would run counter to legal systemsthat focus on human dignity (2006); (iii)Howze (2007) believes that there are liabil-ity issues involving medical negligence inmedical tourism (he then goes on to suggestthat these issues should cause it to be lim-ited as a regular aspect of the present UShealthcare system); (iv) Klaus (2006) raisesthe controversial fact that medical travellersmay bear the costs of medical errors, whichis a practice that lacks in social justicestandards; (v) Mirrer-Singer (2007) statesthat 'the level of paternalism reflected inmedical-tourism regulations should parallelthe transparency of the industry', highlight-ing the current controversy that there iscurrently not enough valid informationavailable to protect the rights of medicaltourists; and (vi) it is a significant possibil-ity that only imposed restrictions (possiblyimplemented because of some of these con-troversies), through government regulationsand oversight, will slow the growth of thissector (Pennings, 2007).

Applied areas: assisted reproductionand organ transplantation

Controversies in this area include the fol-lowing examples: (i) Morris (2008) criticizes


the European Directive on Tissues and Cellspassed in 2004 that she suggests is a weakregulation that is more focused on regula-tion based on science without fully consid-ering bioethical thinking or having theproper amount of public discourse; (ii) thecontroversial possibility that the harmoni-zation of legislation (which seems to be anatural outgrowth of medical tourism) is abad thing for society because it does notallow private ethical matters to be handledby national legislative bodies (Pennings,2004); (iii) in an early article by Scheper-Hughes (2002), the author argues that theproblem with healthcare and free markets(such as medical tourism) is 'that theyreduce everything - including humanbeings, their labor, and their reproductivecapacity - to the status of commodities'which promotes gross injustices in eco-nomic and human terms; (iv) authors suchas Mulay and Gibson (2006) have suggestedthat these specific trends have had a nega-tive impact on public health in the receiv-ing countries (in this case, India) and onreproductive rights and women's health;and finally (v) Shimazono (2007), in ananalysis of international organ trading, sug-gests that there may be dire consequencesfor local healthcare systems as resources aredrained away to support the foreignmarkets.

Cohen's Categorization ofControversies in Medical Tourism

Another taxonomy that is offered, from alegal standpoint, is from Cohen (2010) whosuggests that the most useful categorizationof medical tourism controversies 'is to sepa-rate medical tourism for services that arelegal in both the patient's home country andthe destination country, from medical tour-ism for services that are illegal in both coun-tries, from medical tourism for services thatare illegal in the patient's home country butlegal in the destination country'.

In the first category, offered by thisauthor, some possible controversies wouldinclude: (i) although a procedure is legal in

both countries, there may be patient-protec-tive concerns, particularly around the wel-fare of the medical tourist patient (usuallyinvolving the quality of care and concernsabout medical malpractice recovery in theevent of a medical error); (ii) concerns fromstakeholders (such as practitioners and pol-icy makers), in the home country of the pos-sible traveller, of the possible impact ofmedical tourism on the price and access tohealthcare among non-tourist patients stillseeking healthcare through traditionalmethods (the author suggests these could belabelled protectionist concerns); and (iii)concerns about the effect of internationalmedical travel on patients in the destinationcountry, using theories of international jus-tice, and having a better understanding ofall stakeholder's moral obligations to avoidcausing harm (even if unintended) by theiractions.

The second category is obviously themost rich, in terms of debate, because itincludes many controversies that are strik-ing and perhaps requiring more regulatoryand statutory frameworks in place to helpprevent these behaviours and ultimatelyprosecute offenders. Some examplesinclude: (i) if a citizen from one countrywere to travel to another to engage in anorgan transplant using illegally obtainedorgans (by laws in both the home and in vis-ited country), where should the jurisdictionfall for the prosecution of this lawbreaker;(ii) the difficulty of nations and intra-governmental organizations regulating busi-nesses that exist between 'two worlds' interms of their legal, ethical, moral and legalresponsibilities (performing illegal proce-dures in international waters such as couldbe found in medical cruise ships pro-grammes); and even (iii) how to handle bro-kerages that solicit patients (usually throughthe internet) to engage in illegal activities(again, in both the home and visited coun-try) while the broker itself is in another,third, country that may or may not havelegal repercussions to prevent them fromcontinuing these behaviours.

In the third category that Cohen (2010)suggests, there are controversies suchas: (i) in reproductive tourism, securing a


surrogate from India (commercial surrogacyis legal in India) and bringing this child backto Massachusetts, USA, where paid surro-gacy is illegal and surrogacy agreements areunenforceable, raising the issue of whetherthe state should step in and prosecute; (ii) inthe case of 'death tourism' or 'physician-assisted suicide' (see Vequist and Barnes,2010) where a patient (and possibly surviv-ing co-conspirator or spouse/partner/familymember) travels across sovereign bounda-ries to Switzerland (where this activity isallowable) and commits what would amountto a felony (enforceable with possible finesand/or a jail sentence for both the 'patient'and the co-conspirator) in their home coun-try; or (iii) when a patient is barred fromjoining a clinical trial of an experimentaldrug because they do not meet the inclusioncriteria, and are therefore prohibited by lawfrom purchasing the unapproved drug,though international availability can cir-cumvent governmental regulation and ena-ble the patient to travel to another country,where the drug is available for purchase,and use it for treatment there.

The controversies offered, in all threeof these categories, raise more interestingquestions than they suggest answers. Forexample, in the surrogacy case, Cohen sug-gests that a country's legal and politicalstakeholders need to think through the issueof whether they should 'respect a country'ssovereignty in deciding that this form of"exploitation" is not worthy of legal con-demnation' and if 'the exploited group weresufficiently enfranchised' and had a choicein the process (2010). Other supporting legalresearch around these controversies (in allthree categories) can be found in the worksof Anonymous (2008), Hunter and Oultram(2010), an additional piece by Tan, (2007),Glenn Cohen (2009) and Moncrieff, (2009).An example, from Hunter and Oultram(2010) focuses on a subset of medical tour-ism that they dubbed 'rogue medical tour-ism', which is where the patient is motivated`not to access something that is unavailable/affordable on the grounds of cost in thepatient's own country but instead to accessa medical technology or procedure, whichis unavailable because the government has

decided to ban or not legalize theintervention'. This presents a clear andpresent challenge to governments that wishto control their citizen's access to particularmedical technologies or treatments.Typically, this limit in access occurs becauseof one or more of these three reasons, assuggested by the authors: (i) concerns aboutthe safety of the intervention; (ii) concernsabout evidence of the effectiveness of theintervention; and finally (iii) concerns aboutthe moral acceptability either about theintervention itself or the implications of theintervention.

Hadi's Framework for Controversyin Medical Tourism

Finally, the last controversy categorizationframework for medical tourism comes froma conceptual framework for this sector fromHadi (2009). This framework was used as astarting point for categorizing the remainingethical issues, mentioned in the literature,that were not mentioned in the two previ-ous taxonomies (Fig. 5.2). Some of the othercontroversies, listed by area, in this frame-work are outlined below.

Health outcomes

Kangas (2007), who is the first researcher tohave performed a dissertation on medicaltourism, concluded in a piece for the Journalof Anthropology and Medicine that 'peoplewho travel abroad for medical care do notdo so necessarily because they can afford it.They are not buying a treatment vacationpackage, as "medical tourism" would sug-gest. Rather, they are pursuing the hope of abetter situation than they now have, atwhatever the cost.'

In an article by Svantesson (2008), theauthor reviews the medical tourism sectorand the different legal alternatives for seek-ing damages if a medical procedure goeswrong. McCallum and Jacoby (2007) look atthe possibility of financial planners workingwith their clients to reduce their healthcare


Health outcome:Health disparitiesAccess to care

Infrastructure developmentCost containment in healthSafety and quality of care

Medical tourism:Global health market

Restructuring health systemPrivate sector investment

Efficiency and quality standardsConsumer choice

A

Institutional:Governance structureTrade liberalizationDe-regulation and

policy change

Health system:Health resource allocation

Cost of health careInsurance coverageIndividual risk factors

Economic and social:Privatization

Global competitionOff-shoring/outsourcing

Resource availability/allocationFood and social security

Globalization process:Global concerns

Structural adjustmentpolicies

Global politicsTechnology

Technological:Global communicationCapital and technologyInformation technologyMobility and interaction

Fig. 5.2. Conceptual framework of globalization and medical tourism (Nadi, 2009).

costs, increase their access and have qualityoptions, but they also caution that there areliability issues to be considered by theseplanners before suggesting healthcare out-sourcing. Also, in a very thorough article,Nathan Cortez (2008), a law professor atSMU, analyses the various medical mal-practice laws of many medical tourismcountries and suggests how countries canbalance both risks and benefits to interna-tional patients. The article by Burkett, from2007, represents one of the most thoroughtexts on medical tourism at this time. It is awell written piece that covers a wide swatheof research but most of it is concerned withthe legal implications of medical traveloverseas. She suggests that:

Any regulation addressing the social,economic and health system issues posedby medical tourism should work on three

fronts: (A) increased emphasis on theaccreditation of international hospitals;(B) regulation of health insurance thatcovers medical tourism; and (C) restrictionon travel for medical tourism to approveddestination hospital countries. Suchregulations would work to achieve thelegitimate governmental goal of ensuringthat the health care Americans receiveoverseas is of high quality. At the sametime, such regulations would serve thesecond legitimate governmental interest ofprotecting the American health care systemfrom increased competition and furthereconomic instability.

Burkett (2007, p. 242-243)

In a recent article, Guiry and Vequist(2011) found that the medical tourismservice provided to US tourists was notcompletely up to the expectations of thesetravellers. Therefore a suggested controversy


is that the level of service in these locationsmay need to be improved (or at least thevisitor's expectations may have to be re-adjusted). In addition, the trend of medicaltourism brings up the question of how serv-ice quality differs in different cultures andhow this then impacts the expectations ofservice received in international venues byvisitors from other countries. If perceptionsof quality are not met by the medical tour-ism facility then the patients may not bereceiving care that is up to the traveller'sperception of quality.

Medical tourism

Brown and Hall (2008) point out that somenew forms of tourism have emerged recentlythat have an ethical dimension 'as a resultof a shift from a product-driven to aconsumer-driven approach.' They believethat this trend is a new manifestation of old-style tourism and that medical tourism hasthe look of 'neo-colonialist exploitation'and has manifest ethical issues becausemedical tourists 'consume resources at theexpense of local populations, but they alsocreate revenues which could be used to ben-efit said populations.' English et al. (2006)also suggest that this trend creates manyethical issues and Parker (2006) suggeststhat medical tourism may even be at oddswith the sustainability of national health-care systems. In one of the most detailedpieces on medical tourism and the ethics ofthe trend, Widdows (2007) suggests that`medical tourism presents a clear exampleof the inability of local laws and ethics toregulate current practices and preventexploitation and injustice'. She believesthat 'other areas of bioethics present at leastequally compelling reasons for ensuringethics is global.'

Health system

In an article about the nursing systems inplace in India, Abraham (2007) is quoted asbelieving that:

International experience tells us that thereis no single correct answer for shaping acountry's health system. Within India, thepriority of issues and the choice of optionsshould vary according to the conditionsprevailing in various states and districts.The reliance on private spending on healthin India is among the highest in the world.Paying for health puts Indians at risk offinancial ruin when they become ill. Morethan 40 percent of Indians need to borrowmoney or sell assets when they arehospitalized. However, private health carein India is on par with the best in the worldwith the latest equipment, highly qualifieddoctors and nurses, and high standards ofcare, yet this is accessible only to aprivileged few. As a result of the technologyand skills, India has become a destinationfor medical tourism.

Abraham (2007, p. 80)

Leng, in 2010, suggested that histori-cally healthcare 'was considered a crucialcomponent of governmental responsibility,as expressed in the 1978 Declaration ofAlma-Ata (WHO-UNICEF, 1978); and healthservices are not readily seen as a marketablecommodity despite the existence of an inter-national trade.' This author argues that enti-tlement to healthcare was (and shouldcontinue to be) 'a cornerstone of social citi-zenship, conceptualized within the frame-work of nation, and citizenship rights andobligations.' Therefore, this suggests thatsome possible controversies in this area are:(i) determining if there is an inherent con-flict between the state's obligation to ensurehealthcare access for its citizens on the onehand and its advocacy of medical tourismon the other; (ii) what the state's responsi-bilities are regarding cross-border health-care utilization (particularly foreign visitors'utilization of national health services); and(iii) the attempts to 'divert these patients tothe private sector', which the authordescribes as outright 'marketing'.

Institutional

An article by Dumont and Zurn (2007) sum-marizes the impact of the liberalization oftrade and The General Agreement on Trade


in Services (GATS; the legal framework ofthe World Trade Organization or WTO) andparticularly how that has affected interna-tional health-related services. GATS allowsWTO members to choose which service sec-tors to open up to trade and foreign compe-tition. According to the authors 'to date,only 50 WTO Members have made sometype of commitment on health servicesunder GATS, much less than in financialservices (100 Members).' GATS has four dif-ferent modes that affect the trade of healthservices: (i) Mode 1: Cross-border supply.Health services provided between coun-tries, usually via interactive audio, visualand data communication. The controversyhere is whether or not these medical-tourism-like interactions are appropriate fortelephony applications; (ii) Mode 2:Consumption abroad. This covers incidentswhen patients seek treatment abroad orreceive care while they are abroad. Theauthors point out that although it can gener-ate a foreign exchange, it can also have theimpact of crowding out local patients andact as a drain on local resources; (iii) Mode3: Foreign commercial presence. These arehealth services supplied in another countrythrough a commercial presence. Althoughthis can make new services available (pos-sibly even driving up quality and creatingemployment opportunities), it can also leadto the creation of a two-tier health systemand even to a possible 'brain drain' ofhealthcare assets out of the country; andfinally (iv) Mode 4: Movement of people.The controversy here is when healthcarepersonnel work in other countries (althoughthis mode of GATS speaks to the movementon a temporary basis) and accentuate 'braindrain'. This 'brain drain' occurs when thedifferences in wages paid, demand fluctua-tions and host country facility qualityresults in culturally skilled and knowledge-able healthcare professionals to seekemployment in other countries (particularlycontroversial when these providers shiftfrom less developed to more developedcountries). Overall, the main controversy inGATS according to the authors (Dumontand Zurn, 2007) is that 'the capacity of statesto regulate health-related services will be

eroded', although they admit that 'there is alack of empirical data on the level of inter-national trade in health-related services, aswell as on the effects of liberalization inspecific countries.'

Economic and social

Health tourism has at least two concernswhen viewed in terms of sustainability,according to Bristow (2009). First is the con-cern that access to medical care in healthtourism communities will be limited towealthy foreigners who can afford to paymore than the local prevailing wages. Theethical implications are more complicatedwhen it is, for example, a medical doctor'sattention that is being outsourced. Further,since health tourism clinics are often pri-vate facilities, nearby public services maybe strained beyond operational capacity tomeet the needs of the indigenous popula-tion. Poorer local citizens are particularlythreatened since private clinics are finan-cially out of reach (George, 2009).

Technological

Jones and Keith (2006) suggest that repro-ductive technologies involved in medicaltourism 'may challenge the limits of ethics,policy and legality'. Also, Leahy (2008)believes that 'in addition to the safety issuesraised by medical tourism, there are poten-tial damaging effects on the provider coun-tries. The emphasis on technology driventertiary care for foreigners may impact onbasic healthcare for citizens of developingcountries.' Another possible controversy isthat foreign direct investments (FDIs) inhealthcare facilities, particularly in techno-logically more intensive facilities, may notbe equally impactful to the local communi-ty's health status because investors have novested interest in the low margin care usu-ally provided to disadvantaged citizenswithin the local region.

In a thorough article by Martin (2010)about the ethical issues around medical


travel and the purchasing of humanbiological materials (HBMs), which is argu-ably driven by the availability of healthcaretechnologies, the author suggests that thereare the following general concerns (espe-cially with respect to the use of living ven-dors): (i) potential HBM sellers are frequentlydrawn from communities in developingcountries suffering extremes of poverty.Even when this occurs in more developedcountries, the potential sellers are some-what better off but are nevertheless often ata disadvantage with respect to recipients ofthe materials; (ii) medical travel for HBMmay lead to coercion of potential HBM sell-ers, such as found in human trafficking, andthe possible subjection of sellers to unduerisks of harm; (iii) when payment is pro-vided to potential sellers, their autonomymay be impaired, and they may sufferexploitation or inappropriate commodifica-tion due to impaired decision-makingcapacities through the appeal of an exces-sive inducement; (iv) HBM providers risk avariety of social consequences, economiccosts, physical discomforts, medical seque-lae, and the potential social or emotionalimpact of donation on donor lives includingsignificant social stigma; (v) exploitationbecomes a major possibility in HBM salesbecause the transaction usually involvesrelatively wealthy customers purchasinggoods or services from suppliers in develop-ing countries (Martin points out that theexploitation occurs because someone in aposition of relative power uses that powerto make the weaker person agree to an unfairdeal in which the weaker party undeserv-edly receives an unequal share of benefits);(vi) HBM potential sellers may be motivatedby desperate economic circumstanceswhich may lead to vulnerable individualsagreeing to sell biological materials due to alack of alternative employment options(which may leave them only marginally andnot sustainably better off); (vii) even whenfair payment is offered, this may potentiallyrepresent an instance of 'omissive coercion'.It is suggested that omissive coercion occurswhen a person agrees to do something inexchange for another person fulfilling theirpre-existing obligations; (viii) trade in HBM

may override humanitarian duties toprovide basic human rights to potential sell-ers (which Martin suggests should precedeany involvement in HBM trading); (ix) med-ical tourism for HBM exploits wider gaps ofinequity (both financial and possibly legis-lative or standards of care) between foreignpatients and potential HBM sellers in thedestination country; (x) HBM, as part ofmedical tourism, may actually be failing torespect the dignity of potential sellers ashuman beings and instead they becomecommoditized: rather than being individu-als with the recognized rights, obligationsand roles that are attributed to humans, theybecome commodities to be sold, even whenacting as free moral subjects in deciding tosell their biological materials and pursuingtheir own ends. Martin further suggests thatprimarily in poor communities 'a price maybecome synonymous with human bodies,whence it is easy to envisage a progressionto recognition of humans as a living sourceof financial capital that may be "cashed in"as required'; and finally (xi) medical travelfor HBM may further impair access todomestic resources by citizens of the desti-nation country (as well as limit economicgrowth of structures in the travellers' homecountry that facilitate necessary HBMprocedures).

Globalization process

In an interesting opinion piece, Shearmur(2008) argues that it may make sense to haveliberal regulations on organ sales and trans-plant medical tourism, and Mattoo andRathindran (2005) even offer that the 'out-sourcing' of healthcare may ultimately bebeneficial to both the sending and receivingcountries. Also, as medical tourism growsaround the world and the awareness of itseconomic impact becomes better under-stood, there is the very real possibility thatfuture country politics and antagonismcould lead to an embargo being imposed onthe flows of patients travelling betweencountries, as a political tool for leverage onother agendas.


Summary and Reviewof the Controversies

After reviewing most of the academic litera-ture on controversies in medical tourism, itseems that there are several 'themes' thatcontinue to come up frequently. They are asfollows: (i) the possibility of healthcareaccess becoming differentiated by economicability; (ii) the issue of the utilization oflocal resources by foreign nationals (thuslimiting local access to care); (iii) legalissues surrounding the situation of servicesoffered in one country that may not beallowable or ethically appropriate in thepatient's home country; (iv) the possibilitythat medical tourism represents lesser carefor medical travellers; (v) the increasingemphasis on healthcare as a business (whichis exaggerated by medical tourism); and (vi)the sustainability of international health-care flows and trends (such as the braindrain of personnel that occurs partially as aresult of the sector).

We suggest that more empirical evi-dence of the impacts of these trends need tobe carried out (whether through true quanti-tative studies or with qualitative and/orcase analysis). There is still a sincere lack ofsubstantial research in many areas in thissector (see also Vequist, in press). Theimportance of this research cannot be over-stated; this sector and its ancillary impactscould well change much about what weconsider sacred in traditional domestichealthcare throughout the world.

Conclusion

Medical tourism is a very important phe-nomenon that may affect traditional health-care in ways that researchers have not evenbegun to consider; for example, Cohen(2010) suggests that the newly passedAmerican healthcare reform which intro-duces an individual mandate may actuallyfurther stimulate the entry of lower-costinsurance plans containing some amount ofincentivized/required insurer-promptedmedical tourism, unless specific steps are

taken legislatively to prevent it. So, it isimportant that there is more research aroundhow this trend will impact both the medicaltourism patients themselves and the variousstakeholders involved (such as the sendingand receiving countries and the variouscare-givers providing services to thesepatients, both pre- and post-medicaltourism).

Another weakness in this sector is thatwe don't know what we don't know yet.The growth of this trend has occurred sofast that the prerequisite research on thepossible impacts and outcomes has notmatured yet. Therefore, the categorizationsmentioned in this chapter may not ade-quately describe all the possible future con-troversies that are emerging as this text isbeing written. In a recently released specialtopic (medical tourism) version of theInternational Journal of Behavioural &Healthcare Research, edited by Teachoutand Vequist (2010), a categorization for thearticles is offered that was based on a frame-work used for the preparation of the firstannual Medical Tourism ResearchConference in January 2010. This researchframework was developed by the Center forMedical Tourism Research (CMTR) andshaped the scholarly contributions and theconference programme. The main topicsand subtopics are:

1. Genesis and drivers of medical tourisma. economic, regional, political, social,

cultural and cross-cultural issuesb. medical tourism insurance/re-insurance

and reimbursement models2. Legal and ethical issues in medical tour-ism and the globalization of healthcare

a. technological and privacy issues (e.g.confidentiality and security)

b. economic and social impact on coun-tries, industries and jobs

c. adequacy of quality of care at medicaltourism facilities

d. care and responsibility (e.g. internationalmalpractice and risk management)

3. Assessments or evaluations of medicaltourism practices (including accreditation)

a. independent provider credentialingand qualification


b. best practices from US hospitals offer-ing international health options

c. continuing educational programmes tobuild the next generation of providers

4. Operational issues in delivering glo-balized healthcare

a. emerging delivery models: healthcarehotels and spas

b. new job roles and titles (e.g. internationalmedical director or care coordinator)

c. continuum of care issues whenpatients return to their home country

d. interoperability of information sys-tems and EHR/EMR issues around theworld

e. building continuity of care models pre-treatment, treatment and post treatment

f. international telehealth and telemedi-cine models

5. Marketing and consumer behaviour inmedical tourism

a. country/location branding in medicaltourism

b. consumer choice and medical tourismc. stakeholder perceptions and attitudes

toward medical tourism.

This special edition journal on medi-cal tourism ultimately contained sixpapers that represented some of the areas(from the framework above) and came fromseveral academic disciplines, includingpsychology, marketing, economics andanthropology. The papers offered otherpossible questions such as: (i) how theo-ries of motivation and customer satisfac-tion may impact medical tourism; (ii) howmarketing and brand positioning strategiesmay affect consumer choice in the medicaltourism sector; (iii) how hospitality insti-tutions will be affected by medical tourismtrends; (iv) what emerging corporate brand

identity models and value-propositionswill come out of medical tourism efforts;(v) how price differentials in healthcarecosts could lead to policy implicationsand could lead to future investments inmedical equipment/technologies, infra-structure and marketing; and finally (vi)how international accreditations can pos-sibly enable the self-regulation of patientsand healthcare workers, which ultimatelyleads to greater amounts of medicaltravel.

As can be seen from the research citedin this chapter, there are still major weak-nesses in the coverage of the different cate-gories of controversies. These weaknessesneed to be explored, if not through directanalysis of the problem (which is difficultbecause of the lack of valid data and infor-mation) then through comparative analysisin the literature.

As an example of this, Sood and Cox(2008) suggest that the weak economies ofunderdeveloped countries (which are themost typical receiving countries of medicaltourists) are heavily dependent on remit-tances from immigrants. They believe thistrend is unsustainable and mutually detri-mental to both the host country and thereceiving country. Although not specific tomedical tourism, it offers the suggestion thata similar (possibly more mature) trend is pos-sibly not sustainable and has negative effectson the economies of the countries involved.

So, could work like this help lead to abetter understanding of the possible futuredevelopment of medical tourism? Webelieve that any research that helps tounderstand the ultimate consequences ofthis trend are better than facing the futurewithout the proper amount of scholarlythought and guidance.

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6 Ethical Issues in Trophy Hunting

John Dobson''Department of Tourism, Hospitality and Events Management,

Cardiff School of Management, University of Wales Institute, Cardiff, UK

Introduction

Hunting other animals has underpinnedhuman development as the dominant spe-cies on planet Earth. It was a central activityfor early hunter-gatherer societies and isstill considered, by some, to be an essentialhuman activity even in industrial societiestoday. However, in the West, hunting hasexperienced a transformation away frombeing an urgent activity that is necessary inorder to survive, to being an activity that islargely undertaken for pleasure and has ledto its emergence as a leisure and tourismactivity. The period of colonial expansion byWestern powers during the 19th century wassignificant in helping to link hunting andtourism. Tiger shooting became an impor-tant leisure activity in British colonial Indiawith Hamman (2008) noting 'many Westernvisitors came to India to visit friends andrelatives and engaged in the "sport" of tigershooting as part and parcel of their tour'(p. 99). Colonial expansion in Africa led tothe 'Era of Big Game Hunting' that took placein East Africa between 1900 and 1945 -perhaps one of the most well-known andmost documented examples of tourist travelfor hunting purposes (Akama, 2008).Hunting tourism was not solely limited tocolonial possessions; British tourists weretravelling to hunt and fish in Scandinavia

for more than 170 years (Sillanpaa, 2008)and hunting and fishing has been embeddedin American culture through the earlysettlers and continues to be an importantleisure activity (Dunlap, 1988).

Travelling for the purpose of huntingand fishing is not without controversy. BothHamman (2008) and Akama (2008) note thedevastating impact that unregulated hunt-ing had on tiger populations in India(Hamman, 2008) and the big five in EastAfrica (Akama, 2008). Hunting animals forpleasure as a prime motivation, rather thanfor essential food, has caused much debateas illustrated by a conversation that ErnestHemingway (2004) recalls he had with fel-low traveller named Kandisky regarding hishunting activities in Africa.

Kandisky: 'What are you doing here?'Hemingway: 'Shooting.'Kandisky: Not ivory I hope?'Hemingway: 'No. For kudu.'Kandisky: 'Why should any man shoot akudu? You, an intelligent man, a poet, toshoot kudu.'Hemingway: 'I haven't shot any yet....But we've been hunting them hard nowfor ten days...'Kandisky: 'But you should hunt for ayear. At the end of that time you haveshot everything and you are sorry for it.To hunt for one special animal isnonsense. Why do you do it?'


Ethical Issues in Trophy Hunting 87

Hemingway: 'I like to do it.'After a short discussion on the merits ofthe poetry of Rilke the conversation againreturns to hunting.Kandisky: 'Well at least you do not killelephants.'Hemingway: 'I'd kill a big enough one.'Kandisky: 'How big?'Hemingway: 'A seventy pounder. Maybesmaller.'Kandisky: 'I see there are things we donot agree on.'

Hemmingway (2004, p. 6)

The disagreement between Hemming-way and Kandisky regarding killing animalsfor sport, and the pleasure involved in doingso, provides an introduction to the argu-ments that have emerged within wildlifeliterature regarding the merits of huntingand in particular trophy hunting as a touris-tic activity. Trophy hunting is a form ofhunting that can be carried out by touristswhere the prime motivation for undertakingthe activity is the acquisition of a perma-nent reminder of the experience in the formof a trophy. Trophies are defined by Novel liand Humavindu (2005) as 'any part of ananimal that can be displayed as a sign of thecatch' (p. 172); trophies can include heads,horns or skins with the quality dependingon size or weight, with trophies from oldermales being particularly prized (Novel liand Humavindu, 2005). This chapter willprovide an overview of the arguments forand against trophy hunting as a touristicactivity and will also evaluate these issuesthrough a number of different ethical lenses.Before these issues can be fully explored itis necessary to evaluate the dualistic notionthat has emerged that defines hunting asconsumptive wildlife tourism and wildlife-watching activities as non-consumptivewildlife tourism.

Blurred Boundaries: Problems inDefining Consumptive Wildlife Tourism

Tourism that involves hunting and fishingactivities are often categorized as a form ofconsumptive wildlife tourism. Sinha (2001,p. 4) defines consumptive wildlife tourism

as involving 'the capture or killing oftarget animals. It can be in the form of:(i) recreational hunting of waterfowl andbig game (may also be valued for meat);(ii) recreational fishing (fish may be releasedafter catching or valued for food); or (iii)trophy hunting and fishing (the trophyitself may be valued as well as the thrill ofhunting itself).' Shack ley's (1996) concep-tualization of wildlife tourism comple-ments Sinha's view of hunting and fishingas a form of consumptive wildlife tourism;she identifies the killing of animals as acentral concept in what she identifies as`destructive tourism'. The act of killing orcausing harm to target animals is thereforea central aspect of consumptive wildlifetourism; conversely, non-consumptivewildlife tourism is conceptualized as activ-ities that involve the use of animals but donot result in either the species being perma-nently affected or killed by the tourisminteraction (Duffus and Dearden, 1990).A dualism has therefore been establishedwithin wildlife tourism between activitiesthat involve causing harm to target species,i.e. hunting and fishing, and those activi-ties such as wildlife watching that are notperceived to cause harm to target species.This dualism has also helped to establishthe foundations for ethical judgements tobe made about what should be consideredto be wildlife tourism. Newsome et al.(2005) deliberately exclude hunting andfishing from their conceptualizationof wildlife tourism on moral grounds.They state:

we neither condone nor accept this practiceand have deliberately delimited ourdefinition of wildlife tourism to excludeany activity which results in the killing ofwildlife as it does not sit comfortably withthe ecocentric worldview that engendersrespect for all living creatures.

Newsome et al. (2005, p. 20).

They go on to add:

By extension the culling (killing) ofòverabundant' species by tourists is alsoexcluded from the authors' view anddefinition of wildlife tourism.

Newsome et al. (2005, p. 20).

88 J. Dobson

However, those who advocate huntingand fishing as legitimate tourist activitieshave increasingly argued against the label-ling of only these activities as consumptivewildlife tourism. There is concern thatdefining wildlife-related tourism is becom-ing problematic as this type of tourismexpands and diversifies and that use of theterm 'consumptive' to distinguish and advo-cate between different types of wildlifetourism is inconsistent, contradictory andflawed (Tremblay, 2001). Within wildlifetourism literature the term 'non-consump-tive' is frequently and uncritically appliedto certain wildlife-related activities such asphotography and viewing, which are seenas more desirable forms of wildlife use(Tremblay, 2001).

The central tenet of their argument isthat the term consumptive implies causinga negative impact upon the target species,which, it is argued, is not restricted to onlyhunting and fishing activities. Wildlife view-ing is considered to be a non-consumptiveuse of wildlife by many because the activity`does not require the killing of individualanimal' (Tremblay, 2001, p. 82). The defini-tion of non-consumptive use of wildlife asdescribed by Duffus and Dearden (1990) ismore complex and moves beyond the act ofkilling and includes any activity whichavoids the target species being 'purpose-fully removed or permanently affected bythe engagement' (Duffus and Dearden, 1990,p. 15). It is this widening of the scope ofconsumptive activities, from killing to per-manently affecting, which has caused someto question just how benign activities suchas wildlife viewing are and just how differ-ent they are to activities such as huntingand fishing. Lovelock (2008) makes thepoint that wildlife viewing can also causenegative impacts for the target speciesinvolved. He points to a number of impactsthat wildlife watching can cause, such asthe disruption to essential activities (suchas breeding and feeding), the introductionof potentially harmful pathogens and prob-lems of habituation of animals to humansthrough continued exposure and feeding(Lovelock, 2008). Baker (1997) goes so far asto suggest that wildlife-viewing tours can

actually be more detrimental to the targetedspecies and their wider habitat than activi-ties such as hunting and fishing. Baker(1997) also argues that this is due to themore commercial orientation of wildlife-viewing activities, which rely on high tour-ist volumes and the resultant need forsignificant infrastructure developmentswhich ultimately degrade the environment.

The defence of hunting and fishingactivities as legitimate forms of wildlifetourism has expanded to include a criticalexamination of the type of experience thatis provided and the resulting relationshipwith the environment that can be generated.For Franklin (2002), both hunting and fish-ing provide an embodied experience, in thatthese activities allow participants to recon-nect with nature unlike other forms of vis-ual wildlife tourism in which participantsare 'set off to one side, nervously hoping tohave as little impact as possible' (Franklin,2002, p. 218). Despite objections towardshunting and fishing which have risen inrecent years, Franklin (2002) identifies thatthe enduring popularity of hunting and fish-ing demonstrates their importance and roleof getting people back into nature. He linksthe desire to hunt with Neo-Darwininsmand the concept of the killer ape, whichattempts to reverse the negative impact ofurban living on the (male) human body,which is vulnerable to 'weakening andpathology' (Franklin, 2002, p. 219). ForFranklin, hunting and fishing: 'the antidoteto metropolitan physical malaise was thefrequent return to nature, the ultimate testof which was to join battle with naturalpredators or fight an enormous fish'(Franklin, 2002, p. 219). It is the embodiedexperience provided by hunting and fishingthat allow humans to get back to naturewhich both Franklin (2008) and Lovelock(2008) use as a defence of these activitiesand also to criticize wildlife viewing.Protected areas such as national parks andwildlife reserves are politically fragile andrely on the support of users. Franklin (2008),however, considers that non-consumptiveusers are not effective long-term supportersas their experiences are not as intense orembodied as hunters, who he believes are


much more likely to be engaged in rurallocal affairs and therefore more likely toprovide long-term support. To support thishe cites the UK's largest ever political-basedrally that took place in August 1997 to pro-test against the ban on foxhunting. Franklin(2008) suggests that the size of this rallyhelps to show that hunters are engaged withissues of their environment and are willingto become politically involved at a nationallevel to ensure the protection of local areas.

Caution is needed here as it can beargued that the comparisons being madehere do not seem to compare like with like.Both Franklin (2002, 2008) and Lovelock(2008) utilize local hunting examples (wild-life leisure activities) where the participantshave developed an intimate knowledge oftheir local environment over a long periodof time against wildlife tourists who travelto unfamiliar locations in order to viewexotic species for pleasure. There are twopotential problems with this line of argu-ment, the first is that there are also thosewho undertake wildlife viewing in theirown local environment (for example bird-watchers, ramblers and those who photo-graph wildlife) who may have just as anembodied experience, have developed inti-mate knowledge of their local environmentand care just as much about its protection.A second problem arises in ignoring theproblems that can arise when hunterschoose to travel outside of their local envi-ronment to hunt and fish, especially if oneof their main motivations is to acquiretrophies.

Before the arguments both for andagainst trophy hunting as a tourist activitycan be explored fully it is essential to dis-tinguish between different types of hunter.Gunn (2001) notes that there are a variety ofhunter types identified within the literatureand that ' [d]efenders of hunting invariablycontrast what they regard as "true" sporthunting, with hunting for some other pur-pose, and especially with hunting just forthe sake of killing something' (Gunn, 2001,p. 74). This distinction between sport hunt-ing and hunting for other purposes is sup-ported by both Causey (1989) and Vitali(1990). Positive human character traits such

as patience, discipline and the desire to beat one with nature are used by both authorsto distinguish sports hunters from otherswho engage in hunting. Sports hunting isalso associated with the principles of fairchase, which ensures that an animal has asignificant chance of escaping from thehunter and that the hunter will not engagein unfair means to achieve a kill (e.g. shoot-ing from vehicles, hides or using traps).Fair chase principles also emphasize theneed for hunters to achieve a clean kill andto avoid causing the animal to suffer exces-sively (Lovelock, 2008). The sports hunteris therefore linked to the type of huntingthat Franklin (2008) identifies as beingmore embodied and in-touch with nature.A second type of hunter described in theliterature is the shooter. The shooter par-ticipates in hunting through necessityrather than to gain any intrinsic pleasurefrom the experience or to acquire an extrin-sic reward such as a trophy. Shooters there-fore hunt for food or in order to eradicatepests. The third category of hunter is thetrophy hunter who is dealt with much lesssympathetically within hunting literature.Trophy hunting is also identified as plastichunting and slob hunting (Loftin, 1988).Unlike the sports hunter, trophy huntersare often attributed with negative charac-teristics, such as being deceitful or engag-ing in cheating. Causey (1989) condemnsboth the participant for using semi-automatic weapons, vehicles or hides togain nothing more than a 'head to decoratetheir office wall' (Causey, 1989, p. 340) andthe operators for running operations whichrequire little in the way of skill to achievethe trophy. Interestingly Gunn (2001) notesthat 'nowhere in the literature, so far asI am aware, is the hunting for fun, for theenjoyment of killing, or for the acquisitionof trophies defended' (p. 68). Althoughthere is little defence put forward for par-ticipants who engage in trophy hunting andthey are widely criticized, the actual activ-ity and benefits that can be produced fromit are more widely supported. This nextsection will outline the key arguments thatare put forward to both support and criti-cize trophy hunting as a tourist activity.

90 J. Dobson

Arguments in Supportof Trophy Hunting

For some, trophy hunting has undertakenan extraordinary transformation in recentyears. It has been noted above that recenthistory has recorded trophy hunting asbeing a prime cause in pushing numerousspecies, such as the tiger in India and thebig five in southern and eastern Africa, tothe brink of extinction. However, in someparts of the world trophy hunting has beenreinvented as the saviour of many speciesand a central argument in defence of trophyhunting has been to show that it has thepotential to generate revenue streams thatcan be channelled into the conservation ofboth the natural environment and someindividual species that are threatened withextinction.

A number of authors have discussedthe economic value that trophy huntingcan have for local economies, particularlyin southern Africa. Damm (2005) estimatesthat trophy hunting is worth betweenUS$65.6 and US$137 million to theSouth African economy and Novel li andHumavindu (2005) placed a value ofUS$26.3 million on the Namibian trophyhunting industry, which they estimate tobe 14% of the whole tourism industry inthe country. Zimbabwe's Communal AreasManagement Program for IndigenousResources (CAMPFIRE) scheme has beenwidely regarded as an example of how tro-phy hunting can be successfully integratedinto the local economy. The scheme wasdesigned to empower local communitiesand provide them with control over hownatural resources in their area were man-aged. Wildlife tourism was a cornerstone ofthe scheme and the selling of hunting per-mits was one of the most significant ways inwhich local communities could generate asustainable income. This income was thenreinvested in local community schemessuch as the building of schools or the drill-ing of boreholes for water. The scheme alsoprovided a direct income for local house-holds that were involved (Mbaiwa, 2008).CAMPFIRE is also credited with helping to

conserve wildlife as animals were protectedfrom poachers by local people due to theirvalue as a tourism resource (Frost and Bond,2008).

Perhaps one significant aspect of tro-phy hunting's potential to contributetowards local economic development inAfrica is its ability to attract hunters notonly to the more well-known and moredeveloped eastern and southern Africanhunting destinations but also to more mar-ginal areas (both in terms of political stabil-ity and environmental quality) where otherforms of wildlife tourism have not been ableto develop (Lindsey et al., 2006). Thereforeareas that have lower densities of watchablewildlife or areas where livestock is domi-nant can still be attractive to the trophyhunters as long as there are trophy speciesavailable. Perhaps more significantly is theability for trophy hunting to take place incountries that are deemed to be politicallyunstable or that have poor tourism infra-structure. Wilkie and Carpenter (1999) iden-tify that despite being located in a politicallyunstable region both the Cameroon andRepublic of Congo have developed success-ful trophy-hunting industries. They believethat trophy hunters are more prepared totravel to these potentially risky locations insearch of new trophies and therefore havehelped to develop a niche tourism productthat brings revenue that has the potential tocontribute towards environmental protec-tion. The political instability in Zimbabweprovides a further example of the resilienceof trophy hunting compared to more tradi-tional forms of tourism. The land seizuresand subsequent social and economic insta-bility had a devastating impact on the coun-try's tourism industry; however, Novel liand Humavindu (2005) reported that thetrophy-hunting industry was largely unaf-fected and Lindsey et al. (2006) highlightthat the trophy-hunting industry only expe-rienced a 12% reduction in revenues com-pared to a 75% reduction for the traditionaltourism industry.

In terms of contributing to species con-servation Leader-Williams et al. (2005) citethe important role that trophy hunting hashad in the conservation of the white rhino


(Ceratotherium simum). White rhinopopulations have seen their numbers dra-matically decrease due to illegal poaching(rhinos are targeted for their horns whichare used in some aspects of traditionalChinese medicine) and were listed onAppendix 1 of the Convention on InternationalTrade in Endangered Species (CITES) in1977 (Appendix 1 contains a list of theworld's most threatened species and allinternational trade in these species is pro-hibited). Since its initial CITES listing in1977 the white rhino population has experi-enced a recovery and is now listed as near-threatened. However, Leader-Williams et al.(2005) point out that this important popula-tion recovery had less to do with the listingof the white rhino by CITES and more to dowith the fact that small populations wereprotected on state and privately owned landin some areas of southern Africa. This ena-bled populations to recover and this recov-ery was assisted by the introduction oflimited trophy hunting (Leader-Williamset al., 2005). Trophy hunting became a via-ble proposition as the breeding programmesbecame more successful and the carryingcapacity of the protected areas was reachedand something needed to be done aboutexcess males within the population.Controlled hunting of these males (theremoval of excess population numbers isoften referred to as the management ofofftakes) therefore allowed the populationto be effectively managed and a revenuestream generated which fed into the conser-vation programme (Leader-Williams et al.,2005). The success of this approach to theconservation of white rhino populationshas led Leader-Williams et al. (2005) to callfor the same approach to be applied to blackrhino (Diceros bicornis) populations, whichas yet have not experienced the same levelof population growth as the white rhino andare still listed as critically endangered.

Arguments against Trophy Hunting

There is one essential element in order fora successful trophy hunt to take place, a

dead animal, and the kill is often seen asbeing truly essential for an authentic hunt(Gunn, 2001). It is the act of killing the tro-phy specimen and the manner in which itis done that form the central criticisms ofhunting and trophy hunting in particular.The suffering (both physical pain and emo-tional stress) that can be caused to individ-ual animals, through the chase and thefinal act of killing, underpins much of thecase against hunting and Loftin (1984)acknowledges that animal suffering is oneof the most serious arguments that can belevelled against the hunting community.Animal suffering and whether humanshave a duty to minimize it is a contentiouspoint and the ethical position will beexplored later in this chapter. The extent towhich animals suffer during hunting is dif-ficult to assess but Gunn (2001) acknowl-edges that suffering for some animals isinevitable and that it is probably impossi-ble to kill without pain. The extent andduration of that pain will generally dependon the skill of the hunter and the ability toensure a clean kill. Van Emmenes (2007)provides a window into the problems ofensuring a clean kill through his account ofhunting blue wildebeest (Connochaetestaurinus) in South Africa. He recounts sev-eral instances where despite his experienceand skill it was impossible to ensure aclean kill. In one instance, having shot afemale wildebeest, Van Emmenes (2007)observed that 'Although she had taken asure killing shot through her lungs, shestayed on her feet and mobile, for severalminutes' (p. 56) and it took a second shotto eventually bring her down. In a secondincident a male wildebeest was shot in thelung but did not die immediately. This ledto a protracted search of the African bushwhich had to be called off at night. VanEmmenes (2007) recalls 'It was getting lateand we were losing concentration. Rapulawas losing the spoor more often and wedecided to return in daylight. We were nolonger sure that the bull would die anytimesoon' (p. 58). The male wildebeest wasrecovered the next day, having finally suc-cumbed to its wound 6 km from where itwas initially shot.

92 J. Dobson

Some forms of trophy hunting do notnecessarily require a kill but can still resultin the suffering of the targeted animal. Sportfishing is one such example of this, whereanglers will attempt to catch a trophy spe-cies but, increasingly, will then release thefish back into the wild, so-called catch-and-release fishing. In catch-and-release fishingthe trophy takes the form of a photograph ofthe angler with a fish. This approach is nowbeing considered to be a more ethicalapproach to sports fishing. However, despitethe adoption of catch-and-release practicesin some areas, Fennell (2000) criticizes onetype of sports angling, billfishing, arguingthat it still has the potential to cause the suf-fering of animals during the initial catchand subsequent handling of the fish. Fennell(2000) also expressed concerns about thesurvival prospects of the fish once they werereleased.

Although advocates of trophy huntingextol its potential to make positive contri-butions to the conservation of the widerenvironment and individual species (suchas the case of the white and black rhino dis-cussed above), there is also concern that tro-phy hunting can have a negative impact onsome populations of species that are tar-geted by trophy hunters, especially in areaswhere populations are wild or in areaswhere regulation governing quota limitsand so on are not enforced. The argali sheep(Ovis ammon), which are found throughoutcentral Asia, are hunted as trophies due totheir distinctive horns. The sheep are con-sidered to be endangered throughout theirrange due to habitat loss and also poaching.As with the white rhino, trophy huntingwas seen as a method of ensuring the long-term survival of the species. Unfortunately,this initiative has not achieved the samesuccess as that of the white rhino in south-ern Africa. A controlled trophy-huntingprogramme was introduced in GansuProvince of the People's Republic of Chinaaimed at generating revenue that could feedback into the conservation of the sheep(Harris and Pletshcer, 2002). UnfortunatelyHarris and Pletshcer (2002) found that,although the scheme had potential to gener-ate significant amounts of revenue, which

they estimated to be approximatelyUS$60,000, little of the money reached thelocal level and their overall assessment ofthe scheme to the conservation of the argalisheep was minor. Unfortunately for theargali sheep this was not an isolated failure.Across the border in Mongolia the argalisheep were facing similar problems and asin China a trophy-hunting scheme wasestablished to assist in the conservation ofthe species (Amgalanbaatar et al., 2002).This scheme proved to be controversial; thenumber of hunting licences significantlyincreased over a 10-year period generatinghigh levels of revenue but again, as withChina, little money found its way into fund-ing direct conservation activities. Thescheme was also mired in controversy withallegations of corruption and local commu-nities complaining that they received littlebenefit from the hunting industry, whichcaused resentment and a growth in localopposition (Amgalanbaatar et al., 2002).

The inevitable focus on the trophy introphy hunting can also have furtherimplications for wild populations that aretargeted by hunters. As highlighted byNovelli and Humavindu (2005), trophyhunters tend to focus on males as thesetend to have the more developed features(horns, tusks, antlers, manes, etc.), whichmake the best trophies. The targeting ofthese males can have evolutionary conse-quences for the remaining population asthe prime breeding stock is removed.Coltman et al. (2003) studied the evolu-tionary consequences of the removal ofmale bighorn rams (Ovis Canadensis) bytrophy hunting over a 30-year period. Theyconcluded that the best trophy rams werealso the best genetic breeding stock andthat as these rams were removed beforefulfilling their full breeding potential thisresulted in the production of a populationof lighter rams with smaller horns, a prob-lem both for the wild population and thesustainability of the hunting industry. In aseparate study, Singer and Zeigenfuss(2002) observed the effect of trophy hunt-ing on three species of mountain sheep:Dall sheep (Ovis dalli), Rocky Mountainbighorn (Ovis Canadensis canadensis) and


the desert bighorn (Ovis Canadensis nel-soni). They compared populations thatwere hunted with those that were nothunted. In hunted populations they foundincreased evidence that ewes were har-assed by young rams compared to unhuntedpopulations where more older rams werepresent and therefore there was 'a moreorderly, hierarchical and less disruptivemating system present' (Singer andZeigenfuss, 2002, p. 696).

Some mature male animals can alsodevelop celebratory or iconic status withinthe area that they live and their removal bytrophy hunting can cause public outrage. Anexample of this was the killing of theÈmperor of Exmoor', by an alleged trophyhunter in October 2010. The Emperor was ared deer stag (Cervus elaphus) that lived inExmoor National Park in South-west Englandand had become well known among wildlifeenthusiasts. The stag was estimated to benine feet tall, weighing approximately 300pounds and had a set of antlers that wereworth in the region of £10,000 (Knight Bruce,2010). His killing in the middle of the rut-ting (breeding) season resulted in significantamounts of media coverage, public angerand criticism, particularly of the trophy-hunting industry, when it emerged this mayhave been the reason that the animal waskilled (even though the stag was killed by alicence holder and was therefore legal).Despite the legality of the killing and expertsputting forward ecological-based argumentsthat the stag was in its last breeding year andwould have eventually died a slower andmore painful death, public reaction wasoverwhelmingly negative. Newspaper mes-sage boards were dominated by commentssuch as:

I can't understand the mentality of anyonewho would do such a thing as a hobby.

and

You would think that in the 21st centurywe would, as a species, have evolvedbeyond killing animals for sport.Apparently not.

One person who claimed to be a mem-ber of the hunting community also felt the

killing was wrong and interestingly notedthat this act of trophy hunting wouldfurther undermine support for hunting inthe UK:

I belong to the British Association forShooting and Conservation, BASCand I belong to two game shootingsyndicates. I do not by choice shoot deer.I understand that deer herds need to bemanaged, the old and weak animalsremoved and numbers kept to a healthypopulation for the environment where theyare to be found. However, this stag washealthy and moreover an iconic symbolrecognised, honoured and respected bymany folk. My own feelings are that who-ever shot him and those that permitted it,are miserable bastards with very littlehumanity and certainly no understandingof public relations. If shooting as a sportloses public support and ends up underpressure to be banned, it will be as a resultof the actions of the morons who ended theexistence of this magnificent beast. I can'tremember when a story upset and angeredme as much as this one.

A further criticism that is levelledagainst trophy hunting is the manner inwhich it can be undertaken. Put-and-takehunting involves animals being bred spe-cifically to be hunted and clients can pre-order the species that they want to killbefore they arrive in their destination.There is some concern that this can lead toa focus on the introduction and breedingof exotic species rather than a focus onbreeding native species as these are theanimals that hunters want to kill. Cannedhunting is perhaps the most extreme andheavily criticized form of trophy huntingand has been a common form of hunting inboth the USA and South Africa. Trophyanimals are kept within confined areas(although the size of the enclosure canvary from a few feet to over a thousandacres) and according to the Born FreeFoundation (undated) some animals havebeen hand reared making them trusting ofhumans and so making them extremelyeasy to kill. The controversy of cannedhunting of lions in South Africa led tothis particular form being banned bythe South African government in 2009

94 J. Dobson

(Anonymous, 2009), although an appealby breeders to lift the ban was being heardat the time of writing this chapter. Cannedhunting and to some extent put-and-takehunting goes against the philosophy of thesports hunter as the key elements of fairchase and being at one with nature areremoved from the experience and arereplaced by a focus on shooting the animaland gaining the desired trophy.

Trophy Hunting: Throughan Ethical Lens

The controversy that surrounds trophyhunting and the arguments that both sup-port and criticize it as a tourist activity pro-vide a useful window to help explore ethicalissues pertaining to the environment andmore specifically how humans use otheranimals for pleasure. This section will nowuse a number of different ethical perspec-tives to analyse the trophy-hunting debateand explore how both sides of the contro-versy can be considered to be ethicaldepending upon various human beliefs.This section will also revisit the debate con-cerning the impacts of wildlife watchingand trophy hunting on target species. It willapply the Doctrine of Double Effect (DDE)theory to try to explore one possible way ofdifferentiating between them ethically.

From an ethical perspective the maindifference between those who defend hunt-ing and those that criticize it lies in whetherthey consider animals to have any moralrights. Some of those who defend huntingconsider that individual animals do nothave rights and therefore do not deserve anymoral consideration; a perspective describedby Midgley (1983) as absolute dismissal.This absolute dismissal perspective hasbeen dominant in Western philosophicalthought on animals and has been shaped bydualistic thinking where the mind and bodyare considered separate. Three key factorsemerged from this line of thinking leadingto humans being placed above all otheranimal life; the first, only humans pos-sessed souls; the second, only humans were

capable of rational thought; and the third,that only humans could command language.In the West, dualistic thinking dominatedreligious belief; a number of pronounce-ments within the Old Testament classifiedanimals as mere instruments to help satisfyhuman interest (DeGrazia, 2002; Fudge,2002). A number of notable philosopherswere also influenced by this line of thinkingand also viewed animals as being belowhumans and therefore we had no dutytowards them. Notably, Immanuel Kant dis-missed animals from moral considerationon the grounds that they were not rationalbeings and Rene Descartes was also simi-larly dismissive of animals describing themas organic machines that could not sufferpain (Dobson, in press). In his defence ofhunting as an ethical activity, Vitali (1990)adopts this type of reasoning stating `[Onceonly humans manifest such powers ofreflection and choice, ..., it follows thatonly humans can and should be regarded asmoral agents having moral rights.Consequently, only humans should beregarded as having natural (as opposed tolegal) rights to life, freedom from harm, andfreedom from non-consensual interference.'(p. 75). In relation to animals, Vitali (1990)goes on to claim that they 'have no naturalrights and thus no claim upon a principle ofconstraint that limits how, when or whythey may be treated by human beings'(p. 75). For Vitali, there is no moral reasonwhy animals should not be hunted as theyare not included in the sphere of moral con-sideration as they are incapable of rationalthoughts and therefore cannot act as moralagents. From this perspective Vitali (1990)also emphasizes that due to the experientialbenefits that hunting can have for humans(in terms of psychological and physicalhealth) hunting is a natural good and a mor-ally worthy activity.

Not all defenders of hunting ignore theneed to widen the sphere of moral consid-eration beyond humans. The prime defenceof hunting lies in what is commonly referredto as an 'environmental ethic'. In its sim-plest form the environmental ethic concedesthat anything can be done to a componentof an ecosystem (e.g. animal or plant),


provided that the action does not place thewhole ecosystem at risk (O'Neil et al., 2008).Trophy hunting is therefore morally permis-sible provided that any individual speciesthat is targeted does not belong to an endan-gered species (and hunting them would putthe species further at risk) or that the activ-ity does undue damage to the ecosystem.

Unfortunately for Vitali (1990), hisdefence of hunting from the absolute dis-missal perspective is flawed. It is widelyaccepted that not all human beings are capa-ble of rational thought or can command lan-guage (notably human infants and thosehumans with severe learning difficulties)and excluding them from moral considera-tion can be troubling. Even though somecategories of humans and all animals can-not act as moral agents, as they are unable tomake moral decisions, they can be affected(both positively and negatively) by suchdecisions and are therefore often referred toas moral patients (Regan, 2004; Franklin,2005). In order to include such moralpatients into the sphere of moral considera-tion, the boundary for consideration hasbeen extended beyond the limits of rationalthought and the command of language. Theboundary is now commonly set to includeall sentient beings, i.e. all those that arecapable of experiencing pain, most notablymammals, birds and (perhaps) some fish.This stance has been supported by notablephilosophers including Mary Midgley(1983) and Peter Singer (1993, 1995). Singer(1993, p. 57) wrote Ìf a being suffers, therecan be no moral justification for refusing totake that suffering into consideration'. Forthose who acknowledge sentience as thebasis for moral consideration, hunting canbe seen as immoral as it can cause sufferingto animals through the stress of the chase,injury and ultimately death.

Loftin (1984) proposes a form of utili-tarianism as a third way in which the ethicsof hunting can be evaluated. Utilitarianismis an ethical perspective which makes judg-ments as to what is the right thing to dobased on the consequences of an action (a socalled teleological approach to ethics) andensuring that the greatest good is achievedfor the greatest number of those with

interests in the action (Dobson, in press).From a hunting perspective utilitarianismhas the potential to combine elements of theenvironmental ethic (i.e. concern for theecosystem) with concerns for individualanimals. Hunting can be considered ethicaland a sentient animal can be killed providedthat there are proven beneficial conse-quences that are derived from the death ofthe animal. These benefits can include thecontinued survival of the species (as withthe white rhino example) or the wider pro-tection of the ecosystem which can be madepossible through mechanisms such as therevenue gained from selling hunting per-mits, the advocacy for conservation prac-tices promoted by the hunting lobby andfinancial benefits that can be derived forlocal communities in places such as theCongo or Cameroon. In his utilitarian rea-soning Loftin (1984) recognizes that animalsdeserve moral consideration but concludesthat certain animals can be hunted for thegreater good, describing those animals whodie as 'martyrs' (p.248).

A final objection to hunting and espe-cially trophy hunting that is often raisedby opponents to these activities relates tothe underlying motivation of participants.As outlined above many sports huntersengage in hunting to reconnect with natureand trophy hunters to gain an extrinsicreward from their experience. Issues ofhuman pleasure/enjoyment are thereforeunderlying the motivations to take part inhunting. For some this is perfectly accept-able, for example, Vitali (1990) considersthat only persons have rights, there is noth-ing wrong with hunting for food or trophiesso long as the ecosystem is not jeopardized(as this can have negative consequencesfor human well-being) and he defends thepleasure that can be derived from huntingas a moral good as it has a benefit to humanhealth. Midgley (1983) identifies that allsentient beings have 'interests' which shedifferentiates between 'trivial' and 'urgent'.Trivial interests can be considered to beinterests that may be beneficial to sentientbeings but are not necessary for the avoid-ance of pain or long-term survival. Urgentinterests may be considered to be those

96 J. Dobson

that relate to the avoidance of pain or suf-fering by sentient beings. Midgley (1983)highlights 'however far down the queueanimals may be placed, it is still possiblein principle for their urgent needs to takeprecedence over people's trivial ones'(p. 17). There is therefore a question ofwhether hunting and especially trophyhunting is providing only for a trivialhuman interest which can be met in otherways, whilst impinging on an urgent inter-est of the target animal, its life.

Inevitably this line of argument returnsus to the fact that it is not only hunting thatcan cause animals to suffer; so-called non-consumptive wildlife tourism activities alsohave the ability to cause suffering to ani-mals. An ethical theory known as theDoctrine of Double Effect (DDE) may helpunpack the subtle ethical differencesbetween hunting and wildlife watching.Central to DDE is that it makes a moral dis-tinction between what is an intended out-come of an action and what is merelyforeseen as a side effect (Driver, 2007). Thisdistinction can therefore help to distinguishbetween hunting and many forms of wild-life watching. Within hunting there is anexplicit intention to kill the animal and thekill is central to the hunter's experience andwithout it the experience is not the same(Vitali, 1990). An added issue within trophyhunting is that there is an explicit intentionto take some aspect of the dead animal todisplay as a trophy. It can be argued that itis this intention to cause harm that setshunting apart from many wildlife-watchingactivities where although the activity cancause problems for the target animal (e.g.disturbance or stress) it is not necessarilyintentional.

Conclusion

Hunting has played a central role inhumans becoming the planet's dominantspecies. However, during the past 100years, hunting has undergone a transfor-mation in Western societies, moving awayfrom being an activity born of necessity toone that is undertaken for pleasure. This

transformation has been controversial andhas raised a number of ethical questionsregarding the way humans utilize animals.It has been shown that defining huntingand fishing activities as consumptiveusers of wildlife and those that watchwildlife as non-consumptive users isproblematic and this dualism is consid-ered too simplistic by those who defendhunting activities.

Those hunters who travel outside oftheir local environment with the purpose ofkilling an animal to gain a trophy are widelyderided in hunting literature and are con-trasted against sports hunters who are oftenconsidered to be both at one with their envi-ronment and strong advocates for its protec-tion. Despite this, some argue that thetrophy-hunting industry has an importantrole to play in the economic development ofless-developed countries and can also helpin environmental protection and speciesconservation. Opposed to this are critics oftrophy hunting who argue that taking pleas-ure from killing an animal is morally wrongand that, in some cases, the trophy huntingcan have more negative than positiveimpacts.

The issue of trophy hunting provides auseful issue through which to apply differ-ent ethical viewpoints regarding human/environment/animal relationships. Thosewho defend trophy hunting do so eitherfrom a perspective of absolute dismissal orfrom an environmental ethic, defendingtheir actions on the basis that it is theecosystem that has moral worth. Those whocriticize trophy hunting tend to ascribeanimals with some form of moral rights andargue that killing an animal for a trophyviolates the urgent interest of the animal(i.e. by taking its life) to satisfy a trivialinterest of the hunter (i.e. taking pleasurefrom the kill and the gaining of a trophy).Even within hunters there can be conflict-ing and confusing emotions felt at themoment of the kill as O'Kelly (2007)highlights:

Relief, sadness, satisfaction - those mixedemotions that hunters experience at theconclusion of a successful hunt - floodedthrough me. Relief at having found my ram,


relief that my shot had been good and myram hadn't suffered. Sadness that this ramwould never again graze on the banks ofthat little river. Satisfaction that the hunthad played a small part in ensuring thathis offspring would feed on the banks ofthat little river. And also hope that the areawould be protected for future generationsof bushbuck - and hunters.

O'Kelly (2007, p. 47).

The arguments relating to trophy huntingare difficult to resolve and will no doubtcarry on into the future. Should we place therights of individual animals above humanpleasure or should we accept that it is a nec-essary evil that, in the long term, can bringabout positive enhancements for the naturalenvironment and the local communities inwhich it takes place?

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trophy hunting in Western China. Oryx 36,1-9.Hemmingway, E. (2004) Green Hills of Africa. Arrow Books, London.Knight, B.R. (2010) Death of the Exmoor emperor. Available at: http : / /www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/

wildlife/8089207/Death-of-the-Exmoor-Emperor.html (accessed 27 December 2010).Leader-Williams, N., Milledge, S., Adcock, K., Brooks, M., Conway, A., Knight, M., Mainka, S., Martin, E.B.

and Teferi, T. (2005) Trophy hunting of black rhino Diceros bicornis: proposals to ensure its future sustain-abi I ity. Journal of International Wildlife Law and Policy 8,1-11.

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Lindsey, RA., Alexander, R., Frank, L.G., Mathieson, A. and Romanach, S.S. (2006) Potential of trophy huntingto create incentives for wildlife conservation in Africa where alternative wildlife-based land uses may notbe viable. Animal Conservation 9, 283-291.

Loftin, R.F. (1984) The morality of hunting. Environmental Ethics 6 (3) 241-250.Loftin, R.F. (1988) Plastic hunting and real hunting. Behavioural and Political Animal Studies 1, 317-323.Lovelock, B. (2008) An introduction to consumptive wildlife tourism. In: Lovelock, B. (ed.) Tourism and the

Consumption of Wildlife: Hunting, Shooting and Sport Fishing. Routledge, London, pp. 3-30.Mbaiwa, J.E. (2008) The success and sustainability of consumptive wildlife tourism in Africa. In: Lovelock, B.

(eds). Tourism and the Consumption of Wildlife: Hunting, Shooting and Sport Fishing. Routledge, London,pp. 141-154.

Midgley, M. (1983) Animals And Why They Matter. The University of Georgia Press, Athens, Georgia.Newsome, D., Dowling, R. and Moore, S. (2005) Wildlife Tourism. Channel View Publications, London.Novelli, M. and Humavindu, M.N. (2005) Wildlife tourism - wildlife uses vs. local gain. Trophy hunting in

Namibia. In: Novelli, M. (eds) Niche Tourism Contemporary Issues, Trends and Cases. Elsevier, London,pp. 171-182.

O'Kelly, W. (2007) Beginner's Luck. Magnum (April), 46-47.O'Neil, J., Holland, A. and Light, A. (2008) Environmental Values. Routledge, London.Regan, T. (2004) The Case for Animal Rights. University of California Press, Los Angeles.Shackley, M. (1996) Wildlife Tourism. International Thomson Business Press, London.Sillanpaa, P. (2008) The Scandinavian sporting tour, 1830-1914. In: Lovelock, B (ed.) Tourism and the

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areas in the Congo Basin. Oryx 4, 339-345.

7 Ecotourism: A Maturing Discoursewith Some Established Controversy

Stephen W. Boyd''Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management,

University of Ulster, Northern Ireland, UK

Introduction

While ecotourism has a well establishedintellectual and empirical domain, itremains a controversial topic worthy ofinclusion in an edited text on controver-sies. Weaver and Lawton (2007) provide asynthesis of ecotourism research coveringa period of almost 20 years. The presentauthor recognizes ecotourism as a topic thathas been the subject of considerable dis-course by tourism scholars and those inrelated fields, but where there have emergeda number of areas or themes that remain, asnoted above, controversial. The term 'con-troversy' can be considered an emotive termsuggesting major disagreement about ecot-ourism's definitions, meanings, operationsand implications. In this chapter, a numberof issues are raised and opened regardingthe extent of ecotourism's controversies;namely, the evolving discussion over whatis meant by the term itself, the contextsand spaces in which it takes place, under-standing the ecotourist (i.e. demand), ethi-cal dimensions concerning ecotourism andecotourist activity, understanding the valueof ecotourism given the impacts it generatesand changes it can bring to destinations,stewardship, the extent of local participa-tion present in planning, development andmanagement, and finally the extent to which

the sub-sector has become professionalizedand the value of certification programmesas best practice and benchmarks againstwhich to measure. These issues frame theshape of the chapter as it unfolds.

Prior to the 1980s, ecotourism as a spe-cific term was never referred to within tour-ism discourse, nor did it appear in theacademic literature. By the turn of the mil-lennium, as part of the industry reacting tothe challenge of conducting its business ina more responsible manner, ecotourism emer-ged as the form of tourism that embracedthe principles of sustainable development.A search for the word ècotourism' in CABI'sdatabase of over 9 million bibliographicand full-text applied life sciences articlesand CAB abstracts reveals the exponentialgrowth of academic inquiry that took placebetween 1980 and 2011, with only three men-tions in the 1980s, 567 mentions in the 1990s,1871 mentions in the 2000s, and 179 men-tions since 2010 (this is discussed in moredetail later in Table 7.2). This level ofresponse is perhaps a reflection of research-ers embracing the term, but also a reflectionof the relevance the topic played and con-tinues to play in wider policy dialoguessuch as, for example, sustainable develop-ment. The data given above are also reflec-tive of an area where research and dialoguehas become well established, as reflected in


100 S.W. Boyd

the emergence of an array of textbooksfocusing on the topic in general (typically,Fennell, 2003; Weaver, 2008). Such books,designed for undergraduate and postgradu-ate audiences, practitioners and scholarsalso include specific topics within ecotour-ism such as policy and planning, and indig-enous populations and their connections tothe term (Fennell and Dowling, 2003;Zeppel, 2006). Evidence of a maturing fieldof inquiry is also reflected in the establish-ment of the Journal of Ecotourism, which,in 2011, celebrated its tenth year. What isperhaps rather surprising is that across allten volumes, there has only been one spe-cial issue devoted to a specialized sub-topic, aboriginal ecotourism in volume 8,issue 2 in 2008, suggestive that as a field ofinquiry the research remains fragmentedwith volumes comprising a diverse range ofissues. This idea is nothing new as thescope of research on specialized topicsrequires a body of scholars focused on cer-tain dimensions within the field and toooften researchers' interests remain frag-mented as opposed to coalescing aroundspecific issues.

The growth of research undertaken onecotourism during the past 25 years is alsoin part reflective of what Jafari (2001), inreferring to where tourism research wasgoing, termed adaptancy and knowledge-based platforms. Ecotourism and its associ-ation with the wider concept of sustainabledevelopment embraced the idea that tour-ism options in destination regions wereaimed at bringing about positive change andoutcomes for local people and attentionturned to ecotourism as one of those pre-ferred options. Linked to this were the con-nections between ecotourism and alternativeforms of tourism, where, in essence, ecot-ourism was the preferred 'alternative' fordestinations to follow. As a form of tourismit became part of a larger grouping of tour-ism types that were assigned the label ofbeing 'alternatives' to mass tourism. Weaver(2008) noted that they were quickly labelledas the 'ideal types', and viewed by manyacademics as being at the opposite end ofthe spectrum to mass tourism that receivedthe stigma of being 'bad' whereas the

alternatives were perceived and received as`good'. Ecotourism has co-evolved with anumber of related types and activities, suchas alternative tourism, sustainable tourism,nature-based tourism and wildlife tourism(especially wildlife and whale watching). Itis because of how the term has evolved thatconsiderable thought has been given to howto define ecotourism.

Evolving Discussion on whatis meant by Ecotourism

As with many areas of academic inquiry,the early definitions often gain the mostresonance with the emerging base of schol-ars in a particular field. The term ècotour-ism' was first coined by Ceballos-Lascurainin 1983 but only translated into English in1987 in his paper 'The Future of Ecotourism',where he defined it to mean 'travel to rela-tively undisturbed or uncontaminated natu-ral areas with the specific object of studying,admiring, and enjoying the scenery and itswild plants and animals, as well as anyexisting cultural aspects (both past andpresent) found in these areas' (Ceballos-Lascurain, 1987, p. 14). The attention thisdefinition has received is in part the factthat it was cited by Boo (1990) in her sem-inal work: Ecotourism: Potentials andPitfalls, which in turn became the mostcited work in papers across the 1990s and isstill commonly referred to in current pub-lications. As a direct consequence, theLascurain definition itself has been widelycited. Lascurain's definition was in generalan appropriate one as it claimed the moralhigh ground for ecotourism, stressing a pas-sive non-consumptive involvement in natu-ral settings, implying minimal impacts. Boo(1990, p. 4) provided a more concise defini-tion namely ècotourism is nature tourismthat contributes to conservation, throughgenerating funds for protected areas, creatingemployment opportunities for local commu-nities, and offering environmental education'.Boo's reference to Ceballos-Lascurain andthe emphasis on what ecotourism is about,namely four elements - its focus is on nature

Ecotourism 101

tourism, protection for the environment, thecreation of jobs for local people, and offer-ing environmental education - has shapedmuch of the discussion on how ecotourismhas been defined over the years, and isreflective in some of the earlier definitionsduring the 1990s (see Table 7.1).

Table 7.1 also illustrates the divergenceof opinion as to what the key tenets of theterm are. Diamantis (1999) noted that mostof the early definitions described the char-acteristics of the destination and trip taken.He offered a detailed critique of these earlydefinitions (not something this author plansto do here), assessing each on the extent towhich it emphasized what he viewed asthe three key components of ecotourism:

natural based, sustainable and educational.He concluded that it was 'more appropriateto treat ecotourism as a concept and illus-trate the components and issues impliedby ecotourism rather than the issues ofecotourism', noting that most of the earlydefinitions contained these three essentialcomponents (Diamantis, 1999, p. 116). Hiswork would later form the basis of moredetailed examination of what were the keytenets of ecotourism.

A number of important early worksemerged that provided some useful simpli-fication over the definition that allows theterm to have practical relevance. Early workby Wight (1993) argued that it was best ifecotourism was viewed as a spectrum that

Table 7.1. Evolving discourse over defining the term ècotourism'.

1989 Ècotourism is a form of tourism inspired primarily by the natural history of an area, includingits indigenous cultures. The ecotourist visits relatively undeveloped areas in the spirit ofappreciation, participation and sensitivity. The ecotourist practices a non-consumptive useof wildlife and natural resources and contributes to the visited area through labour orfinancial means aimed at directly benefiting the conservation of the site and the economicwell-being of the local residents...' Ziffer (1989, p. 6).

1991 Ècotourism is nature tourism that contributes to conservation, through generating fundsfor protected areas, creating employment opportunities for local communities,and offering environmental education' Boo (1991, p. 4).

1991 The Ecotourism Society definition: 'The purposeful travel to natural areas, to understandthe cultures and natural history of the environment, taking care not to alter the integrityof the ecosystem, while producing economic opportunities that would make the conservationof natural resources beneficial to local people...' Epler Wood et al. (1991).

1993 'Travel to remote or natural areas which aims to enhance understanding and appreciationof the natural environment and cultural heritage, avoiding damage or deteriorationof the environment and the experience for others.' Figgis (1993, p. 8).

1994 Nature-based tourism that is focused on provision of learning opportunities while providinglocal and regional benefits, while demonstrating environmental, social, cultural,and economic sustainability' Forestry Tasmania (1994, p. ii).

1994 Nature-based tourism that involves education and interpretation of the natural environmentand is managed to be ecologically sustainable' Australia Department of Tourism (1994, p. 4).

1996 'A responsible nature travel experience, that contributes to the conservation of theecosystem while respecting the integrity of host communities and, where possible,ensuring that activities are complementary, or at least compatible, with existingresource-based uses present in the ecosystem' Boyd and Butler (1996a, p. 386)

1996 Ècotourism is a form of tourism which fosters environmental principles, with an emphasison visiting and observing natural areas' Boyd and Butler (1996b, p. 558).

1996 'Low impact nature tourism which contributes to the maintenance of species and habitatseither directly through a contribution to conservation and/or indirectly by providing revenueto the local community sufficient for local people to value, and therefore protect, theirwildlife heritage area as a source of income' Goodwin (1996, p. 288).

1997 Ècotourism is tourism and recreation that is both nature-based and sustainable' Lindbergand McKercher (1997, p. 67).

From Diamantis (1999).

102 S.W. Boyd

included a variety of products as opposed todefining it from a narrow, product specificperspective. Steward and Sekartjakrarini(1994) stated that a definitional structure ofecotourism was based on two approaches:(i) the activity-based perspective of ecotour-ism; and (ii) the definition regarding eco-tourism as an industry. The former wouldsee ecotourism defined according to whatecotourists do or should do and the valuedimension behind the activity in termsof its benefit to that particular setting,whereas the latter focused on what eco-tourism could offer communities as a toolfor conservation and local development.Perhaps of all the early scholars writingon ecotourism, Wall (1994) was the mostcritical suggesting that ecotourism wasessentially just nature travel that currentlyexists, and that the term was merely arepackaging exercise of an old product butin a new way; 'old wine in new bottles'. Inthe case of North America, the characteris-tics between ecotourism in natural settingswere argued to be broadly similar to theconcept of wilderness recreation (Boydand Butler, 1996a).

Continua are a useful way to illustratediversity of opinion and possibilities, andOrams (1995) provided us with what hetermed 'a continuum of ecotourism para-digms' where an ecotourism spectrum maybe positioned between two extreme poles: alow human responsibility pole againstwhich it may be argued that all tourismcould be viewed as ecotourism and a highhuman responsibility pole where ecotour-ism was considered impossible as an activ-ity. Oram's ecotourism spectrum rangedfrom 'passive' as one moved toward thelow human responsibility pole end whereecotourism activity seeks to minimize dam-age to 'active' where ecotourism contrib-utes toward resources protection. Diamantis(1999) assessed early definitions againstthe continuum, arguing that, for example,Ceballos-Lascurain's definition was bestviewed as passive, positioned toward thelow responsibility pole, whereas Boo's(1990) definition could be seen to be situ-ated in the active position toward the highresponsibility pole; in short it demonstrated

that the body of researchers engaged inecotourism research were a broad churchwhere differing positions could be accom-modated. In contrast, Blamey (1997) arguedthat there was a need to make the distinc-tion between intentions and outcomes aswell as between normative and descriptiveperspectives, preferring a minimalist defi-nition that involved a mixture of intentionsand outcomes. He cites the AustralianCommonwealth Department of Tourism(1994, p. 7) definition within their NationalEcotourism Strategy (NES) whereby ecot-ourism is reduced to three components ordimensions: that it is nature based (sup-portive of the position taken by Boo (1990));environmentally educated (supportive ofCeballos-Lascurain's (1987) thinking), andis sustainably managed and/or conserva-tion supporting (supportive of the positiontaken by Buckley (1994) ). Blamey (1997, p.115) quickly came to the conclusion thatthere exists no quick-fix to arriving at anòperational' definition of ecotourism andthat '... different definitions will be suited todifferent circumstances. Compromise willhave to be made...as the choice of defini-tion is inherently subjective'. He noted thatecotourism may represent a distinct seg-ment of the nature-based tourism marketand suggested that any movement towardan operational definition of ecotourismwould involve a subset of four main dimen-sions, namely size of operation (smallgroups/personalized), education/interpreta-tion, sustainability in intention (demand)and sustainability in outcome (demand plussupply). He listed ten factors that were rele-vant to be considered in arriving at adefinition:

1. The combination that best describes cur-rent demand2. Purpose of market research3. The combination that is preferred froma normative growth perspective4. The combination that is preferred froma normative sustainability perspective5. Scale of market research6. Focus of market research7. Measurement issues associated with anygiven combination

Ecotou rism 103

8. Nature of attractions, current manage-ment practices and tourist population9. Funds available for market research

10. Need for consistency with other research.

Blamey's research led to the conclusion thatattempting to provide a single definition ofecotourism that is suitable for all applica-tions was a futile exercise. The preferredcourse of action is to focus on an appropri-ate minimalist definition based on just thenature-based and educative/experientialdimensions; hence a return to the positionadopted by Ceballos-Lascurain himself.

Developments toward identifying keytenets of the term were seen in the work byFennell (2001) who undertook a contentanalysis of 85 ecotourism definitions. Hefound five variables that were most com-mon within the definitions:

A reference to where ecotourism occurs,e.g. natural areasConservationCultureBenefits to localsEducation.

Fennell identified that most definitionsemerged between 1991 and 1996 with themost comprehensive of these emergingbetween 1994 and 1996, as seen in Table 7.1.He noted a changing emphasis in howecotourism was conceptualized over time,stating that beyond 1996 there was greateremphasis on variables such as conservation,education, ethics, sustainability, impacts andlocal benefits. In highlighting these aspects,he built on the three key components ofDiamantis (1999). Donohoe and Needham(2006) made further progress toward clarify-ing key tenets. They developed a usefulframework to assist in the development ofecotourism policy and applications by dis-entangling the various sets of themes thathad evolved in the definitional debateover ecotourism. Their framework wasbased on key tenets of ecotourism, wheretenets represent a set of established fun-damental beliefs central to ecotourism.They identified the following six as centralto what they saw as an evolving contempo-rary definition:

1. Nature based2. Preservation/conservation3. Education4. Sustainability5. Distribution of benefits6. Ethics/responsibility/awareness.

The sixth tenet listed above was emer-gent across ecotourism discourse and hasprovoked some heated debate and opinion,as described later in the present chapter.

A number of broad conclusions may bearrived at with respect to the definitionalcontroversies. First, maybe there has beentoo much attention given to defining theterm. Fennell's (2001) work would attest tothis; but this is to be expected among theemergent paradigm/school of researchersinterested in this topic. Second, the debatehas been more one of discourse as opposedto one of major controversy as many defini-tions have emerged where the number ofemergent themes or dimensions has variedbetween scholars. Recent work by Fennell(2001), following on from that by Donohoeand Needham (2006), has provided whatWeaver and Lawton (2007, p. 1170) see asalmost 'near consensus...that ecotourismshould satisfy three core criteria: (i) attrac-tions should be predominantly naturebased; (ii) visitor interactions with thoseattractions should be focused on learning oreducation; and (iii) experience and productmanagement should follow principles andpractices associated with ecological, socio-cultural and economic sustainability'. Butto what extent is this reflected in the volu-minous collection of research published onecotourism? The information compiled inTable 7.2 clearly demonstrates the exponen-tial growth in published works on ecotour-ism over successive decades, starting in the1980s up to the current time.

What clearly emerges from Table 7.2 isthat if you take what seem to be acceptedcriteria of ecotourism, namely that it isnature based, occurring predominantly inprotected areas, that it generates impacts, isconnected to sustainability and has somelearning component, some of these criteriaget more attention within the publishedliterature than others. For instance, most

104 S.W. Boyd

Table 7.2. Growth in cited works on ecotourism and occurrence of key defining criteria.

ProtectedNature+

learning+Year/period Ecotourism areas Nature Impacts Sustainability Learning sustainability

1980-1989 3 1 2 0 0 0 0

1990-1999 567 114 460 226 278 16 92000-2009 1871 329 1325 585 840 93 342010-present 179 41 141 41 73 3 3

Total 2620 485 1928 852 1191 112 46

Based on author's analysis of CAB Direct.

works emphasize it to be nature based,followed by a connection to sustainability,with the learning dimension getting theleast mentions. When three dimensions arecombined (nature, sustainability and learn-ing), what emerges is that very few of thecited works name all three, suggesting thatthere exists a plethora of published work onecotourism that either deliberately or coin-cidentally place emphasis on certain tenetsover others, that author(s) do not see thevalue of a detailed discourse on definition,or maybe it is the outcome of limitations ofcombining certain dimensions and relyingon a database where definition criteria needto be cited as keywords. This is not a futileexercise here as it may just illustrate thatbroad consensus around defining ecotour-ism is based on acceptance of very few maincriteria.

Understanding the Ecotourist

The controversies regarding the term eco-tourism has been matched by the concomi-tant term ècotourist', with theircharacteristics and values coming into thespotlight. Much of the discussion hasfocused on developing typologies, rangingfrom early work of Wilson and Laarman(1988) with the emphasis on extremes:`hard' through to 'soft', where the formerrelated to dedicated natural history eco-tourists, and the latter equated to thosetravellers that combined nature-orientedtravel with other mass tourism activities.

Variants of this spectrum were offered, forexample, by Ziffer (1989) who presented atypology of four types: hard-core, dedicatednature, mainstream nature and casualnature; Boyd and Butler (1996b) who pro-duced a three-type typology: ecospecial-ists (individuals, high knowledge, littleinfrastructure, limited impact), intermedi-ate (small groups use basic transport, relyon pre-arranged facilities) and ecogeneral-ists (large groups, organized tours, highlevel of comfort and facilities); and Weaver(1998) who simplified the spectrum think-ing to two broad categories: primary pur-pose (PP) and popular, casual, passive anddiversionary (PCPD). These are all basedon the hard-soft model. An interestingdeparture from this position was offeredby Weaver and Lawton (2002) throughwhat they termed the 'structured ecotour-ist' who acted both hard and soft depend-ing on how they interacted with natureand the type of food and accommodationsought, respectively. While the discussionover how the ecotourist market has beensegmented in terms of motivation, attitudeand behaviour has focused on typologydevelopment, Weaver (2008, p. 47) notedthat the difficultly of developing a univer-sally agreed model around the soft-hardcontinuum is addressing the wider ques-tion of 'whether ecotourism classificationsshould be based on individuals or prod-ucts, or a combination of both?'. Part of theremaining challenge is the need to acceptthat ecotourism, and hence ecotourists,are linked to other types of tourism andtourists.

Ecotourism 105

Ecotourism and linkagesto Other Terms

While the focus in the previous sections wason defining the term and the participant, anargument may be made that the term èco-tourism' is not, in fact, the preferred termused in the literature. Based on CAB Directas a database, nature tourism recorded sub-stantially more mentions than ecotourism,14,095 compared to 2620, respectively, andas Table 7.3 reveals other related terms areclearly favoured or reflect more accuratelywhat the research was focused on. It is per-haps not surprising the preference to naturetourism or nature tourists as Table 7.2 illus-trated that most mentions on ecotourismstated its nature component.

An alternative argument is that the termècotourism' is an industry label and that

Table 7.3. Ecotourism and related terms.

Term Mentions (1980-2011)

Ecotourism 2,620Eco-tourism 198Ecotourists 230Nature tourism 14,095Nature tourists 5,378Nature-based tourism 399Wildlife watching 119Whale watching 82Wildlife tourism 1,877Alternative tourism 2,490Sustainable tourism 6,068

the term gives the industry legitimacy butthat outside of industry much of academiaprefers to talk of nature tourism, recogniz-ing what they are writing about the industrysees as ecotourism.

Table 7.4 illustrates that linkagebetween ecotourism, alternative tourismand sustainable tourism in publications inthe period 1980-2010. A number of trendsemerge. First, there exist more publicationswhere ecotourism is linked with sustainabletourism as opposed to linkages betweenecotourism and alternative tourism; a trendthat is present for all decades examined;second, while the number of works thatmake reference to all three terms are evidentfrom the 1990s, the trend is that the numberof mentions increases over time; third, sus-tainable tourism is more researched thanany of the other two terms, but that publica-tions/mentions increase for all three as onemoves through the decades. A final point tonote from the table is that research intoalternative tourism preceded that on eco-tourism, and that the former was moreestablished by the time work emerged onthe latter. Caution needs to be exercisedhere into over-reading the figures as a quicksearch shows citing of work on nature tour-ism was well established in the 1980s (3444mentions) and that research that wasfocused on ecotourism took place under thewider term of nature tourism until ecotour-ism as a term was first coined. It should,however, be also pointed out that mentions/publications on nature tourism over the

Author's analysis of CAB Direct search.

Table 7.4. Ecotourism and related terms.

1990s and 2000s remained considerable,

Ecotourism + Ecotourism +

Ecotourism +alternativetourism +

Alternative Sustainable alternative sustainable sustainablePeriod of time Ecotourism tourism tourism tourism tourism tourism

1980-1989 3 451 133 0 0 0

1990-1999 567 604 1426 73 278 462000-2009 1871 1280 3838 153 840 822010-present 179 155 671 14 110 9

Total 2620 2490 6068 240 1228 137

Author's analysis of recorded mentions in CAB Direct.

106 S.W. Boyd

2793 and 6762, respectively, and from thestart of the current decade more than 1000publications on nature tourism arerecorded.

Research on alternative tourism was aresponse to industry recognizing the needto act in a responsible manner to the impactsand change that tourism can bring to desti-nations and the emergence of a body ofresearch that formed the base for Jafari's(2001) adaptancy and knowledge-basedplatforms mentioned above. As Table 7.4demonstrates, alternative tourism was notalways about ecotourism; much was focusedon cultural tourism, adventure tourism andcommunity-driven tourism. While ecotour-ism had a role, to some, it formed a hybridbetween nature and cultural tourism.Fennell (2001) refers to it as ACE tourism, aterm that has not been widely embraced byscholars (see comments in Weaver andLawton, 2007). Alternative tourism was thechallenge to be an alternative to the masstourism that had emerged under the modernera of tourism with its preference for sunand sea/beach environments. Early com-mentators were, however, quick to chal-lenge the benefits of alternative tourism. Inparticular, Butler (1990) argued that in manycases the negative impacts from alternativeforms may be greater in certain settings thanwhat may result from traditional and masstourism activity. Characteristics of ecotour-ism are similar to those of alternative tour-ism: small scale, local benefits, controlledleakage, positive impacts and, while somecommentators view ecotourism to be a sub-set of alternative tourism (Fennell, 2003),others (Weaver, 2001, 2005) see the meritsof destinations providing forms of mass eco-tourism where a strong regulatory environ-ment is in place. This latter developmentleads to another area of controversy: whatplaces and spaces should be considered asecotourism environments?

Broadening Ecotourism Environments

In an early paper, Boyd and Butler (1999)argued the existence of a tiered structure of

ecotourism destinations: 'primary'destinations that conveyed the images ofbeing exotic, unique, having diversity offlora and fauna, tropical, often found in theless developed countries (LDCs) and pre-dominantly set within protected landscapesas opposed to private developments; 'sec-ondary' destinations and the attraction ofecotourism to the economies of peripheralareas such as Australasia, Canada and theremote landscapes of polar regions; and 'ter-tiary' destinations of the less exotic temper-ate landscapes of the more advancedeconomies where ecotourism often takesplace in areas with a long tradition of extrac-tive industries. During the past decade therehas been limited change in the broad devel-opment of ecotourism spaces. However, insome 'secondary' destinations such asCanada, Australia and New Zealand, eco-tourism has become a significant tourismniche. Publicly protected landscapes arepreferred over private protected reserves,the former because of the formal environ-mental protection they offer (Weaver, 2008).However, there are a number of well recog-nized and visited private protected reservesin South Africa and Kenya, as well as thefamous Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve inCosta Rica. As of late, some authors havechallenged the assumption of ecotourism asa non-consumptive activity and one focusedon natural environments, thereby broaden-ing our understanding of what constitutesan ecotourism environment (Novel li et al.,2006).

In the context of southern Africa, adebate is emerging as to whether or not eco-tourism can and should embrace forms ofconsumptive tourism such as sport or tro-phy hunting, which can be beneficial to aregion's economy, environments and localcommunities (Novel li and Humavindu,2005; Novel li et al., 2006). The argumentthat these authors make is that sport andtrophy hunting are important uses of wild-life; they are low-volume, high-value activi-ties that bring greater benefit compared tonon-consumptive viewing and the taking ofphotographs. Furthermore, these activitiesoccur alongside non-consumptive activi-ties, are both part of conservation arguments

Ecotou rism 107

and policies, and that, in many cases,although trophy hunting is viewed as verycontroversial (Hofer, 2002), it has been theimpetus for wider legislation, protectionstrategies and reallocation of monies bygovernment agencies toward management,protection and nature conservation (Novel liand Humavindu, 2005).

Less controversial is the emergence ofresearch supportive of urban ecotourism(Higham and Luck, 2002; Weaver, 2005).Weaver (2005) outlined potential urbanspaces, ranging from remnant natural habi-tat to downtown high rises. Higham andLuck (2002) noted that the established defi-nition of ecotourism has, within its defini-tion, contradictions and challenges for urbanecotourism, as such environments were nei-ther unmodified spaces (Boyd and Butler,1996b; Blamey, 1997) or pristine, and thatecotourism visitor operations and activitiesbe low in impact (Acott et al., 1998; Honey,1999). Citing three New Zealand urban casestudies, Higham and Luck (2002) suggestthat urban ecotourism is not a contradictionin terms as it takes place in environmentsthat offer some degree of naturalness, thetransport costs are low and preferable interms of the environmental impacts of trans-portation, offer opportunity for mass educa-tion, and capture a larger audience thanecotourism in remote locations. As such,urban ecotourism offers a financially viablebusiness option. Their work points to theweaknesses inherent in definitional criteriathat are narrow in focus that have beenimposed on the ecotourism term, somethingof which the author of the present chapter isequally guilty!

Although not focused on a specificenvironmental context, there has emergedsome debate as to the relationship betweenthe size of an ecotourism business operationand the term ecotourism: is large-scale eco-tourism an oxymoron? Much of the earlyliterature on defining the characteristics ofecotourism claimed it to be small-scale tour-ism; something which is now being chal-lenged. Luck (2002) demonstrated howseveral large tour companies implementedpolicies and actions that minimized theimpacts on destinations. Weaver (2001)

argues that mass ecotourism can beharmonious with the environment and con-siders the implications of this claim for thetourism sector and for ecotourism spaces. Insome ecotourism destinations, such asKenya, the most visited national parks arewithin one day's drive of the coastal tour-ism belt north and south of Mombasa. Mosttourists take in that whole-day experienceas part of a traditional and predominantly`mass' beach holiday. What this examplemay allude to is that perhaps much, if notmost, of ecotourism may be viewed as masstourism. Provided ecotourism adheres toestablished criteria, Weaver (2008, p. 22)argues that 'it is not impossible to visualizea sophisticated nature-based interpretationcentre and surrounding high-tech trails thatare capable of supporting and educating alarge number of visitors in an environmen-tally sustainable and profitable way'.

It would not be contentious to state thatthe vast majority of ecotourism is focused onterrestrial (protected spaces) and marine set-tings (reefs, parks). What new regions/fron-tiers have ecotourism potential? Weaver(2011) makes a case for viewing the sky as anew horizon for nature-based tourism, refer-ring to this opportunity as celestial ecotour-ism, including travel to observatories andobservation of the aurora borealis and austra-lis. He states that celestial ecotourism existsonly as an ideal rather than as reality but thatthe ecotourism industry should embrace thisopportunity with the start toward designa-tion of dark sky reserves, which are currentlynot for tourism purposes but rather commu-nity and scientific benefit.

Part of the foregoing discussion on thebroadening of the places and spaces inwhich ecotourism occurs raises ethical con-cern over consumptive practices and activi-ties and has challenged whether or not theecotourist can be ethical in the activities inwhich they participate or observe.

Ethical Ecotourists?

Ethics can be a very controversial issue,and there has emerged healthy academic

108 S.W. Boyd

discussion that raises the challenge ofdefining ecotourists by ethical as opposed tobehavioural considerations. It is well estab-lished within the ecotourism literature thatif an activity is to be considered as ecotour-ism, there has to be an element of education,often where clients are given guided inter-pretation, resulting in the industry puttingin place codes of conduct and behaviour forspecific destination regions. Some of theearly discussion on this topic noted the needfor ecotourism to be based on principledvalues and ethics (Malloy and Fennell, 1998;Honey, 1999). Fennell (2004) argued that if aregion's ecotourism sector wishes to be per-ceived as responsible, it needs to be under-pinned by morals where there exists apractical reverence and respect by touristsfor nature. Buckley (2005, p. 129), whileagreeing philosophically with this position,argued on practical terms that it wasextremely difficult to incorporate an ethicaltest 'into operational criteria for any practi-cal application of ecotourism', and therebyit is not realistic to define ecotourism in eth-ical terms. His case study of viewing narwhalof the northern tip of Baffin Island in theCanadian High Arctic raised the issue ofhow an ethical ecotourist should behavegiven that alongside the ecotourism experi-ence the local Inuit communities areinvolved in hunting the narwhal not for sub-sistence but for cash. Buckley (2005) con-cludes that perhaps it is best that we defineecotourism without reference to ethical cri-teria, but that we expect ecotourists to actethically. Buckley's research note in 2005resulted in a direct response by Malloy(2009) who made the case that a 'genuine'ecotourist cannot be unethical if they trulyvalue the tenets of ecotourism and therebyact upon these values. He concludes thatecotourism must have ethical principles toavoid it becoming what he calls 'yet anotherinauthentic moral cloak that the marketplacewill exploit' (p. 73). This response by Malloyresulted in a reply by Buckley (2010, p. 169)where he defends his initial stance, stating`there are practical difficulties in defining anindustry subsector in terms of its intentionsof its customers', especially when balancingconcerns over the conservation of endangered

species with the concerns over the rightsand responsibilities of indigenous commu-nities to engage in traditional harvestingactivities. Such a discourse between schol-ars is rare in tourism academia, but more ofthis is warranted and vital within any com-munity of scholars if it helps in advancingthe field of inquiry (see Fennell and Malloy(2007) for a detailed discussion of ethics intourism).

Indigenous Stewardship

The discussion over ethical behaviour raisesthe wider issue of responsibility for steward-ship of the ecotourism resource base, in par-ticular when indigenous communities areinvolved. Zeppel (2006) points out the strongassociation between indigenous peoples,their culture and ecotourism on the basis ofargued links existing between their culturesand the natural environment. As noted ear-lier in the present chapter, Aboriginal eco-tourism was the topic of the Journal ofEcotourism's only special edition (the termAboriginal favoured over indigenous). Itwas rich with case studies from both thenorthern and southern hemisphere, whichoutline the many challenges associatedwith Aboriginal ecotourism. Fennell (2008,p. 129) questioned what he saw as the legiti-macy of ecological stewardship as an innatecharacteristic of traditional societies, argu-ing 'there may be serious philosophical andoperational problems inherent in packagingaboriginal ecotourism as having a superiorenvironmental ethic'. Literature on ecotour-ism and traditional societies is framedaround the three concepts of control, tradi-tional values and an environmental ethic.However, Fennell (2008) concluded thatthis sentiment lacks empirical evidenceand that history is replete with evidencewhere indigenous people are associated withover-hunting, consumptive activities andlack a conservation ethic. He concludes thatgiven the consumptive practices of manyindigenous ecotourism operators, it would bepreferable to position their activity as part ofnature-based tourism, free from the ethical

Ecotourism 109

restrictions on behaviour that are imperativeto ecotourism. As such, Fennell (2008)called for models showing the sustainableimplementation of indigenous ecotourism.Higgins-Desbiolloes (2009) challenged someof the assertions of the 'myth of indigenousstewardship' raised by Fennell (2008) andoffered a critical perspective on the capacityof indigenous ecotourism to foster more sus-tainable life-ways by transforming the eco-logical consciousness of participants andstakeholders in ecotourism. Writing about acase study of Camp Coorong in SouthAustralia, she points out that some indige-nous communities are using ecotourism toteach indigenous values in the hope of fos-tering transformations in consciousness.

A similar case is made by Colton andHarris (2007) who, in a study of First Nationpeople's ecotourism development forLennox Island, applied the four Cs of abo-riginal community development. These are:community economic development; com-munity empowerment; community learn-ing; and community wellness. The authorswere able to demonstrate the four Cs inaction, arguing that utilizing this type offramework helps communities begin toexplore how 'tourism might intentionally orunintentionally impact them both posi-tively and negatively' (Colton and Harris,2007, p. 233). What both these cases illus-trate, as do many within the ecotourism lit-erature, is the necessity to accurately assessthe value that ecotourism can bring to localregions and communities.

Valuing Ecotourism

The ecotourism literature abounds with dis-cussion over the benefits and costs (Pageand Dowling, 2002; Fennell, 2003; Weaver,2008). Focus has often been on the effects ofhuman observation on wildlife where eco-logical impacts are concerned. Where socio-cultural impacts are concerned, the focushas been on community-based ecotourismoperations and the need to empowercommunities, in particular indigenouscommunities. As for economic impacts,

attention has been on identifying whatmonetary value ecotourists are willing topay for the experience itself (Weaver andLawton, 2007). The extensive body of casestudies that focus on the impacts of ecotour-ism is not surprising as the topic of impactshas garnered more research in tourism cir-cles with perhaps the exception of sustain-able tourism development, of whichmitigating impacts is a key component.

Not so much a controversy but rather aneglect has been the limited study under-taken on the concept of natural capital(nature, scenery) toward valuing ecotour-ism as sustainable tourism. There are a fewexceptions. Muller (2000) approached eco-tourism from the position that it was an eco-nomic concept for ecological sustainabletourism, outlining a number of instrumentsto achieve it (environmental impact assess-ment, eco-auditing). He cautioned that eco-tourism cannot be considered as a panaceafor conservation and the protection of bio-diversity, nor can it alone be an economicsaviour to lift local people out of a condi-tion of poverty. Butcher (2006), focusing onrural settings in the LDCs, considers the roleof natural capital in the advocacy of eco-tourism as sustainable tourism using evi-dence from a number of non-governmentalorganizations (NGOs) that are developingecotourism as integrated conservation anddevelopment. He concludes that there is aclear emphasis on the non-consumption ofnatural capital in the advocacy of tourism assustainable development. Equally the con-servation of natural capital can be justifiedas an environmental imperative and as wor-thy as an economic resource for local com-munities through the revenues ecotourismgenerates. Butcher (2006) concludes thatdespite important differences existingwithin the advocacy of ecotourism as sus-tainable development, he is able to point toa shared strong sustainability approachwhere limited capacity exists for naturalcapital to be substituted by human capital.Stronza (2007) challenges the economicpromise that ecotourism offers for conserva-tion of natural resources. In a study of com-munity involvement in Peru, the social andeconomic changes were measured over the

110 S.W. Boyd

history of their involvement with the buildand co-management of an ecotourism lodge.Stronza noted that despite low economicreturn, many in the community had a will-ingness to be involved in ecotourism work,and that ecotourism was not perceived as anarrow economic tool for conservation, butthat it encouraged new values and socialrelations to form. Her findings illustrate thelimitations of measurement of value on thebasis of economic return as empowermentwithin communities to be involved canoften be of greater value to them. However,the extent to which local participation ispresent within ecotourism projects is oftenlimited or downplayed.

Absence of Local Participationin Ecotourism Discourse

Garrod (2003) noted the relative absence ofany effective discussion of local participa-tion within the established ecotourism liter-ature; exceptions being Drake (1991) andBrandon (1993) who stress that there is amoral issue to involve those people whowill be most affected by ecotourism opera-tions, as well as an economic benefits issuethat if local people are to buy in to the devel-opment of ecotourism they must achievegenuine and long-lasting benefits from it.Garrod, in developing a model to involvelocal participation in the planning and man-agement of ecotourism, argues that elementsof successful participatory planning of eco-tourism include the need for leadership,empowering the local community, linkingeconomic benefits to conservation, involv-ing local stakeholders at every stage of theproject cycle, and to have local participationin project monitoring and evaluation. Heargued that on a more fundamental levellocal participation should be pivotal in theconstruction of the concept of ecotourism.Honey (2008) in espousing the 'stakeholdertheory', recognized this, contending that ifecotourism is to be viewed as a tool for ruraldevelopment, economic and political con-trol must also be shifted to local communi-ties, villages, cooperatives and entrepreneurs.

Central to this theme is the idea that peoplewill protect assets from which they receivevalue. Stronza's (2007) research, notedabove, observed, however, that the efficacyof the stakeholder theory as an incentive forconservation has largely been assumedrather than empirically evaluated and thusremains a largely untested hypothesis. It isworth noting that there were other factorsthat influence ecotourism's success as a con-servation strategy beyond the connectionbetween increased income and increasedconservation. In light of the need to researchnon-economic considerations of successfulconservation, there is an emergent discourseconcerning the socio-cultural context withinwhich interventions occur (Fletcher, 2009).He argues the merit of viewing ecotourismas a discursive process that embodies a cul-turally specific set of beliefs held by thosethat practice and promote ecotourism (pre-dominantly white, professional-middle-class members of post-industrial Westernsocieties) where local people's response toecotourism promotion may depend on howthis particular cultural perspective resonateswith their own understandings of the world.As such, this ecotourism discourse chal-lenges the stakeholders' theory and raises anew avenue for debate.

Ecotourism, Quality Controland Certification

Weaver (2008) noted the relative absence ofresearch on quality control in ecotourism.Quality control measures can range on ascale from weak and informal (quotas, fees,codes of conduct) to strong and formal (cer-tification-based ecolabels). Movement alongthis continuum from weak to strong reflectsincreased professionalism and creditability.The relative absence of research here is allthe more surprising as there have been anumber of well-established accreditationprogrammes developed, the most notablebeing the National Ecotourism AccreditationProgram (NEAP) introduced as early as 1996in Australia. Honey and Stewart (2002) notedthat over 100 certification or eco-labelling

Ecotou rism 111

programmes have been developed, wherethe debate has focused on their potentialpositive and negative impacts. Sharp ley(2001) questions whether the market forcertified tourism products is sufficientlylarge enough for certification programmesto become economically viable and that theproliferation of schemes has generated con-fusion among consumers, hence impactingon the effectiveness of the programmes.While research has addressed the key ele-ments of certification-based ecolabels (Blackand Ham, 2005), others (Medina, 2005) haveraised concern that the broad parameters ofecolabels have been based on meeting sus-tainable tourism standards and not ecotour-ism standards, namely that it must benefitlocal communities.

Certification has been seen as a meansof moving ecotourism beyond conceptuali-zation to codification and for distinguishinggenuine ecotourism from greenwashing(Honey, 2002). The challenge exists to cre-ate and implement ecotourism certificationschemes with criteria for assessing benefitsto local communities that take into accountmeanings such as 'local', 'participation' and`benefit', while recognizing universal termscan often have multiple and contestedmeanings within and across local and inter-national arenas. Medina (2005) argues thatdivergent perspectives on such issues suchas the extent to which benefits accrue tolocal communities must be recognized andaccommodated in the standardization ofcertification criteria for ecotourism. Jamalet al. (2006) in their observation of the insti-tutionalization of ecotourism, argue thatcertification programmes have been domi-nated by what they call an economic-conservation paradigm over a social-culturalone, where social responsibility is absentand where focus is on self-control and self-regulation over formal regulation. It is partof a broader case for the need to de-centreand re-situate ecotourism as a more equita-ble paradigm oriented toward well-beingthat sees ecotourism re-visioned around thenotions of cultural equity, participatorypractice and researcher praxis (Jamal et al.,2006). They argue the need for culturalequity in order to ensure fair consideration

of the changes being brought to thecommunity's cultural fabric, participatorypractice to put in place effective certifica-tion schemes, and researcher praxis to askwhy ecotourism organizations feel they havethe duty to self-regulate and decide whatshould be considered appropriate forms ofecotourism and conservation behaviour.

Conclusions

The intention of this chapter was predicatedon the assumption that a healthy discoursehas taken place within the academic com-munity during the past quarter of a century,and that debate has not always been shapedaround controversy. Perhaps too much timewas given in early years toward finding auniversally accepted definition of ecotour-ism, which was futile given that many areasof tourism remain mired by definitionalparadoxes. Moreover, the emergence of thetenet of ethics late in this debate has thrownup the behavioural controversy: to whatextent do the ethical actions and behavioursof ecotourists have to be considered withinthe concept of ecotourism? Analysis under-taken by the present author, in searching forkeywords, has revealed that there exists apaucity of work embracing ecotourism asdefined by a common set of tenets. Equally,how beneficial was the time devoted todefining the participant, namely the eco-tourist, given that the vast discourse con-cerned itself with the developments ofcontinuums ranging from soft to hard?Another issue that has emerged was whetheror not nature-based tourism is the preferredterm over ecotourism, the latter used byindustry to give itself legitimacy. Debate isemerging around what constitutes an eco-tourism environment, where the traditionalnarrow base of protected and privatereserves has broadened to include con-sumptive and urban spaces, as well as theextent to which mass forms of ecotourismare becoming established practices in anumber of destinations.

Controversy, however, remains withinecotourism discourses over defining the

112 S.W. Boyd

ecotourist by ethical considerations, over thequality of stewardship of resources by indig-enous peoples, how we value ecotourism thattakes in economics, ecological and socio-cultural benefit, the relative absence of localparticipation in planning and managing ofecotourism, and the need to develop bettergovernance within the industry to ensure thatbenefits accrue to local communities. In light

of this, there exists much scope and need tobuild on the research that has taken placeover the past quarter of a century in order toenrich the discourse and gain deeper insightinto the relationship between ecotourismand indigenous landscape and culture asthe danger exists for ecotourism places andspaces to be constructed solely as playgroundsfor the rich!

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8 Ethnic Panopticon:A Controversy in Aboriginal Tourism

Philip Feifan Xie''School of Human Movement, Sport and Leisure Studies, Bowling Green State

University, Bowling Green, Ohio, USA

Introduction

Ethnicity is arguably the most fundamentalbasis of perceived distinction betweenhuman groups, which can be generallydefined as 'the existence of culturally dis-tinctive groups within a society, each assert-ing a unique identity on the basis of a sharedtradition and distinguishing social markerssuch as a common language, religion, oreconomic specialization' (Winthrop, 1991,p. 94). A variety of terms, such as 'aborigi-nal', 'indigenous', 'tribal' and 'native', areextensively used in the tourism literature todescribe the original inhabitants of a coun-try. Although usage of the terms is elasticand often vague, scholars normally choose aspecific term to describe a particular group,which reflects its ethnic identity and thepotential responses of the readers withrespect to the research studies (Hinch andButler, 2007).

The advent of aboriginal tourism startedas the pursuit of the exotic 'other', the dif-ferentness, and the authentic experience. Itis commonly regarded as part of culturaltourism, which is a form of recreation com-bining cultural and natural resources that ismarketed to the public in terms of 'quaint'customs of indigenous and often exotic peo-ples. Cole (2006) distinguished aboriginaland cultural tourism as the former is used

for the 'primitive other' and the latter for thehigh arts in the developed nations.Aboriginal tourism also refers to tourismactivities in which ethnic people are directlyor indirectly involved either through con-trol and/or by having their culture served asthe centre of the attraction. The modernexplosion of interests in aboriginal tourismis multifaceted in cause, ranging from sup-ply factors (such as heritage planning, eco-nomic need and cultural revival), to demandfactors (such as the desire for creative, cul-tural pride, authentic experiences and enter-tainment by and for visitors). It is assumedthat, as the people in the majority, who areusually the tourists, observe and experienceaboriginal cultures, their understanding andappreciation of aboriginal positions on majorissues may improve (Xie and Lane, 2006).Increased understanding can result in chan-ged attitudes and behaviours that lead, inturn, to a more just and equitable relation-ship between aborigines and non-aborigines(Cohen, 2002).

The popularity of aboriginal tourismhas also created a series of tensions andconflicts when ethnic culture is commodi-tized as tourism source. The anthropologistVan den Berghe (1994, p.8) described abo-riginal tourism as activities in which 'thetourist actively searches for ethnic exoti-cism'. Aboriginal tourism has traditionally


116 P.F. Xie

been viewed as 'utopia of difference', a by-product of imperialism or the new productof neo-colonialism (Hall and Tucker, 2004).Historically, meetings with aboriginalgroup members became the stuff of roman-ticized visions and the basis of consciousor unconscious oppression by colonizersor members of the majority society. Theprocess of aboriginal tourism could createacculturation and value changes under-mining the core of aboriginal traditions(Morgan, 1994). Examples such as the cul-tural assimilation of aboriginal people inAustralia until the early 1970s, and theauthentic 'noble savage' of African coun-tries under the British rule where `specta-torial lust' (Erlmann, 1999, p. 109)motivated the tours of African landscapesare typical in the early stage of aboriginaltourism. Numerous studies (Zeppel, 1998;Mason, 2004; Butler and Hinch, 2007)have implied that aboriginal tourism maynot serve as a catalyst for the changingrelationships between the minority andmajority; rather, it tends to undermine theindigenous places and identities inten-tionally and unintentionally (Bhabha,2004; Said, 2003). Hall and Tucker (2004)write that:

The role that [aboriginal] tourism canplay in transforming collective andindividual values is inherent in ideas ofcommoditization, which implies that whatwere once personal 'cultural displays' ofliving traditions or a 'cultural text' of livedauthenticity become 'cultural products'that meet the needs of commercialtourism, as well as the construction ofheritage. Such a situation may lead to theinvention of tradition and heritage forexternal consumption that meet visitorconceptions of the other.

Hall and Tucker (2004, p.12)

This chapter proposes a term 'ethnic panop-ticon' by using Foucault's (1980) eye-of-power to describe a controversy whenaboriginal resources are used for tourism.Through the concept of ethnic panopticon,the participant-observer becomes the objectto view and be viewed. Aboriginal peoples'interactions with tourists are controlled by

the business practice that tourism produces,rather than reduces, difference. The contro-versy is that aboriginal tourism involvestechnologies of gazes in order to create, reifyand reinvent a fantasy world of cultural dif-ference for tourists' consumption. Thesedifferences can be aestheticised and inten-tionally exaggerated to create a sense ofquaintness. The result is a form of 'asym-metry', described by Ghai (2000, p. 12), asthe power inequity played by differentstakeholders. 'Touristic ethnicity' (Wood,1998, p. 771) is established through theinvisible expectations from these stakehold-ers; often ethnic communities are excludedduring the process of aboriginal tourism.

The Concept of Ethnic Panopticon

Michel Foucault's exploration of the rela-tionship between knowledge and power inhis book 'Discipline and Punish: The Birthof the Prison' marks a shift in the traditionalresearch in the social sciences. The meta-phoric idea of 'technology' and internalizeddisciplinary practice, as demonstrated byFoucault (1980), posits a control, whichcombines both detachment and mastery offorces. A number of 'technologies' manageand discipline prisoners who are under thecontinual surveillance of a gaze that has thepower to punish them. The technologies ofpowers encompass the relationshipsbetween individuals, the organizations, andeven the States. Foucault draws upon thework of 18th-century philosopher JeremyBentham's prison concept of panopticon, toconceptualize the interactions amongpower, technology and observation.Foucault (1980, p. 147) described Bentham'spanopticon as: 'a perimeter building in theform of a ring. At the centre of this a tower,pierced by large windows opening on to theinner face of the ring. The outer building isdivided into cells each of which traversesthe whole thickness of the building. Thesecells have two windows, one opening ontothe inside, facing the windows of the cen-tral tower, the other, outer one allowingdaylight to pass through the whole cell.

Controversy in Aboriginal Tourism 117

All that is then needed is to put an overseerin the tower and place in each of the cells alunatic, a patient, a convict, a worker or aschoolboy. The back lighting enables one topick out from the central tower the littlecaptive silhouettes in the ring of cells. Inshort the principle of the dungeon isreversed; daylight and the overseer's gazecaptures the inmate more effectively thandarkness, which afforded after all a sort ofprotection.'

As one can imagine, panopticon is aremarkable prison model in which thepower of the gaze results in self-control andself-regulation by the prisoner. The panopti-con is dispositif (apparatus), a 'machine ofthe visible' based upon a 'brutal dissymme-try of visibility' (Friedberg, 1994, p. 17)which permeates the guard-prisoner rela-tionship. The structure of the panopticon isdesigned to permit the guards to see theirprisoners without their being seen. Eventhough there might be no guards working inthe central tower, Foucault pointed out theeffect of lighting and the carefully placedblinds prevent prisoners from knowing thatat the given moment they feel they might beunder observation. This combination ofobservation and power dominance gives thegazer (guards) a sense of omnipresentvoyeurism and the gazee (prisoners) with afeeling of inescapable surveillance.

Foucault's conception of le regard hasinduced a special type of gaze, `panopticgaze', wherein the subject is placed in acondition of inescapable visibility. The sub-ject thus can only imagine that everythinghe does is viewed by the guard. The panop-ticon's purpose is to create a highly efficientmechanism to control prisoners, and hasreflective impact on the prisoners' psycho-logical behaviour. Strain (2003, p. 27) char-acterized the technology of panoptic gaze as`the constant push and pull of distancedimmersion, by the desire to be fullyimmersed in an environment yet literally orfiguratively distanced from the scene inorder to occupy a comfortable viewing posi-tion'. Foucault's discernment is that thecreation of a gazer-`gazee' relationshipcharacterized by an imbalance of power anddistance between the two results in an

immensely powerful control system.Surveillance ought to occur involuntarilywhenever the distance separates the func-tioning of the subjugated (i.e. those suppos-edly receiving the power) and the dominating(i.e. those supposedly wielding the power).The distinctiveness of the roles reinforcesthe sense of identity because each must fitin the designated construct. The processprompts the prisoners in the cells to self-regulate consistent with the rules or thestandards of conduct set by the prison.Foucault called this conformity with therules practique de soi, a self-directed proc-ess designed to meet societal expectations.An advantage of the panoptic model is thatit tends to make corporal punishmentunnecessary because confinement can besuccessfully maintained by just the struc-ture of the prison and the prisoners' expec-tation that they may always be underscrutiny.

The significance of the gazer-gazeeconstruct has had a profound impact onresearch in many fields. Almost all institu-tional settings can, as Hollinshead (1999)has suggested, be conceptualized from apanopticon perspective; that is the eye-of-power/eye-of-authority/the new-power-of-universal-surveillance. For example, thesurveillance cameras hidden in the cornersof the streets echo the meaning of panopti-con to that people are being watched. Theconcept has also been adapted to thecentre-periphery theory to explain thesocio-cultural identity in the context of post-colonialism. When explaining Englishness,Hall (1997, p.174) pointed out that the colo-nized other was constituted within theregimes of representation of a 'metropolitancentre' while colonized persons were placedin their otherness, in their marginality, bythe nature of the 'English eye'. In otherwords, English identity is strongly centred`knowing where it is, what it is, it placeseverything else'.

The gazer-gazee perspective entereddiscourse of tourism studies with the publi-cation of John Urry's book 'The Tourist Gaze'in 1990. Urry masterfully applied Foucault'sle regard to the context of modern tourismby problematizing the interrelated complex

118 P.F. Xie

roles: tourists and tourees. The eye-of-powerconstruct has become institutionalizedwithin the tourism industry by viewing thetourist role as the dominant one, driven bythe expectation of receiving pleasurable(through distance) experience with lessadvanced tourees. From a distance, touristscast a privileged 'eye' on tourees as they see,understand and appropriate desired things,although there is a clear segregation between`front stage' and 'back stage'. Tourees areencouraged to act or behave exactly accord-ing to what tourists expect so that smilingfaces are shown and photos can besnapped.

Most importantly, the gaze of touristsensures the sustainability of power struc-tures since various stakeholders stayinvolved in tourism development. Urry sug-gested that tourees as aboriginal minoritiesare aware of being observed by tourists andthey are requested to 'perform' in ways thatemphasize their difference from tourists.The tourist-touree relationship centres on`romantic gazes' that are systematically con-structed on the participants' beliefs thatthere are racial, linguistic, cultural and his-torical differences between the two groups.The ocularcentrism in tourism, as proposedby Urry (2002), authenticates tourist gazesin order to allow tourists to gratify theirneeds.

Foucauldian le regard can serve to high-light two critical aspects of aboriginal tour-ism, which I call 'ethnic panopticon': (a) theOther as a distant object within a structuredpower relationship; and (b) the structuringof the Other as a consumable product spa-tially and temporally. The first of theseaspects involves defining some behaviour asnormal and some as deviant by the gazers.There is a tendency for gazee-gazer (or host-tourist) relationships to be unequal andunbalanced in character. The panopticon asa model for incarceration is based upon per-spectives of power and the 'subject of power'(Foucault, 1980) to control the relationshipbetween gazers and gazees. Tourists (theSelf) and the aboriginal minorities (theOther) are allowed to interact within amatrix of a rational-disciplinary relationcharacterized by time-space compression.

The life of ethnic minorities is viewed asremote, exotic, sensual, primitive and ser-vile, and dependent upon tourists for sur-vival and modernization.

Nagel (2003, p. 14) suggested that eth-nicity and sexuality are interrelated in theprocess of commercialization. Erotic loca-tions and exotic destinations such as ethnicfolk villages are 'surveilled and supervised,patrolled and policed, regulated andrestricted, but that are constantly penetratedby individuals forging sexual links withethnic Others across ethnic borders'.Aboriginal tourism uses the technologies ofgaze to enable tourists to take possession ofethnic minorities from a distance. It can benoted that the distance between tourists andethnic minorities can be perceived, imag-ined, reconstructed and phantasmagoric.Aboriginal tourism provides an excellentopportunity to compress time-space inorder to validate a healthy definition of Selfthrough visiting ethnic villages and attrac-tions. The socio-cultural gap between tour-ists and the host cultures is clearlymanipulated since distinct differences arerequired to define social relationships,history and identities.

According to Bauman (2000), thevoyeuristic gaze on the Other is deemed tobe optimal since tourist-host interactionstend to be fleeting and fluid. Such transi-ence of contact favours and promotes dis-tance and casts the Other as an aestheticobject to be viewed from different angles. Tosome extent, the tourists and the Othercome together, though at a distance in anartificial space. In this sense, tourists arelike the prison guards in the central tower ofthe panopticon whilst aborigines are theprisoners confined in the cells, the objectsof an imagined scrutiny, where the internal-ized expectation of surveillance changes theimposition of external power, in this case,tourism. The eye-of-power can exist due tothe perceived distance where both touristsand tourees consciously and effectively fol-low the practique de soi. Bruno (1993,p. 201) described tourism as `lust of theeyes'. Curiosity about the Other motivatestourists to visit the division between theordinary (mainstream culture) and the


extraordinary (minority culture). However,the vigour of that curiosity reinforces thenotion that 'such gazes cannot be left tochance. [Tourists] have to learn how, whenand where to "gaze "' (Urry, 2002, p. 10).Borrowing Foucault's concept of heteroto-pias (places outside of all places), aboriginaltourism fosters the location of tourists' con-tact with ethnic minorities in settings differ-ent from the tourists' everyday experience.Globalization and commodification of eth-nic culture, as tourism impinges on thecommunities, induces tourists to superim-pose their imagination upon the Other, andto create nostalgic representations of thepast for contemporary consumption.

The simulation of Other as a consuma-ble product closely resembles the lightingeffect in the panopticon: the prisoners areprevented from seeing the guards in thecentral tower but believe they are regularlywatched perennially. Such one-way visionworks perfectly well in the context of powerand dominance. Tourism turns out to be animagined landscape including sensescape,soundscape, smellscape, tastescape anddreamscape manufactured for consumption(Spang, 2000; Strain, 2003). The Other maybe unaware of social change or tourist tastes(as obstructed by the lights and blinds in thepanopticon); however, it goes without say-ing that an exotic 'Other' is most likely toattract tourism business. Romanticized pri-mal or undeveloped ethnic people are mosteffective in stimulating the fantasy of tour-ists. In modern society, the mobility of tour-ism allows tourists to travel to distant ethnicdestinations, many of which are not readyto accommodate them. Through the gaze,aboriginal tourism, in this case, becomesmarked and ritualized as an open text,hence evoking 'the idea of dynamic con-struction, of an open and complex organiza-tion' (Casetti, 1998, p. 8). Ethnicityhenceforth becomes the decoded messagewhilst tourists become the spectator and thedecoder. As a decoded message, the mean-ing of ethnicity is 'read' by many touristsfrom different cultures, languages, genders,races, social classes, to name just a few.Hunter (2001, p. 43) suggested that the tour-ists in a panopticon setting are 'trapped in

an invisible glass cage, able only to gaze outat the "other's" body, an indecipherabletext, a confusing, foreign combination ofsignifiers'. The tourist-host relationship iscontext-bound and embedded in barriers ofdifferences. Aboriginal performance issocially and spatially regulated to varyingextents. The 'encountering space' betweentourists and tourees is staged and contrivedfor the convenience of consumption.Aboriginal culture should be frozen sincemuseumified heritage will arouse the inter-ests of the tourists. Tourism as an industrymanipulates social power and is a key factorfor the construction of culture and heritage.

The research for this chapter investi-gated an aboriginal folk village on HainanIsland, China, where tourism has becomethe major source of income. A brief historyof the Island is introduced. The Island'slargest aboriginal community, Li, was usedas a case study to understand the concept ofethnic panopticon. Their aboriginal folk vil-lages are purpose-built to cater to touristsinterested in Li culture and heritage. TheBaoting Areca Manor, established in 1995and located along the central highway ofHainan, was chosen as a longitudinal studyfrom 1999 to 2009. It is the pioneer villageto draw the attention of tourists and to serveas a model for aboriginal tourism develop-ment on Hainan.

Hainan Island and Aboriginal Li

Hainan is arguably the most unique islandin China. It is the only tropical province inChina and is located by the South ChinaSea. It was described by ancient Chinese as`Tianya Haijiao' (the end of heaven and sea)because it is far from the heart of theMainland. Geographically, Hainan has a landarea of 34,087km2 and a coastline of1584.8km, and is located in the central partof the Pacific Economic Circle, lying at thesame latitude as Hawaii. The western coast ofthe island borders the Gulf of Tong Kin, withVietnam visible in the distance. The easternportion of the island is near Hong Kong,Taiwan is to the north, and the Philippines

120 P.F. Xie

is located to the south-east. From the per-spective of location, Hainan is strategicallylocated in the South China Sea.

The majority of Hainan's inhabitantsare Han Chinese who migrated from themainland as early as the Han dynasty (200sc to 220 AD) when Hainan was first incor-porated into China's territory. The aborigi-nal inhabitants are the Li, Miao, Zhuangand Hui tribes, of which Li is the largest eth-nic group. By 2007, the total population wasabout 8.19 million and the ethnic Li popula-tion about 1.26 million, which was about15% of the total population (StatisticsBureau of Hainan, 2008). The ethnic distri-bution is disproportionate, with most of theHan residents concentrated along the coastalplains, while in the central-south moun-tainous areas, aboriginal Li and other minor-ities clustered in scattered, low density,Li and Miao Autonomous Regions.

Outsiders tend to view the ethnic Liminority as exotic for its unique culture andheritage. They are widely viewed as 'mysti-cal beings' by people in Mainland China. Inparticular, the Han majority population isfascinated by the traditional Li marriageceremony and the tattooing customs. Theformer remains a relic of a maternal clansociety, in which women were in charge ofthe selection of the men and the rearing ofchildren. The Li wedding ceremony is dif-ferent from the Han Chinese practice inwhich the woman leaves her family to moveto her husband's natal village or to live withher husband's family. When a Li girl reachespuberty around 12 to 13 years old, a singleroom called a Liao is built beside the familyhouse. The girl can start to see any man shelikes. Shortly thereafter the wedding (mar-riages are arranged by the parents whentheir children are still young), the bride goesback to live with her own parents. She canhave relationships with other men until shebecomes pregnant. This marriage custom,prohibited by the Communist governmentas a corrupt practice, had virtually disap-peared; however, the onset of tourism hasrejuvenated 'staged' ethnic wedding cere-monies in recent years. Tourists from China,mostly Han men, view non-Han minoritywomen as feminized exotic Others so that

the re-enactment of the wedding ceremonyprovides an instant, voyeuristic opportunityto view 'sexually promiscuous, eroticallytitillating, and available' ethnic women(Schein, 2000, p. 70-71). The mock wed-ding ceremony with the participation of thetourists is typically used for entertainmentin which expressions of sexuality arehighlighted.

In contrast, tattooing is a vanishing tra-dition in the Li communities. Historically,Li tattoos signified that a woman was eligi-ble to be married and the ritual was accom-panied by an elaborate puberty ceremony inthe village centre. Li women tattooed onsuch bodily surfaces as the face, neck andlegs believed their tattoos not only madethem beautiful, but allow them to be recog-nized by their ancestors after death. It was apractice handed down from the ancestors toconnect with the myths and heritage of theLi. Krutak (2007) documented the history ofLi culture and found that all Li groups tat-tooed and the practice was more commonamongst women, although men tattooedthree blue rings around their wrists formedicinal purposes. Furthermore, tattoodesigns and motifs differed between eachtribe, and sometimes they differed withinfamilies. Tattooing served as an importantcultural marker amongst Li communitiesproviding an identity differentiating eachvillage. Currently, however, it is rarely prac-tised given Hainan's close integration intothe Chinese state.

Although the Li minority populationsare not heavily involved in tourism, theirexistence is widely publicized in the tourismbrochures. The tourism industry capitalizeson aboriginal culture in a way that bringsmembers of the Li minority into mainstreamdevelopment. Ethnicity on Hainan hasbecome a popular and marketable resource.The Li minority generally participates in theinformal tourism sector by selling craftsouvenirs and local fruit. However, a smallproportion of the population works in thehotel and hospitality industry. Since there isa growing interest from Mainland China inthe aboriginal island cultures, the mostvisible manifestation for ethnic employmentis in the tourist folk villages where Li work


as dance performers and staff (Xie, 2003). Anumber of folk villages have been estab-lished on Hainan where song and danceshows, the enactment of ceremonies and theavailability of ethnic foods and souvenirsprovide opportunities for visitors to becomeacquainted with ethnic cultures.

It can be noted that the situation of theHainan folk villages is very different fromthose in North American and Australiancontexts. The primary difference is that theissue of aboriginal land claims by ethnicminorities does not exist on Hainan. Alllands belong to the national governmentand the Li minority has no control of theterritory where the village is located. Thecentral government has set up a number ofÀutonomous Regions' populated primarilyby an ethnic minority. However, the state'sdefinitions of aboriginal space were seldomin keeping with the perceptions of the abo-riginal groups themselves. Ironically, thecreation of an Autonomous Region was notdesigned to foster independence for ethnicpeople, but rather to initiate the process ofsocialist transformation and to establishspatial relations between the centralizedcultural, political and economic power ofthe Han Chinese and the disenfranchisedethnic minorities on the periphery. The Libelieve that they are joined inseparablywith nature and see the Earth as their 'root'rather than viewing it as a resource to beused only for their short-term advantage.However, since the government controls allland, the population has to relocate theirhomes if development occurs in their com-munities. Many of the attempts by the localgovernment to integrate ethnic minoritiesinto prevailing wage economies have led tothe alienation of these groups from the landwith resulting negative impacts (Xie, 2010).

The Changing Phases of

the Areca Manor

The Manor was established in October 1995,when tourism was just starting on the island.The site was located in the lush green forestof the central route of Hainan. Historically,

most Li communities have been located inthis region. From 1995 to 2004, the objec-tive of the Manor was to 'faithfully portraythe life, customs, and conditions of the Liminority'. The 'inhabitants' in the folk vil-lages were all of the Li ethnicity. They dem-onstrated such traditional skills as themanufacture of embroidery, the singing oftraditional Li songs in their own languages,playing a range of traditional musical instru-ments, folk dancing and the presentation ofLi folklore. The village benefitted from geo-graphic proximity to Li communities whichsupplied both labour and services. The con-cept of the Manor was, by and large, a livingcommunity designed to help tourists under-stand everyday life of Li. It also had a smalland primitive showroom to introduce Liculture and history in the area. The facadeof the Manor was designed based upon tra-ditional Li boat-shape housing. The Li whohad tattoos were all old women who havebeen used as a promotion in the villages.The tattooed faces have even been pub-lished in the leaflets and tourism brochuresto emphasize the uniqueness of Li culture.Although the Manor was never a top touristattraction on the central route, it nonethe-less attracted a significant number of tour-ists who were truly interested in experiencingLi culture. The Manor expanded faster thanalmost any other village during the pastdecade.

In 2005, Areca Manor decided to changeits business model from portraying pureaboriginal Li culture to one that wouldpresent a combined focus on wildernessand ethnicity. Part of the reason for thesechanges was the result of the wide supportof the local government which wanted todevelop ècotourism' and 'wilderness' giventhat the area is located in the forests. Themost important issue was the demands fromtourists and tour guides that they need tohave a `fun' experience in the village.

A new ethnic tribe called the `Chiyoutribe' was deliberately created. This artifi-cial tribe was supposed to have come fromNorthern China. Similar to Kombai tribe inPapua New Guinea, the Chiyou weredescribed as primitive tree people of theStone Age. Tools were made from stone,

122 P.F. Xie

and men and women dressed in grass skirtsand hunted to catch wild animals. In a typi-cal event offered to tourists, soon after thetour group arrives, a troupe of `Chiyou'dressed and acted in a stereotyped 'treedweller' fashion, and came out from thejungle. Then they used spears to kill a pigthat had been tied up at the performancehall. Thus, the Manor evolved from being aliving museum focused on the Li people, toa theme park centred on the life of a culturalgroup found only in Chinese folklore. Thecentral purpose of the Manor became offer-ing spectacular and attractive entertain-ment. A poster at the Manor's entranceoffered the following description of thepark:

This is a Forest Kingdom where Chiyoutribe lives. These people are primitive andstill live in Stone Age. They live in treesand wear deep blue clothing to cover mostof their bodies. You can learn bow-drillfire-making with Chiyou individuals, andyou can experience how they eat raw andbloody meat. Don't forget they are the lostpeople and you shouldn't miss thisopportunity to visit them.

The shift of the aboriginal theme hasprofound impacts: previous Li had beenpresented authentically, but the shift indirection for the Manor was intended to cre-ate a new tourism product in order to attractmore tourists as they were on the way to thebeach resort. The change of the Manor'stheme has also altered the remaining pro-grammes performed by Li. The Li dance halland the showroom were moved to the edgeof the Manor. The size of the dance hall wasgreatly reduced and the performance wasshortened from 30 minutes to 10 minutes.The Li performances have been graduallymarginalized. In 2008, the Manor decidedto lay off all full-time Li performers, andhire part-time performers from neighbour-ing areas. These part- timers are paid pershow and do not have any fringe benefitsprovided by the Manor. As suggested by thevillage managers, the layoff decision rein-forced the declining tourist interests in Liperformance. On the other hand, thedecreased focus on Li culture confirms that

the new tourist attraction, the Chiyou tribeshow, is working extremely well.

The Manor has become a world of`kitsch'. Two separate shows were observedin the dance hall. The first performance,supposedly centred on Li culture, was titled`the matchmaker'. A female master of cere-monies (MC) introduced twin girls dressedin beautiful Li costume. She told the audi-ence that these twin Li girls had just reachedpuberty, that they were eager to find 'princecharming' and to have romantic trysts withthe audience. The audience roared and sev-eral male tourists stood up and made cat-calls to the twin girls. Two tourists werefinally chosen, one was old, another wasyoung, and both started to learn how to holdthe girls' hands like a 'lover' in a traditionalLi way. Some off-colour jokes were crackedby the MC and the twin girls obviouslyblushed. However, enthusiasm in the dancehall was palpable, as the show continued todemonstrate how Li women 'empower' aman in the bedroom. Another presentationwas of a supposed fire ritual of the Chiyoutribe. The actors dressed and behaved likeNew Zealand Maori fire poi spinning anddancing with fire. At the end of the perform-ance, one of the actors was invited to putout fire with his bare feet. The audiencecheered as the fire became only smoke andashes, but nobody knew if the bare feet of theactor were unharmed or actually burned.

During the interview, the village man-agers constantly reminded me that touristson Hainan do not actually want the truthbut want to be entertained. In other words,why should the Manor spoil this enjoymentfor them? Flying in the face of these manag-ers' comments is the unavoidable realiza-tion that the difference between authenticityand commodification means little in therunning of the village. One of the managerspointed out to me that using Li as a tourismproduct has increasingly become a passéand anachronistic remnant of pre-modernauthenticity. Tourists, in fact, are lookingfor something new and stimulating. TheManor faces fierce competition from numer-ous theme parks recently built in the Sanyaarea (the beach resort located in the south-ern tip of the Island). Most of those parks


have a section devoted to such aboriginal Liperformance as the bamboo-beating dance;therefore, it has become extremely difficultto attract tourists who have already watchedthe performance in Sanya. There was astrong need to find an interesting product todraw tourists for day excursions. The com-bination of a wilderness setting and per-formance by a caveman-like tribe becamean instant hit for tourists who wanted toescape beach life in Sanya. An authenticvillage like the Areca Manor can be com-moditized to the point where the balancebetween historical and socio-cultural verac-ity has been lost.

Conclusions

The case study of the folk village on HainanIsland presents a contentious issue in abo-riginal tourism that ethnicity has beenviewed as a marketable resource to sell fortourists. Instead of presenting authentic Liculture, the aboriginal identity has increas-ingly become hybrid and diluted for com-mercial purpose. Tourists' fun gaze' (Ooi,2002, p. 87) accepts kitsch, commercialismand cultural inauthenticity. Attractions cen-tred on the `fun gaze' are understood as con-structed spectacles, in which tourists are ina playful search for enjoyment. In thisapproach, the main concern is the illusionof authenticity rather than a definitive real-ity (Wang, 1999; Yang and Wall, 2009).

Ethnic panopticon reflects that aborigi-nal communities tend to be powerless inthe process of tourism planning, that is,the gazers (tourists, village businesses andgovernments) control the views of gazees(aboriginal communities). The majority ofproblems associated with the tourist indus-try stem from 'hegemony' and 'asymmetry'

of the power domination. The salient fea-ture of aboriginal tourism is how aborigines'involvement rests on using their 'exotic-ness' as part of the commodities they sell.Unfortunately, due to the unequal position-ing, the manipulation of aboriginal perform-ance programmes and other cultural eventsto serve economic interests resulted in theloss of authenticity and educational value:spectacle and entertainment seem to havebeen valued more highly in the aboriginalfolk village. Since the businesses dependedon the number of tourist arrivals, mass tour-ism was used to exploit ethnicity for eco-nomic gain of the enterprises. Tourists oftenexpected that the Li in the villages would bequaintly traditional and in a state of `museu-mification', that is, viewed through the lensof `panopticon'.

On a theoretical level, the panopticonsystem is played out by gazee's roles of per-petuating and buying into constructed mis-conceptions of aboriginal culture. Aboriginalidentities are defined by the views of thegazers and their expectations. Aboriginaltourism can be conceptualized as an 'ethnicpanopticon' set in a changing social andeconomic milieu. Each stakeholder has anopportunity to gaze and be gazed by othersand strives to find an optimal viewpoint,which I called 'positioning'. Positions andcounter-positions are named and arrangedas individuals negotiate their identitieswhile in interaction with others. Hall (1997)concluded that self-definitions are compli-cated by cultural registers and social coordi-nates, which over time become concretizedand situated between the centre and theperiphery. The realm of the gaze appliestemporal and spatial distance between sub-ject and object in an effort to present some-thing culturally 'authentic' in order to makethe products valuable and unique.

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2, 67-81.

9 Gaming in the USA:Historical Development, Controversies

and Current Status

Omar Moufakkir' and Don F. Holecek2'School of Leisure and Tourism Management, Stenden University, Leeuwarden,

the Netherlands; 2Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, USA

Introduction

In 2008, 54.6 million people visited casinosin the USA (American Gaming Association,2009). In the same year, 233 Indian tribes in28 states operated casinos that generatednearly US$26 billion in gross gaming reve-nues (National Indian Gaming Association,2009). That same year, 445 commercial casi-nos and 44 `racinos' (racetrack-based casi-nos) in 20 different states generated another$39 billion in gaming revenues (AmericanGaming Association, 2009). This translatesinto an average of about $600 wagered atcasinos by each American household in2008 (Mallach, 2010). Despite the prolifera-tion of casinos and the popularity of gam-ing, gaming remains a contested recreationaland economic development activity, becauseof the numerous controversies that sur-round gaming development. Communitieshave embraced casino gaming for two mainreasons: the first is to generate revenue andemployment by attracting more tourists; thesecond is to keep local gaming money athome (Moufakkir, 2002).

Although more than half of the stateshave introduced legislation related to gam-ing since the late 1980s, whenever andwherever casino gaming legislation hasbeen introduced and discussed, heateddebates have arisen between advocates and

adversaries of gaming because it is percei-ved as a moral, religious, economic, politi-cal and social issue (Boger, 1994; Eadington,1996; National Gaming Impact Study Com-mission, 1999; Moufakkir, 2002).

The increase in local opposition togambling is apparent through the defeat ofmore than 25 gambling initiatives since1991 (Chadbourne and Wolfe, 1997).Growing questions regarding its social sideeffects and ability to deliver on its economicpromises led Congress in 1996 to create anational commission to study gambling.The National Gaming Impact Study Com-mission (NGISC) undertook a national andcomprehensive study focusing on theimpact that gambling has on people andcommunities. The database of the studycovered the period of 1980-1996. For eachcommunity (about 100 were selected), datawere assembled on social problem indica-tors which include per capita crime levels(by crime type), unemployment rates,divorce rates, child abuse and domestic vio-lence cases, and welfare caseloads; and eco-nomic indicators including employmentlevels, unemployment rates, average earn-ings, government revenues and bankruptcyrates, government expenditures on criminaljustice and related services (NGISC, 1999).The NGISC issued its research report in June1999, concluding that the 'metamorphosis'


126 0. Moufakkir and D.F. Holecek

of gambling in general - from an amoralactivity to a recreational activity - clearlyhas had significant economic and socialimpacts on individuals, communities andthe country at large. The Commission unan-imously acknowledged the complexity ofthe gambling issues, and pointed out thatàlong with the real benefits of gamblingcome equally undeniable and significantcosts' (p. 7-2). More than a decade later, thesame simple yet complicated question per-sists: to what extent is casino gaming devel-opment a viable economic catalyst for thecommunity? Or simply, do the benefits ofcasinos outweigh the costs? Operationalizingsuch a complex question is even more chal-lenging because: although an impact some-times can be distinguished as 'economic' or`social', it is not possible to make a clear dis-tinction between the two because theirinteractions are numerous and complex.Clearly, social pathologies can have signifi-cant economic costs, while economiceffects, such as changes in labour forceactivity, also have social implications(Mallach, 2010, p. 6). The purpose of thischapter is to delineate and discuss contro-versies surrounding gaming development.

Gaming is certainly not a new humanactivity. The game of craps/dice is believedto have been played in ancient Egypt withthe dice carved from animal bones. Eventoday, dice are commonly called 'bones' bycraps players. At which point in human his-tory wagering became associated with gamesof chance and what was wagered is open tospeculation, but such games certainly dateback to the earliest known civilizations.Gaming is popular even in certain regions ofthe world where it is not legal or regulatedand where heavy penalties can often beimposed if one is caught gambling.

With very few exceptions, legal gamingfunctions as a government-controlled mono-poly across the USA and in most othercountries where gaming is legal. It does notoperate in a free-market environment wheresupply and demand dictate what gamingopportunities are offered and consumed.Hence, understanding the role governmentsplay in gaming and why is critical to assess-ing the history, current status and future of

gaming. A brief encapsulated history ofgaming in the USA will set the scene fordiscussing the controversies surroundinggaming development.

It is important to highlight two limita-tions to keep in mind in reviewing whatfollows. First, the focus of the discussion ison the real and perceived social and eco-nomic impacts of gaming that arise whennew casinos or major expansions of exist-ing casinos are proposed. These impactsseldom, if ever, include the recreation ben-efits patrons derive from their visits to casi-nos. Hence, while the literature introducedherein stresses a benefit/cost theme, it islargely focused on social and economicimpact analysis which is a materially dif-ferent type of economic analysis. For exam-ple, one issue of concern in new casinodevelopment is displacement of existingbusinesses. Significant displacement isgenerally viewed as negative in social eco-nomic impact analysis. However, in a ben-efit/cost analysis, displacement would beviewed as a positive since consumersreceive net benefits from shifting spendingfrom existing businesses to casinos. Second,while there is an abundant amount of liter-ature on the topic of social/economicimpacts of casinos, it ranges from being`sound science' to 'expert opinion' to 'purepropaganda'. Unfortunately, the amount of`sound science' available to draw upon islimited, especially that directly relevant toa new casino development proposal. Evenmuch of what seems to be 'sound science'has been characterized as 'work that hasbeen done...under the auspices of eitherproponents or opponents of casino gam-bling' (Mallach, 2010, p. 7). To fully graspthe range and depth of the issues associatedwith casino development, it is necessary tointroduce literature that is 'expert opinion'and even some that approaches beingundocumented 'pure propaganda'. Giventhe many issues involved, the differencesacross individual cases, and the necessar-ily murky foundation of 'facts' to drawupon, the objective for this chapter is tointroduce readers to casino developmentissues and their related pros and cons. Itis not our objective to assume a position

Gaming in the USA 127

in support of or in opposition to casinodevelopment in general.

Development of Gambling in the USA

The history of gaming varies from countryto country and within regions in individualcountries. Capturing the global history, cur-rent status and future of gaming is not feasi-ble in the context of this short chapter.However, there are more similarities thandifferences across gaming venues in thenature of gaming enterprises, why they exist(or do not), their costs and benefits and gov-ernments' links to them. Thus, focusing ongaming in the one country with which weare most familiar, the USA, will serve toillustrate most of the issues one would findin most other gaming venues across theglobe. Readers interested in a more in-depthhistory of gaming in America may want toreview Durham and Hashimoto (2010) andThompson (2001).

The history of gaming in the USA isolder than the country itself. The Pilgrimswere among the first to travel from Englandto establish a colony in the New World inthe region which in time became part of theUSA. At the time, voyages to the New Worldwere not only risky, a big gamble on theirpart, but also expensive. The Pilgrims arereported to have raised the money for theirtransport and necessities to establish a suc-cessful colony in America through a lottery.

After several difficult years, the origi-nal colonies became well established.Spreading awareness of opportunities to beexploited in the New World fuelled anexpanding flow of emigrants to settle acrossthe eastern region of North America.Several decades of war between and amongBritish and French settlers and NativeAmerican tribes eventually ended with 13English colonies in what is now the USA.Over time, the residents of these coloniesbecame unhappy with their British rulers,especially taxes levied on imported tea. Toprotest the imposition of this tax, colonistsin Boston organized what we now know asthe Boston Tea Party, which marked the

beginning of the American RevolutionaryWar with the British.

The colonists quickly recognized thatthe British, arguably the most powerfulcountry in the world at the time, were deter-mined to retain control of their 13 NewWorld colonies and that revolutionary spiritalone was not sufficient to set themselvesfree from British rule. They would needfinancial resources, but, with no taxingauthority and colonists' demonstrated dis-like of taxes, how could they raise money tofund the war? Like the Pilgrims, leaders inthe rebellious colonies established a lotteryto fund the American Revolutionary War.As will become evident as you read on inthis chapter, the theme in these events earlyin US history that 'governments need reve-nue but their citizens revolt against taxes'recur over and over in the history of gamingin the USA.

Gambling and lotteries were illegal inthe original 13 US colonies (now US states)for the next couple of centuries. Their gov-ernments required only limited resources topay for the minimal services that citizensexpected of them, and their small annualrevenue requirements were easily met bymeans other than from some form of gam-ing. At this time in early US history, nega-tive perception of gaming dominated theviews of the majority of the population dueto lack of fairness of the games offered andthe costs of gaming (e.g. problem gamblers),which remain evident today. Most religiousleaders stood in opposition to gambling andwere prone to chastise members of theircongregations that were drawn to this formof illegal and 'sinful' entertainment. Still,gambling remained popular in private andthe underground economy with minimalgovernment efforts to bring violators to jus-tice. Lax law enforcement was often tied tobribes paid to police to turn a blind eye tothe gaming venues in their jurisdictions.

The gaming environment was muchfriendlier on the developing western USfrontier where government, law and regula-tion were in their infancy. Gamblers werethe frequent travellers of the day, travellingon river boats along the Mississippi riverand other waterways that served as the


dominant means of transport in much of theregion prior to development of railroads.These gamblers held a well-deserved repu-tation for cheating their customers out oftheir hard-earned money. Many moved westwith the railroads and set up shop in saloonsthat were built to slake the thirst of thoseattracted to the new opportunities openingwith expansion into unsettled areas`claimed' from their Native American resi-dents. Either through skillful play or bysimply cheating, they continued to take thehard-earned money of mostly young andinexperienced cowboys (most were in factboys), miners and ranchers who were cap-tured in their webs.

In the early 1900s, gambling in the USAbegan to shift from being the domain ofindividual riverboat gamblers or games(the majority illegal) offered by an individ-ual business/saloon. When the FederalGovernment made the production and con-sumption of alcoholic beverages illegal inthe USA, existing criminal groups emerged tocapitalize on the opportunity to supply alco-hol to the thirsty masses. To maximize theirprofit opportunities, these criminal groupsbecame more organized, often through a con-siderable amount of bloodletting. In citieswhere several dozen gangs operated andcontrolled illegal activity in their neigh-bourhoods, prohibition resulted in only oneor two organized gangs controlling illegalmarkets in their city. They in effect mergedto capture economies of scale in the manu-facturing, distribution and sale of alcoholicbeverages.

When selling alcoholic beveragesbecame illegal, organized crime had to deve-lop drinking establishments (commonlyreferred to as 'speakeasies') where drinkscould be served. Soon thereafter, manage-ment of speakeasies introduced gaming intotheir product offering to grow their profits.These began to frame what have become thelegal casinos that exist in many US statestoday.

When the USA repealed the law thatled to prohibition, legal drinking establish-ments quickly reemerged across most states.Individual states, as in the case of casinogaming, control and regulate alcohol sales

and distribution. While the repeal of prohi-bition led to legal drinking establishments,gaming, also legal at the Federal level, didnot accompany them because gaming wasnot legal in the states. This was largelybecause gaming in saloons and speakeasieswas rightly perceived negatively by mostAmericans due to its close association withorganized crime, inherent negative aspectsand image as being unfair to gamblers.

Current Status of Commercial CasinoGaming in the USA

Las Vegas became a city in 1905. It was asmall town in the middle of the Nevadadesert that survived largely because ofbeing a stop along an intracontinental railline. In the early 1930s, it became a boomtown fuelled by thousands of constructionworkers employed in building the HooverDam. It was the largest dam in the worldwhen completed. The rapid increase inpopulation in Las Vegas and across Nevadawas a two-edged sword for governments.They welcomed the economic developmentbut lacked revenues required to expandinfrastructure (e.g. roads) and public serv-ices (e.g. police and fire). Imposing highertaxes on the general population was notconsidered to be politically viable. On theother hand, a form of sin tax levied on gam-bling surfaced as being a satisfactory reve-nue generator since it would be paid by`sinners', tourists and visiting constructionworkers. Longtime residents, in essencethe voting population, could avoid payingthe tax by not gambling in a casino. Thissuited them since a significant percentageof permanent residents didn't gamble forreligious reasons.

The state of Nevada legalized and beganto tax casino gaming in 1931. It is a perfectexample of the public's tax policy prefer-ences: tax him and the guy behind the treebut not me. For about the first decade afterbeing legalized and taxed, Las Vegas casinoswere saloons with modest gambling areas.But, in 1941, casinos began to be built withgambling opportunities as their dominant


feature, often with attached lodging and res-taurants. In the 1930s, gambling profit wasof secondary importance to alcoholic drinksales. In the new casinos that emerged inthe 1940s, gambling profit was not onlydominant, but free food, drinks and lodgingwere provided to gamblers who wageredlarger amounts of money in these new casi-nos. This pattern of compensating 'highrollers' remains a practice in casinos acrossthe USA today.

By the mid-1940s, organized criminalelements began to invest heavily in LasVegas casinos. Although they generallyoffered relatively fair games to their custom-ers as a good business practice, they did lit-tle to help problem gamblers to break theiraddictive behaviour and employed threatsof serious harm, including death, to collectgambling debts. Beyond the attractive houseadvantage in casino games, organized crimewas attracted to legal casinos in Las Vegasand eventually Reno as well because theycould use them to launder money generatedin their illegal businesses such as drugs andprostitution. Throughout the 1950s and1960s, federal and state governments strug-gled to drive the criminal element out ofNevada's casinos. This was largely accom-plished by the late 1960s. In 1971, Harrah'scasino became the first to be listed on theUS stock exchange, marking the beginningof the shift from casinos being stand alonefamily businesses to multi-unit corporatebusinesses closely regulated by federal andstate governments.

license, Tax and Regulate

The legalizing of casinos in Nevada in 1931was largely ignored by other US states untilthe 1970s. By then, the Nevada experimenthad yielded two outcomes that set the scenefor expanding commercial legal casinos inother states. First, the expanding casinoindustry in Nevada was generating a stead-ily increasing flow of tax revenues in astate without even an income tax. Second,Nevada didn't become a place with anunreasonable amount of crime, problem

gamblers, bankrupt businesses and othernegative consequences commonly associatedwith legal commercial casinos. Many beganto perceive casinos' benefits as exceedingtheir costs. In addition, Americans wereincreasingly reporting in national surveysthat they visited casinos themselves ordidn't care if others visited them. Only asmall minority (17% in a recent nationalsurvey; American Gaming Association, 2010)reported being opposed to casino develop-ment. Given the relative success of theNevada experiment, broader public supportfor casino development, and the potentialfor more tax revenue, more states began tolegalize casino gaming.

The approach states that legalize gam-ing follow is to: license, tax and regulate.Other than Nevada, where obtaining a gam-ing licence is not especially difficult orexpensive, other US states have set limitson the number of licences they issue, andthey charge as much as they think they canto issue them. Thus, other than in Nevada,legal casinos in the USA can be likened tostate-operated monopolies. The gaming taxrate in Nevada is about 7% and ranges to ahigh of 55% in Pennsylvania.

Regulations, like tax rates, vary acrossthe states that have legalized casino gaming.All states, including Nevada, take mitigat-ing problem gaming seriously and investsignificantly in programmes to reduce theincidence of the addiction and to treat thosewho fall victim to it. They all also carefullymonitor the games offered to ensure theirfairness. Fairness in this context means onlythat the games operate as advertised, andthe casino must pay when a customer wins.In general, states do not regulate the houseadvantage of the game offered, which canrange from almost 40% for some games (e.g.Keno) to about 2% for the average BlackJack player. It would appear that the statesweigh generating tax revenue from casinogamblers more heavily in framing regula-tions than ensuring that gamblers receivegood entertainment value from what theyspend gambling in casinos.

In 1977, New Jersey was the secondstate to legalize casino gaming. Its goal wasto generate tax revenue and reverse the


decline of a once popular tourist destina-tion - Atlantic City. Its experience withgaming was initially very successful, butrecent increases in competition in its primemarkets are severely threatening the sur-vival of many Atlantic City casinos.

Beginning in 1991 in Illinois and Iowa,the riverboat casino model was introducedin the USA. The obvious question here is:why develop these relatively small and inef-ficient gaming venues? The not so obviousanswer is that elected officials in thesestates, and the four others that quicklyjoined them, were afraid that many stateresidents would not favour their statebecoming known as a Nevada with a domi-nant land-based casino gaming industry. Onthe other hand, riverboat gaming wasdeemed acceptable since residents associ-ated it with the states' heritages. Thus, riv-erboat casinos resulted from a compromise:some new tax revenue with less politicalrisk than with full-scale land-based casinos.Their downside is that they tend to onlyattract local residents who gamble andreturn home the same day. They don't attracttourists, especially those on overnight trips;hence they don't have significant positiveimpacts on the local economies where theyare located.

Voters in the state of Michigan refusedto support developing casinos in economi-cally depressed Detroit on three occasionsover a 10-year period. Michigan residentsvoted in favour the fourth time it was putto them on the statewide ballot. While thebasic goal for the casinos was the same asthat set for Atlantic City, another goal wasemphasized by supporters the fourth timethe issue was presented to Michigan vot-ers. That issue was that a casino across theriver in Windsor, Canada was collecting onaverage one million dollars a day in gam-bling profits from Detroit and area resi-dents. While Michigan voters seem to havebeen less than enthusiastic about 'saving'its largest city, 'Stopping the leakage ofdollars from the Michigan economy' com-bined with the 'Save Detroit' campaignmessage to garner enough votes to pass leg-islation authorizing developing three large-scale casinos in Detroit. Keeping residents'

gaming dollars home is now central in pro-moting commercial casino developmentacross the USA.

The racino is the last model employedto introduce casino gaming in states with-out legal, commercial casinos. Strangelyperhaps, many states legalized gambling onhorse and dog races even though most otherforms of gaming were not legal. Their ration-ale seemed to be that horse and dog racingare desirable 'sporting' events tied to tradi-tion and the local agriculture industry.Revenue from gamblers' bets on races wasneeded to sustain horse/dog racing andgenerated a modest sum of revenues forgovernment.

Race track attendance and gamblinghave been declining across the USA forabout 20 years, thereby reducing state taxrevenues, race track profits and the earningsof all those associated with the horse/dogracing industry. This turn of events hasbecome a concern of state governments, andthey have been searching for a solution tothe problem. Legislators in West Virginiawere the first to authorize racinos, essen-tially adding gaming machines to the racetrack venue. The rationale for the modelwas that the availability of gaming machinesat tracks would attract more people to theraces. In addition, a portion of the gamingmachine revenues would be allocated to thetrack side of the combined gaming venue.The increase in volume of visitors plus the`subsidy' from gaming machine revenueswere projected to put the racing industry onthe path back to sustainable growth. Onlypart of this projection has been realized.The gaming machine subsidy to race venueshas substantially helped that industry; how-ever, attendance at races and betting ontheir outcome continue to decline. Stategovernments have been clear winners ofracino developments because of added taxrevenues from gaming machines. Could itbe that added tax revenue was the true goalbehind authorizing racinos and not thestated goal of sustaining the horse/dog rac-ing industry?

One mission of governments is strangelyabsent in all of the above discussion: that isproviding 'the best deal' for consumers.


In most cases, legalized casinos operate asmonopolies. Monopolies rarely function inthe best interests of consumers. Of course,governments require casinos to manageproblem gaming, but is this out of concernfor problem gamblers or is it primarily apolicy required to mitigate voter concernswith establishing casinos? Governmentsalso ensure that the games offered are 'fair',but their definition of fair doesn't ensure anoptimal recreation experience for gamblers.Finally, governments have rigorously driventhe criminal element out of casino opera-tions and management. Could this be toensure that governments can extract themaximum amount of tax revenue from thecasinos in their jurisdiction? There are cer-tainly a host of reasons for questioning thedesirability of governments relying oncasino tax revenues to support the servicesthe public expects them to provide.

Development of Native AmericanIndian Casinos in the USA

A Supreme Court decision in 1987,California versus Cabazon Board of MissionIndians, materially changed the casinolandscape in the USA. In that case, thecourt ruled that the state could not prohibitgaming on Indian reservations. The USCongress in the following year passed theIndian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA),which provided guidance for how the statesand Indian tribes should interact in estab-lishing gaming venues on tribal lands. Incombination, the court's ruling and theIGRA created the opportunity for tribes toopen casinos in all but two US states(Hawaii and Utah). A brief historical con-text follows which will explain how thislandmark decision came to be.

When old world immigrants began toestablish colonies in America, it was alreadyinhabited by Native American Indian tribes.Early on, relations between the tribes andthe trickle of settlers from the old worldwere generally friendly, with both benefit-ing from trading goods and 'technologies'.As the flow of settlers became a flood and

rivalries between old world countriescrossed the sea with them to America, rela-tions between and among different tribesand settlers from different countries souredand open warfare became common place.These conflicts, largely over 'ownership' ofland, expanded as settlers advanced fromthe east coast into the interior of America.Some tribes waged war with the whitesinvading their territories while others, rec-ognizing the inevitable, sold their lands fora pittance to the US government. In eithercase, the outcome was the same: the tribeswere pushed from their lands by white set-tlers. They not only were forced from theirlands but were also forced to abandon theirtraditional way of life based upon a combi-nation of hunting and gathering, primitiveagriculture and trading. The cultural, familyand 'economic' ties that had sustained themfor centuries were severed. Today, theconsequences are still evident. NativeAmericans are poorer, sicker and less edu-cated than most other Americans, and livein broken families in inferior housingand often survive on minimal welfare pay-ments from the government. Colonizationof America has been a disaster for its indig-enous peoples.

California versus Cabazon is provingfinally to offer tribes the opportunity tocapture their fair share of the AmericanDream. Interestingly, that opportunity wascreated in the treaties forced upon thetribes by the US government when theyrelinquished their lands. The language inthe treaties refers to the tribes as 'sovereignnations'. At the time the treaties were nego-tiated, these were meaningless wordsinserted in the treaties as a 'no cost' meansto entice tribal leaders to accept 'contracts'containing minimal benefits to them. Inits 1987 decision, the US Supreme Courtassigned meaning to the tribes' sovereignnation status granted in their treaties withthe US government. As such, the statescould not control tribal activity on theirreservations. Only the federal governmentis empowered to enter into substantiveagreements or disagreements with othernations, including recognized Indian sover-eign nations.


Since tribal sovereign nations existwithin the states, the interests of both aremore intertwined than they are among mostother nations in the world. The IGRA wasenacted by the US Congress to balance theinterests of the parties in developing casinoson tribal lands. The essence of the IGRA isthat the states can negotiate compacts (essen-tially contracts) with tribes concerning spe-cifics such as how to share casino profits(states can't directly tax Indian casinos).Each compact is unique, resulting from giveand take between a state and a tribe.

Today, tribal casinos exist in 29 states,and their total revenue approaches the levelof that generated by all other legal commer-cial casinos in the USA (American GamingAssociation, 2010). There is a great dividein the impact Indian casinos have had onindividual tribes. Revenues aren't sharedacross tribes, thus those with casinos arebetter off economically than those withoutcasinos. Small tribes with casinos earn moreper capita and are benefiting more thanlarger tribes with casinos. Some tribes dis-tribute the bulk of their casino profits on aper capita basis to tribal members whileothers allocate profits primarily to tribalinfrastructure projects such as schools,healthcare and housing. The more fore-sighted tribes are investing some of theircasino profits in projects to diversify theirbusinesses, recognizing that their casino`monopoly' is unlikely to be sustainable inthe long run. Overall, tribal casinos are ben-efiting some of the most destitute (anddeserving) citizens in the USA.

Casino Gaming Issues

An overview

Like other forms of tourism development,gaming has both positive and negative con-sequences for communities (NGISC, 1999).Gaming researchers have demonstrated thatsocial, cultural, political and environmentalimpacts are equally likely to occur follow-ing casino development (Stokowski, 1996).From a public policy standpoint, most of

the debate about the development of casinogaming hinges on the following four centralissues: economic contribution to the com-munity, crime in the community, socialpathology and impact on people and busi-nesses, and bankruptcy. The main questionsrelated to these four issues centre on: doesthe establishment of casinos attract newdollars to the community, affect crime rates,increase social problems, and affect bank-ruptcy filings? Like any other controversy,casino gaming advocates find arguments tosubstantiate their claims and so do adver-saries (Table 9.1).

Reviewing the literature on the impactof casino gaming, two most popular modelgaming destinations reflect the controversysurrounding casino development. Las Vegasis one of the few places where casinos arerecognized as beneficial to the economy andthe economic impact issue is not debated(Thompson, 1999). Atlantic City is the placewhere casinos are recognized as not suc-cessfully contributing to the plight of thecity. On the other hand, Heneghan (1999,p. 113), for example, proposes that to 'fullyunderstand the magnitude of the revolu-tionary changes following casino develop-ment, one has to study what Atlantic Citywas before casinos and how it got there'.Atlantic City reached its height of popular-ity as a regional seaside resort in the early1980s, but 30 years later tourist arrivals tothe city decreased tremendously. Gamingwas sought as an economic and urbandevelopment strategy that effectively cre-ated jobs and generated taxes for the city.According to Braunlich (1996, p. 15) the`most disappointing lesson from AtlanticCity experience is the failure of the casinohotel industry's economic success to trans-late into a comprehensive physical rede-velopment of the city'. What Braunlich issuggesting is that Atlantic City must beviewed in a fuller context if the impacts ofcasino development are to be properlyunderstood. Other gaming ventures andtheir hosting communities have also comeunder scrutiny and criticism regarding, forexample, economic contributions, crimeand problem gambling, the concern of theupcoming discussion.


Table 9.1. Example of casino gaming development issues/arguments: three different perspectives.

Issues

Tourism

Jobs

Taxes

Casino gaming opponents' Casino gaming advocates'selected arguments selected arguments

National Gambling ImpactStudy Commission's findings

The gambling populationis a local residentpopulation (Kindt, 1994)

Employment is takenaway from traditionalbusinesses that mayprovide a communitybenefit to an addictiveactivity that produces onlysocial costs (Goodman,1994)

The costs of externalitiescaused by casino gamingsuch as dysfunctionalgambling will exceed theexpected tax revenues(Grinols and Omorov,1996)

Bankruptcy The 298 US counties thathave legalized gamblingwithin their borders had a1996 bankruptcy filingrate 18% higher than thefiling in counties with nogambling. The bankruptcyrate was 35% higherthan the average incounties with five ormore gambling establish-ments (SMR Research,in AGA, 2000)

Crime The introduction of casinogaming in Wisconsin isassociated with increasedcrime. The rates of majorcrimes in counties withcasinos were 6.7% higherthat they would have beenin the absence of casinos(Williams et al., 1996)

Legal casino gaming isviewed as a means toincrease the number oftourists and the amountthat they spend (Cabot,1996)

Gaming jobs have a multiplierof 1.7, meaning that forevery one casino job thereare 1.7 other jobs created,many in support businessesthat serve the casino(Cabot, 1996)

Jurisdictions may extractlarge sums of tax moneyfrom casino gaming (Cabot,1996)

The majority of states withthe highest bankruptcyrates are those with nocasino gaming. Of the 24counties in the USA withthe highest bankruptcyfiling rates, none hascasino gaming (AGA, 2000)

Communities with casinogaming are as safe ascommunities that donot have casinos(Margolis, 1997)

The largest casinosreported that more than90% of their patronstravelled more than 50miles to the casino. Thecorresponding percentagesfor the smaller non-tribaland tribal casinos were57% and 56%,respectively.

Larger and smallernon-tribal casinos paidabout 13% in taxes andtribal casinos paid 18%of revenues to taxauthorities (much of thehigher percentage amongthe tribal casinos may bedue to payments to tribalunits)

The casino effect is notstatistically significant forbankruptcy

The casino effect is notstatistically significant forany of the crime outcomemeasures

Continued


Table 9.1. Continued.

IssuesCasino gaming opponents' Casino gaming advocates'selected arguments selected arguments

National Gambling ImpactStudy Commission's findings

Prevalence of 10,000-80,000 tax dollarspathological are spent on a pathologi-gambling cal gambler per year

(Kindt, 1994). Problemand pathological gamblerscreate social costs ofUS$110-340 per adult peryear when averaged overthe entire population(Grinols and Omorov,1996)

Total social At least 8 billion dollars arecosts spent per year to cover

social costs associatedwith gambling (Kindt,1994)

Substitution Gambling only divertsdollars from existingbusinesses to gamblingenterprises (Goodman,1994)

There is no tangible evidenceof the alleged substitutioneffect when applied to thecasino gaming industry,because findings point to anoverall increase in recrea-tion spending of US$54.2billion between 1990 and1993. Of that, 3.2 billion wasattributed to casino gaming.Casino gaming is notmerely replacing otherindustries, because otherrecreation sectors aregrowing as well (AGA,2000)

900 tax dollars per year arespent on a pathologicalgambler

5-6 billion dollars are spenton social costs attributedto gambling (NationalOpinion ResearchCenter, 1999)

`The preponderance ofempirical studies indicateclaims of completecannibalization ofpre-existing localrestaurants andentertainment facilities bya mere shift in residentspending is grosslyexaggerated'

Economic Contributionto the Community

Supporters of gaming maintain that casinosare a key attraction that can stimulate andrevitalize a community's economy, particu-larly its tourism industry (Cabot, 1996).According to Eadington (1996), the openingof a casino or casinos in a region that previ-ously had no legal casino gaming 'hastapped a substantial latent demand for theactivity' (p. 4). Many recently legalizedcasino jurisdictions, such as Windsor andMontreal, the Gulf Coast and Tunica Countyin Mississippi, Foxwoods in Connecticut,

or Joliet and Elgin in Illinois, he explains,have experienced surprising revenue andvisitation rates. On the other hand, oppo-nents (e.g. Grinols and Omorov, 1996) arguethat 80-90% and more of the bulk of casinorevenues come from residents. Assessingthe direct economic impacts of two tempo-rary Detroit casinos on the local area,Moufakkir (2002) found that only about21% of casino patrons came from outsidethe study area, but concluded that thesecontributed significantly to the local econ-omy. The study, however, did not considerthe probable costs. Considering the addedcosts of casino gaming, Grinols and Omorov


(1996) argue, it appears that the costs ofcasino revenues outweigh the benefits, andthus maintain that casinos are not a viableoption for economic development. Dovel(1996), for example, submits that casinoscannibalize sales from cinemas, restau-rants and other community businesses thatdepend on discretionary dollars. Restaurantsin many states have reported a decrease inrevenue in response to the opening of anearby casino, and many restaurants haveclosed. Grinols and Omorov (1996) foundthat casinos are associated with a drop ingeneral merchandise and miscellaneousretail and wholesale trade within ten milesfrom the gaming establishments. On theother hand, Moufakkir (2002) found that51% of the patrons of the casinos surveyedparticipated in other community-based busi-nesses and activities (see also Moufakkirand Holecek, 2002a; Moufakkir et al., 2004).The end result is that while those who sup-port casino gaming maintain that this devel-opment activity is a good economic impactcatalyst, opponents maintain that casinosdo not seem to have a positive impact onregional economic development and thuscommunities should not turn to gaming as asaviour. The caveat is that several interact-ing variables make generalizing about theeconomic impacts of casinos unfeasible,and thus judgement disregarding this com-plexity can be shortsighted if not hazardousand risky.

Economic impact studies

Opponents of casino gaming argue that mostof the economic impact studies were com-missioned by the gaming industry (e.g.Goddman, 1994), with a majority focusingexclusively on the positive impacts whileignoring or minimizing the negative impactsthat are also associated with a gaming estab-lishment (Gazel, 1998). Furthermore, sev-eral assumptions are made in estimating theeconomic impacts of a casino. Differingassumptions are in general a major cause forvery large differences observed in estimatesdeveloped by different researchers (Gazel,1998). The discrepancies result in a matter

that haunts not only gaming researchers butresearchers in other fields. For example,when measuring the economic impacts ofvisitors to sports tournaments and specialevents Crompton (1999, p. 17) notes that:

There is a temptation to adoptinappropriate procedures and assumptionsin order to generate high economic impactnumbers that will position an agency morefavorably in the mind of elected officials.Sometimes such errors are the result of agenuine lack of understanding of economicimpact analysis and the procedures usedin it, but in other instances they arecommitted deliberately and mischievouslyto generate large numbers and misleadstakeholders.

Crompton (1999, p. 17)

Gazel (1998) argues that positive andnegative factors must be included in eco-nomic impact studies. The net economicimpact of the presence of a casino in thelocal economy is thus the result of subtract-ing the negative impacts from the positiveones. For a comprehensive listing of impactssee Gazel (1998). Furthermore, comprehen-sive economic impact studies are costly,time consuming and therefore rare (NGISC,1999). Moreover, analysts believe that thecosts of casino development have beenunequally discussed, particularly thosecosts that emerge over time or which aredifficult to quantify are not fully consid-ered. Often, a significant lag period existsbetween the beginning of casino develop-ment and the provision of expected gains.Such impacts are rarely considered in tra-ditional, short-term economic impact anal-yses (Stokowski, 1999). Oddo (1997) andKindt (1994), for example, maintain that,when the added costs of gaming areincluded in the economic impacts equa-tion, the costs appear to outweigh the ben-efits, concluding that casino gaming is not asound or desirable option for economicdevelopment. Moreover, the magnitude ofeconomic impact generally depends on thecontext selected. For example, single areasboasting a positive impact can readily befound, but their concerns usually do notextend to surrounding areas where negative


consequences 'of this good fortune' maysurface (NGISC, 1999). In other words agaming community may be benefitingfrom casinos, but, if the economic impactanalysis is extended to include neighbour-ing communities, the magnitude of eco-nomic impact may decrease. This is becauseit is generally argued that neighbouringnon-gaming communities may experienceimport externalities such as gambling addic-tion, crime and other costs without havinggaming tax money to offset those costs.

In sum, three main reasons make thedivergent perspectives about the magnitudeof the economic impact of casino develop-ment possible. Stokowski (1999, p. 157)summarizes these as:

Research about economic impacts tendsto be supported through funds providedby agencies (industry or government)that have an interest in the outcome ofthe research.Not all economic benefits or costs arelikely to be included in any singleresearch study.Not all data are comparable in theiroriginal form, thus introducing manysources of error into the models.

Casino gaming can be viewed as an eco-nomic development in different guises asfollows (Felsenstein and Freeman, 1998):

1. A redistributive effect: this effect happenswhen a local service that serves local demandis simply redistributing existing economicactivity. In the case of gaming, if a casinoattracts only local gamers, new money is notgenerated and therefore the casino does notcontribute to the local economy.2. An expansionary effect: this happenswhen a casino serves in an exporting gam-ing service capacity, and therefore by serv-ing non-local demand attracts new moneyto the local community.3. A substitution activity: this occurs whenlocal casinos prevent local gaming moneyfrom leaking out of the local economy toother gaming jurisdictions.4. An extractive activity: when a casinoserves only external demand, it generates

very little positive benefit locally butleaves behind a legacy of local negativeexternalities.5. Casinos that focus on local residents willprobably not be the economic panacea thatcommunities envision.

These guises will draw discretionary spend-ing from other community entertainmentareas, such as theatres and restaurants(Milanowski, 1996). Dovel (1996) explainsthat casinos cannibalize sales from cinemasand other businesses that depend on discre-tionary dollars. Restaurants in many commu-nities reported a decrease in sales followingthe opening of a nearby casino, and severalothers went bankrupt. Moufakkir (2002)identified four types of gamers based on pri-mary trip purpose, each with different gam-ing trip characteristics and impacts. Forexample, 59% of the intercepted patronsindicated that the casino was their primaryreason to visit Detroit, suggesting that inthis case the casino acts as a nucleus attrac-tion for more than half of the patrons or thatin the absence of the casino these patronswould not have come to the city. More than50% reported that they would visit moreoften because they can visit the communi-ty's casino. About one half of the total sam-ple participated in other non-casino-relatedactivities in the community, such as dining,shopping, attending a sport event, exploringthe city, and visiting friends and relatives.Over one-quarter stayed at least one night inthe Detroit area. Despite these seeminglypositive findings, it would be premature tosupport or reject casino development eitherin the study area or in general, not onlybecause of the parsimony of the results butalso because of other variables includingcrime and associated social costs.

Crime in the Community

Besides economic development, the othermost frequently considered gaming devel-opment issue on the public policy agendais crime (NGISC, 1999). Studying the legal-ization of casinos in the USA, Dombrinkand Thompson (1990) found that crime


potential was a central issue in more thanhalf of the 22 state gaming campaignsexamined. In the late 1980s when the oper-ation of riverboat casinos was approved inIowa and Illinois, and in 1990-1999 whensmall casinos opened in South Dakota andColorado, there was not much debate onthe relationship between casinos andcrime. In 1992, the debate about this rela-tionship was brought to centre stage whenChicago's mayor approved a proposal tobuild a casino in downtown Chicago. Inthe resulting debate, opponents of theproject raised the crime issue in order togenerate public support for their opposi-tion to the initiative (Margolis, 1997).Gaming opponents have since raised thecrime issue in other jurisdictions, includ-ing Missouri, Indiana, Florida, Maryland,Massachusetts, Louisiana, New York, Ohio,Pennsylvania and Michigan.

On a national level, organized opposi-tion to casino gaming has made the crimeissue a major point on the political agenda.Opponents claim that gaming developmentincreases crime in three principal ways.First, people steal to support dysfunctionalgambling habits. Second, gambling mayattract criminals because it is a cash indus-try. As such, it can be used to exploit peo-ple. Third, criminal activity may increasebecause crowds draw petty thefts (Cabot,1996). Street crime near casinos has beenthe concern of several studies. It involvescrimes against the person or property ofcitizens and casino patrons, such as rob-bery, burglary, assault, rape, theft, murderand similar crimes (Miller and Schwartz,1998). Environmental criminologists referto places that attract criminal activities as`hot spots'. The hot-spot theory originatedby Spring and Block (1988) argues that cer-tain places are more crimogenic than oth-ers. Because of the associated criminalactivities casinos are considered hot spots.On the other hand, it is argued that casinogaming may lower street crime if it reducesunemployment in the area surrounding thecasino, if it reduces illegal gambling orincreases visitor security (Albanese, 1997).Proponents suggest that the legalizationof gambling can help eliminate illegal

gambling, thereby allowing the police toreallocate resources toward other crimeprevention and law enforcement (Cabot,1996).

Empirical studies (e.g. Albanese, 1985;Fridman et al., 1989; Hakim and Weinblatt,1989) have found that total criminal offencesand property crimes in particular increasedafter casinos opened in Atlantic City. In themore rural gaming areas of Deadwood, SouthDakota; Black Hawk, Central City; and CrippleCreek, Colorado, residents perceived thatcrime had increased when casinos wereintroduced (Long et al., 1994). Stokowski(1996) found that the total number of crimi-nal offences and arrests increased after gam-ing began, contrary to crime patterns acrossthe State of Colorado during the same period.Cabot (1996) argues that unadjusted crimestatistics show increases in crime incidentswith the introduction of casinos in many butnot all jurisdictions. According to him, juris-dictions considering casino developmentshould recognize the likelihood that casinogaming, like any other tourist activity, mayresult in more street crime simply because ofthe increase in the number of visitors in thejurisdiction. An increased volume of crimi-nal acts occurs in other tourist jurisdictionswhere a new tourist industry creates majorattractions. Miller and Swartz (1998) arguethat 'there is no reason to believe that gam-bling casinos are different from any othertourist attraction' (p. 8). Other studies (e.g.Margolis, 1997) found little evidence to sup-port the notion that the presence of casinogaming in a community has any meaningfulimpact on crime rates Similarly, Moufakkir(2005, p. 17-18) reviewed the gaming- andcrime-related literature and found differencesbetween studies. He also examined crimevolume in Detroit and neighbouring commu-nities before, during and after MGM Grandand MotorCity opened in the city, and foundthat most crimes did not increase, except forprostitution (arrests) and arson offences.Although it was concluded that there is noclear indication to suggest that crime volumeincreased when the casinos opened,Moufakkir maintained that caution needs tobe taken when using and interpreting crimedata independent of other variables.


Problem Gambling

Other researchers (e.g. Volberg, 1994;Thompson et al., 1996) have indicated thatthere is an association between compulsivegambling crime and other social ills. It isargued that addiction to gambling may leadto crime. Compulsive gamblers may turn toillegal activities to support their addiction,finance gambling or pay gambling debts(Lesieur, 1992). Compulsive or pathologicalgambling remains the most real and seriousside effect of gambling (NGISC, 1999).Proponents argue that gaming is generally aform of entertainment practised responsiblyby millions of Americans (American GamingAssociation, 2000). But gaming opponentsargue that the vast majority of those whogamble have problems related to gambling,and a large portion of the revenues fromexpanded casinos come from problem andpathological gamblers (Grinols and Omorov,1996). According to adversaries, the prolif-eration of casinos increases the percentageof people with gambling problems in a givenpopulation. Studies of problem gamblingprovide varying estimates of its incidence(NGISC, 1999).

It is estimated that 1-2% of the US pop-ulation has the potential to become patho-logical gamblers (American PsychiatricAssociation, 2004). Their addiction to gam-bling is the most severe classification ofproblem gaming. They will go to almost anymeans (e.g. stealing from family, friends andemployees) to obtain money to gamble.Unless someone (e.g. family member, casinoemployee) intervenes, pathological gam-blers often can't break their addictive gam-bling behaviour and risk losing theirfamilies, jobs and all their assets (e.g. lifeinsurance policies, retirement monies andpersonal possessions). Another 2-3% of theUS population is classified as 'at risk' gam-blers. They display similar but less severeproblem gaming symptoms (e.g. gamingmore often than desired, losing much morethan intended or choosing to gamble ratherthan participate in desirable family activi-ties). The net result for them is diminished`quality of life' and a strong sense of guiltbecause they gamble more than they know

they should. Fortunately, most of theseproblem gamers are not so addicted thatthey can't recognize that they have a prob-lem with gaming. Some are able to 'self-treat' to mitigate their addiction or arewilling to seek professional help to manageit. Problem gaming researchers have foundthat problem gamers are also likely to dis-play other addictive behaviour (e.g. drugs,shopping and alcohol). In layman's terms,the mental high they receive from gamingovercomes the downside consequences thatthey know exist from excessive gambling.Their brains are 'wired' differently than themajority of the rest of the population.

Problem gaming presents an interestingchallenge for the casino industry, which pre-fers to view itself as being in the business ofproviding entertainment to its guests.Problem gamers are very good casino cus-tomers, but, unlike other businesses, casinosaggressively try to discourage problem gam-ers' patronage. This is in part voluntarysince serving problem gamers often leads totragic incidents leading to negative publicitythat is bad for a casino's desired reputationas a socially responsible entertainmentvenue. It is also because governments requirecasinos to identify and remove problemgamers from their premises. Governmentsdeem problem gaming as a serious issue inpart because of the negative social conse-quences of the addict's behaviour but alsobecause it reflects badly on governmentsthemselves who are after all responsible forlegalizing and regulating casinos in theirjurisdictions.

There is no question that a significantpercentage of any population is prone tobecome problem gamers and that some ofthem will become gambling addicts. But,banning casinos is not necessarily an opti-mal policy decision designed to protectthose vulnerable to a problem gaming addic-tion. Such a policy would not eliminatepeoples' exposure to opportunities to gam-ble legally (e.g. play the lottery) or illegally.Furthermore, anyone with a computer cangamble online with no supervision or little,if any, government regulation. GaryLoverman (2010) recently noted that, whilethe numbers and distribution of casinos


across America have increased significantlyover the last 20 years, the percentage of theUS population that is classified as beingproblem gamers has not changed. Casinosdo not seem to increase the incidence ofproblem gaming, although they surely pro-vide alternatives to other gaming venuesthat are available to gaming addicts.

The casino industry in the USA investssignificant monies to support problem-gamingresearch, employ education to identify prob-lem gamers and provide treatment for addicts.Given that most people enjoy gambling as aform of entertainment, government-regulatedcasinos operated by responsible managementare more socially desirable gaming venuesthan the majority of the others that are avail-able to the public.

Discussion

The literature is divided on the social andeconomic benefits and costs a casino bringsto a given community. Several differencesacross the studies in the literature mayaccount for the inconsistent conclusionsdrawn from their results including thefollowing:

1. The nature of the gaming community: isthe community rural or urban, large, mid-sized or small, or in close proximity to alarge population or not? Is the community agaming destination with a cluster of casinosor does it offer only one casino?2. The nature of the casino: does the casinooffer only gaming or is it a full resort-conference centre complex with gaming?3. Is it an Indian casino, a land-based com-mercial casino, a racino or a riverboat casino?4. Is the casino location in close proximityto population centres, considered as a stop-over or primary destination/attractions?5. What is the research methodologyemployed to conduct the study?6. The gaming position of the researcher:does the researcher generally oppose orsupport gaming?7. Who is sponsoring the study: is it a pri-vate research firm, a non-profit agency, or apublic organization such as a university?

8. What is the purpose of the study: is it tomeasure the economic impacts, socialimpacts or a combination?

Gaming communities differ from one another.Their success may depend, to a large extent,on whether the community's casino(s)constitute(s) a destination casino resort thatoffers gambling along with a mega-resortcontaining overnight accommodations, retailbusinesses, meeting rooms, and expensivedining and entertainment opportunities.Furthermore, not all casinos are equally suc-cessful business ventures. Some have gonebankrupt and others are struggling to copewith the competition. Others are highly prof-itable, expanding or considering expansion.Based on this review, it would not makemuch sense to present more studies that sup-port or reject casino gaming development. Ina meta-analysis, Shaffer and Korn (2002, p.178) concluded that 'it can appear that gam-bling causes social problems, and it evenmight be that gambling is a cause of thesesocial problems. However, the current stateof scientific research simply does not permitthis conclusion.' What is important toacknowledge is that like many other tourismdevelopments, casino gaming is neither apanacea nor a blight. Simply because somecasino ventures provide economic benefitsdoes not mean that they are appropriate orcould serve as models for future develop-ment elsewhere. Very few generalizations arevalid when considering the economic bene-fits and costs of casino development. TheNGISC (1999, p. 7) concluded: 'No reasona-ble person would argue that gambling is costfree'. Almost every beneficial claim has itsnegative counterpart, and therefore, eachcase must be decided on its merit (Gartner,1996). Any tourism development must beguided by a carefully planned policy.Legislators, investors and decision makersmust weigh the economic benefits againstthe costs, bearing in mind that, in fact, themost sophisticated projections remain ques-tionable. If potential costs and benefits areidentified early in the planning process, it isoften possible to exploit the benefits andmitigate the costs when the developmentproject is implemented (McIntosh et al., 1995).


Communities form no common front: 'onecommunity may welcome gambling as aneconomic salvation; while its neighbor mayregard it as anathema. As such, there are fewareas in which a single, national, one-size-fits-all approach can be recommended'(NGISC, p. vii). Despite obvious economicand social benefits and costs, and in spite ofthe claims and arguments by supporters andopponents, it would be ludicrous to even tryto settle the controversies surrounding gam-ing by fixating on one case, a multitude ofcases, one model or different models. Whileone can expect similar issues to surfacearound new casino development or expan-sion proposals, how each of these is proc-essed and weighted will vary widely acrossindividual cases. This is due to the complex-ities involved, variations across individualcases, and taste and preferences of commu-nities. It is not unusual for a community viareferendum to strongly reject a proposedcasino three or four times before subse-quently approving it.

The successes or failures of casinos arealso the result of several interacting factorsincluding management practices, marketingand positioning activities, acceptance orrejection of gaming by the host community,competition, and government regulations.The case for supporting gaming developmentwill then rest on enlightened decisions andpolicies based not only on the benefits andcosts of the proposed gaming development,but also on the consideration of other devel-opment alternatives, and surely on keepingthe promise to the community. Finally,because of all the cost and benefit projectionsand accompanying assumptions and ambi-guities, the final decision for establishingcasinos will depend on the eyes of thebeholders. The controversies can only helpus to learn from the mistakes and successesof others, a key to informed decisions.

Conclusion

In 2009, the vast majority of Americans didnot have to travel far to gamble at a casino;additional casinos were built in 2010 and

others are expected to become available inthe next couple of years. Casinos are nolonger scarce or novelties across most ofAmerica. In fact, it has been reported that90% of the US population resides within a4-hour drive of a casino (Durham andHashimoto, 2010). Recent events shed somelight on the future for casino gaming in theUSA. Leading into the 'Great Recession' inthe USA in 2008, the casino industry waswidely viewed as being 'recession proof' orat a minimum 'recession resistant'. Neitherhas proven to be correct in many casinomarkets. Although gaming revenues in somemarkets have expanded or not declined sig-nificantly, the situation in others is cata-strophic. Several properties in Atlantic Cityand Las Vegas are in or near bankruptcy.Those in the worst financial straits are over-leveraged investments in expansion or newdevelopments based upon what has provento be overly optimistic projections of con-sumer demand and cash flow. Investors inthese developments are not being repaid atall or are receiving only a small fraction ofthe amount that they loaned. Given thisexperience investing in casinos, access tocapital for future casino developments istight and will likely remain so for some timeinto the future.

The movie 'Field of Dreams' wasreleased in 1989. It has an adult fantasytheme involving an Iowa corn farmer, anavid baseball fan, who is struggling to sur-vive financially. In his dreams, he repeat-edly hears a voice saying: 'Build it and theywill come'. He eventually determines thatìt' is a ball diamond, which he builds, andwhich attracts baseball fans and the farm issaved. The line from the movie 'Build it andthey will come' is a fitting descriptor under-lying the rapid expansion of the casinoindustry during the past couple of decades.During the next couple of decades, theinvestment climate will be materially differ-ent: 'Build it in the right place at the righttime and they will come'. 'It' will need to bea casino that is unique in the market andscaled to fit that target market. 'Right place'will be where there are limited existing andplanned competitors, and it will be close tomajor population centres. The 'Right time'


will be when investment capital is readilyavailable at average or below average costsand when the probability of an economicrecession is low. Nevertheless, to a certainextent, gaming development will alwaysremain a gamble.

In summary, the casino market in theUSA is entering a period of much slowerexpansion (maturity), and the casino gam-ing experience is shifting from being a nov-elty to a commodity. Governments and thetribes will continue to exploit their monop-oly positions to the disadvantage of casinocustomers, but growing competition willresult in an improved casino product and a

better value for customers. Finally, expan-sion of casino gaming will be most rapidand profitable outside the USA. Countriesin Asia are emerging as the new frontier forcasino gaming. For example, Macau inChina recently passed Las Vegas as theworld's casino gaming revenue king, andthe Chinese potential gaming market is onlybeginning to be tapped. Two major and veryprofitable casinos recently opened inSingapore. These successful developmentswill serve to expand casino gaming acrossAsia just as the success of Las Vegas casinosfuelled rapid and major expansion of casinogaming across the USA.

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10 Golf Tourism: The Case of Cyprus

Nikolaos Boukas', George Boustras' and Alexandros Sinka2'The School of Business Administration, European

University Cyprus, Cyprus; 2Cybarco Ltd, Nicosia, Cyprus

Introduction

The development of golf tourism in Cyprusthrough the initiation/construction of 14golf courses in various areas of the free partof the island is an issue discussed for years.Even though some of these courses havealready been constructed and operate suc-cessfully, such a development has createdseveral types of controversies among stake-holders, mostly because of the need for ahigh use of environmental resources,mainly land and water deposits, in an areawhere both land and water are limited. Theaim of this chapter is to present opinionson this major subject based on recent datafrom different disciplines: tourism plan-ning and policy, environmental planningand tourism development. The chapterexamines three main fields in which thereare controversies regarding golf coursesdevelopment: agriculture, the hospitalityand real estate industries, and the environ-ment. Considering on the one hand thattourism is the vital vein of the Cyprioteconomy, and, on the other hand, thatCyprus is highly affected by climatologicchanges, this chapter provides informationregarding the views of different interestedbodies and provides suggestions about neu-tralizing the negative impacts that thedevelopment of golf courses may cause.

The Republic of Cyprus has constituteda significant destination for tourists sincethe early 1960s (Cyprus TourismOrganization Information Centre, 2005). Itsunique characteristics, such as location,climate, morphology, natural resources andcultural heritage, became strong attractionsfor tourists. Tourism as a distinct activitystarted to develop during the post-colonialera after the independence of the islandfrom the UK in 1960. The main reason forsuch a development was the serious consid-eration of tourism by the national govern-ment as an important economic activity thatwould lead to the encouragement of the eco-nomic diversification of the island(loannidis, 1992), coupled with the interna-tional trends revolving mainly around theaffluence following the Second World Warand the decrease in the cost of internationaltravel.

Organized efforts started to focus alongmostly coastal areas, satisfying demandfrom northern markets such as the UK andScandinavia for sun-based destinationattributes (loannidis, 2001). The rapidgrowth of tourism during the period betweenthe 1960s and early 1970s can be reflectedby the fact that while in 1960 the arrivals ofvisitors to the island were 25,000, therespective arrivals in 1973 numbered almost225,000, an increase of almost 900%,


Golf Tourism 145

whereas for the same year internationaltourist arrivals worldwide increased byonly 175% (Witt, 1991).

Nonetheless, the development of thetourism industry was unexpectedly cut in1974 when the Turkish invasion of theisland and the illegitimate occupation of thenorthern part of it (37.3% of its surface) ledto political instability, the collapse of theeconomy, social problems, the loss of manyinfrastructural and superstructural ele-ments, and to a decrease of tourist arrivalsto 47,000 in 1975 (Witt, 1991; loannidis,2001; Sharp ley, 2002). After 1974 and until1983, the northern part of the island wascontrolled by Turkey and, since 1983, it isself-declared and recognized only by itselfas the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus(Barkey and Gordon, 2001). From thatperiod, the Cyprus government concen-trated its efforts on the free un-occupiedsouthern part of the island.

The Cyprus government had to dealwith many political, economic and socialproblems. Regarding tourism there was avast damage both in terms of infrastructureand image; 65% of the total bed capacityand 96% of beds under construction(Saveriades, 2000), as well as 40% of therestaurants and bars, were located in theoccupied north part of the island (Witt,1991). Moreover, Nicosia InternationalAirport, the main entrance point for inter-national tourists now located in the UnitedNations Buffer Zone, closed (Saveriades,2000), leaving the island without access byair until February 1975 when LarnacaInternational airport was completed.

This grave situation brought about theneed for a series of decisions to be made bythe government, with many of them oftenbeen taken hastily and without much fore-sight. The estimation of the positive (mainlyeconomic) impact of tourism that was prob-ably necessary for the survival of the islandthat time created a mass tourism develop-ment, based on misrule and without takinginto account environmental and sustaina-bility issues (EIU, 1992). Nevertheless, allthese efforts led to the recovery of thetourism industry, to the re-establishment ofCyprus as a competitive Mediterranean

destination, and gradually to the increase inthe number of visits to the island.

During the 1980s, tourism became apowerful industry for the Cypriot govern-ment. In 1980, tourist arrivals on the islandwere 348,530 and provided CYP71 million(EUR121 million) (Cyprus TourismOrganization Information Centre, 2005)(Table 10.1). The growth continued toincrease rapidly. In 1990, around 1.5 mil-lion tourists visited the island (an increaseof 448% in comparison to 1980) and gener-ated CYP573 million (EUR979 million).

The peak point in terms of arrivals was,however, noted in 2001 when approximately2 6 million tourists arrived in the country andgenerated CYP 1.27 billion (EUR 2.2 billion).After that year, the arrivals of internationalvisitors in Cyprus started to decrease. In 2009,the arrivals reached the lowest level of thedecade (2.1 million tourists) and EUR 1.51million revenues. Tourist arrivals keptdecreasing during 2010, despite the optimis-tic forecasts of the Strategic Plan for Tourism2000-2010 put forward by the Cyprus TourismOrganization that indicated that for 2010 thenumber of arrivals would reach 3 5 milliontourists and an increase of expenditure pervisit would also be noticed (Cyprus TourismOrganization Information Centre, 2005).

This decrease continues for severalreasons. Among the main problems that the

Table 10.1. Tourist arrivals and revenues.

Year Arrivals

Revenues(EURmillion)

Revenues(CYP

million)

1980 348,530 121 71

1985 769,727 439 2571990 1,561,479 979 5731995 2,100,000 1,384 8102001 2,696,732 2,182 1,2772005 2,470,063 1,733 1,0142006 2,400,924 1,772 1,0372007 2,416,081 1,878 1,0992008a 2,403,750 1,8102009 2,141,193 1,510

aSince 1 January 2008 the official currency of Cyprus isthe EURO.Courtesy of the Cyprus Tourism Organization InformationCentre (2005) and Cyprus Tourism Organization (2010).

146 N. Boukas et al.

country currently faces are its competitive-ness and the lack of application of an organ-ized tourist strategy. During the the pastdecade Cyprus has been competing withother destinations (e.g. Turkey and Egypt)that offer multifarious tourist elements atmuch more attractive prices (Archontides,2007). Cyprus is an expensive destinationthat offers similar or fewer characteristicsthan other destinations. Therefore, the onlysolution for its long-term stability andgrowth is to turn towards more desirableforms of development that emphasize qual-ity, based on a specific planned strategy.

It is obvious that the tourist develop-ment model that revitalized the Cyprioteconomy during the previous decades hasreached a level of saturation and needs sig-nificant changes. Indeed, for years, theCypriot tourist product has a seasonal char-acter, and is based on heliocentric elements,the visual consumption of sea and sun, whileit is characterized by regional imparity,attracting the majority of tourists to mostlycoastal areas and leaving inland rural areassignificantly out of the focus (Sharpley,2002). Furthermore, even if the need fordiversification of the tourist product of theisland to deal with the situation was under-lined by the authorities years ago(Andronikou, 1986; Archontides, 2007), stillthe overdependence on mass tourism is obvi-ous. As a consequence, the Cypriot tourismproduct for many years was exchangeablemore by its price and less by its quality, cre-ating an image for the island as a sunny des-tination for summer vacations. Nowadays,this image is not valid anymore. Cyprus is anexpensive sunny destination but it continuesto offer elements of questionable quality,where other competitive destinations excelboth in quantitative and qualitative terms.

Furthermore, the recent economic cri-sis affected the tourism industry of Cyprusas well. Tourist arrivals were reduced by11.1% during August 2009, the peak monthof tourism arrivals (Rostanti, 2009), whilethe forecasts for 2010 are still negative.According to the Minister of Commerce,Industry and Tourism of Cyprus it is esti-mated that the arrivals of British tourists(the leading market in tourism) will be

reduced by 10% this year (InternationalTravel Report, 2009). To deal with the situa-tion, several practices of the tourism policyof the island have been suggested and/oradopted. These practices were based on theaxis 'emphasis on quality' and includedseveral solutions such as the construction ofmarinas, sports tourism development, crea-tion of convention centres, qualitativeimprovement of hospitality operations, andgeneral enrichment of the current tourismproduct (Archontides, 2007).

The construction of golf courses on theisland was argued to be one of theseenhancements that focus on quality, at leastin terms of competition. The developmentof golf courses was considered by the tour-ism policy as one of the most appropriatemeans for diversification and the revitaliza-tion of Cyprus as a contemporary and com-petitive destination. However, it raised aseries of conflicts and contradictions in theCypriot society. These issues will be dis-cussed in this chapter.

The Chronicle of Golf CourseDevelopment in Cyprus

The development of golf courses in Cypruswas judged, by tourism officials, to be aneffective way to the improvement of thetourism product of the island, in terms ofquality. This step, aimed at maximizing thetourist revenues, mostly focused on theNorth European markets and the harmoni-zation of the seasonality problem thatthreatens tourism on the island. Hence, therevised version of the Strategic Plan forTourism 2000-2010, the Strategic Plan forTourism 2003-2010, prepared by the CyprusTourism Organization (CTO), recommendedallowing the development of 14 golf coursesfor the following two reasons:

1. The fulfilment of quantitative goals basedon the anticipated increase of arrivals,increased money spent, attraction of a`higher spending' clientele.2. The fulfilment of goals that focus onquality, based on the re-positioning ofCyprus in the tourism market.

Golf Tourism 147

The chronology to date of the develop-ment of golf courses in Cyprus portraysthree major milestones. The need for golftourism development has been mentionedsince the 1990s (Archontides, 2007).Archontides (2007) reports that, in 1993,the council of Ministers established a policyfor golf-course development that also justi-fied the construction of 750 bed spaces percourse. The interest was, however, limitedmostly because the potential investors didnot find that the specific number of bedspaces was an attractive incentive for fur-ther development and there was no progress.Hence, only three golf courses were devel-oped by the beginning of the new century(Archontides, 2007).

In 2003, however, the governmentjudged that the previous policy should bereviewed. The review was completed in2005. Incentives were given by the govern-ment for the development of 11 more golfcourses in Cyprus under the framework ofthe readjustment of the existing tourismproduct (Archontides, 2007). A main plankof the updated policy was that the develop-ment of new golf courses should be in linewith the simultaneous development ofproperty and tourism.

In 2009, the council of Ministers decidedto readjust the policy for the development ofgolf courses in Cyprus (Ministry of Finance,2009). The final number of golf coursesallowed was stabilized at 14 and each inves-tor should pay a licence fee of EUR 5 million.Given that Cyprus has been facing a watershortage for a number of years, queriesregarding the appropriateness of the con-struction of golf courses as a solution for boththe economic recovery and the long-termsustainable development of the island weregenerated. For this reason, the same decisionalso included the condition that the waterrequired for the golf course and associatedoperations should not come from the govern-ment tanks and the draining system. Instead,the provision of water for the golf coursesshould come solely from desalination plantsthat will produce the necessary amounts ofwater via renewable means.

The financial incentives from the devel-opment of golf tourism were enough to

attract many investors. As Archontides(2007) states, since 2005, 28 investors haveshown interest in the construction of golfcourses on the island and nine of them hadalready moved to the next steps for approval.At the time of writing, four golf coursesoperate on the island, all of them located inthe Paphos area. Two of them have operatedsince 2010. Archontides (1997) also men-tions that the competitors of Cyprus in termsof golf tourism are Spain, Portugal andTurkey.

Contribution of Golf Tourism

Golf is a well-developed form of sports tour-ism. In fact, its popularity is so great that itcould be characterized as a major tourismactivity. Golf tourism is considered as thelargest sports travel market (Tassiopoulosand Haydam, 2008). It is a distinct form oftourism that brings 60 million golfers(Readman, 2003) to 32,000 golf courses in140 countries worldwide (Hudson andHudson, 2010). Those golfers spend almostEUR14.5 million per year (Markwick, 2000),making golf tourism one of the most impor-tant markets within the global industry.

Readman (2003) states that golf touristsinclude those who travel to destinations topartake in golf activities for non-commercialpurposes as well as professionals. Hudsonand Hudson (2010) suggest that three typesof tourists can be defined as golf tourists:those that are primarily motivated by golfand therefore travel mostly for active par-ticipation in golf activities; those that con-sider playing golf as an adjunct to their maintravel activity; and those that have a roleeither as a spectator of golf tournaments or avisitor to attractions related to golf. In anycase, golf is a niche market of the tourismindustry that can have remarkable impactsfor travel destinations.

The impacts of golf activities for a des-tination are multidimensional. As Hudsonand Hudson (2010) point out, golf tourismis only one cluster of a whole economy thatthey name 'golf economy'. They mentionthat other clusters/subsectors are also


evident in this economy: golf facilityoperations, golf course capital investment,golf supplies, and media tournaments, asso-ciations and charities that compose the coreindustries of the economy; and hospitalityand tourism as real estate that compose theenabled industries of the golf economy.These subsectors are interrelated and con-tribute directly and indirectly to employ-ment and general economy of a place(Hudson and Hudson, 2010).

In terms of tourism, golf has significantpositive impacts for destinations. Butler(2005) suggests that golf tourism can con-tribute positively to the development andgrowth of a destination. Golf is so powerfulthat it can transform a place into a golf des-tination, such as in the case of St Andrewsin Scotland. As Markwick (2000) states, golftourism can minimize the seasonality prob-lem of many 'warm' destinations (such asthe case study Malta), and therefore canlengthen the tourist season, since manygolfers that cannot play golf during the win-ter months in northern countries, can moveto the south where the weather conditionsare more appropriate. Palmer (2004) alsoargues that golf tourism can be developedon degraded or derelict areas that are diffi-cult to develop for any other activity andtherefore this helps in their rejuvenation.Obviously, golf tourism adds value to thetourism products of a destination by diver-sifying and enhancing them with new activ-ities, facilities and services, and hencecreates more competitive destinations andprojects their image further (Markwick,2000; Palmer, 2004).

Another aspect of golf tourism men-tioned in the literature is related to the char-acteristics of golf tourists. As Henessey et al.(2008) suggest, golf tourists can be catego-rized into three types: infrequent, moderateand dedicated. Dedicated golf tourists tendto be people of older ages, dedicated playerswith higher income levels, who are lesssensitive to price and are more significantspenders than those in the other two catego-ries. This category of golf tourists can createsignificant growth in an area's tourist indus-try (Henessey et al., 2008). Hudson andHudson (2010) agree with the previous

authors and add that golf tourists spendmore on their vacations in comparison toleisure tourists and generally are of higher-spending social groups. Finally, Correiraet al. (2007), trying to describe the golftourist in Algarve, Portugal, state that golftourists in the destination are males of olderages that keep visiting Algarve repeatedlyfor golfing activities, mostly because of thegood weather conditions and the quality ofthe courses.

To conclude, the above informationindicates that golf tourism is a high-spendingactivity that attracts tourists of higherincome levels and spending capability whoseek quality (Tassiopoulos and Haydam,2008). In this regard, golf tourism could becharacterized as a form of tourism develop-ment that can enrich the tourism product ofa destination with new infrastructure, cangenerate income in it, and consequentlyrevitalize it. Hence, golf tourism, under theappropriate directions, can contribute to thecompetitiveness of a destination.

There are, however, also negativeimpacts that are related to golf tourism. Forinstance, golf tourism leads to an increasein road traffic and is highly characterized byelitism (Hudson and Hudson, 2010).Nonetheless, the most important negativeimpacts of golf tourism development arerelated to environmental and sustainabilityissues (Markwick, 2000; Gossling et al.,2002; Sharpley, 2003; Dodson, 2005), andare the basis for the creation of contradic-tions from different stakeholders in an area,in this case Cyprus.

Sustainability and GolfTourism in Cyprus

It is thought by some authors that the word`sustainable' and the words 'golf course'should not even be in the same sentence(Dodson, 2005). Elements most oftenincluded in sustainability comprise ecol-ogy, society and economy. Based on this cat-egorization, golf courses, by default, are onthe list of non-ecological man-made crea-tions. It is unknown, however, what are the

Golf Tourism 149

social and economic dimensions and howthese create (or not) a positive impactlocally, in this artificial equation. If sustain-ability in golf courses was an equation madeof equally weighted ecological, economicand societal parameters, the solution to thisequation could be either balanced or heav-ily weighted to one or two parameters andless weighted to the other.

The economic variable in the previoussentence creates a paradox; if financialgrowth (and subsequently societal wealth)is emphasized, golf courses become a reallypositive alternative to the tourism portfolioof a country. If, on the other hand, ecologyand 'environmental correctness' are of pri-mary concern, golf does not become anoption. There is indeed, therefore, a need tocreate sustainable golf courses that equallypromote wealth and social cohesion while,at the same time, treating local and regionalnatural resources with respect. Cyprus is atypical illustration of the paradox men-tioned above. Drought, desertification andits political problem create a mixture ofenvironmental and land management prob-lems that are unique to the issue of golf-course development.

Critics of golf-course development, usu-ally from the ecological and green move-ment, non-governmental organizations(NGOs), professional and scientific associa-tions, local groups and individuals, havepublicized their concerns on a number ofoccasions (Tatnall, 1991; Pleumarom, 1992;Pearce, 1993; Platt, 1994; Schwanke, 1997;Terman, 1997; Warnken et al., 2001; Farrallyet al., 2003; Bramwell, 2004). Most impor-tantly, the consumption and competition forscarce resources are discussed (land, water,soil and energy) between golf developmentsand other activities, as are soil and waterpollution, ecosystem degradation, socio-economic inequalities and induced, oftenunplanned, tourism and residential devel-opment (Briassoulis, 2002). Regarding sus-tainability, the chapter concentrates mainlyon water and land management issues asthey are the most important for Cyprus.

In 2009, the Government of Cyprusgave approval for the development of golfcourses, on the condition that all these

developments will obtain their waterresources from their own-built desalina-tion plants powered by renewable energysources. At the same time, it was stressedthat in accordance with the decision 'nowater supplies will be given over by thegovernment to meet the needs of thesefacilities' (Ministry of Finance, 2009,p. 102). On the 7th of May 2010 in hisopening speech of the 35th Annual CyprusTrade Fair, the President of the Republic ofCyprus Dimitris Christofias (CyprusPresidency, 2010) stated that 'the aim ofhis Government is to have fourteen golfcourses developed'.

Markwick (2000), in a case study,presents Malta as far as golf tourism is con-cerned. The parallel between Cyprus andMalta is direct. Markwick (2000) mentionsthat the major negative impacts that areassociated with the golf courses are con-nected with the amount of land required fortheir development, especially in a placewhere land is already limited. For instance,the author argues that:

It is estimated that an 18 hole golf courserequires approximately 350 tumoli or 50-60hectares of land (the upper limit applyingwhere steep slopes, wetlands, wooded areasor rock must be avoided); while a further 25hectares would be needed to expand to a 27hole course.

Markwick (2000, p. 516)

Moreover, Markwick continues, the coursesneed a considerable amount of water for thepurposes of irrigation for greens and tees. Ina Mediterranean island like Cyprus, eachgolf course requires 1 million cubic metresof water for its maintenance (Ministry ofAgriculture, Natural Resources and theEnvironment, 2007). Markwick (2000) alsoadds that other adverse impacts from thedevelopment of golf courses include thedisturbance of the landscape and the natu-ral ecosystems of an area. Dodson (2005)adds that there could be the restraint of cer-tain countryside activities such as agricul-ture because of the limitation of land areas.Also, in order to maintain the quality of thegreen in golf courses, large amounts offertilizers, herbicides and pesticides are


needed, and of course these can harm theenvironment by polluting the ground andthe groundwater (Hudson and Hudson,2010; Markwick, 2000). Cyprus, being in asimilar geographic location to Malta, facesthe same water restrictions and the sameproblems.

According to Warnken et al. (2001), interms of negative impacts, the greatest con-cern was, and still is, pollution of groundand surface waters from nutrients and pesti-cides (Balogh, 1992). On average, a moderngolf course requires the application ofaround 200 kg nitrogen/ha/year and 40 kgphosphate/ha/year (Petrovic, 1990), and2.2 kg active ingredient (a.i.) of pesticide ha/year (Kendall et al., 1992). Regarding water,De Stefano (2004) reports that the averagetourist in Spain consumes 440 litres perday; this value increases to 880 litres ifswimming pools and golf courses exist(Gossling, 2002). Water is a particularly pre-cious resource in Cyprus. Water protectiontherefore features prominently in Cyprus'environmental policy. Rainfall in Cyprushas dropped by 15% since the 1970s. Sincethen the country has been parched by longdroughts broken briefly by occasionaldownpours. The Government has decidedto tackle the issue through desalination; thefirst plant started to operate in 1997, inDhekelia (Marangou and Savvides, 2001).

Undoubtedly, golf courses require largequantities of water (Foley and Lardner LLP,2005). Tourist and residential water use mayreach 850 litres per person per day duringthe summer (De Stefano, 2004; Essex et al.,2004). Water consumption on golf coursesmay be up to 10,000 m3 /ha /year, equivalentto that of 12,000 people (Mastny, 2001;Briassoulis, 2002; De Stefano, 2004). Theproblems become dramatic during the sum-mer, and especially during droughts, whichare very common in South-eastern Europe,with Cyprus being a representative case.

Moreover, the continuous occupationof almost 40% of the Republic, coupledwith almost 10% occupied by the BritishSovereign Military Bases, dramatically lim-its Cyprus' available space for development.Wind energy is considered to be Cyprus'best bet in increasing its renewable energy

production (despite having a lower potentialthan most other countries) but a range ofdifferent objections have been raised by thepeople living in the area concerning issuessuch as impact on tourism, health and thesafety of their farms and family, and exist-ence of wildlife (Ioannou and Theocharidis,2009). This has become evident through theGovernment's effort to create the first windfarms in Cyprus.

In an attempt to acknowledge society'senvironmental concerns, the European GolfAssociation Ecology Unit (a branch of a golfindustry association) promotes the`Committed to Green' label, introduced in1997 (Buckley, 2002). To date, 80 of an esti-mated 5200 European golf courses areinvolved in this pilot scheme. Accreditationcriteria have not been formalized, and thescheme appears somewhat embryonic(Buckley, 2002). The European GolfAssociation Ecology Unit has producedseveral useful publications in the 1990s, lead-ing to the Valderrama Declaration of 1999,which is an agreement between internationalgolfing bodies and several conservation NGOsto collaborate towards common goals(Hammond et al., 2007). The ValderramaDeclaration recognizes the link betweennature and golf, while at the same time it men-tions that 'growth of the game has spread golffar beyond its original climatic region, whichhas led to the need to confront new challengesin the field of course design and construction,and the management of turf grass and waterresources' (Golf Ecology, 2010). The agree-ment identifies the advantages of golfers andstakeholders working together and specifieslong-term goals towards sustainability.

Of course, the existence of golf coursesdoes not mean only negative impacts on theenvironment. For instance, Tanner et al.(2005) conducted an experimental study onthe effect of golf creation on biodiversity.Based on the findings of this study that wasconducted in existing golf courses, golfcourses can enhance the diversity of threeindicator groups (birds, ground beetles andbumblebees), relative to adjacent pasturefarmland. Nonetheless, the development ofgolf tourism in an area with limited naturalresources raises many questions and leads

Golf Tourism 151

to a series of contradictions. These contra-dictions are presented below.

Contradictions for GolfTourism in Cyprus

The decision of the Cypriot government toallow the construction of 14 golf courses inCyprus for enhancing, in terms of quality, theexisting tourism product resulted in a seriesof contradictions. The issues mentioned inthis section are based on findings from previ-ous research that took the form of in-depthinterviews with four principal representa-tives of various important bodies that dealwith tourism, development and environmen-tal subjects in Cyprus. Specifically, onerespondent was a representative of the hotelsector of the island and an expert on the tour-ism development of Cyprus since its inde-pendence. The second respondent was arepresentative of a construction/developmentcompany that specializes in the developmentof golf courses in Cyprus. The third respond-ent was an official from the tourism policy inCyprus. Finally, the last respondent was anofficial from the environmental bodies ofCyprus and an expert on the development ofgolf tourism in Cyprus. The interviews tookplace during the first months of 2010.

From the findings of the interviews aswell as through the scanning of the literatureand press/review concerning golf tourismon the island, three levels of contradictionswere raised and discussed below. Two of thethree contradictions are related to sustaina-bility concerns. These contradictions areinterrelated since the impacts of golf tour-ism development are woven through allaspects of the island: societal, environmen-tal, economic and political.

First contradiction: agricultureand golf tourism

The first contradiction mentioned in theresearch is related to the conflicts betweenthe agricultural sector and the golf develop-ers. From the findings, it was mentioned that

this conflict is derived by the fact that bothactivities demand large land areas and highvolumes of water. The respondent that sup-ports the development of golf courses statedthat before analysing the subject of the land,someone must question its possible usesapart from the development of golf courses.He asserted that the agricultural sector inCyprus is declining for several reasons, suchas labour cost, in comparison to other coun-tries. Moreover, he considered that even ifthere is agricultural development in Cyprus,questions regarding the wise and productiveuse of resources are raised. For instance, hecontinued that, if agriculture needs 75% ofthe water supplies and contributes only 5%to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of theRepublic, while on the other hand if tourism(including golf tourism) needs 10% of thewater supplies and contributes 30% to theGDP, then it is wiser to use this resource fortourism. He added, however, that the agri-cultural sector is needed for the economy ofthe country, but there is a need to define thelevel that this sector contributes to the econ-omy. He concluded that the use of the land isa strategic point and needs to be addressedby the government.

Conversely, the representative from theenvironmental side disagreed with theabove suggestions. He argued that the per-centages mentioned above come from oldstudies of previous years and do not repre-sent the reality nowadays. He added thatthe subject of resources, especially waterissues, do not have only economic impacts.Attention should also be paid to its socialand environmental aspects. He added thatthe agricultural sector on the island is dyingand not considering its support will lead toimportant social problems. For instance, hestated that it is preferable to give the waterto many farmers in order to support theircrops, and therefore have activity, than giv-ing it to the one or two businessmen of thegolf industry for watering the grass.

Another respondent, supporter of golftourism development in Cyprus, contra-dicted the position of the environmentalistsby arguing that agriculture indeed uses largeareas of land and volumes of water but itdoes not contribute highly to the economy of


a country. It is a fact that the agricultural sec-tor in Cyprus is shrinking (Papadavid, 2008).Characteristically, according to Papadavid(2008), there has been a notable decrease inagriculture: in 1960 the contribution of thesector to the GDP of the country was 16%while in 2004 it was only 3%. In parallel, hecontinues that this decrease also occurredbecause of the increase of the secondary andmainly the tertiary (including tourism) sec-tors of production. Additionally, the respond-ent indicated that the cost of production perunit is very high, a point also noted byPapadavid (2008), and the challenge is howthis cost can be minimized. He mentionedthat, under this scope, the problems of agri-culture in Cyprus are not related to the devel-opment of golf tourism per se. He underlinedthat the Cypriot farmers need to understandthat they will have to use the new technolo-gies to minimize the cost of production. Inthis regard, Papadavid (2008) suggests thatthere is a need for sustainable methods to beapplied to agricultural development in orderto manage this minimization. In conclusion,the principal representative argued that, infact, tourism (including golf tourism) sup-ports the agricultural industry in Cyprus byproviding demand for the local agriculturalproducts (e.g. wine).

The antithesis between the environ-mentalists and the supporters of golf tour-ism development is obvious. The main pointof conflict is the use of the limited resourcesof the island, a problem evident in Cyprus,especially in the past few years. However,this is only one layer of the contradictionsresulting from the golf tourism developmentin the island of Cyprus. The second layer ofcontradictions is associated mostly withcompetitive terms rather than sustainableissues, and includes the existing hospitalityindustry and tourism development on theisland and the development of golf tourism.

Second contradiction: hospitality, real estatedevelopment and golf tourism

The second contradiction is related to real-estate developers and the hospitality sector,

largely the existing tourism industry of theisland. There are some people who believethe development of golf courses for tourismpurposes is just an excuse to justify the hugeconstruction movements relating to thisdevelopment. For instance, Yacoumis (2005)argues that golf course development is actu-ally a real-estate development. He pointsout that each golf course in Cyprus willhave its own residential capacity and thatthe on-site residents will have special treat-ment and priority for participating in golfactivities, in comparison to the tourists ofthe island, creating limited space for tour-ists' participation. Yacoumis (2007) recog-nizes that indeed golf could be a potentialmeans for diversification of Cyprus' exist-ing tourism product, but this will happenonly with the close cooperation of beachhotels (that comprise the majority of thehotels in Cyprus) and the golf industry.Nonetheless, he continues that since eachgolf course will develop its own residentialunits and resort/s, it will automatically raisethe demand for the golfing facilities inter-nally (residents/guests of golf properties),leaving those tourists who are recreationalgolfers residing in beach hotels and wishingto play golf, without spare playing capacityor with playing capacity at expensive prices.Yacoumis (2007) concludes that the devel-opment of golf for tourism purposes is justan excuse for satisfying the interests of real-estate developers, leaving the actual tour-ism industry (and its demand) out of focus.

Obviously, the golf developers have adifferent opinion about the above argument.As mentioned by one respondent represent-ing the construction side of golf courses, theowners of properties in golf areas have someprivileges such as a discount on the pricefor playing golf and 20% of the roundsplayed. However, he mentioned that theremaining 80% of golf space is provided totourists. Golf tourists can book spacethrough several distributors such as travelagents abroad or through hotels; therefore,the facilities are available to everyone. Heconcluded that, in fact, golf tourism sup-ports tourism development in terms of qual-ity, and increases the average spend per day,while at the same time minimizing the

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seasonality problem. The hospitality sectorbenefits from the golf courses developmentbecause they can have guests - golf tourists -even during the low period in wintermonths.

Another respondent representing thehotel and tourism sectors of the island indi-cated that without a doubt the real-estateindustry supports the development of golfcourses. However, he pointed out that manyhotels in Cyprus have been upgraded inorder to offer services of better quality. Sincegolf tourism attracts people of higher incomelevels with more sophisticated demands,those hotels can meet their expectations byoffering what they need. However, he men-tioned that the tourism model has beenchanged and/or expanded. Besides thoseresiding in hotels, there are also more tour-ists with second homes in the destination.Some tourists decide to use the real-estateunits for second homes or they rent them fora specific period of time through timeshar-ing, single or multiple ownership. Thesevariations are an evolution of tourism sincethe traditional tourism product with peopleresiding only in hotels has been changed. Inthese circumstances, therefore, the develop-ers operate in synergy with tourism and theyare not necessarily 'enemies'. To conclude,there is interdependency between these twoindustries as well as mutual benefits.

Third contradiction: environmentand golf tourism

This is perhaps the most noticeable contra-diction. The fundamental dilemma criticsand supporters face, when it comes to golfdevelopment, has to do with the contradic-tion between profit and environmentalintervention. Indeed a successful and care-fully planned golf development will gener-ate profits for the owners /managers as wellas the government but as one of the respond-ents put it: 'any building, let alone a golfdevelopment becomes an irreversible inter-vention' (in the environment).

The golf development critics raise anumber of concerns related to sustainability

and the environment. While a representa-tive from the golf developers side reportedthat: '9,000 olive trees were planted, 3,000more than those promised and 21,000 bushesin total, to counterbalance the environ-mental intervention we had to make', arepresentative from the other side, the envi-ronmentalists argued that: 'the olive treeswill not be planted but they will merely bemoved from other parts of the country as anolive tree to grow will require a number ofyears'. Therefore, there is no actual contri-bution from the developers' side rather thanthe shifts of trees from one place to another.

The number of golf courses is also apoint of concern for those against golf devel-opment. The official of the tourism policystated that with the existing mass model oftourism development, Cyprus loses: there isan environmental cost because the island istoo small for accepting millions of touristsannually and, in parallel a cultural deterio-ration, the expenses for meeting of the needsof masses of tourists would be very high,high seasonality problems, low averagespending per tourist, and so on. All theseproblems required turning towards a modelof tourist development that would attractfewer numbers of tourists but higher incomelevels, with greater average spending, andduring the whole year in order to balancethe demand between the high and low peri-ods. As the same respondent argued, golftourism was an option to provide these ben-efits to the tourism industry of Cyprus andcould operate successfully during the win-ter months because of the mild weather con-ditions. Considering that in order for golfersto play golf during the winter months theytravel to distant 'exotic' destinations thatcan provide better weather conditions,Cyprus was judged to be an ideal sunny golfdestination that is not so far from theNorthern European markets. To meet theexpectations of the golf tourists for varia-tions in courses and to make Cyprus a com-petitive destination on the map of golfdestinations, the number of golf courseswas judged to be at least eight and evenmore. Hence, the government has announcedplans to permit the development of 14 golfcourses.


Obviously, as mentioned earlier, theconstruction of golf courses should beaccompanied by a series of measures forminimizing their negative impacts as far assustainability and stewardship is con-cerned. However, this decision is highlycriticized by those representing the envi-ronmental point of view. As a respondent ofthose against golf developments stated: 'nogolf courses! If we have to have them any-way, let's only have one or two of them'.The environmentalists argue that for main-taining 14 golf courses there is a need forwater that equals one sixth of the averagequantity of water in all the water tanks ofthe island (Cyprusgreens, 2010). The needfor watering golf courses is dependent onthe current climatologic conditions of anarea. In Mediterranean climates, the maxi-mum water consumption of a golf course is1 million cubic metres per year (Ministry ofAgriculture, Natural Resources and theEnvironment, 2007). Considering that theWater Development Department of Cyprus(2010) states that the water consumption forwater services in the island (annual averagefor 2005-2007) was 79,899,054 cubicmetres, then indeed the environmentalists'argument is correct. Hence, this number ofgolf courses, even if it will give revenuesfrom golf tourism, potentially may harm thewater resources of the place.

It is evident that water is a stickingpoint, especially given the scarcity of waterresources in Cyprus. According to the crit-ics: 'a single stay tourist consumes twice theamount of water the average Cypriot does'.The representative of the environmentalistsargued that: 'the government promised toenforce the provision of water for the golfcourses through desalination plants but thisis done without conducting an environmen-tal assessment'. In this regard, the respond-ent from the development of golf coursesargued that the government set a series ofconditions for constructing golf courseswith the most significant the desalinationschemes based on renewable sources ofenergy. According to him, despite the factthat desalination plants are quite a costlyinvestment, they guarantee the neededquantities of water for the courses through-

out the year. Therefore, they can providethe amounts of water for maintaining thequality of the grass at the desirable (for thegolfers and for the sport itself) level.Moreover, the use of alternative sources ofenergy is also a costly investment but, again,developers are willing to invest that moneyfor providing the necessary quantities ofwater. Finally, he concluded that in order toobtain the licence to construct their golfcourse, the government obliged them toconduct a series of environmental impactstudies.

Regarding the use of water, the repre-sentative from the tourism policy arguedthat in every project someone has to meas-ure the negative and the positive points: 'inabsolute terms I don't believe that there isdevelopment that is environmentallyfriendly'. We should therefore also considerthe needs of each tourist among millions ofthem annually, in terms of water or energyconsumption. As he argued, in the case ofgolf, desalination is a solution and, despiteits high energy requirement, it could be anefficient way to provide water for thecourses. Besides, the operation of the desal-ination units is based on renewable sourcesof energy. However, he suggested that tour-ism policy should focus on the introductionof a large central desalination hub thatwould provide water to every golf course onthe island, instead of having the currentsituation where each golf course has its ownindependent desalination station. Moredesalination stations mean further use ofenergy and more cost to each investor.Nevertheless, even in this case, the environ-mentalists argue that the environmentaldanger is great and there will always be theneed to monitor the sea and the coast(Cyprusgreens, 2010).

For the renewable sources of energyand the limitation in space that makestheir installation difficult, the tourismexpert pointed out that the governmentshould give incentives to the developersin order for them to devote a part of theirspace to constructing renewable forms ofenergy such as solar panels and windmills:`you need to allow the investor to buildwith his own cost on his land the wind or

Golf Tourism 155

solar parks'. He concluded that thegovernment does not give incentives tothe investors and hence both of the par-ties lose.

Another point of contradictionbetween the environmentalists, tourismpolicy and developers is the deteriorationof the landscape. As one of the respondentsrepresenting golf development criticsstated: 'there are no aesthetic parametersincluded in the design of the new develop-ments; there will be electricity provision,new roads and impact on nature'. Thetourism policy official recognized thatindeed, the development of golf courseshas impacts on the environment. The aim,however, is to minimize these negativeimpacts. In this respect, the respondentrepresenting the developers' point of viewemphasizes that in their golf area all thebuildings must respect the architecture ofthe landscape by using specific materialsthat will be in harmony with the surround-ing natural and cultural environment ofthe area, and all the cables are locatedbelow ground.

What about the opinions of the hostcommunity for the development of golfcourses in Cyprus? Apparently, it wasmentioned that the host communities wantthe development of golf courses becausethey see a growth in their area from theiroperation. In fact, there is another contra-diction between the local communitiesand environmentalists. The local commu-nities consider the development of golfcourses in their areas as a chance for fur-ther development, and thus economicgrowth (Ioannou, 2010). On the otherhand, the respondent of the environmen-talists' side argued that the local commu-nities just want money and therefore willgive their land for the purposes of golfdevelopment.

In conclusion, all the contradictionsmentioned above justify that where there isany type of development being considered,there are also conflicted interests. In thecase of Cyprus, it is evident that a develop-ment like golf tourism has and will haveseveral impacts, positive and negative.Since this action has already been adopted,

the aim is to focus on the harmonization ofthe contradictions so that a balance in golf-tourism development can be found.

Conclusion

The case of golf tourism development inCyprus is a representative paradigm wherethe need for competitiveness and economicgrowth through tourism development bat-tles against the need for stewardship andbalanced use of the limited resources.Many stakeholders contribute to the forma-tion and implementation of the promisingplan to transform the eastern Mediterraneanisland into a competitive golf destination.Furthermore, the government of Cyprushas already decided to operate 14 golfcourses on the island and licences havebeen given to the interested parties. Sincethe construction of the remaining golfcourses is a matter of time, efforts have tobe made to neutralize the negative impactsthat this development already has causedor will result in.

For this reason, the tourism policymust focus on monitoring these impactsand when it is necessary to limit 'harmful'activities. In effect, this monitoring mustbe systematic and periodical, and shouldinclude environmental indicators not onlyprior to the construction of any golf coursebut also during its operation by tacticallymeasuring the use of resources and super-vising any procedure. The aforemen-tioned, centralized desalination plantwould probably be an effective solutionfor the appropriate management and dis-semination of water resources. The plantcould provide more potential for the mini-mization of the environmental cost, byoperating more sustainably and providingwater to every golf unit on the island(therefore controlling water use more effi-ciently). Moreover, the renewable sourcesof energy in the golf courses areas shouldalso be an alternative option for theiroperations.

In addition, the golf course develop-ers and managers should proceed through


a series of thorough and structured bestmanagement practices as far as waterusage is concerned. These managementpractices should focus on the appropriateuse of any deposits of water available in acountry where water is precious. AsDodson (2005) argues, the best manage-ment practices must include preventativeand structural controls. The preventativemeasures will need to have a defensivecharacter in an integrated storm manage-ment system. The structural controls, onthe other hand, should be interventions`designed to remove, filter, detain, orreroute potential contaminants carried insurface water' (Dodson, 2005, p. 127). Thebest management practices should operatein harmony with the environmentalstandards.

The appropriate management of golfcourses could be aided by the application ofa formal, accredited system of managementsuch as ISO 14001 for golf courses(Hammond and Hudson, 2007). Hammondand Hudson (2007) argue that not many golfcourses have developed this system, mostlybecause it requires a relatively high cost interms of auditing, training and accredita-tion. However, they mention that there arerepresentative examples of the successfuladaptation of these systems to golf coursessuch as the Dubai-based Tower Links GolfClub, which is the first grassed golf club tobe constructed north of Dubai that receivedISO 14001 certification, in 2003. The ISO14001 certification would be an opportu-nity for Cypriot developers to prove to theircritics that indeed they take seriously thesustainable development of golf tourism inCyprus and that they consider the environ-ment by using green practices. Additionally,it would contribute to the branding of theiroperations and to the enhancement of theirimage.

Another, important point is the har-monization of the contradiction betweenthe 'suspicious' hoteliers and the develop-ers of golf courses. The tourism policyneeds to have a strategy that would guar-antee and ensure to the hospitality indus-try of the island that the golf coursedevelopers need to work closely with them

for their own long-term survival andgrowth. This strategy should be more thana communication tool; it should activelycontribute to the synergy between thesetwo stakeholders since one generatesdemand to the other.

Future research needs to focus on theoptimization of water use. Despite theefforts of the policies in warm destinationsto collect water for the summer seasons,still vast quantities of water stay unuti-lized and remain, in the case of Cyprus, inthe sea. Hence, the challenge is how thiswater should be collected and used for theneeds of golf tourism. Furthermore, renew-able sources are a promising way to pro-duce energy for the development of golftourism, but still their adaptation is at arelatively early stage. Future researchshould concentrate on the reasons that thisis happening, and on the lost potential andopportunities that the appropriate utiliza-tion of the sun and the wind (both of themdominate in Cyprus) would offer for golftourism.

Finally, the case study of Cyprus dem-onstrates that micro-political interests playa pivotal role in any decision taken, includ-ing those of tourism development. Whilemany people who recognize that mass tour-ism is no longer a solution for the islandstill wonder if the option of golf tourismdevelopment is a viable solution, emphasismust be given to how these decisions aretaken and if there is short- or long-termplanning behind them. Future analysis isvital for understanding the role of eachstakeholder in the decision-making processand must focus on the relative importanceof each decision taken and who should betaking it. Clearly, the policy bodies are theresponsible decision makers but are thesedecisions made on the basis of solid viabil-ity studies, or do they just serve the inter-ests of various stakeholders? Obviously,this question is a sensitive matter and com-prises the basis of many contradictions inmany places worldwide; more researchwould offer a valuable insight into howissues of economic development, socialgrowth and environmental stability worktogether.

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11 Residential Tourism or LifestyleMigration: Social Problems Linked

to the Non-Definition of the Situation

Raquel Huete' and Alejandro Mantecon1'Department of Sociology I, University of Alicante, Alicante, Spain

Introduction

The distinction between second-home tour-ists and lifestyle migrants has importantimplications for host societies. In this chap-ter, we will explain the concept of residen-tial tourism and its relationship withlifestyle migration by exploring the socialproblems associated with it identified inSpain. Then we will put forward a typologythat may be helpful in dealing with thecomplexity of this situation, where theboundaries between tourism and migrationare blurred.

The 'postmodern turn' is how sociolo-gists have described the process of substitut-ing the social values that prioritize physicaland economic security for values that empha-size a meaning of 'quality of life' beyondmerely material values. This shift has takenplace in most advanced Western societies,particularly in northern Europe, since thesesocieties score higher on the economic devel-opment and subjective well-being index(Inglehart, 1997). One of the social processesthat best reflects the essence of this turn is theone involving non-working Europeans thatsettle, more or less permanently, on theMediterranean coasts in search of an imag-ined 'Mediterranean lifestyle' (Huete, 2009).Thus, a relatively new phenomenon, 'inter-national residential tourism', has been

created. The mixture between migration andtourism that residential tourism representshas become massive only recently.International residential tourism in the pastwas rather an elite phenomenon, common inthe south of France, especially in Nice(Tuppen, 1991). From 1990 onwards, resi-dential tourism spread west to Portugal andeast to Greece, but it has not developed sig-nificantly yet in the countries on the south-ern shores of the Mediterranean, such asTunisia and Morocco. The Maastricht Treaty(1992) provided European citizens with newopportunities to settle and buy property inany member state anywhere within theEuropean Union (EU). In addition, theSchengen Agreement removed other institu-tional barriers to free movement of peoplebetween several EU countries. Such trendsare not only European: they have been alsoevident in the USA, Australia and LatinAmerica during the past two decades.

Several lines of research address themotivation for moving, the formation ofsocial networks and community structureswithin the host society, or the wishes,expectations and consequences associatedwith the relocation (Williams et al., 1997,2000; Rodriguez et al., 1998, 2004; Kinget al., 2000; O'Reilly, 2000; Gustafson, 2002;Huber and O'Reilly, 2004; Oliver, 2007;Benson and O'Reilly, 2009; Huete, 2009).


Residential Tourism or Lifestyle Migration 161

The concept of 'residential tourism' hasbeen used since the late 1970s (Jurdao,1979) to explain the transformations broughtabout by the construction of property intourist areas, and the configuration of twotypes of human mobility closely related toeach other in the Mediterranean world:tourism and lifestyle migration. 'Residentialtourists' are usually identified with second-home users. In fact, many dwellings evolvefrom being a holiday home to being some-thing closer to a primary residence, as theirusers go from a tourist status to a statusresembling that of an immigrant. Over thepast few years, this concept has been usedto refer to very different situations (Casado,1999; Leontidou and Marmaras, 2001;Rodriguez, 2001; Salva, 2002; Mazon, 2006;Haug et al., 2007; O'Reilly, 2007a, 2009;Mantecon and Huete, 2008; Benson andO'Reilly, 2009; Huete, 2009; Mazon et al.,2009; McWatters, 2009; Mantecon, 2010).When they delve into this reality, research-ers question the worth of an expression thatcategorizes as tourists those people whointend to stay indefinitely in the tourist des-tination, and who often own property andare registered with their local council.Tourism involves an escape from the dailyroutine but the protagonists of residentialtourism often do not seek to get away fromthe everyday life associated with their jobs.They are mainly retirees trying to redefinetheir daily life (in one, two or more homes)in an environment other than that wheretheir working life took place. Consequently,explaining this requires approaches thatplace these processes on a continuum witha wide range of mobility types, whose nature -tourism or migration - is sometimes unclear(Williams and Hall, 2000, 2002; King, 2002;O'Reilly, 2003; Hall and Midler, 2004; Urry,2007; Benson and O'Reilly, 2009; Huete,2009; Janoschka, 2009; O'Reilly and Benson,2009).

The concept of residential tourism itselfis debatable since it comprises two contra-dictory terms. For instance, Karen O'Reilly(2007a) accepted the notion of residentialtourism after acknowledging that the seman-tic contradiction of this expression enablesresearchers to highlight the tensions that

appear in a social system where differenttypes of mobility and residential strategiesconverge. The complexity of these newsocial realities has led her to use in her lat-est publications the notion of 'lifestylemigration', which provides a conceptualframework that helps her to explain the newmigration forms. These forms have more todo with self-realization projects, and thesearch for an intangible 'good life' than withstrictly productive activities. Lifestylemigration transcends and encompasses theusual umbrella concepts: second-homeownership, retirement migration, seasonalmigration, international counter urbaniza-tion or leisure migration. In this respect,residential tourism is the best known of thedifferent types of 'lifestyle migration', andSpain, the country where it has left a moreprofound mark (Benson and O'Reilly, 2009;O'Reilly and Benson, 2009). MasonMcWatters (2009) also defends the conceptof residential tourism in terms of its beinguseful to include different temporary situa-tions, and, above all, because it takes intoaccount the wishes of those who move tosettle in their new home indefinitely.

The conceptual problem of residentialtourism is linked to the development ofmodern multi-residential strategies, emer-gent transnational lifestyles, and intra-European migration patterns, the dynamicsof which have become very complex(Williams et al., 1997, 2000; King et al.,1998; Rodriguez et al., 1998, 2004; Gustafson,2001, 2008, 2009; King, 2002; O'Reilly, 2003,2007b; Oliver, 2007; Benson, 2010). In theend, it is a matter of deciding how we aregoing to consider these people who spendmore or less extended periods of time inproperty located in tourist areas, or theirareas of influence, motivated by reasonsmore related to their search for a place wherethey can enjoy their leisure than a place tocarry out an economic activity. Retireesmake up the largest and most thoroughlystudied group (International RetirementMigration). However, it is worth noting thatduring the past few years, and particularlyin the case of Spain, the debate has intensi-fied because of the increasing number ofyoung British families that move to Spain to

162 R. Huete and A. Mantecon

start a new life, and also because of themovements of actual transnational citizensthat travel frequently between Spain andtheir home country (O'Reilly, 2007b).

A Case Study on Spain'sMediterranean Coast

The fact that residential tourism has spreadin the past few years over so many differentplaces in the world has brought aboutnumerous effects (as a consequence of thecultural, economic, legal, geographic, envi-ronmental (etc.) characteristics of eachregion). However, our explanation is basedon a case that, in our opinion, illustratesclearly this phenomenon, since the dynam-ics (and contradictions) of residential tour-ism have shown in this region with moreintensity and for longer than anywhere else.Spain may be the country with more experi-ence about the consequences of this phe-nomenon because the socio-economicmodernization of Spain has partly beenbased on residential tourism (Mantecon,2010), particularly on the Mediterraneancoast. Thus, our explanation refers to theMediterranean region where, for 50 years,the effects of residential tourism are clearlyvisible: the Costa Blanca. The coastal area ofthe Alicante province (south-east Spain) isknown as Costa Blanca. It had, in 2010, aregistered population of 1,921,988 inhabit-ants living in an area of 5,817.5 km2. Theseare the official figures but it is estimatedthat the actual population during summerpeak periods exceeds 2,500,000 inhabitants.Of the registered population, 15% comesfrom within the EU, but this figure goes upto 25% among the population aged over 65.According to official figures, there are130,286 British nationals (34% of all theBritish citizens who reside in Spain) and36,531 German nationals (19%) living onthe Costa Blanca. In several towns there aremore European citizens than Spanishnationals registered. An extreme case is thetown of San Fulgencio: 78% of the regis-tered population are foreign citizens and92% of those come from other countries

within the EU. In fact, the Costa Blanca isthe Spanish region where more houses weresold to foreign citizens in the first decade ofthe 21st century.

This region is a prime example of themass tourism development paradigm. Thetourism industry has been, for more than 40years, the leading economic activity in mostof the province's towns. Here we must con-sider tourism as an industry related, to alarge extent, to the property developmentbusiness. Thus, we cannot distinguishbetween tourism and urbanization processeswhen talking about this region's develop-ment. The urbanization initiatives have tra-ditionally been focused on foreign, residentialtourists, particularly from the Scandinaviancountries, Germany and the UK.

The evolution of second-home propertyin the Alicante province is enlightening.There were 41,297 second homes in 1960.In 1981 the number had risen to 686,332houses, and 20 years later, in 2001, the prov-ince had 1,008,909 second homes. An asso-ciation created by Spain's best-selling realestate agents, specialized in holiday homes,estimates that approximately 1,200,000dwellings are currently used as secondhomes on the Costa Blanca.

Social problems Linked to the (non-)Definition of the Situation

The development of residential tourism inSpain has led to two main types of prob-lems: environmental and social. Among theenvironmental impacts we must draw atten-tion to the excessive exploitation of theregion's scarce water resources, and thedestruction of natural areas of immensevalue due to the aggressive process of urban-ization of the territory (Vera and Ivars,2003). However, the purpose of this chapteris to focus on the social impacts of residen-tial tourism, mainly associated with socio-demographic changes, and the lack ofdefinition of a complex social situation.

Defining the situation is crucial to areaand land-use planning. Local managementis determined by the resources available to


local councils, which are justified throughthe information gathered by official statis-tics regarding population and housing. InSpain, this problem is exacerbated by thecentral government's tendency to devolvepowers to local governments. The country'slegal system sometimes gives rise to bafflingsituations. For instance, the act that regu-lates the funding of local councils estab-lishes certain conditions that a town mustmeet to be categorized as a 'tourist town'and thus have access to specific funding: itcannot be the capital of a province or aregion (known in Spanish as comunidadautonoma), it must have between 20,000and 75,000 registered inhabitants, and sec-ond homes must outnumber primary resi-dences. Only 21 towns in the country meetthese criteria.

The presence of European retirees onthe Spanish coasts has contrasting conse-quences. On the one hand, they generate animportant economic activity (real estate,trade/consumption, facilities, etc.) thatstimulates the offer of personal, health andelderly care services; they also contribute tothe urbanization and vitality of relativelyneglected areas. On the other hand, under-registration is an obvious problem (sincethere are not exact figures about the actualnumber of residents), which has become achallenge for the administration, and par-ticularly, for local and health authorities.The fiscal problem is also an economic one,as many of these immigrants usually keeptheir productive investments (and tax pay-ments) outside the region and Spain,although no data to quantify this impact areavailable.

The healthcare question

The Spanish Health Act 1986 establishesthe free and universal coverage of health-care services. In implementing the Act thecountry's healthcare system guarantees awide access to it for the foreign population.The Spanish media point out that the pub-lic healthcare system recoups only a partof the cost of the healthcare provided to

tourists and residents. An ageing popula-tion, as a result of the arrival of senior tour-ists and migrants, generates costs thatlocal Spanish authorities find difficult tomeet. This situation becomes more com-plex when we consider the different politi-cal and administrative levels involved.Currently, the regions are responsible forhealthcare planning, public health, andhealthcare services through their ownHealth Service, which may lead to conflictsabout the amount to be transferred(Schriewer and Rodes, 2006). At the time ofwriting this chapter, the health ministers ofthe EU member states, through the initia-tive of the Spanish government, passed aresolution to restrict what is known as`healthcare tourism', that is, the practice oftravelling to another EU country to obtainhealthcare according to the different advan-tages offered by each national healthcaresystem. With new measures that derivefrom this recent resolution, the patient'shome country and country of residence willshare the cost of the treatment.

At the same time, we have insufficientempirical evidence to help determine theextent to which these foreign residents goback to their home countries when theybecome ill, although some researchers haveshown an interest in analysing this question(Giner and Sim& 2009). As Janine Schildt(2010), and Klaus Schriewer and JoaquinRodes (2006) have pointed out in regard tothe case of German and British lifestylemigrants in southern Spain, a great numberof these citizens are not included in officialstatistics because they are reluctant to regu-larize their status as residents. They fear thatthey might no longer be eligible for socialservices in their home country, and that achange in their tax residence might have anegative impact on their finances. Schildtdistinguishes two types of dependent life-style migrants. Obviously, we can find dif-ferent cases between both types. At oneextreme there is a privileged group ofmigrants that are reluctant to use Spanishservices (because they have difficulties incommunicating or they do not trust the qual-ity of the services), and have enough eco-nomic resources to access private healthcare


services, or healthcare at home provided bycompetent professionals from their homecountry. At the other extreme, Schildt iden-tifies a type of residents in a situation of risk,who live alone, receive a low retirementpension, have no contacts (relatives orfriends) in their home country, and do nottake part in social networks in Spain, all ofwhich ends up isolating them. La Parra andMateo (2008), and Huber and O'Reilly (2004)have warned about the gradual increase inthe number of lifestyle migrants that experi-ence such isolation associated with the pro-liferation of residents with mental healthproblems (anxiety/depression), and theincrease in alcohol intake and tobacco use.

In this respect, one of the most obviousculture shocks happens when northernEuropean retirees realize that social assist-ance directed at the elderly (linked to theSpanish Welfare State) is only effectivewhen it is complemented with informal (butsignificant) help from relatives. Connectedto this, the creation of jobs meant to meetthe specific demand for social and health-care services is expected to grow in the nextfew years. As a matter fact, new legal andconsultancy services, specially directed atforeigners, are appearing, while youngimmigrants arrive and try, with no knowl-edge of Spanish, to set up property mainte-nance companies.

Political implications

Another increasingly important issue is theextension of political representation andparticipation rights in local elections to thecitizens of all the EU member states. Theproportion of foreign voters could, in sometowns, decide the result of a local election.The increasing electoral weight of thesegroups, the appearance of volunteer organi-zations that carry out neighbourhood watchtasks (unusual in Spain) in coordinationwith the police, the emergence of environ-mental groups against property speculation,etc., show a reality that transcends what isconsidered 'tourism' in the strict sense ofthe term.

As Janoschka (2009) has reported in thecontext of Latin America, the collectivesocial action of lifestyle migrants is anattempt to become a body of social actorsable to influence the decision-making proc-ess in the local political agenda of their new(sometimes only temporary) place of resi-dence. The action of these groups of resi-dents eventually transforms the localpolitical dynamic, and gives rise to new sys-tems of alliances and influences. Over thepast few years there has been an increase inthe number of towns located in the touristregions of southern Spain where the mainpolitical parties have included Europeancitizens in their organization. In fact, 25

local councils in the Alicante province havea councillor working exclusively on mattersrelated to this group of residents. In sometowns, the associations of European resi-dents have organized themselves politically.In San Fulgencio, for instance, they man-aged to win 7 out of 14 council seats (threewent to British nationals) in the local elec-tions held in 2007. With these new politicalassociations, northern European citizensare trying to leave behind their image amongthe Spanish of mere consumers, heterogene-ous and confused, of a tourist space. Theyare attempting to achieve a functional reor-ganization of the human relationships in anurban space whose morphology does notoften meet the needs of its residents. This isdetermined by the creation of a dual or par-allel space, where the urban centre of man-agement is geographically and culturallyapart from the social reality in which theinteractions take place. Thus, the percep-tion of the problems experienced by theperipheral housing estates, and the decisionto set up associations to try to solve themreinforce the sense of belonging to thecommunity.

The political organization of Europeanresidents, aimed at claiming their rightsmore effectively, may give rise to differentreactions within the host society. However,as long as they are regarded as tourists (orresidential tourists) Spanish society willnot be aware of this new reality. Spaniardsperceive European residents (regardless ofwhether or not they are retirees) as tourists


or foreigners, but not as immigrants, a termapplied only to citizens from countries withworse working conditions (Mantecon, 2010).Local, regional and central governments willhave to accept the new multi-national andmulti-cultural reality that these new migra-tion patterns, either residential or related tothe labour market, entail. Moreover, theywill have to be capable of implementingintegration policies more active than festi-vals and occasional meetings.

The EU member states struggle over theideal of 'European citizenship' and socialEurope, on the one hand, and their resist-ance to lose control of social policies, healthsystems and social security expenditure,on the other (Ackers and Dwyer, 2004;Schriewer and Rodes, 2006).

Limited interaction

The infrequent interactions betweenSpanish and European citizens, caused bythe lack of communication resulting fromtheir ignorance of their respective lan-guages, and their socio-spatial separation,emphasize the perception of EU citizens as`visitors'. Nevertheless, the frequency withwhich European residents use public serv-ices allows us to infer that there are differ-ent interaction patterns, particularly, afluid relationship between European reti-rees and Spanish public institutions, and aweaker relationship between European cit-izens and Spanish ones. The low level ofdaily interaction between European resi-dents and Spaniards, together with the lowlevel of integration that the latter demandfrom these residents, facilitates their beingregarded as a group difficult to categorize,but easily identifiable, and in any case, asan unproblematic social group. The rela-tive isolation of European residents thatSpanish society perceives as deliberate,feeds back into this insight, which is closeto a stereotype. The media play a key rolein the construction of the social image ofthe European residents. They generallyrefer to them with the terms residentialtourist or European resident. The word

ìmmigrant', as mentioned above, is appliedto people who come from a poor country,usually looking for work, and is rarelyapplied to the other European residents(except those from eastern Europe andPortugal) living in the Alicante province,irrespective of whether or not they are reti-rees. Furthermore, the connotations of theword 'tourist' among the Spaniards (relatedto the temporary stays of visitors, with eco-nomic benefits for the towns) create a lackof interest in the difficulties of interacting,and suppress prejudices and possible con-flicts (Barke, 1999).

The situation is, however, in certaincases much more serious than we maythink. An enlightening paper (O'Reilly,2007b), based on the results from a socio-logical and ethnographic study carried outin the province of Malaga, highlights theunsuspected social exclusion faced bymany lifestyle migrants and long-termtourists that reside in private dwellings insouthern Spain. O'Reilly describes how, aswell as transnational elites, there are othergroups of British nationals that are not eas-ily identified because of the complex sys-tem of mobility forms and residentialstrategies typical of some of these regions.As a result of the exacerbation of theabove-mentioned interaction and socialintegration problems, the following groups(extremely difficult to quantify) find them-selves in a precarious situation: middle-aged families with children who do not goto school, or who attend international pri-vate schools with fees their parents canhardly afford, people who work in theinformal economy (so they do not paytaxes or contribute to the social securitysystem), people who seek medical treat-ment through inadequate private healthinsurance or in hospitals' emergencyrooms, other people lack the informationneeded to regularize their status as resi-dents, people who do not know which per-son or institution they should go to whenfacing certain problems, residents whohave practically no knowledge of the lan-guage so they are unable to make a phonecall in case of an emergency to get anambulance or the police, etc.


Developing an Analytical Tool that willHelp to Justify the Implementation

of Public Policies

Several researchers have developed criteriaand typologies to explain the residentialstrategies that ambiguously range from tour-ism to migration (Jaakson, 1986; Thumerelle,1986; Williams et al., 1997; Betty and Cahill,1998; Bell and Ward, 2000; King et al., 2000;O'Reilly, 2000, 2007b; Williams and Hall,2000; Rodriguez, 2001; Dehoorne, 2002;Gustafson, 2002; King, 2002; Muller, 2002;Aronsson, 2004; Duval, 2004; Breuer, 2005).These studies are a significant effort to clar-ify the theoretical framework and the con-text where public policies should beimplemented. However, we have identifiedthe need for a classification based on thestatistical tests necessary to guarantee theempirical consistency of the proposedtypes. Using surveys to research into touristmovements and lifestyle migration showsmethodological difficulties mainly due tothe lack of a sampling frame. Previous sur-veys on this population were conductedwith non-probability sampling: conven-ience sampling (Casado, 1999; Williams andHall, 2002; Breuer, 2005), or ad hoc quotassampling (Rodriguez et al., 1998). It is pre-cisely the lack of a classification based oncriteria that could be operationalized tobecome objective and general variables thatencouraged our research. We will now putforward a classification based on our ownsurvey research.

The intention of conducting represent-ative research is a significant step forwardin our knowledge of international residen-tial tourism. The sampling method and theface-to-face interviews in the respondents'homes support the survey's validity. For theselection of sampling units, towns in theAlicante province were grouped into threeclusters, according to their geographicallocation with respect to the coast, and thefour towns in each cluster with the highestnumber of houses built in previous yearswere selected. In this way, we tried to obtaina sample of those towns that had recentlyexperienced the most intense residential

growth. A simple sampling method withproportional allocation was used. Our sam-ple comprised citizens from all of the 25 EUstate members (except Spain), non-workingand residing in a private dwelling. A total of872 interviews were conducted: 406 incoastal towns (Denia, Benidorm, Santa Polaand Torrevieja), 409 in towns within 20 kmof the coast (Pedreguer, La Nucia, SanFulgencio and Rojales), and 57 in towns fur-ther away from the coast (Hondon de losFrailes, Aspe, Castalla and Biar). The sam-ple is statistically representative of the areapopulation, with a margin of error of ± 5%,a 2S2 (95%) confidence level, and a popula-tion variance of 50%. Fieldwork was car-ried out during the first quarter of 2005. Thehouses were selected by the random routemethod based on grids. The complexity ofthe matter forced us to make methodologi-cal decisions that would enable us to encom-pass the different residential strategies.Consequently, we did not set any limitregarding the length of the stay, or the age ofthe interviewees (except their havingreached legal age). We assumed the exist-ence of a seasonal variation, so we decidedto conduct the fieldwork during the lowtourist season. The questionnaire wasapplied in Spanish, French, English andGerman. It was divided into three maingroups of questions: socio-demographicprofile, reasons for moving, and definitionof the lifestyle as a motivating factor whenchoosing the destination. To strengtheninternal reliability, the questionnaire waspretested on a convenience sample of 30respondents. All statistics were computedusing the SPSS 16© software.

Proposing a Typology

Analysis of the socio-demographic data(age, nationality, job, level of education)and the residential patterns (months spentyearly in Alicante, frequency of visits tohome country), shows that there is not a sta-tistically significant relationship betweenthese variables. However, being registeredwith the local council, the possession of


property in the home country, and the pos-session of property in Spain appear asexplanatory variables.

Approximately 68% of the respondentsstate that they are registered with their localcouncil. This percentage is consistent withthe estimates of other researchers (Casadoet al., 2004; La Parra and Mateo, 2008).Almost four out of ten citizens keep a housein their home country. This is an importantmatter, since one cannot consider that thesecitizens are semi-residents in Alicante, orresidents of two countries, and even lesstourists, when they do not have a home intheir country of origin. In this respect, it isworth noting that many retirees financetheir relocation with the proceeds from thesale of their high-value homes, generallylocated in large European cities (Warneset al., 2004). With this capital they purchaseproperty in their destination, and also savesome of it, which enables them to improvetheir quality of life. Faced with the evidencethat many of these citizens do not keep ahouse in their home country, a relevantquestion is: what is the type of possessionof their home on the Costa Blanca? 85.5%own it, 10.9% rent it, 3.4% use the dwellingof relatives or friends, and 2.2% have atimeshare.

There is no significant relationshipbetween having previously visited the CostaBlanca as a tourist and owning property. Itmay be surprising that 26.9% (190) of thehomeowners report never having visited thearea as tourists. These data challenge theusual analyses, which assume that the pur-chase of property is in most cases the resultof a previous process through which tour-ists became loyal to the destination. Thishas led us to examine the relationshipbetween the type of possession on theCosta Blanca and the fact of having a dwell-ing in the home country. As expected, thereis a significant relationship (x=46.220;p<0.0001) between both variables, whichshows that homeowners tend not to keepanother home to a greater extent than thosewho do not own property in Spain. Up to66.6% of homeowners do not keep a housein their home country, compared with42.1% of residents renting their home,

35.5% of residents in timeshares, and 34.5%of those using the house of relatives orfriends.

Thus, we put forward the hypothesisthat the typology resulting from the cross-tabulation of the variables 'being registered'and 'possession of property' is the associa-tion that best represents the relationshipbetween tourism and migration. We havenamed the new variable 'type of lifestylemigration', the categories of which are:

Type 1. Permanent residents: foreigncitizens who own a home and are regis-tered on the Padron Municipal deHabitantes (Council Register).Type 2. Temporary residents: foreigncitizens who live in a home that they donot own (it is rented, a timeshare orowned by relatives or friends) and areregistered.Type 3. Second-home owners: foreigncitizens who own a home but are notregistered.Type 4. Tourists: foreign citizens whodo not own a home and are notregistered.

The categories 'rental', 'timeshare' and`relatives and friends' have been groupedinto a single category equivalent to 'no own-ership'. The type named 'permanent resi-dent' (registered owner) is the largest group,since it comprises 61.7% of the respond-ents. At the other extreme, the 'tourist' (nei-ther owner nor registered) barely includes atenth (10.3%) of these citizens. The remain-ing types have been labelled 'temporaryresident' (registered non-owner) and 'sec-ond home owner' (not registered owner;Table 11.1).

The distribution of these types accord-ing to nationality (see Table 11.2) showsthat ownership is more frequent amongBritish citizens, while the citizens from therest of EU member states are more likely torent their homes, and even likelier to rentwithout registering. German citizens aremore evenly distributed across the four situ-ations, although their highest score is amongthe temporary residents.

The percentage of foreign citizens whokeep a house in their home country, despite

168 R. Huete and A. MantecOn

Table 11.1. Lifestyle migration typology.

Possession of property

Ownership Timeshare, rental or friends Total

Registered 61.7% 6.2% 67.9%(531) (53) (584)

Permanent residents Temporary residentsNot registered 21.7% 10.3% 32.1%

(187) (89) (276)Second home owners Tourists

Total 83.5% 16.5% 100.0%(718) (142) (860)

x2=71.768; p < 0.0001. N=860

Table 11.2. Lifestyle migration typology and nationality.

Nationality

Germany Rest of EU UK Total

Permanent residents 14.9 % 22.0% 63.1% 100%(79) (117) (335) (531)

Temporary residents 17.0% 45.3% 37.7% 100%

(9) (24) (20) (53)Second-home owners 13.4% 25.1% 61.5% 100%

(25) (47) (115) (187)Tourists 12.4% 49.4% 38.2% 100%

(11) (44) (34) (89)

Registered: X2= 16.026; p <0.0001.Not registered: x2= 16.912; p <0.0001.N = 860

being owners and registered in Spain, fallsshort of 25%, a figure similar to the percent-age of citizens who do not have a house intheir home country, or on the Costa Blanca,and are not registered (Table 11.3).

An open question was used to ask inter-viewees their main reason for choosing theCosta Blanca as a residential destination.The responses were fully transcribed by theinterviewer, and later coded. This way, dif-ferent expressions referring to the goodweather or sunny days were coded underthe category 'climate'. Statements related tohealth, lifestyle, environment, peace andquiet, and Spanish people were included inthe category 'quality of life'. The fact of beingfamiliar with the area on account of previous

Table 11.3. Lifestyle migration typology andpossession of property in home country.

Do you keep a housein your home country?

Yes No Total

Permanent residents 23.8% 76.2% 100%(124) (398) (522)

Temporary residents 43.4% 56.6% 100%(23) (30) (53)

Second-home 60.9% 39.1% 100%owners (112) (72) (184)

Tourists 76.1% 23.9% 100%(67) (21) (88)

Registered: X2=9.754; p = 0.002.Not registered: x2=6.166; p = 0.013.N = 847


holiday visits was included in a third cate-gory. Different responses referring to the lowprices of property or the standard of life,knowing people in the area, or having theopportunity to play golf were included inthe category 'other'. Climate is the reason formoving most frequently mentioned by sec-ond-home owners and tourists. However,the quality of life seems to be more impor-tant for residents (Table 11.4). Familiaritywith the region, derived from previous tour-ist visits, or from having relatives or friendsliving there, is more relevant for temporaryresidents than for any other type.

Furthermore, 71.8% of the permanentresidents agree with the statement 'Here Ienjoy a higher standard of living than in myhome country', compared with 62.9% of thesecond-home owners, 55.8% of the tempo-rary residents and 51.2% of the tourists(x2=24.113, p<0.0001). It could be said thatthose foreign citizens with closer ties withthe Costa Blanca, considering the basic vari-ables 'being registered' and 'possession ofproperty', are the ones who claim to enjoy ahigher standard of living in this area.

Table 11.5 shows the main characteris-tics of the four types of lifestyle migrationdefined in our research and based on therelationships between the possession ofproperty, being registered with the localcouncil, and other variables associated withmotivations, length of stay, nationality andsocial relationships. A complete explana-tion of the statistical validity of our classifi-cation goes beyond the scope of this chapter,

but a detailed statistical analysis can befound in Huete (2009).

Conclusions

Several authors have developed typologiesto define lifestyle migration and residentialtourism. Some researchers have used thesame variables, registration and possessionof property, that we take into account toelaborate our typology, but have not per-formed the statistical tests necessary toobtain empirical evidence to support theirhypotheses. Our approach to the discussionabout the relationship between tourism andmigration tries to determine the limits of theterms immigrant and tourist. It should benoted, however, that the delimitation ofconcepts that we have put forward is not theconsequence of a process of deductionbased on a set of premises. It is instead theresult of inductive reasoning, which meansthat the categories that make up our typol-ogy derive directly from our empiricalresearch.

The term immigrant, since it implies achange of residence and the context inwhich people carry out their daily activi-ties, may be applied to the types of citizenswho are registered, whether or not they owna home, but not to second-home owners(not registered), who in many cases spendshort periods of time in Spain, and keeptheir primary residence in their home coun-try. Neither could it be applied to those who

Table 11.4. Lifestyle migration typology and main reason for moving.

Main reason for moving

Climate Quality of life Previous visit Other Total

Permanent residents 50.9% 38.9% 3.4% 6.7% 100%(266) (204) (18) (35) (522)

Temporary residents 39.6% 32.1% 17.0% 11.3% 100%(21) (17) (9) (6) (53)

Second-home owners 65.3% 25.0% 5.7% 4.0% 100%(120) (46) (10) (7) (184)

Tourists 54.2% 32.7% 6.6% 6.6% 100%(48) (29) (6) (6) (88)

x2=72.071; p <0.0001. N=847.


Table 11.5. Main characteristics of the typology.

OwnersLive in timeshare, rented propertyor friends' property

Registered Permanent residentsMajority groupDo not keep a house in home countrySpend almost the whole year on the Costa

BlancaBetter quality of life is their main motivationChoice of town based on priceWould stay in Spain in case of illnessWant to learn SpanishBelieve the Spanish public administration is

complexState to enjoy a better quality of life than in

home country more often than othertypes

British

Not registered Second-home ownersKeep a house in home countrySpend 4-9 months a year on the Costa

BlancaBetter quality of life is their main motivationChoice of town based on priceWould go back to home country in case of

illnessDo not want to learn SpanishLack information to manage on their ownBelieve the Spanish public administration is

complexMost worried about crime than other typesNeither British nor German

Temporary residentsDistributed across those who keep a

house in home country and those whodo not

Spend more than 6 months a year on theCosta Blanca

Diverse motivations, but previousknowledge is important

Choose town following recommendationsgiven by fellow citizens, and to live nearthem

Do not want to learn SpanishLeast worried about crime than other

typesGroup least bothered by house

constructionMore Germans here than in other groups

TouristsMinority groupKeep a house in home countrySpend 3 months a year on the Costa

BlancaClimate is their main motivationChoice of town based on landscape and

services availableDo not need to know SpanishBelieve tourism is good for the landscapeNeither British nor German

make use of a private dwelling, but do notown it and are not registered, in spite ofspending a certain time in the area. In thissense, we suggest limiting the use of theterm tourists to those persons who intend toreturn to their home country, that is, theyare passing through and enjoying their holi-days in a second home of their own (or withother type of possession), while the citizenswho do not want to return to, or do notknow whether they will, their country oforigin in the foreseeable future (which theyshow by registering with their local councilin Spain) should be called 'immigrants', orat any rate, 'residents'.

Citizens who purchase a home and reg-ister with the local council develop stronger

bonds with the place than those who rent ahouse and do not comply with bureaucraticregulations. Keeping a house in the countryof origin, ownership of property and regis-tration have proved to be operational varia-bles that could be used in further research,instead of variables difficult to measuresuch as the sense of attachment to the placeand the reasons for moving.

Foreign citizens who buy property touse it as a second home, or to move in aftertheir retirement, are attracted to the town bythe same reasons as those who come tospend their holidays: a climate beneficial tohealth, affordable prices, and a good mix ofnatural and social environment. This chap-ter has analysed and presented these types


as an operational classification to be used inthe research on the complex residentialframework that characterizes many of theMediterranean tourist towns, or the areasnearby. This classification could become auseful tool in resource management andregional planning, as well as in future stud-ies about this increasingly important socialphenomenon. It is worth noting that thetowns where such process has been moreintense experience great difficulties inexplaining the complex system of residen-tial mobility types with which they deal ona daily basis. The description of the mobil-ity types here identified can also help to jus-tify the resources necessary for the localadministration of these areas.

If public institutions conducted surveyssimilar to the one described in this chapter,they would probably have a better knowl-edge of the characteristics of the groups thatmake up the social conglomerate of touristtowns in many Mediterranean regions. Thiswould definitely help them to identify thespecific needs of each one of these groups.The planning of local development seemsvery difficult without such approaches, espe-cially when it comes to managing basic infra-structures with regard to important aspectssuch as healthcare provision. In this sense,some Spanish authorities seem not to haveunderstood the actual cultural, economicand political consequences associated with aconstantly erratic or inadequate planning.

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1 2 Surrealist Pilgrims, MeltingClocks in Marble Halls: Dark Tourism

for a Postmodern World

Don Craig' and Craig Thompson''Stenden University, Leeuwarden, the Netherlands

Introduction

Some months ago, a popular woman'smagazine, in a glossy six-page spread thathighlights intriguing travel destinationsaround the globe, teased readers with a fea-ture titled 'the joy of cemeteries'. In theopening paragraphs on an article thattouched on the New Orleans Cemetery, PereLachaise in Paris and San Michele in Venice,readers were reassured that wanting to visitsites associated with death and bereave-ment is perfectly normal, and that a taste forvisiting controversial final resting places isnothing to be ashamed of. After all, sitessuch as the Roman catacombs and the pyra-mids have been respectable tourism spotsfor centuries. The article goes on to discussother 'places you wouldn't want to miss',including Ground Zero, Lockerbie, theKilling fields of Cambodia, various formerconcentration camps, and the scene of theaccident where Diana, Princess of Waleswas fatally injured.

The Origins

Dark Tourism 'speciality tours' have beenoffered for time immemorial. There is a the-ory that the first guided tour was a train trip

in the late 1830s to Cornwall, which hadbeen arranged for a blood-thirsty public towitness the execution of two convictedmurderers. Even earlier than that, there isreference to groups of well-heeled individu-als who travelled to Belgium at the time ofthe Battle of Waterloo in 1815, and sug-gested that they might even have been at thebattlefield itself!

Earlier, the Romans staged fightsbetween individuals and wild animals and,for that matter, between man and man toentertain the public at sites like theColosseum in Rome and other amphithea-tres of the Empire. During the medievalperiod, crowds gleefully flocked to publicexecutions, whether hangings, burnings orsimply run-of-the-mill tortures.

In the modern era, though, there hasbeen a slight change. People have alwaysbeen keen to visit places where battles, mas-sacres and nasty deeds took place, generallyprovided these events happened within areasonable time before their visit. Gettingup close to a death site has always appealedto the sense of the macabre. Nowadays,however, phenomena such as global com-munications, social media and technologypermit (if not encourage) death-relatedevents to be reported, often in 'real time', asthey happen. It is also through technologythat these events may be replayed for


Dark Tourism for a Postmodern World 175

repeated viewing. The gap between theevent shown and when and where it tookplace therefore significantly narrowed.Thus, it is not unreasonable to assume thata visitor to a site where destruction and kill-ings took place could well have beenencouraged to be there by virtue of wide-spread media coverage, the so-called CNNphenomenon.

Traditionally tourism literature hasplaced its gaze on the marketing and con-sumption of 'pleasant diversions in pleas-ant places' (Lennon and Foley, 2000). Morerecently, however, academics and othershave begun to explore the phenomenon of`dark tourism', so providing a springboardfor the study of the innate phenomenon ofa fascination with the notorious and maca-bre (Lennon and Foley, 2000). In the open-ing years of this millennium, further terms(`thanatourism', 'black spot' tourism andàtrocity heritage') were minted to explainand perhaps justify the packaging andconsumption of death or distress as a tour-ist experience of both the distant and recentpast (Rojek, 1993; Seaton, 1996; Tunbridgeand Ashworth, 1996). Strange (2000) pointsout that the most studied places in theseworks are battle sites and death camps(Young, 1993; Seaton, 1999), which haveliterally and figuratively fixed the memoryof collective violence to the places wheresuffering occurred. She develops a strongargument that the death sites of famousindividuals (such as Marie Laveau, MotherTeresa, Jimmy Hendricks or PresidentKennedy) have also become both religiousand secular tourism shrines (Rojek, 1993;Foley and Lennon, 1996). And althoughunusual disasters (such as the PanAmplane crash at Lockerbie or the destructionof the World Trade Center) draw the curi-ous from around the world, it can beargued that commonplace crime scenesand traffic accident locations can alsobecome impromptu attractions, where peo-ple pay their respects, often in the form ofcemetery-like floral offerings, or simplycome together to wonder at tragedy's after-math (Foote, 1997).

Strange (2000) has argued thatalthough such morbid destinations may

`give us a thrill', they also, by their verynature, provide opportunities for social,spiritual and political reflection. To put itanother way, touring the more sombre des-tinations and sites may be 'gruesome' butis also, as with pilgrimage, 'good' (Dobbs,1999, p. 35).

However, no study of dark tourismsupply could ever be complete withoutacknowledging the tourist behaviour anddemand for the product. Supporting this,Stone (2005a) argues that an ability toextract and interrogate the motives ofso-called dark tourism is crucial to theunderstanding of this phenomenon. Shegoes on to say that this is particularly clearwithin a variety of socio-cultural and geo-graphical contexts, and argues that it isperhaps this fundamental necessity ofùnderstanding the underside' and inter-preting consumer motivation that bothleads and steers the current dark tourismdebate (Stone, 2005a).

Although Lennon and Foley (2002,p. 12) regard dark tourism as the `commodi-fication of anxiety and doubt', others employwider definitions. Marcel (2003), for exam-ple, notes:

... when you think about it, people havealways been attracted to sites whereimportant or mass deaths have occurred.The early pilgrimages were to sites ofreligious deaths. The Via Dolorosa, theroute followed by Christ when he wascrucified, is only one of many earlyexamples. The Tombs of the Pharaohs inEgypt and the Coliseum in Rome are majortourist attractions. So is the Tower ofLondon, where historically importantfigures were beheaded. After the Battle ofWaterloo in 1815, hotels and restaurantssprang up around the Belgian battlefieldand changed the route of the 19th centuryBritish Grand Tour forever. Dark tourismmay be identified as 'visitations to placeswhere tragedies or historically noteworthydeath has occurred and that continue toimpact our lives'.

Marcel (2003, p. 17)

Marcel (2003) goes on to write:

Thanatourism seems to be the dirty littlesecret of the tourism industry. It thrives at

176 D. Craig and C. Thompson

the Texas School Book Depository and the`grassy knoll' in Dallas, where you can buya coffee mug decorated with cross hairrifle-sights, at Auschwitz and in Holocaustmuseums around the world, in cemeterieswhere celebrities are buried, and at the siteof Princess Diana's tragic car crash in Paris.Tourists visit places of public executions,like the Place De La Guillotine, sites ofmass death like Pompeii and Dachau,places associated with celebrity deaths likeGrace land, museums and memorials likethe Vietnam War Memorial in Washington,and battlefields like ancient Troy,Gettysburg, Pearl Harbor and Omaha Beach.Does it sound crazy to think of death as aniche market? Then what do you make ofthe 'Titanic cruises' offered by chartercompanies, where tourists eat meals identicalto those served on the ship, and hear musicidentical to the music played on the ship,as they travel to the precise spot where theship lies at the bottom of the ocean.

Marcel (2003, pp.l8ff.)

In much the same vein, Rojek (1993,p. 134) writes that although what one isconsuming is not real, nonetheless theexperience can be pleasurable and excit-ing even if one recognizes that it is alsouseless.

Interestingly, two years earlier,Mestrovic (1991, p. 4) had noted that 'themost important aspect of modernity is that itcauses humankind to suffer from an excessof "mind" at the expense of the "heart": avirulent abstractionism that abhors anythingpermanent'. Now, either we could acceptMestrovic as correct, or we could view darktourism as addressing the reverse side ofDurkheim's concept of anomie (1895). Sothis therefore raises questions such aswhether death is, in fact, the final frontier,whether our desire to confront death couldbe regarded as disgrace, since dark tourismcompels the permanence of death to con-front the 'ephemeral changes of the living'(Durkheim, 1895). Further, it challengeswhether dark tourism is a way in which liferenews itself from the unpleasant side ofhumanity.

Postmodernists (Derrida, Foucault,Lyotard, Baudrillard, Deleuze, to namebut a few) have argued that we inhabit a

world dedicated to fun. In line with this,authors such as Bell, Riesman and Rojekindividually define modernity as lookingfor fun in the mundane. For example,Rojek (1993, pp. 133-134) suggests thatthe modern search for authenticity (par-ticularly in leisure travel) and self-realiza-tion has ended. He further suggests thatbecause of de-differentiation, leisureactivity has assumed some of the charac-teristics of work activity. He develops hisargument to suggest that the moral densityof the State is called into question andthat post-leisure and post-tourism cele-brate fictive and dramaturgical values.

The Postmodernists therefore implythat the search for fun is often not as simpleas it would at first glance appear. This seem-ing contradiction is highlighted by Mestrovic(1991, p. 25) who noted that 'postmodernvacations are usually stressful, few exoticplaces are left in the world and most vaca-tion spots promise to deliver the same blandproduct-fun'. Agreeing with this in regardto cemetery tours, Rojek (1993, p. 141)writes:

Bourgeois culture constructed the cemeteryas a place of dignity and solemnity. Visitorswere expected to show proper respect for thedead... However, the actions of Modernityoperated to break down the barriers betweensacred and profane, the closed world of thecemetery and the outside world ofcommerce..."

Rojek (1993, p. 141)

This peculiar and complex link betweengrief and evil, macabre and bizarre, andtheir various touristic representations hasgiven rise to academic and ethical debateabout the way that leisure and pleasureare intertwined with tragedy (Rojek, 1993,p. 170; Tunbridge and Ashworth, 1996,p. 112). Some heritage tourism commenta-tors have argued that popularized 'themepark' history is inauthentic, and that tour-ism has become as an inappropriate andeven immoral vehicle for the promotion ofhuman suffering and tragic events (Hewison,1987; MacCannell, 1992; Walsh, 1992; Urry,1995). More recently, some have questionedthese critics' distinction between 'bogus'


and 'authentic' history by calling for moreattention to the 'authorial intentions andauthenticating devices at work in heritagesites' (Macdonald, 1997, p. 156-157). Thuscommodification of history for mass con-sumption often leads to trivialization (theAmsterdam Dungeon is a case in point) but,as Seaton argues, this does not stop thepresentation of counter-hegemonic storiesor tales of misery, suffering or injustice.Also, as Seaton's work emphasizes, willingconsumption of the more distressing aspectsof the past are driven by tourists' demandsand marketing strategies but are also subjectto changes in political and cultural climates(1999, p. 155). Here, for example, RobbenIsland, off Cape Town, or Alcatraz, off SanFrancisco, comes to mind. The gaze of darktourism continually shifts as new happen-ings (wars, falls of regimes and so on) takeplace, and as fresh influences (novels, mem-oirs, films, stage shows) lend a moral inter-pretation to sites of notoriety (Rojek andUrry, 1997, p. 53).

Although public remembrance ofunpleasant or upsetting past events hasbeen deeply and historically entrenched,the growing commercialization and con-sumer demand for this sector has been con-siderable. Many dark tourism authors notethat places associated with 'death, disaster,and depravity' are now regular and indeedexpected focal points on any internationaltourism itinerary (Urry, 1990; Seaton, 1996;Lennon and Foley, 2000, p. 3). Increasinglywe find sites once used as places of impris-onment, where deliberate government-approved torture and deprivation werecommonplace, have popular, if ratherghoulish appeal. Grizzly fascination withthe occult aspects of punishment and tor-ture may not be new; however, the demandfor cemetery and prison history tourism(Alcatraz, Robben Island and so on) hasdramatically increased. Paradoxically,penal reform in the modern world hasresulted in a closing of old prisons andgaols, with the consequence that decom-missioned places of incarceration havebeen redeveloped, for instance, as hotelsand condominiums (Watson, 1997). Notableamong these famous former prisons are

Pentridge in Melbourne, Breakwater Lodgebehind the Victoria and Alfred in CapeTown, Pudu in Kuala Lumpur, and PortBlair on the Andamans. Significantly theconversion into museums and tourismsites, which caters to public demand, onlyoccurred in the last 20 years.

Towards a Deeper Shade of Dark

Many tourists are instinctively attracted todark tourism sites by the morbid fascinationassociated with death and dying. Marketingstrategies capitalize on this most human ofconditions, thereby commercializing darktourism destinations, which in turn furtherunderscores the attractiveness to tourists.Famously, the Elvis Presley website cajoles:Ìf you're looking for fun things to do inMemphis and enjoy visiting celebrityhomes, don't miss touring Elvis's 14-acreestate in Tennessee' (www.elvis.com). A cur-sory investigation reveals that Gracelandoffers several Elvis-related packages, witheverything offered, from a simple tour to anÈlvis wedding experience' in the 'Elvischapel', as well as souvenir shopping to theÈlvis Christmas celebration'.

As pointed out by Stone, myriad mar-keting efforts influence tourists in makingtheir travel decisions. This is perhaps mostobvious in the more highly commercializeddark tourism attractions, as shown in ourGraceland example. Conversely atAuschwitz-Birchenau, with its accuratedepiction of the atrocities and inhumaneconditions, the commercial nature is not asimmediately apparent. Because of regula-tions, no admission to the premises ischarged. Obviously, some money-makinginitiatives are a part of the deal, includingguided tours and the sale of publicationsand souvenir Holocaust-themed items.However, given the historical importance ofthe death camps further commercializationwould be counterproductive. Not allsuch sites are, however, treated with equalsensitivity, a fact to which more than amillion visitors annually to the Anne FrankHouse can attest.


One of the current debates on dark tour-ism suggests that there are degrees of dark-ness within tourism. According to thisargument, the 'darkest' of dark tourism des-tinations are relatively little commercial-ized, for example, Chernobyl, whereas the`less dark' death sites of popular icons likeElvis have a wide variety of support serv-ices and products. Of course, not all celeb-rity death sites or sites of a `lighter' natureare heavily commercialized; however, anapparent link can be found between the his-torical and political sensitivity of the siteand the level of commercialization. A poign-ant example is commemorative items man-ufactured from building detritus of GroundZero, which assume almost religious signif-icance to the visitors.

Further, Miles argues that there is aneven deeper degree of darkness within thearea of dark tourism. He proposes that acrucial difference exists between sites ofdeath and suffering, as opposed to thoseassociated with death and suffering (Miles,2002, pp. 1175-1178). For example, theexperience of the death camp site atAuschwitz-Birchenau is considerablydarker than the one at the US HolocaustMemorial Museum in Washington DC(Stone, 2006, p. 151).

Dark Sun Resorts

Entering the picture are new destinationswith all the characteristics of a holiday tripbut that also have an underlying current ofdark tourism. An example of this are thePacific holiday paradises wiped out withenormous destruction by the tsunami in2004. The Christmas holiday season was atits peak when, almost instantaneously, theseglamorous oriental tourist attractions turnedto watery graveyards. Nearly 300,000 peo-ple lost their lives, amongst them thousandsof tourists, and the tourism infrastructurewas destroyed.

Given the importance to the economiesof these countries, the resorts were quicklyrebuilt and, after a slow start, tourism isnow almost back to normal. But these beau-

tifully restored beaches remain places wherethousands of people were tragically killedby the effect of the tsunami, and the spectreof the natural disaster still hovers close. Insuch locations, many people are still unac-counted for. And so, amongst the sun-seekersthere are friends and relatives, coming topay respect to the victims of the tsunami.There are others, however, for whom theprospect of 'dead corpses still to be foundfloating in the sea' (Beyette, 2006, in the LosAngeles Times) holds an appeal.

Would it then be correct to call suchplaces 'dark'? On the one hand, whileLennon and Foley's criteria for dark tour-ism requiring answers about modernsociety are rendered invalid in this case,the fact remains that the tsunami broughtabout tremendous suffering, death anddestruction. And while sun-seeking maybe the main reason for tourism, there is anundercurrent of visiting places with death,suffering and disaster as the main theme,driven by both the supply of the destina-tion and the visitors' interest in its extraor-dinary features.

Furthermore it is important to empha-size the multitude and diversity of darktourism attractions, all of which by nomeans serve similar functions and sharethe same characteristics. As proved byour tsunami example, the tourist mayindeed be a dark tourist, in spite of the des-tination not qualifying as a dark tourismdestination.

Dark Tourism Supply

There are some physical destinations whereatrocities and dying have actually takenplace. Others are purposefully built inanother location to commemorate suchevents. There are dark tourism productswhere the tragic event is being re-enactedwith the tourist participating in the process(as is the case with the Tower of London).Some destinations, such as the SimonWiesenthal Foundation, offer more educa-tive value, some, such as Grace land, existmainly for entertainment. We focus on plain


distinguishable characteristics shared by anumber of dark tourism destinations.

Destination Categories

An overview of contemporary dark tourismliterature shows many different types ofdestinations (Dann, 2001; Stone, 2006).

In the first example of dark tourism, thesites of mass murder and genocide includeAuschwitz and the Killing Fields ofCambodia where a large number of peoplehave died. Ground Zero where the twintowers were struck down by terrorist attackson September 11 2001 falls into this cate-gory, which is the darkest shade of darktourism, with the closest contact to dying.

The second example includes muse-ums and exhibitions with associations withgenocide and wars. The Resistance Museumsof Amsterdam and Copenhagen fall into thisexample, as do the US Holocaust MemorialMuseum in Washington and the YadWashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem,probably the best-known examples of these.The Imperial War Museum in London,which is dedicated to viewing the war his-tory of the UK from the First World Waruntil the present day, belongs here.

Example three is graveyards and ceme-teries, which form an integral part of theitinerary. The presence of death and therelated symbols, such as gravestones, sar-cophagi and mausoleums, give the darktourist pleasure that is rooted in Gothic orRomantic art and literature. Pere-Lachaisein Paris is probably the most famous ceme-tery in the world. Beyond its primary func-tion, this famous Romantic-inspirednecropolis has become an open-air museumand pantheon garden.

Simulated dungeons, the fourth exam-ple, are generally rich in visual displayand are built primarily for entertainmentpurposes. The London or AmsterdamDungeons recall the horrors and atrocitiesfrom the darker sides of European history.They often include representations of pun-ishments for crimes - just or unjust - fromtorture to executions and beheading.

Celebrity death sites can be regarded as asub-division of this. Most visitors regardcelebrities such as Elvis Presley, JohnLennon, James Dean and Marilyn Monroe,Michael Jackson, Jim Morrison and Diana,Princess of Wales, as a personal part of theirown lives.

Battlefields form our fifth example. Theexperience of standing on the actual groundwhere soldiers fell and blood was shedbrings the dark tourist close to the reality ofwar. Veterans come to pay respects to theirfallen comrades (as in Delville Wood -where, adding to the poignancy, the LastPost is played every sunset) and currentmembers of regiments who distinguishedthemselves with valour in battles long past(such as Crimea, Rorke's Drift). Recallingthe visits to Waterloo mentioned earlier,some dark tourists even visit active battle-fields, such as those in the Middle East(www. dark-tourism. org.uk).

`Roots' (or Slavery) Tourism dealswith the trans-Atlantic slave trade withdestinations such as Cape Coast Castle andElmina Castle in Ghana, and Gor6e Islandin Senegal, as well as destinations inZanzibar, Liberia, Morocco and Eritreabeing popular (www.dark-tourism.org.uk).Guided tours to these destinations focuson the tragedies and atrocities that slaveshad to endure on the inhumane voyages tonew destinations.

Re-enactments, where the dark touristis part of the product itself, comprise ourseventh and final category of dark tourism.The Isandlwana re-enactment commemo-rates the Anglo-Zulu conflict in SouthAfrica and, similarly, the re-enactment ofthe Battle of Hastings is a yearly event atBattle Abbey in Battle, East Sussex. Anotherexample of a dark tourism re-enactment isthe re-enactment of the death of PresidentJohn F. Kennedy. Foley and Lennon describethe experience, built around the assassina-tion, in which a presidential limousine willtake the dark tourist through the same routeas it did on 22 November in 1963. Thesounds, cheers of the crowd as well as thegunshot, are all played just as it happened.Even the speeding to the hospital isincluded in the experience (Foley and


Lennon, 2000, p. 98). True to the dark tour-ism definition, the tourist is brought closeup to the death itself.

Dark Tourism on the Up

Dark tourism comprises only a small por-tion of the full spectrum. Paris, for exam-ple, is the most visited city in the world,and its theme park, Disneyland Paris, hasaround 12 million visitors annually.Compared to this, no dark tourism desti-nation comes close. However, its impor-tance to tourism as a whole cannot beunderestimated. Valene Smith has arguedthat `...despite the horrors of death anddestruction, the memorabilia of warfareand allied products...probably constitutesthe largest single category of tourist attrac-tions in the world' (1996, pp. 247-264).We can, however, arrive at some support-ing figures.

Pere Lachaise cemetery receives morethan 1.5 million visitors annually, many ofwhom are drawn to the final resting place ofsuch luminaries as Sarah Bernhardt, OscarWilde, Edith Piaf and Jim Morrison. Thereis some considerable dichotomy of visitors,ranging from elderly Parisian widows torock fans to Goths.

Another cemetery that enjoys cult sta-tus and attracts all manner of people is theSan Michele cemetery island in the VeniceLagoon. Home to many Venetian notablesover the centuries and the final restingplaces of Ezra Pound, Sergei Diaghilevand Igor Stravinsky, it too attracts its fairshare of visitors, some conventionallyrespectable, others less so. Some authorsregard Isola San Michele as a chilly meta-phor for Venice itself: all decay and feydespair. Unlike other great cemeteries,which attempt to deny mortality with cre-ativity and neatly trimmed gardens, SanMichele seems to wallow in death andputrefaction.

A third cemetery that has become ahuge tourism attraction is the Louis ICemetery in New Orleans. Though nowhome to the living homeless, it also has the

mausoleum of Marie Laveau, the highpriestess of voodoo, and attracts manyoccult visitors. More recently, someHurricane Katrina victims have been bur-ied here.

The Holocaust Memorial Museum inWashington DC averages around 1.7 millionvisitors per annum, with, strangely enough,more than 90% of these not being Jewish (diNatale and Breschi, 2009).

In 2010, more than a million peoplevisited the Anne Frank memorial museumin Amsterdam, Holland. The same year,Auschwitz-Birchenau received more thanhalf a million registered visitors (di Nataleand Breschi, 2009)

Grace land welcomes more than 600,000visitors each year, and contributes morethan US$150 million annually to theMemphis economy (The Guardian, 26 July,2002). The London Dungeon, also belong-ing to the less dark end of destinations, wel-comes yearly more than 750,000 visitors.Other dungeons affiliated to the LondonDungeon have been built elsewhere inEurope to cope with the demand and to cap-italize on its success, for example, one inHamburg and, most recently, one inAmsterdam. Madame Tussauds in London,with its waxwork chamber of horrors,proudly boasts that more than 500 millionpeople (more than the population of theUSA and Australia combined) have visitedsince it opened.

To some extent, dark tourism may befinancially beneficial to any destination.The extent to which each benefits dependslargely on its commercialization. What issignificant about dark tourism, however, isthat it delivers an educational component.In many cases, this aspect is central to thedestination. For example, 34% of the visi-tors to the US Holocaust Museum areschool-aged children.

Having examined the tenets of darktourism, we have come to acknowledge thatdeath has come to occupy a central place insociety's consciousness. This would thensuppose that a curiosity and fascinationand, indeed in some cases a preoccupation,with death becomes a motivation for darktourism.


The Intrigue of the Dark Side

Historically there has always been a fasci-nation with death, whether our own or oth-ers, through a combination of respect andreverence or morbid curiosity and supersti-tion. Stone (2006, p. 147) strongly maintainsthat it is society's apparent contemporaryfascination with death, whether real or fic-tional, media inspired or otherwise, that isseemingly driving the dark tourismphenomenon.

A number of theories about the appealof death and dying to the mind of the darktourist have been drafted. Perhaps chiefamong these theories is the role of the con-temporary media as it thrusts itself intoyour living room.

The Contribution of Media

From the 18th century, the public perceptionof death had become unfashionable and hadfaded from public view. No longer immedi-ate, it was considered to be happening some-where else. By the mid-19th century, deathhad become largely invisible to the public.Popular authors responded, through thegothic novel, by creating not only more luridaccounts of death but depictions which weremore secular, violent and essentially unin-structive. This meant that death had come totake on an entertainment value.

For the average person in the street,the rise of illustrated newspapers, withtheir depiction of accidents and naturaldisasters, brought death graphically to thefore. While these sensational stories, withtheir gruesome coverage of train crashes,shipwrecks, floods and explosions, heldno religious significance or redemptiveforce, they contributed to general andunspecified increases in anxiety. Thoughdisasters are undeniably news, the presswas only responding to a fascination withaccounts of violent death that ran along-side the Victorian sentimentalization ofdeath, which tried, if not to entirely wipe itout, at least to some extent to beautify theend of life.

Thus news headlines, with descrip-tions and images of violent death from thesemid-19th century beginnings, remain sensa-tional; the general opinion today is that ithas gone ever farther in the same direction(Goldstein, 1998, pp. 39-40). So the mediafeeds the public's fascination with death,and the fascination grows the more it is fed.Television viewers get used to seeing deathin their own living room; imagery becomesincreasingly violent when closer and morepowerful encounters with scenes of deathare sought after. This brings us to the ques-tion of what makes scenes of death and vio-lence so appealing in the first place.

The Dark Tourist Experience

Guards are assaulting the prisoners:beating them, spitting on them, slicingtheir skin with their Hitler Youth-knives.The prisoners are begging: please, stop,no more! They are wondering what inGod's name they had done to deserve it.They are beaten with tycoons all overthe body until there is no single solidbone in their bodies. They wither ingreat pain and finally drift away tosilence. The guards have them thrownaway outside to a ditch like deadanimals. Only a pond of bloodreminds the victims once werethere.

di Natale and Breschi (2009)

Regardless of whether this incident was afilm clip, part of a short story or a fictionalportrayal, it would seem unlikely that therecould be anything enjoyable in viewing it.Because the mind is naturally programmedto seek away from personal pain and suffer-ing, it would seem anathema for a viewer tobe excited by such scenes.

Goldstein's view is that attitudes toshows of violence specifically may be con-sidered enjoyable and wholesome if they aredeemed mediated by identification with asuccessful aggressor. In the extract above, theaggressor has almost divine power to decideon the fate of the prisoner. With no way forthe prisoner to resist, the guard is able towalk away without fear of consequence.


Thus, in a safe setting like with sufficientremoval from reality, the viewer is able toenjoy the show. Goldstein argues that `...people identify with fictional heroes, butalso with the crudest of fictional villains, inorder to attain "vicariously" the gratifica-tions that these antagonists experience.Through such identification, it is said; peo-ple transcend their limited personal experi-ence' (Goldstein, 1998, p. 163).

He takes this argument further and pro-poses that we are 'cleansed' through a dram-atization of violence and death, and thatwatching a tragedy unfolding provides acatharsis. Whilst Goldstein stays with therealm of the fictional, this interest in themacabre is also becoming blurred with real-ity, with an ever-increasing number of real-life deaths (car accidents and the like) beingdisplayed on the internet. Goldstein posesthe difficult to answer question of whetherempathy is possible.

But, so long as dark tourists feel excite-ment in an experience, it is worth attempt-ing to quantify pleasure in observingdepictions of death or violence and findingthe roots, however difficult it may be. Hereinlies the explanation.

Pleasure in Observing Death

Many have attempted to explain away thecauses for the enjoyment of observing depic-tions of violence and death. The enjoyment,it must be said, does not necessarily arisefrom observation of death itself, but ratherfrom identification with the victims andvillains involved.

Huxley (1971) explains this dichotomyby dividing the world into good and evil. Heargues that this gives us the opportunity tofeel a 'oneness with all of humanity', atogetherness with both good and evil. Heclaims that normal existence can be tran-scended and that one may experience thesatisfaction of believing oneself to be greaterthan evil.

Another theorist, Dickstein, has arguedthat, as we grow from childhood throughadolescence to adulthood, we are taught to

suppress our fears and superstitions andtaught that society will protect us. 'But',Dickstein argues, 'in some level we neverreally believe this'. It is his belief that liter-ary and cinematic fear makes us vicariouslylook for ways of coping with our insecuritiescaused by this inherent mistrust in the secu-rity provided by society (Dickstein, 1884).

A third argument, and perhaps themost primal, is that we need to enact dis-plays of violence in order to confront ourfears and insecurities. Such displays arepresumed to 'help audiences to confront[perceived] personal guilt indirectly, so thatthey might break free from real or imaginedsins through the controlled trauma of theexperience' (Rockett, 1988, p. 3). Thisallows the viewer to walk away, control thesituation to an extent, but yet 'live' theexperience.

Thus, while we are afraid of death, theability to observe depictions of suffering anddying enables us to confront these fears andwalk away unscathed. In this way we con-trol the experience ourselves and remainsafe, much in the same way we control ouractions while thrill seeking by driving fastand bungee jumping. Perhaps in this waywe can experience some relief at suchdisplays.

So perhaps this thrill seeking in someway explains the commodification of darkdestinations. Physical and mental stimulicreate a feeling of contentment. Perhaps, asStone argues, 'the level of stimulation in thepast will not be sufficient to satisfy the needin the future'.

Personal Interpretation

We all see things differently, and the way inwhich we view violence and death dependson our own experience and on the contextwithin which we interpret it. To illustrate,depending on what angle (based on ourown experiences) we view the characters ina film, we draw our own conclusions andinterpretations, whether sympathetic ornot, and experience emotions accordingly.In the same way, survivors of a death camp


would view an Auschwitz exhibitiondifferently to a teenager. And so it is withsensitivities. Some of us deal with violencedifferently to others. While some mayreact with revulsion, others may seeentertainment.

So it must be argued that for each darktourist, many different experiences are pos-sible when visiting a dark tourism destina-tion, depending on their pasts, theirconnection to the event in question, thecompany they are travelling with, as well astheir own personalities. Further, dark tour-ism experiences are not only framed by psy-chological factors. Time and maturity canalso alter attitudes and re-shape our under-standing of past events.

From a Distance

Lennon and Foley, have argued that darktourism is an intimidation of the very foun-dations of modernity (2000, p. 11). As such,we view dark tourism through the lenseswe have at our disposal, and against thebackdrop of the world we live in and thelives we lead. Our lives are framed byhuman rights struggles, and rapid advancesin science and technology. We live in aworld where violence has a different formto those known by our ancestors of centu-ries ago, and our vision of the world ismarkedly different to those of people liv-ing 500 years ago. A visit to a medieval sitewill result in different emotions, differentfears, to a visit to a Second World War bat-tlefield. A visit to where Henry VIII deliv-ered a speech and a visit to where MartinLuther King delivered a speech will causedifferent emotions and address differentconcerns. Events far in the past do nottouch us as directly as events in the imme-diate past.

Conclusion

There is much that is interesting to us onlybecause it is rare or unusual. In a discussionon people's desire for violent entertainment,the sociologist Carroll suggests that horrorfilms do not so much discharge negativeemotions as appeal to our curiosity: 'horrorattracts because anomalies command atten-tion and elicit curiosity' (1990, p. 195). Heargues that horror movies as a genre presentsociety's norms only to violate them, and thatthis violation of norms holds a fascination forpeople to such an extent that they rarely seethese violations in everyday experience.

Many of the norms that prevail in con-temporary society support, among others,freedom of speech, equality and individualrights. Many events that dark tourismmemorials and sites stand for were to vio-late these and many other norms, and oftenended up with the loss of many lives oreven mass murder. Hence dark tourism des-tinations could be thought of as sites thatsimply satisfy our curiosity above all.

When discussing dark tourism motiva-tion, the term morbid curiosity is oftenused; indeed, we've used it in this chapter.It is a compulsion, a drive fixed with excite-ment and fear to know about macabre top-ics, such as death and horrible violence. Ina milder form, however, this can be under-stood as a cathartic form of behaviour or assomething instinctive within humans. Thisaspect of our nature is also often referred toas the 'Car Crash Syndrome', arising fromthe fact that is seems impossible for pas-sersby to ignore such accidents.

We are fascinated by scenes of unimagi-nable destruction and disaster; we're drawnto the ghoulish and the bizarre. And at somestage, we all like to squirm in horror. So,somewhere, in amongst all of this, one thingstands out: there is something of the darktourist in all of us.

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13 The Golden Jubilee of Independenceand Panafest in Ghana: 'All that Glitters

is not Gold'

Edward Addo''Tourism Department, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Crenfell Campus,

Corner Brook, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada

Introduction

On 6 March 1957, the Gold Coast changedits name to Ghana when it became the firstcountry in sub-Saharan Africa to gain inde-pendence from British colonial rule. WhenGhana celebrated her golden jubilee of inde-pendence in 2007, one of the key objectivesof the event was to strengthen Diaspora rela-tions as the world also celebrated the 200thanniversary of the official abolition of thetrans-Atlantic slave trade. Panafest, a bien-nial Pan-African arts festival, is also cele-brated in Ghana to enhance the ideals ofPan-Africanism, African development andDiaspora relations. Primary activities of thetwo events in 2007 and Panafest in 2009included visual arts display, performingarts, musical concerts, durbars and publiclectures.

Both the golden jubilee of independ-ence and Panafest have been characterizedby political, economic and ethnocentriccontroversies that tend to overshadow theirhistorical and cultural significance. Thecontroversies are discussed in Ghanaianmedia, among Ghanaians at home and inthe Diaspora. This chapter discusses thecontroversies in the context of cultural tour-ism and the political history of Ghana.

The research methodology usedincluded an extensive literature review on

Ghana's political history and tourismindustry, participation in the golden jubileeof independence in 2007 and Panafest in2007 and 2009, direct interviews with par-ticipants and stakeholders of both events inAccra, the national capital, and Cape Coast,the capital city of the Central Region andprimary destination for Panafest. Secondarydata and information (reports and com-ments) were also collected from the GhanaTourist Board (GTB), and two media web-sites, Ghanaweb.com and Joyfmonline.com.

Conceptual Considerations:'Celebrative Events' and Controversies

in Cultural Tourism

`Celebrative events', such as festivals andanniversaries (Picard and Robinson, 2006),have been an integral part of cultural tour-ism since the era of modern travel. Gee et al.(1997) and Goeldner and Ritchie (2006)explain how tourism, through the ages,involved long journeys that offered visitorsunique opportunities to experience exoticdestinations, events and cultures. Africans/Egyptians, Syrians, Phoenicians/Lebanese,Polynesians, Chinese, Indians andEuropeans (Romans, Greeks, English andFrench) were among the early travellers


All that Glitters is not Gold 187

who participated in events such as theOlympics (beginning in 776 scE) and theGrand Tour of the 17th and 18th centuries.

In recent years, celebrative events havebecome ubiquitous in the tourism industry.Destinations compete to host internationalevents such as the Olympics, World Fairsand World Tourism Day partly because oftheir positive economic and socio-culturalimpacts (Edwards et al., 2004). The eco-nomic benefits include job creation, incomegeneration and infrastructure development.The socio-cultural benefits include preser-vation of traditional norms and heritage,(re)affirmation of local identities andenhancement of destination image (O'Tooleand Mikolaitis, 2002; Wendroff, 2004; Getz,2005; Smith and Robinson, 2006; Goldblatt,2008; Smith, 2009). The factors that accountfor successful events include political com-mitment and accountability, efficient organ-ization and management practices, effectivemarketing, volunteerism, fundraising andcoordinated planning at the micro (site),meso (destination) and macro (regional) lev-els (Armstrong, 2001; Gunn and Var, 2002).

The literature on cultural tourism alsodraws attention to the complexity of festi-vals and other events (Sandercock, 1998;Florida, 2002; Smith, 2009). Smith (2009)discusses some of the complexities and pro-vides case study examples from differentcountries. She explains that flagship andurban regeneration projects, such as theGreenwich World Heritage project, tend togenerate short-lived impacts and controver-sial legacies because of their insensitivity tothe needs of small communities, and con-stricted approach to planning. She alsopoints out that festivals and other celebra-tive events could attract investments andsponsorships, enhance the image of a desti-nation, and provide alternative sources ofrevenue but could also undermine the cul-tural values of ethnic or minority groups.

Some event-related controversies havebeen discussed in the context of commodifi-cation, commercialization and globaliza-tion. Li (2000), Long et al. (2004), Picardand Robinson (2006) and Smith (2009)explain how globalization causes disso-nance when external values and practices

are superimposed on local communities bya few multi-national corporations. They fur-ther explain how short-sighted planning,political propaganda and flamboyant adver-tising could make an event popular butcould be also deemed a failure in terms ofsocial, cultural and economic impacts onlocal economies. This controversy is char-acteristic of events that are planned toattract international tourists who seekopportunities to experience other cultures.In recent years, different viewpoints on glo-balization such as 'Jihad' (protecting theuniqueness of cultural identity), `McWorld'(hybridization, homogenization and stand-ardization of culture) and `Glocalization'(localizing the benefits of globalization)have surfaced in the cultural tourism litera-ture (Smith, 2009).

Events pertaining to cultural attractionsor landmarks could also create controver-sies in public policy, sustainable develop-ment, community participation, planningstrategies, management, marketing, evalua-tion processes, international relations, eth-ics and etiquette (kickbacks, for example),sponsorship, security, and political ideolo-gies and agenda (Allen, 2003; Long et al.,2004; Beaven and Laws, 2007; Goldblatt,2008). For example, a narrator may have adifferent perception or understanding ofwhat a tourist attraction or product is. Inother words, narratives could be value-laden, subjective and ethnocentric. Objectiveauthenticity (relating to cultural sites orattractions), constructed authenticity (relat-ing to performing and some forms of visualarts), and personal authenticity (relating toemotions and psychological experiences)are, therefore, subject to different valuesand interpretations that could be controver-sial (Goldblatt and Supovitz, 1999; Hoyle,2002; Macleod, 2006).

In sub-Saharan Africa, celebrativeevents usually include festivals and inde-pendence anniversaries. These events arevehicles for reclaiming local and nationalidentities. Discussions on controversiesrelating to such events in the sub-regionwould be incomplete without consideringpolitical economies and history. Thetraditional and critical theories in cultural

188 E. Addo

tourism studies (Castro-Gomez, 2001) are,therefore, relevant. Smith (2009) reiteratesCastro-Gomez's viewpoint that while thetraditional theory naturalizes culture andfocuses on concepts such as aesthetics andharmony, the critical theory emphasizes thesocio-economic or conflictive aspects ofculture. The critical theory, she explains,places culture in the context of politicaleconomies and focuses on concepts such asimperialism, post-colonialism, capitalismand globalization. Furthermore, she explainshow tangible heritage and intangible herit-age have created political, economic, ethi-cal, social and psychological controversiesin post-independence countries such asMalaysia and India, and how colonial sitesor edifices that are preserved but used fordifferent functions entail divergent values.

As discussed in the next section, Ghanainherited diverse tangible and intangibleheritage at the dawn of independence forcultural tourism development. The countryset the pace for others in the sub-region tofollow. In the 1960s alone, Nigeria, Benin,Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Somalia, D.R.Congo, Madagascar, Central AfricanRepublic, Chad, la Cote d'Ivoire, Mali,Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, Togo and Gabongained their political independence fromEuropean colonial rule (Lewin, 1991). Thecelebration of independence anniversariesin these countries underscores the eco-nomic, socio-cultural and political experi-ences with Europeans, particularly thePortuguese, Dutch, Danes, Swedish, English,French and Germans, for 500 years in thesub-region.

Ghana's Geography, History and PoliticalEconomy: Overview and Contextual

Framework

Ghana is located on the Atlantic coast ofWest Africa between latitudes 4.5° N and11° N and shares borders with three formerFrench colonies: la Cote d'Ivoire, to thewest; Togo, to the east; and Burkina Faso, tothe north. The Gulf of Guinea, part of theAtlantic Ocean, stretches about 540km (338

miles) along the southern border. Thedistance from the coast to the northern bor-der is about 672 km (420 miles). The landarea of Ghana measures about 238,540 km'(92,100 square miles), almost the same sizeas Britain or the states of Illinois and Indianain the USA combined. The topography ofthe country changes from coastal plains androlling land to mountain peaks and plateausin the eastern and central areas (Briggs,2002). The country has ten administrativeregions.

The ten administrative regions more orless reflect the ethnic and tribal diversity ofthe country. The five major ethnic groupsare Akan, Ewe, Guan and Ga-Adangbe inthe southern and central areas, and Mole-Dagbane in the northern area. The Asante,Fante, Akim and Kwau are the major tribesof the Akan ethnic group (Library ofCongress, 2007). The country's populationincreased from 6.7 million in 1960 to about21.8 million in 1996. About 24.2 millionpeople were counted in the 2010 popula-tion and housing census. There are regionalvariations in population distribution. Mostof the people live in the southern half of thecountry. Regional capitals have high popu-lation densities in part due to urban-biaspolicies and development strategies encour-aging rural-urban migration. This trend haspersisted since the era of colonization(Boahen, 1975; Buah, 1998; Amenumey,2008).

English is the official language used ingovernment offices, large-scale businesses,national media and educational institu-tions. National culture is portrayed indiverse traditional, 'highlife' and 'hip-life'music and dance, funerals, festivals, dur-bars, folklore and religion. In terms of faithand religion, about 63% of Ghanaians areChristians, 15% are Muslims and 22% areindigenous or non-believers. Christianitypredominates in the southern and centralareas while Islam predominates in thenorthern area as a result of western Europeanand trans-Saharan trade influences, respec-tively (Boahen, 1975; Buah, 1998;Amenumey, 2008).

The history of modern Ghana is linkedwith the ancient Ghana Empire that


developed simultaneously with the Songhaiand Mali empires between the 4th and 11thcenturies. The presence of Portuguese,Dutch, Danish, Swedish, British, Germanand French merchants and missionaries inGhana, beginning in 1471, and later Britishcolonization resulted in intensive trans-Atlantic trade in commodities and slaves.British political influence in Ghana climaxedin the late 19th century after the signing ofthe Bond of 1844 in Berlin to partition Africa.In 1874 the British army, led by Sir GarnetWolseley, captured Kumasi, the capital cityof the Asante Empire in a war that the Asantesrefer to as the `Sagranti War'. In anotherAnglo-Asante war in 1899, the Asante KingPrempeh I was captured and forced intoexile. Consequently, British protectorate wasdeclared over the Asantes. In subsequentyears, the British government introduced asystem of indirect rule allowing the institu-tion of chieftaincy to play a major role inpolitics and public administration (Boahen,1975; Buah, 1998; Amenumey, 2008).

The 1947-1956 period is very signifi-cant in Ghana's political history. In 1947, theUnited Gold Coast Convention (UGCC), apolitical party, was formed (Buah, 1998).The founders of the party included ObetsebiLamptey, Ako Adjei, Ofori Atta, J.B. Danquahand Edward Akuffo Addo. Later, KwameNkrumah was invited to join the UGCC(Kellner, 1987). Some Ghanaians identifythese men as 'The Big Six' and the architectsof Ghana's independence. The agitation forindependence gathered momentum whenon 28 February 1948 Sergeant Adjetey andsome ex-servicemen were shot as theymarched to deliver a petition to the colonialgovernment (Buah, 1998).

In 1949, Nkrumah deserted the UGCCto form and lead a new party, the ConventionPeople's Party (CPP). His action createdirreconcilable differences between him andhis supporters, on one hand, and the rest of`The Big Six' and their supporters, on theother hand. Political threats and imprison-ment did not deter the CPP from exertingmore pressure on the colonial governmentto grant independence to Ghana. In 1951 anew constitution led to general electionsand the CPP won a two-thirds majority. The

constitution granted broad powers toNkrumah and his party. In 1956 a plebiscitein British Togoland called for union withGhana and the CPP passed an independ-ence motion which was approved bythe British Parliament. On 6 March 1957 theBritish colony of the Gold Coast became thefirst country in sub-Saharan Africa to gainpolitical independence (Buah, 1998; Libraryof Congress, 2007). The independence cele-bration was attended by Harold Macmillan,the British Prime Minister, and PrincessMarina, the Duchess of Kent who delivereda message from the Queen of England. Thefirst Governor-General of Ghana, Sir CharlesArden-Clarke was sworn in on that day. Thecelebration underscored freedom and jus-tice as key principles of Ghana's independ-ence (BBC, 1957).

The political climate in Ghana becamemore hostile when in 1958 Nkrumah's gov-ernment unilaterally repealed protectionclauses of the constitution and passed thePreventive Detention Act (PDA) empower-ing the government to imprison politicalopponents without trial. Some of 'The BigSix' were thrown into jail and died there.The political tensions in the country inten-sified as Nkrumah's socialist and commu-nist ideologies became more prominent. On1 July 1960 Ghana became a Republic andin 1964 Nkrumah declared the country aone-party state. On 24 February 1966 whileon a trip to Peking, China to attend a non-aligned conference, Nkrumah was over-thrown by a military coup d'etat. In 1972,he died in Romania. Some Ghanaiansbelieve that Nkrumah's overthrow wasorchestrated by the US Central IntelligenceAgency (Agbodza, 2009).

Nkrumah's socio-economic develop-ment legacies in 1966 included investmentsin physical infrastructure (roads, theAkosombo dam, electricity and bridges),social infrastructure (education, health andhousing), state-owned farms, and manufac-turing industries, predominantly in thesouthern half of the country. His culturaland political legacies included the Diasporarelationships established with Dr W.E.B duBois and George Padmore, two of thepioneers of Pan Africanism (Africa, 1974/75;

190 E. Addo

Killick, 1978). The former was the firstAfrican American to earn a doctoral degreefrom Harvard University. He died in 1963 atthe age of 95 and was buried in Ghana.Padmore was a Trinidad scholar. The duBois Center and Padmore Library in Accraattract many tourists from the Diaspora.

Nkrumah's era was followed by a seriesof military regimes led by Lt General J.A.Ankrah (1966-1967), Lt General A.A. Afrifa(1967-1969), General I.K. Acheampong(1972-1978), General F.W.A. Akuffo (1978-1979), and Flt Lt J.J. Rawlings (1979 and1981-1992) interspersed with short-livedcivilian governments led by Dr Kofi AbrefaBusia (1969-1972), Edward Akuffo Addo(1970-1972), and Dr Hilla Limann (1979-1981) (Hettne, 1990). The first era ofRawlings' military regime is considered themost brutal in Ghana's military governancebecause six military officers, includingthree former Heads of State (Afrifa,Acheampong and Akuffo), were executedby firing squad. Additionally, three SupremeCourt judges, including a female judge whowas still breastfeeding her baby, and twocivilians were also abducted and killed.

In spite of the bloodshed and austerityeconomic measures introduced to clean theeconomy of corruption and mismanagementof public resources, Ghana's economy didnot improve much as the prices of the coun-try's major exports fell continuously, infra-structure deteriorated, and unemploymentand inflation figures skyrocketed. The eco-nomic hardships led to growing dissatisfac-tion with both civilian and militarygovernments in the 1970s and 1980s (WorldBank, 1984; Ofori-Atta, 1988). In 1992,Ghana returned to a constitutional rule ofthe Fourth Republic under the presidencyof J.J. Rawlings of the New DemocraticCongress (NDC). President Rawlings wasfollowed by Mr. John Agyekum Kufuor ofthe New Patriotic Party (NPP) for two con-secutive terms, 2000-2008.

The NDC claims to be a social-democratic party flourishing on the princi-ples of probity, accountability andtransparency. The NPP, on the other hand,identifies itself as a party that championsthe cause of property-owning democracy

and the traditions of J.B. Danquah and theUGCC. The NDC is currently the ruling partyled by President John Evans Atta Mills, agraduate and apostle of the Kwame NkrumahIdeological Institute. He was also vice-presi-dent of Ghana in the second term of Rawlings'presidency. The CPP, a shadow of Nkrumah'sparty, has only one seat in parliament occu-pied by Nkrumah's daughter. The destiny ofGhana is still being shaped by the politicalideologies and controversies surrounding`The Big Six' and military personnel whooverthrew democratically elected govern-ments between 1957 and 1981 and ruled thecountry until 1992.

Growth and Development of Ghana'sTourism Industry

Different political, cultural and socio-economic events brought many tourists toGhana after independence in 1957. However,the first indication of government interestin developing the tourism industry was afeasibility study in 1970 on the develop-ment of tourist attractions for a five-year(1972-1976) development plan (ObuanCommittee, 1972). In 1973, the GhanaTourist Board (GTB) was established toimplement national tourism policies and toco-ordinate tourism activities. It wascharged with the key responsibility to regu-late tourism enterprises such as accommo-dation, catering, travel, transport and charteroperations through registration, inspection,licensing, classification and enforcement ofdecisions. GTB was also charged with theresponsibility to promote and market tour-ism in Ghana and abroad, conduct studiesand research into trends in the tourismindustry at home and abroad to aid decisionand policy-making, promote the develop-ment of tourist facilities, and to carry outother functions that would be conferred onit by legislative instruments (GTB, 1998).

In the mid-1970s financial and technicallimitations of the government necessitatedmore studies and evaluation of the country'stourism potential by international develop-ment organizations such as the United


Nations Development Program (UNDP), theUnited States Agency for InternationalDevelopment (USAID) and the United StatesInternational Executive Services Corps(USIESC). All the studies and evaluationsindicated great potential for tourism devel-opment. Consequently, in 1993, the Ministryof Tourism (MOT) was established to formu-late policies and plan for the developmentand promotion of domestic, regional andinternational tourism. In 1995 MOT, withassistance from the UNDP and World TourismOrganization (WTO, now UNWTO), pre-pared and introduced a 15-year TourismDevelopment Plan (1996-2010) to stimulategrowth and development of the tourismindustry (GTB, 1995).

Ghana's tourism industry thrives ondiverse natural and cultural resourcesincluding the European and colonial lega-cies of castles and forts, unique politicalhistory, traditional festivities and Diasporarelations. In 1998 Ghana moved from the17th to the 8th position among the top 20leading tourism revenue-earners in Africa(WTO, 1999) and in about a decade, theindustry has grown to become the fourthlargest foreign exchange earner, rankingbehind mineral exports, cocoa exports andremittances from overseas. The sectorearned the country US$986.8 million in2006, US$1172 million in 2007, US$1403.1million in 2008 and US$1615.2 million in2009 (GTB, 2010). The sector's contributionto GDP steadily increased from 3.6% in1996 to 6.5% in 2008. Additionally, therewere increases in employment from 90,100in 2000 to 234,679 in 2008. The growth ratein 2006 was 6.0% compared with 12.5%and 13.9% in 2007 and 2008, respectively.The average tourist expenditure per tripincreased from US$934.69 in 1993 toUS$1998 in 2007 and US$2010 in 2008.

Inbound international tourism has beenthe lifeblood of Ghana's tourism industry.Table 13.1 shows the steady increase ininternational tourist arrivals and receiptsbetween 1999 and 2009. The increase in2007 was mainly attributed to the goldenjubilee of independence and Panafest thatbrought many international tourists toGhana (GTB, 2010). The main sources of

Table 13.1. International Tourist Arrivals andReceipts, 1999-2009.

Year Arrivals Receipts (US$ M)

1999 372,653 304.122000 399,000 386.002001 438,833 447.832002 482,643 519.572003 530,827 602.802005 428,533 836.092006 497,129 986.802007 586,612 1,172.002008 698,069 1,403.102009 802,779 1,615.20

GTB (2010)

Ghana's international tourists are the USA,UK, Germany, France, the Netherlands,Canada, Switzerland, Italy and theScandinavian countries. Non-African devel-oping countries from where most interna-tional tourists originate are China, India andLebanon. The most popular and consistentAfrican sources are the sub-Saharan coun-tries of la Cote d'Ivoire, Nigeria, Togo,Burkina Faso, Liberia, Sierra Leone andSouth Africa.

Private sector investment in hospitalityfacilities, public sector investment in infra-structure, political stability since 1992, andimplementation of the 15-year tourismdevelopment plan have, to varying degrees,contributed to the recent surge in inboundinternational tourism (GTB, 1995; GTB,2010; Addo, 2011). In general, the purposesof travel include business (23%), confer-ence/meetings (9%), study/training (8%),visiting friends and relatives/VFR (25%),medicals (1%), holiday (19%), transit (10%)and others (5%) (GTB, 2010).

The Accra International ConferenceCenter (AICC) has hosted many interna-tional events in the past decade. Examplesof the events are: the World TradeOrganization ministerial conference, thejoint Economic Community of West AfricanStates (ECOWAS) conference in 2001; theInternational Reconstructive Plastic SurgeryConference, and the 5th InternationalCopyright Conference in 2002; theInternational Cocoa Research Conference,the 26th Conference of the African

192 E. Addo

Parliamentary Union, and the 2nd Meetingof ECOWAS Ministers and Experts inEducation in 2003; and the World Summitof the Information Society, and theCommonwealth Magistrates and JudgesAssociation Council meeting in 2005 (K.Appiah, AICC, Accra, 2010, personalcommunication).

In 2007 the number of events held atthe AICC increased. The events includedthe African Commission Session, the 6thAfrican Union (AU) Council of Ministers,the AU Summit, the ECOWAS BusinessForum, the International Cocoa Conference,the 9th Summit of Heads of State andGovernments of the AU, and the 6th AfricanGrowth and Opportunities Act (AGOA)Forum. AICC hosted the UN FrameworkConvention on Climate Change (UNFCCC),the African Caribbean Pacific (ACP) confer-ence, and the 12th Session of the UNConference on Trade and Development(UNCTAD) in 2008. In 2009 the center wasthe site chosen for US President BarackObama's address to the nation in July andthe 30th international World Tourism Dayevent in September.

The castles and forts of Ghana, as cul-tural capital (Bourdieu, 1984; Curtin andBusby 1999; Meethan, 2001), also attractmany international tourists from the

Table 13.2. European-built forts in Ghana.

Diaspora to Ghana. Table 13.2 provides thenames of the existing forts, their locations(towns listed from west to east on theAtlantic coast), the administrative regionsin which they are located, the years inwhich construction was completed andtheir European architects (Ramerini, 2009).The Netherlands built 37%; England, 20%;Denmark, 14%; Portugal, 9%; Sweden, 7%;France, 7%; and Brandenburg (Prussianportion of Germany), 6% of the castles andforts in Ghana (GTB, 2007). The edificeswere used for defence, residence, and tradein commodities and slaves (Anquandahet al., 2007). The three castles in Ghana areSt George in Elmina built by the Portuguesein 1482, Carolusburg in Cape Coast built bythe Swedes in 1653 and Christianborg inAccra built by the Danes in 1659. The StGeorge Castle holds a record of being one ofthe oldest European edifices in sub-SaharanAfrica and perhaps outside Europe. TheCape Coast Castle has been the primary sitefor Panafest since 1991.

What exactly was the golden jubilee ofindependence about? In the context of cul-tural tourism, what was its significance?And what controversies have been associ-ated with the event and why? The goldenjubilee of independence was a mega cele-brative event (Fig. 13.1). It was organized by

Name Location: city/town Region Year built Built by

Ft Appolonia Beyin Western 1756 BritishFt St. Anthony Axim Western 1515 PortugueseFt Groot Friedrichsburg Prince's Town Western 1683 DutchFt Metal Cross Dixcove Western 1693 BritishFt Batenstein Butri Western 1650 SwedishFt Orange Sekondi Western 1690 DutchFt St. Sebastian Shama Western 1640 PortugueseFt St. Jago Elmina Central 1665 PortugueseFt Victoria Cape Coast Central 1702 BritishFt William Anomabo Central 1630 DutchFt Amsterdam Kromantse Central 1638 BritishFt Leydsaamheid Apam Central 1698 DutchFt Good Hope Senya Bereku Central 1702 DutchFt Ussher Accra Greater Accra 1649 DutchFt James Accra Greater Accra 1673 BritishFt Prinzenstein Keta Volta 1784 Danish

National Atlas Development Center (Council for Scientific and Industrial Research), 1995


s

i Independencer a

'Championing African Exceffeice'

Fig. 13.1. The Golden Jubilee of Independence: cultural and political significance.

a special secretariat to attract thousands ofinternational visitors to the country to cele-brate the anniversary from January toDecember, 2007. The Chief of Staff of theOffice of the President of Ghana was alsoinvolved with its planning andmanagement.

The three objectives of the event under-scored the importance of Ghana's history,political economy, Diaspora relations andheritage: 'to celebrate and commemorateGhana's landmark achievement as the firstcountry in Black Africa to attain independ-ence from colonial rule; to reflect on theevolution, development, achievements anddrawbacks of our country over the past fifty(50) years; and to look forward to the future,to our vision of excellence in all fields ofendeavour in the next fifty (50) yearstowards our centenary birthday as a nation'(Ghana @ 50, 2007).

The programmes and activities of themega cultural event underlined the nation-alistic sentiments and patriotism ofGhanaians. Moreover, the programmes andactivities, which were centred on 12monthly themes, accentuated the politicalstruggle for independence, socio-economicand political achievements made since1957, and Diaspora relations. The monthlythemes were: January, Reflections;February, Towards Emancipation; March,Freedom March; April, Our Nation, OurPeople; May, Our Wealth and OurProsperity; June, Heroes of Ghana Month;July, African Unity Month; August,Diaspora Month; September, Service to theNation; October, Knowledge and Ghana'sDevelopment; November, A Healthy People,A Healthy Nation; December, Final Curtain(Ghana @ 50, 2007).

On 5 March 2007, a special parliamen-tary session featured speeches by His

Excellency Olusegun Obasanjo, President ofNigeria, and the Duke of Kent who repre-sented Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II.Both dignitaries praised Ghana for beingable to withstand the political and economicstorms that engulfed her in the 1970s and1980s. References were made to the PeerReview Mechanism of which Ghana was thefirst country reviewed, and the improvedrelations that the country had had with theUK and the rest of the world. In his inaugu-ral speech, Kofi Annan, a Ghanaian andformer UN Secretary General, praised Ghanafor her socio-economic achievements andreminded Africans of the need to tackle thethree overarching challenges facing the con-tinent: 'the need for more security, thedemand for better development, and the ris-ing cry for human rights and rule of law'(Annan, 2007).

Participant observations and interviewsconducted on 6 March 2007 in the streets ofAccra, at the Black Star/IndependenceSquare, Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park,W.E.B. du Bois Center, hotels and restau-rants indicated that the 50th independenceanniversary was worth celebrating in agrand style in spite of some prevailing polit-ical controversies and socio-economic chal-lenges. The theme of the event, 'ChampioningAfrican Excellence', was linked toNkrumah's vision that Ghana would be theguiding light of African independence andsolitary: the BLACK STAR, the lodestar ofAfrica. The official website for the eventproclaimed that `Ghana's attainment ofindependence and the subsequent ideologi-cal support it extended to other colonizedcountries on the continent, culminated inthe emancipation of many of these countriesfrom colonial rule' (Ghana @ 50, 2007).

In terms of achievements and whatmade Ghanaians proud of their country and

194 E. Addo

citizenship, about 60% of the 100 randomlyselected individuals indicated that theypreferred hard-won freedom with problemsto servitude in tranquillity. This notion wasalso declared in the anniversary speechesand programmes. An equally importantattribute of the event was the constant refer-ence to the link between Ghana's tourismindustry and the Diaspora. The presence ofthe diplomatic corps, UN delegation, Headsof State, and visitors from the Diaspora, par-ticularly the Americas and Caribbean, at theBlack Star/Independence Square on themorning of 6 March 2007 was highlyacknowledged by the government of Ghana.The American and Caribbean delegationsincluded Rev. Jesse Jackson and someRastafarians. The golden jubilee's monthlytheme for August, 'Diaspora Month', pro-vided impetus to Panafest 2007 activities,which included enactments of the slavemarch. Justifiably, the golden jubilee ofindependence was considered to be a viabledriver of economic transition, diversifica-tion, and tourism growth and development.

Frequent recitation of the nationalpledge and singing of the national anthememphasized the need to preserve andenhance Ghana's heritage, political freedomand Diaspora relations. National identityand patriotism were also portrayed in theanniversary songs, television advertise-ments in Ghana and abroad (on the BBC, forexample), billboards, posters, locally manu-factured textiles, arts, legacy projects andenactments like the slave march, Nkrumah'sdeclaration of Ghana's independence, andspecial parliamentary sessions. Chieftaincyaffairs, heritage, traditional music anddance, gold jewellery and `kente' (Ghana'straditional textile) were showcased.

The nation's security personnel, schoolchildren/students, UN peacekeeping person-nel and Ghanaians of all walks of life demon-strated great pride and enthusiasm incelebrating the 50th milestone of politicalindependence. Undoubtedly, the eventbrought Ghanaians and the internationalcommunity together to reflect on Ghana'ssocio-economic achievements, politicalhistory, heritage and culture. The specificachievements that the interviewees

mentioned included freedom from colonialrule, a functional democratic constitution,50 years without a civil war, Ghana's simul-taneous chairmanship of the AU andECOWAS, and the Black Stars' first-timeappearance and impressive performance atthe 2006 FIFA World Cup tournament inGermany. The Black Stars, the national soc-cer team, beat the US team by two goals toone (2-1) and the Czech Republic team bytwo goals to nil (2-0). Additionally,Ghanaians celebrated a modest, but steady,economic growth and political stability inthe past decade.

Experiential Controversies of theGolden Jubilee of Independence

In spite of its diverse and positive cultural,political and economic impacts on Ghana'seconomy, the golden jubilee of independ-ence was, and still is, characterized by somecontroversies. On 6 March 2007 at the inde-pendence parade, the crowd was exhilaratedwhen a marching band from the UK playedpipes and marched in kilts. It was a differentcultural performance that many Ghanaianswitnessed for the first time. Contrarily, someGhanaians were disappointed that theirpresident wore a three-piece suit instead ofGhanaian attire for the unique independ-ence parade. In response to criticisms, thepresident asked his critics to understandthat the three-piece suit was internationalattire and explained that as much as heappreciated local traditions and cultures healso realized the need to conform to the dic-tates of a rapidly advancing world (DailyGuide, 2007). Some Ghanaians did notappreciate the president's exposition. The`presidential dress code controversy' is stillalive in some Ghanaian political discourse.Was it the concept of globalization that ulti-mately influenced the president's choice ofattire for the unique event?

There have been some allegations ofpoor planning and management of the event.In his anniversary message to Ghanaians on6 March, the president advised those whowere not happy about the high public


expenditures on the event not to portraythemselves as people who knew the cost ofeverything but did not know the benefit ofanything. As was expected, soon after the2008 general elections, the NDC-led govern-ment accused the Chief of Staff of the previ-ous NPP-led government and the ChiefExecutive of the Ghana @ 50 Secretariat ofcausing financial loss to the state. Thealleged losses were associated with variouscontracts, vehicle purchases, infrastructuredevelopment, bank overdrafts, loans, pro-curements, memorabilia, etc. in excess ofthe initial US$20 million budgeted for theevent. Some media reports claimed that thetotal cost of the event exceeded US$78 mil-lion. In response to intense outcry for pub-lic accountability, mainly by the NDC partyand its supporters, a commission of inquirywas set up to investigate the alleged misap-propriation and make recommendations tothe government. Later, when the case wasreferred to a court, the defendants were vin-dicated on the grounds of 'inadmissibleprosecution by the plaintiff' (i.e. theGovernment of Ghana), meaning the find-ings of the commission of inquiry could notbe used to prosecute the defendants (GhanaNews Agency, 2010).

Controversies over the political ideolo-gies and socio-economic contributions of`The Big Six' have also been associated withthe golden jubilee of independence.Activists of Nkrumah's political ideology(unitary government and socialism) arguedthat the economic and political achieve-ments of the first president of the countrywere underrepresented in the golden jubi-lee of independence. On the other hand,activists of Danquah's political ideology(federalism and capitalism) argued that therest of 'The Big Six' were the real architectsof Ghana's independence. Nkrumah wasportrayed as a political opportunist anddemagogue, who turned Ghana into a one-party state, flouted the principles of free-dom and justice promised at the dawn ofindependence, and mismanaged the coun-try's financial resources. Students of bothschools of thought agreed, however, thatGhanaians such as Paa Grant, MensahSarbah, Case ly Hayford, Komla Gbedemah,

Kojo Botsio, Nii Kwabena Boni, Seth Antoh,Kwegyir Aggrey, Philip Quarcoe andSergeant Adjetey, one of the ex-servicemenwho were shot in 1948, should also be right-fully recognized as national heroes andfounding fathers of the nation.

Similar political controversies sur-rounding the golden jubilee of independ-ence have been underscored in anotherstudy (Lentz and Budniok, 2007). Theauthors highlight the political squabblesthat existed between NPP and NDC parlia-mentarians, procedural lapses in the specialparliamentary session on 5 March 2007,restrictions and challenges that journalistsand researchers faced, and poor planningand inadequate logistics for some activitiesof the celebrative mega event.

More recently, some political, economicand cultural controversies have cropped upin relation to a new presidential palace builtby the NPP-led government to commemo-rate the golden jubilee of independence.The presidential edifice, a political and cul-tural landmark, like the White House inWashington, DC, USA, 10 Downing Streetin London, UK, and the Kremlin in Moscow,Russia, is also a tourist attraction. Currently,the Osu Castle in Accra, a colonial edifice,is the seat of government offering a limitedaccess to only invited guests and dignitar-ies. It could be seen afar by tourists or thepublic from the coast at Osu or theIndependence/Black Star Square.

Interestingly, the wrangles between thetwo major political parties (NPP and NDC)developed along the ideological dividebetween Nkrumah and Danquah of 'The BigSix', have been extended to the estimatedUS$70 million presidential edifice, whichwas initially christened the 'Golden JubileeHouse'. Without any official ceremony, theNDC-led government changed the name to`Flagstaff House', a legacy of the British colo-nial government. Nkrumah used the colo-nial Flagstaff House as office and residenceafter using the Christianborg Castle for thesame purposes in 1957. During the course ofresearch, it became public knowledge thatthe actual dilapidated and abandoned colo-nial Flagstaff House was renovated andretained by the NPP-led government.

196 E. Addo

One reason given for dumping the name`Golden Jubilee House' was that the NPP-led government did not have any legislativeinstrument backing its adoption. Anotherreason given was that the new name tar-nished Nkrumah's political reputation.Some officials of the president's office com-plained that the location of the new presi-dential edifice did not provide adequatesecurity. They also maintained that themain structure required some repairs andlandscaping. Meanwhile, part of the edificewas being used by the Ministry of ForeignAffairs because its own office building wasburnt down.

Finally, there was an established ethno-centric controversy surrounding the newpresidential edifice. Some NDC supportersfrom the Greater Accra Region argued thatthe presidential edifice resembled a stoolused mostly by the Akan ethnic group, par-ticularly the Asantes who constitute thepolitical backbone of the NPP. The stool-shaped presidential edifice was, therefore,considered to be a cultural eyesore to thenon-Akan ethnic groups in the GreaterAccra Region.

Some interviewees argued that if theseat of government was relocated to the newpresidential edifice, the Osu Castle couldbecome a UNESCO designated WorldHeritage Site like the Elmina and Cape Coastcastles. Consequently, it would become adestination-based or latent cultural capitalto attract many domestic and internationaltourists, especially those from the Diaspora.The interviewees contended that the localcommunity and the Ghanaian taxpayerwould benefit more from the colonial edi-fice as a tourist attraction instead of beingthe seat of government.

The divergent values entailed in OsuCastle and the controversial 'Golden JubileeHouse' /`Flagstaff House' as the seat of gov-ernment are mostly political, ethnocentric,cultural and economic. At the time of writingthis chapter, the president was still reluctantto move from Osu Castle to the controversial`Golden Jubilee House' /`Flagstaff House' andsome Ghanaians belonging to the NPPand other opposition parties were stronglyaccusing the NDC-led government of using

propaganda to humiliate the former presidentof Ghana, and the NPP and its supporters

Cultural and Political Significanceof Panafest

The idea of Panafest was conceived by aGhanaian woman, Efua Sutherland, in thelate 1980s and was first launched in 1991.The founder invited all peoples of Africandescent to come to Elmina and Cape Coast,in the Central Region, in the final week ofJuly and on the first day of August, to cele-brate the history, heritage and beauty ofAfrica through artistic and cultural manifes-tations. Elmina and Cape Coast were consid-ered ideal destinations for Panafest becauseof the St George and Carolusburg castles. Asa Pan-African arts festival, Panafest wel-comes support from all persons committedto the wellbeing of Africans on the continentand in the Diaspora (K. Yankah, Accra, 2007,personal communication).

The five core objectives of Panafest are:`to establish the truth about the history ofAfrica and experience of its people, using thevehicle of African arts and culture; to pro-vide a forum to promote unity betweenAfricans on the continent and in the Diaspora;to affirm the common heritage of Africanpeoples the world over and define Africa'scontribution to world civilization; to encour-age regular review of Africa's developmentobjectives, strategies and policies; and tomobilize consensus for the formulation andimplementation of potential alternativeoptions for development' (K. Yankah, Accra,2007, personal communication).

The African Union (AU), formerly theOrganization of African Unity (OAU),endorses Panafest as an important celebra-tive event in Africa. The event is, therefore,held under the auspices of the AU, and GTBand MOT on behalf of the Government ofGhana. International organizations and pri-vate enterprises sponsor the event. Amongthe major stakeholders and sponsors are theAgricultural Development Bank (Ghana),Western Union, North American Airlines,Spacefon, United States Agency for


International Development (USAID), STARBrewery Ghana Ltd, Telecom and theCommonwealth Secretariat. Other stakehold-ers are politicians, producers and vendors oftraditional crafts and arts, musicians, touroperators, owners of hospitality facilities,and domestic and international tourists.

Panafest showcases a grand durbar ofchiefs, rites of passage programmes, slavemarch re-enactment, midnight candlelightvigil at the Cape Coast castle, EmancipationDay commemoration, musical concerts andperforming arts (Fig. 13.2). Internationalperforming and visual artists from acrossAfrica and the Diaspora are regular andimportant participants. Stevie Wonder, therenowned American musician co-chairedPanafest 1994; NourbeSe Philip, a Canadianlawyer, poet and writer of Trinidad descent,was a special guest of honour in 1994; andin 1999, 2001 and 2003 the festival featuredJames Cannings, an international recordingartist and businessman, accomplished gui-tarist, keyboardist, composer, arranger,songwriter, producer and studio engineer.Before his participation in Panafest, theGuyana-born artist had had a track record ofvolunteer work at hospitals, nursing homes,schools, colleges, libraries and internationalfestivals, and had played his music in manycountries.

Panafest 2007 marked the eighthedition of the festival and was highlysignificant because it coincided withGhana's 50th independence anniversary,and the 200th anniversary of the abolitionof the trans-Atlantic slave trade. It alsoheralded the Joseph Project, anotherDiaspora-related event that was laterlaunched and had Rita Marley (widow ofBob Marley, the Reggae music legend),Julius Garvey (son of Marcus Garvey, aprominent Pan-Africanist), and MichelleJones Galvin (a great-great-grandniece ofHarriet Tubman, a celebrated African-American abolitionist) as special guests ofhonour. The dual themes for Panafest2007 were 'Re-uniting the African Family'and '50 Years of Independence: Pan-Africanism Revisited - 21 CenturyEdition'. A colloquium theme for theevent was 'Pan-Africanism in the Contextof Africa's Political, Economic and SocialDevelopment' (direct interview withYankah, Panafest Secretariat, 2007).

In a message delivered to mark the 2007Panafest celebration, Mr Yankah, Chairmanof Panafest Secretariat, called uponGhanaians, Africans and all persons commit-ted to the wellbeing of Africans on thecontinent and in the Diaspora to intensifytheir search for the re-emergence of African

Fig. 13.2. Panafest activities and attractions. Pictures courtesy of GTB and Panafest Secretariat.

198 E. Addo

civilization, which was trampled upon bymany years of slavery, colonialism and impe-rialism. The message underscored the politi-cal contributions of African legends likeKwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Sekou Toure ofGuinea, and Modibo Keita of Mali, and theinfluences of Marcus Garvey, W.E.B du Bois,and George Padmore on the political libera-tion of the continent and the 'Return to AfricaMovement' (direct interview with Yankah,Panafest Secretariat, 2007).

Experiential Controversies of Panafest

Like the golden jubilee of independence,Panafest has been characterized by someadministrative lapses, economic challengesand political controversies. In previous years,the festival suffered from a lack of sponsor-ship, late payment of entry fees and somecommunication problems (direct interviewwith Yankah, Panafest Secretariat, 2007). InCape Coast in 2009, all the interviewees iden-tified the same problems with Panafest 2007and 2009. In addition, they mentioned pooradvertisement and marketing strategies,insufficient logistics, dwindling public sectorsupport and interest, partisan politics andcontroversies, expensive booth fees, and poorsales of African arts and crafts.

In 2009, some art and craft vendors fromNigeria, Burkina Faso and Mali wanted thedestination for Panafest rotated from oneAfrican country to another, an indication ofgeopolitics and interest in commoditization/commodification and commercialization ofPanafest, instead of emphasizing the event'sunique cultural and historical significanceto the European-built castles and forts inGhana used for the slave trade. Some inter-viewees also pointed out that in previousyears (before 2009) Panafest was better ableto bring Africans on the continent and in theDiaspora together for a common course - tocelebrate the history, heritage and culture ofAfrica. They also claimed that, on previousoccasions, the event was better able to serveas a vehicle for promoting African unityand reconciling political, social and culturaldifferences. In spite of their frustrationsand experiential challenges, the vendors

maintained that it would be worth celebrat-ing the event in the future.

All the 40 vendors and 20 visitors inter-viewed at Panafest 2009 were not pleasedwith the declining government support forthe event, decreasing sponsorship and pub-licity, and cancellation of the Joseph Projectwhich was introduced by the NPP-led gov-ernment to add more vigour to Panafest inorder to attract more international visitorsfrom the Diaspora. As indicated earlier, thelaunch of the Joseph Project in 2007 attractedtourists from the Diaspora including thewidow of a prominent Reggae musician,and descendants of a renowned Pan-Africanist and a famous African-Americanabolitionist.

The greatest disappointment, however,was expressed about the high cost of boothsor space used by vendors to sell their prod-ucts, poor quality and inadequate sanitaryfacilities on site, and a declined number ofattendees and buyers in 2009. The disap-pointment was also partly attributed to thedeclining publicity and financial supportthe government gave to Panafest 2009.Paradoxically, 80% of the vendors inter-viewed indicated that they wanted less gov-ernment involvement in the planning andmanagement of Panafest but more financialand technical support to facilitate their par-ticipation in the event.

Conclusion

The golden jubilee of independence in 2007and Panafest in 2007 and 2009 underscoredGhana's history, political economy, develop-ment challenges and achievements sinceEuropean contacts in the 15th century. In2007, Ghanaians faced many socio-economicchallenges such as unemployment, high costof living, inadequate infrastructure, highcost of education, brain-drain of profession-als and young educated citizens, corruptionand public mismanagement of nationalresources. Nevertheless, some Ghanaiansfelt the two mega and cultural events wereworth celebrating in a grand style.

The golden jubilee of independencecontinues to be characterized by political,


ethnocentric and economic controversies.Suspicions and complaints about excessiveexpenditures, poor planning and ethnocen-tric politics have tainted the cultural signifi-cance of the event. In 2009, Panafestexperienced a sharp decline in public sectorsupport, logistics and attendance.Additionally, vendors were disappointedby poor sanitary facilities, and high cost ofbooths and space to exhibit their products.

Other countries in sub-Saharan Africalook up to Ghana for leadership in celebrat-ing independence anniversaries and socio-economic achievements. Disappointingly,however, the political, financial and ethno-centric controversies surrounding the goldenjubilee of independence and Panafest sug-gest that 'all that glitters is not gold' inGhana. There is a need for more cooperation

between the public and private sectors tobetter plan and manage celebrative events.There is also a need to seriously address thepolitical and ethnocentric controversies sur-rounding the new presidential edifice. Assome of the interviewees indicated, reloca-tion of the seat of government to the newpresidential palace could enhance the poten-tial of Osu Castle as destination-based orlatent capital to attract more tourists, espe-cially from the Diaspora. This in turn couldcreate additional jobs and generate somerevenue for the host community and thetourism industry. Hopefully, further researchmight indicate different scope and dimen-sions of the controversies associated withindependence and Diaspora-related celebra-tions in Ghana and other countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

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14 The Ideological Role ofIntergovernmental Organizations in the

Promotion of International Tourism

Jorge Ferrazi'Escola Superior de Hotelaria e Turismo do Estoril (Estoril Higher

Institute for Hotel and Tourism Studies), Estoril, Portugal.

Introduction

The main purpose of our research has beento gauge the ideological dimension ofIntergovernmental Organizations' (IGOs') dis-course relating to tourism and the role it playsin moulding the relationship between the dif-ferent societies involved in international tour-ism in the past 50 years, addressing issuesand controversies about the role of the IGOs.

In the final declarations and conclu-sions of many of the meetings and interna-tional conferences on tourism organized byIGOs, the stated aim is to build a fairerworld and combat international and globalinequality (see the List of Declarations sec-tion). There are, however, some studies (seeLanfant, 1991, 1992, 1995; Mowforth andMunt, 2009) that call into question not onlythe benign side of international tourism butalso the role played by the IGOs in buildinga fairer and more equitable world.

Our main empirical case study was acomprehensive analysis of the most signifi-cant declarations and propositions abouttourism from the main IGOs, using contentanalysis methods. We analysed a set of 30final declarations and final propositions frominternational meetings (documents that wewill call 'declarations' in the wider meaning

of the word; see the List of Declarations)produced and adapted by the IGOs, espe-cially the World Tourism Organization(UNWTO). Besides UNWTO (the heir of theInternational Union of Official TravelOrganizations [MOTO] and, until 2003, whenit became a United Nations specializedagency, known as WTO), other IGOs involvedin meetings and international conferencesand declarations about tourism (often in asso-ciation with the UNWTO) include: the UnitedNations Development Programme (UNDP),the United Nations Environment Programme(UNEP), the World Bank (WB), the UnitedNations Conference on Trade andDevelopment (UNCTAD), the United NationsEducational, Scientific and CulturalOrganization (UNESCO), the Conference onSecurity and Co-Operation in Europe (CSCE).In some cases, there is also involvement bybusiness associations or international busi-ness leaders' organizations such as the WorldTravel and Tourism Council (WTTC), or Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) such asthe International Council on Monuments andSites (ICOMOS), the International Institutefor Peace through Tourism (IIPT) and theEarth Council.

Actually, tourism, whilst an interna-tional phenomenon, cannot be reduced to a


202 J. Ferraz

geographic fact or tourism fluxes. It is atotal social phenomenon, structural in thedefinition of unequal changes betweenpeoples and societies far beyond the pursuitof leisure by participants from industrialand post-industrial societies (see Lanfant,1991, 1992, 1995). In this process, tourismacquires the statute of an ideological substi-tute of the 'exchange theory' with conse-quences on the cultural matrix of theinvolved societies, in particular the receptorones (Lanfant, 1991, 1992, 1995), and conse-quently participates in the configuration ofan unequal and stratified interdependencebetween the different societies involved.

The importance of the IGOs comes fromthe fact that they constitute the main modelof institutional formalization of an interna-tional regime (see Dougherty and Pfaltzgraff,2003). Here, we see regime as a complexwhole 'of mutual expectations, rules andregulations, organizational plans, energiesand financial commitments that have beenaccepted by a group of states' (Ruggie, 1998,p. 56) inside a framework that ranges from asimple organization between national statesto a model of organization of the interna-tional system that includes the suprana-tional and the transnational.

The dependence of many countries onthe IGOs is another relevant factor. The IGOs,such as the World Bank (WB), could financeprojects or offer expertise in planning (in thecase of the UNWTO), defining the type ofproject to be developed and thus condition-ing the choices made by each country (seeLanfant, 1991, 1992, 1995; Hawkins andMann, 2007). The Hawkins and Mann (2007)study on the financings of the WB for thedevelopment of tourism since the 1960s untilthe early years of the 21st century identifiesfour phases that correspond to differentintervention models. These models havestrong correlation with orthodoxies and the-ories about economic development in gen-eral and tourism in particular (for example,economic and tourism growth versus envi-ronmental preservation; see Hawkins andMann, 2007) and ideological choices aboutthe public and private sectors role. The pro-moted projects could even be presented asan important factor for a fairer international

system based upon scientific and technicalarguments but, in fact, such projects and pol-icies related to tourism are mainly politicalarguments that presume a selection of values(see Hall, 1994, p. 110).

The intergovernmental organizations'discourse contributes to the referred ideo-logical phenomenon while promotingthemes, products, practices and tourismmodels that, on behalf of the interest of allpeople and communities involved, corre-spond primarily to the ideologies, interestsand preoccupations of those in the mostdeveloped' societies and are related to:

Alterations in the organization of inter-national tourist activity and the roles ofthose involved.Changes in the international regimeand in the model of the relationshipbetween societies.Changes in the most developed con-temporary societies with respect to themeanings placed on leisure, respectivepractices and the role that tourismassumes on them.Different social, political and economiccapacities of the implicated societies.

The declarations in question were then sub-jected to content analysis, a set of tech-niques and procedures constituting a`controlled hermeneutic based on deduc-tion: the inference' (Bardin, 1991, p. 9).A controlled interpretation that seeks tounravel the unspoken or not explicitlystated, where, as Vala (1986) says, we haveto take into account the connection betweenthe conditions of discourse and productionanalysis.

We interpreted the themes presented atthe discourses (a thematic analysis, the cat-egories of which were constructed usingdeductive and inductive procedures) andwe also examined their structure andpresentation (see Bardin, 1991; Vala, 1986).Likewise, we had in mind the significantabsences: the implicit or muted issues,themes, perspectives and actors associatedwith international tourism and its under-standing within the context of societal andtourism changes. In fact, the hidden andthe implicit in the words are revealing

The Role of Intergovernmental Organizations 203

components of the ideological phenomenon(Bourdieu, 1989).

Thus, besides the aforementionedinventory of contents and themes and howthey are evaluated, we should then contex-tualize the discourse. It is not just looking atthe text itself and its speaker, but also estab-lishing the connection with the reality ofthe social phenomenon in question and itsnature in a particular socio-historicalcontext.

Finally, having in mind the degree ofsaturation and redundancy of the thematiccategories in question, we also have to payattention to the relative heterogeneity ofhow these categories present themselves inthe different statements.

The thematic categories that werebuilt are:

The general thematic or the explicitsubject of the statement.The role attributed to tourism (eco-nomic, social, cultural, political, envi-ronment protection).The types of tourism in terms of move-ments and flows, particularly withregard to the types of spaces and privi-leged societies.The types of tourism products.Tourism models relating to the prac-tices and behaviours of those involved.Privileged collective actors.The nature and content of the rolesassigned to different collective actors.The model of tourism developmentproposed.

Ideology and Discourse in the IGOs

For us, the concept of ideology is based onfour pillars (see Gramsci, 1966, 1974[written between 1910 and 1935];Mannheim, 1979 [published in 1936];Boudon, 1986; McLellan, 1987): an organ-ized discursive system that is not reducedto a totalitarian `logical-idea' nor to the fieldof politics or expression of irrationality; his-torical contextualization of the discourseand practices of its actors; guidance for

behaviour; and imposition of power andhierarchical relationships between actors,practices and values.

To these four pillars we add a fifth, theone that allows us to better cope with the hid-den and not explicit dimension in the socialreality and in its discourses, the groundwhich hosts the deepest dynamics of powerrelations; the discourse in question alwaysstates to report to a supra-individual concernand worldview. In its construction areinvolved not only the dominant actors, butalso the dominated ones, assimilating astheir interest what such discourse states,legitimizing particular views and interests,transfigured into the interests and views ofall; an 'invisible power... [that] may be exer-cised only with the complicity of those whodo not want you to know that they are sub-jected to it ...' (Bourdieu, 1989, p. 7-8), aphenomenon of cultural hegemony (seeGramsci, 1966, 1974). Thus, we see thearousal of practices and discourses that aremore than a mere imposition of external vio-lence or coercion gaining some historicaldurability and becoming somewhat organic(see Gramsci, 1966, 1974).

We do not endorse, therefore, a visionof ideology as 'arbitrary ideology' but ratheras 'organic ideology' (see Gramsci, 1966,1974), a set of ideas or beliefs associating aworldview to a corresponding conduct(Gramsci cited in McLellan, 1987). We see itas kind of total system of thought, owner-ship of determined social groups, whichrefers directly to struggles between domi-nants and dominated actors, bearing inmind their specific places in the social proc-esses and in social struggles (Mannheim,1979 [1936]).

In the IGOs' proposals we can see state-ments about the IGO formal attributions,infer relations of forces between IGOmembers and the institutionalization of aninternational multilateral regime, as Ruggie(1998) describes. We can also see the powereffect produced by the words of an institu-tional discourse that claims to be supportedby technical and scientific arguments.However, such arguments and proposals arenot simple facts associated with expertisebut political arguments in which the choice

204 J. Ferraz

and implementation of the values involveddepends on 'the relative power of winnersand losers' (Hall, 1994, p. 110). This isindeed a characteristic of the power of sci-entific discourse; its apparent neutralityhides its ideological dimension.

Bourdieu (1989) says that understand-ing how the institutions represent them-selves and the implications it has for theissue of power means analysing the wordin its symbolic value: as capital of a 'field';as power based on legitimacy that has todenote and connote and on the legitimacyof who utters them. Thus, a possible tax-onomy constructed this way could betransformed on power relationships (com-prehended in those social interactionsand in these processes) that manifestthemselves as 'relations of meaning' andassume the contours of a 'political classi-fication system' (Bourdieu, 1989, p.14-15). In the declarations of the IGOs ataxonomy is established and a worldviewis legitimized which, constituting an actof power by the word, becomes symbolicviolence.

However, the power of the IGOs comesalso from the capacity to legitimize them-selves as such. The IGOs are not mere pas-sive components of an unequal internationalsystem, a sounding of a discourse completelylagged from the concerns of all those whoare part of it and which they claim to repre-sent, nor simply transmission belts of theinterests of more powerful actors, be theystates, multinational corporations or otherpowerful interest group. The question of therole they assume in international relations,particularly as formal dimension and ration-alized and bureaucratic apparatus of theinternational regime (Archer, 1995; Ruggie,1998), as well as the processes of legitima-tion - as 'legitimate domination' (see Weber,1989) - are essential to confer capacity to theimplementation of their proposals.

Ideology and Tourism

Taking into account the relationship betweentourism and ideology, its connection with

the issue of international exchanges andsocio-historical changes, we have someassumptions as a starting point.

Firstly, tourism has to be understood inthe field of the changing in the meaningsand practices of leisure and its relationshipto work, which also constitutes an impor-tant terrain for the assertion of new forms ofsocial differentiation (see Boyer, 1972; Urry,1990; Rojek, 1995; Rojek and Urry, 1997;Mac Cannel, 1999 [1976]; Santos, 2002).

Along with the traditional view of workversus leisure, recreational tourism versusexistential tourism, to use the concepts ofCohen (1996), we see today a flexible overlapof time, space and practice of work and lei-sure, resulting from late capitalism processesthat have obvious implications for tourism(see Rojek and Urry, 1997). For example, themeaning of some work and leisure practicesneeds no longer to be perceived as opposingspheres of social life. They don't need to restupon a rigid dichotomy between productionand consumption, such as was in the contextof modernity, in which the work was at thecentre of the premise of human existenceand leisure was left as a donatory function ofrewarding work, or romantic escapism fromthe conditions of daily life (Rojek, 1995). Inthe current context of post-modernity, lei-sure occupies a central place in the meaningof human existence (Rojek, 1995).

In addition, the tourist experience ofthe social actor appears as a complex wholeof several motivations and practices, inter-connected in a variety of products con-sumed by the same individual (Rojek andUrry, 1997; Prentice, 2007), some of themclearly associating leisure and work, as insome short city breaks occurring in themiddle of work periods, or in the case ofmega-events and contemporary urban tour-ism (see Roche, 1996).

In what concerns the type of tourismand tourists, we have gone from a model ofòld tourist' to the 'new tourist' (Poon, 2003).The 'old tourism' that has been the predom-inant model of tourism until the 1970s wascharacterized by mass organized travel andpre-purchased standardized package andtourists seeking the sun and sea (Poon,2003), looking, as could be inferred from


the typology and using the concepts ofCohen (1996), for experiences of diversion-ary and recreational types.

The 'new tourism', which would corre-spond to the transition from a Fordist societyto a post-Fordist society, covers aspects suchas market segmentation, the customizationof products and travel, the use of new infor-mation technologies and communication,flexible use of space and time, diversifica-tion and creation of niche products, thesearch for novelty, refusal of the standard-ized travel, environmental concerns, plural-ism of tastes and experiences and eventourist involvement with the local societies(see Poon, 2003; Mowforth and Munt, 2009).

Poon's approach is useful to state therelationship between changes in capitalism,contemporary societies and tourism(Mowforth and Munt, 2009). Our perspective,however, is not to endorse a dichotomousview that could represent any idea of histori-cal radical shift. Besides, the 'new tourist' rep-resents a social actor whose ethical discoursecorresponds to a marketing trait and an ideo-logical construction, what Mowforth andMunt (2009) call 'ego-tourist'. Today, the exis-tential tourists or those for whom authenticityis really the equivocal issue (Cohen, 1995,1996) coexists with the one who, for example,joins the experience of a sun-and-sea masstourism with adventure tourism (see alsoRojek and Urry, 1997; Prentice, 2007). Instead,we see the coexistence, in the consumptionsand motivations of tourist, of the 'old tourist'and the 'new tourist'.

These types of 'old' and 'new' alsohave, in terms of products, their modes ofembodiment, from which we can give someexamples. As 'old' we can point out theprevalent images of the sun-and-sea masstourism, the winter sports tourism (such asthe alpine type), the tourism in cosmopoli-tan centres and in cities with historical orheritage interest, religious tourism and pil-grimages or even thermal tourism.

For 'new tourism', we can point out,among a myriad of classifications thatare difficult to distinguish, rural tourism,ecotourism, new urban and metropolitantourism, mega-events, MICE tourism and themeeting industry, theme park tourism (fre-

quently based upon a strong technologicalcomponent), residential tourism, city-breaktourism, wellness tourism, golf, volunteertourism, adventure tourism and a great dealof niche products. These products fit thelogics of market segmentation, product cus-tomizing, new motivations and ideologiesand could be understood in the context ofincreased global competition for tourismdemand and supply involving all kind ofcountries, areas and societies (see Roche,1996; WTO, 1998; Apostolopoulos et al.,2001; Hoffman et al., 2003; Bramwell, 2004;UNWTO & ETC, 2006; Mowforth and Munt;2009). Some of these products are not exactly`new' (some have been around 30 years) butcould be presented as a type of tourism thataddresses the 'new tourism' model and the`new tourist' behaviour and motivations.

Secondly, tourism has the characteris-tic of a system of trans-local andinternational interactions and exchanges,encompassing economic, social, political,cultural and psychological dimensions,and contributing to the configuration modelof the relationship between societies and ofthe way of life of their populations (seeUrry, 1990; Lanfant, 1991, 1992, 1995; Hall,1994; Britton, 1996; Crick, 1996; Mowforthand Munt, 2009).

For example, the Global South coun-tries have little or no control over the proc-ess or benefits they could draw (see Britton,1996; Crick, 1996). Even if they control thedevelopment tourism policies and plans,they do not control the tourism demand,the multinational corporations or theindustry global processes of integration(see Knowles et al., 2004; Hjalager, 2007).We face a global industrial network thatsupports a tourism system that primarilyresponds to the needs of the tourist metro-politan centres (Nash, cited in Hall, 1994),under the form of an 'international divi-sion of the tourist sites' with areas of theworld and countries specialized in certaintypes of products and markets, includingthe most industrialized societies (Urry,1990).

Not invalidating the existence of rela-tions of domination of the neo-colonial typein certain tourist areas (Britton, 1996), we

206 J. Ferraz

cannot reduce the phenomenon to a simpleone-dimensional hierarchical model. Whatwe see is mainly a division and specializa-tion of labour, services, products and spaces,intrinsically linked to a specialization ofeconomies and to socio-cultural, ideologi-cal, economic and political changes affect-ing all countries (Urry, 1990; Mowforth andMunt, 2009), where tourism occupies aunique place in the complex system of asym-metric interdependencies between thoseinvolved in the international system and thedifferent societies, often with a transnationallogic. Dezert and Wackermann call it a net-work whose:

... structures develop in such a way thatnational societies are identified no longeressentially in terms of their place withinhierarchies of domination/subordination,but by variable roles and functions.

(Cited in Lanfant, 1995, p. 34).

Thirdly, the way business is managed andthe identification of its key players tell usthat we are dealing with principles of highexpertise and planning in the context of anextraordinary and progressive process ofglobal connection between major collectiveactors such as multinational corporations,states, the IGOs and non-governmentalorganizations (NGOs) (Lanfant, 1991, 1992,1995; Hall, 1994; Britton, 1996; Mowforthand Munt, 1998; Knowles et al., 2004;Hjalager, 2007). The tourism industrycomes from the internationalization modelof an ethnocentric matrix, as we have seenin the 1960s and 1970s, to the currenttransnational logic that implies flexiblereorganization of the value chain (Hjalager,2007), on which the local actors had alwaysa limited capacity for intervention. In theinternationalization model, corporationsdo not have a global intervention on themarket nor are they engaged in multina-tional or transnational alliances, but theyare in the international arena only to searchfor new markets for existing products, oftenin conjunction with national tourism boards(Hjalager, 2007). The transnational logicexpresses the high globalization stagewhere the corporations see the world as aunique space.

Finally, we have to look at the discourseon tourism and leisure and how it concealsits ideological nature. Hall (1994) tells us:

... the dominant ideology of leisure andtourism in western capitalist societieswhich is increasingly being exportedthroughout the world through themodernization dynamic portrays leisureand tourism as essentially a private andindividual choice. Such an ideology onlyserves to legitimize the relation between theculture industry and dominant ideology.

(Hall, 1994, p.192).

IGOs, Contemporary Societiesand Tourism

When discussing the role and significanceof the IGOs, we begin by picking up theconcept of World System In Transition bySantos (2001), since that allows us to makethe connection between the approach ofinternational relations and the comprehen-sion of the dynamics of relations betweensocieties and the role of IGOs, far beyond aformal dimension. Moreover, the nature ofthe concept overcomes mutually exclusivedichotomies between modern and post-modern societies, between a world-systemand an era of globalization (see Santos,2001). His model of 'constellations of prac-tice' allows us to identify more easily thecoexistence of different logics, actors andinterests, which fit the local and the global,the international and the transnational, themultinational corporations, the states, theIGOs, the NGOs and other civil societyactors, and where, along with a structure ofasymmetric relations between the periph-ery/semi-periphery/centre, typical of mod-ern society, we identify the logic of thenetwork interactions and a new form ofglobal/local hierarchy. Different powers,logics and actors interact in a complex webof interdependencies.

It is in this complex and multipolarcontext, and using the concept of 'interna-tional regime' - the institutionalized con-text of the IGOs (Ruggie, 1998) - that we seethe action and discourse of the IGOs.


According to Ruggie, 'international regimesare commonly defined as social institutionsaround which states' expectations convergein different issues-areas' (1998, p. 89).However, the regimes are dialogic in nature,and one must include in its analysis thesocial interactions that result from effectivecommunication between individual andcollective actors (Ruggie, 1998), evenbecause they also represent perspectivesthat are more than a mere sum of statesinterests and may assume a life of its own(Dougherty and Pfaltzgraff, 2003).

For Ruggie, the decentralized interstateprinciple where 'states are subject to noexternal earthly authority, and there existsno organization above states, only betweenthem (...) has become partially but progres-sively modified', because of the emergenceof spheres of influence, of supranationalactors and 'an even more complex pattern ofinterconnectedness of decisions, events anddevelopments [that] modifies the principleof independence' (Ruggie, 1998, p. 47-48).

Ruggie (1998) says that the institutionalform of international contemporary life isthe multilateralism. This implies that thecoordination of national policies and agen-das among several states is done on the basisof certain principles of ordering relationsbetween them (Ruggie, 1998), formalized ininternational law and on the IGOs, withoutforgetting, however, that the institutionalcontext not only relies on the interdepend-ence between states but also on the inequal-ity between them (Waltz, 1999).

Finally, Ruggie (1998) states that thepossibility of any kind of understandingbetween the international players andthe regularity and continuity in theirinteractions such as the ones we could findin IGOs, has to be based upon a Weberianperspective of authority and power, amodel of legitimate domination. This is acrucial factor in determining the capacityof intervention of IGOs.

The IGOs legitimacy, the power to decideon investments, the expertise skills theycould offer and the nature of the contempo-rary international system play a crucial rolein giving strength to their discourse. Thus,the IGOs also express dynamics of power

and willingness and an understanding basedon the principle of minimally shared valuesand meanings by the involved societies.

To avoid confusion between organiza-tion and institution, we say that organiza-tion is a form of an institution, and the terminternational organizations refers mainly toa system of rules and objectives associatedwith a rationalized administrative appara-tus (Archer, 1995). From this perspectivethe IGOs are formal organizations with per-manent bodies, subject to international law,constituted as an association of states,expressing the will to bring order to interna-tional relations, defending common inter-ests and establishing ties beyond theirnational borders (see Fernandes, 1991).IGOs can be of two types: coordination orcooperation (such as the UNWTO) wherethere isn't any transference of sovereignty;or integration as is the single case of theEuropean Union where there is some trans-fer of sovereignty from the member states tothe organization (Fernandes, 1991).

Of all these, the most relevant for ourpurpose are the IGOs of cooperation andcoordination. Accordingly, the UNWTOstands out, either by its objectives (focusingon tourism, in its varied dimensions ofsocial, economic and cultural phenomena),the geographical dimension and the numberof members (almost global), the areas ofintervention (from technical planning tocodes of ethics) and also for having recentlyacquired the status of the United Nationsspecialized agency for tourism.

The Declarations of the IGOs:Main Results and Discussion

Concerning the formal structure of discourseand the type of terminology used, each`Declaration' usually begins by invokingthe foregoing or any international legalframework on rights. The first 'Declarations'had a very programmatic speech, with ter-minology that refers to values and humanrights. With the advance of this millennium,the speech began to lose the explicit enun-ciation of rights and values; a more technical

208 J. Ferraz

and neutral language is presented, and theaim of exchanging experiences and knowl-edge dissemination and research becomesincreasingly important and more frequentlymentioned.

When we deal with the concrete issuesand perspectives presented in the proposalsof the IGOs we find, at first sight, remarka-ble overlaps and repetitions. On closer look,however, we see contradictions, silences,phases and paradigm shifts that reveal astrong consonance with societal changeswithin leisure meanings and practices, withchanges in the types of issues and interna-tional concerns (primarily focused on theperspective of the emitter societies, in gen-eral the most developed) and with ideologi-cal changes, especially in matters related tothe roles played by states and corporationsin the tourism field.

Now, turning to the identification of thephases, it should be noted that, until the1970s, the dominant discourse of IGOsemphasized the dimension of tourism as aninternational phenomenon related to thephysical movement of large numbers ofpeople between countries and continentsand the stated aim imputed on tourism bythe IGOs' discourse was to be an importantfactor in the economic development andmodernization of the so-called less devel-oped societies and in finding internationalpeace. The holidays and the leisure timewere associated with the right to movefreely and should be extended to all, in thelogic of continuous growth, with a majorinterventionist role reserved for the state,from planning to managing the financialloans coming from the IGOs (see Lanfant,1995; Britton, 1996; Hawkins and Mann,2007). The focus of the intervention wasbased on the idea that tourism in the socie-ties acted primarily as an economicphenomenon.

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, IGOssuch as the United Nations Educational,Scientific and Cultural Organization(UNESCO), WB and IUOTO/UNWTO werevery active in systematically promoting(and inducing) tourism in the Third World(see Lanfant, 1995; Hawkins and Mann,2007). However, this developmental view

produced perverse effects. Lanfant says thatinternational organizations orchestrated anintense campaign that led the least devel-oped countries to adopt this developmentorthodoxy, seeking foreign capital and lead-ing to the creation of 'huge tourism cent-ers..., worlds set apart on the margins ofeveryday life...' (Lanfant, 1995, p. 27). Inthose cases, that process means the estab-lishment of social, cultural and economicenclaves not necessarily responding to theneeds of local societies.

In this international flux, the dominantinteraction would be registered among peo-ple from emitter societies (industrializedsocieties) and individuals and structures ofreceptive societies (traditional societies ordeveloping ones). As to the main touristproducts of this era, we have the sun-and-beach type and winter sports alpine type, aswell the historical heritage of cities (forexample, in Italy and France2).

However, the phenomena of seasonal-ity and massification led, in the late 1970sand in international meetings, such as the`Conference on Security and Co-Operationin Europe' in Helsinki in 1975 and theSeminar on the Social and Cultural Impactsof Tourism sponsored by UNESCO and WBin 1976 (de Kadt, 1979), to the raising ofthe issue of degradation of the physicalspaces and to the appearance of the firstproposals relating to the protection of frag-ile areas.

We have still an emphasis on the devel-opment of international tourism and astrong belief in its economic virtues, but wesee concerns about the issue of massifica-tion and saturation beginning to emerge.

The declaration in Manila in 1980 couldbe seen as turning point in the discourse ontourism, where the articulation of issuesrelated to domestic tourism, rural tourism,diversification of tourism products, sustain-ability, environment or the theme of 'individ-ualized' and responsible tourism associatedwith lifestyles. The centre of the discourseshifted to identity themes and environmen-tal issues in a context of preservation andenjoyment of non-industrial cultures, whichwe see as an important factor in the produc-tion of an effect of immobilization of the


natural and cultural environments of thenon-industrialized societies.

It is true that the Manila Declarationsays that 'world tourism can contribute tothe establishment of a new international eco-nomic order that will help to eliminate thewidening economic gap between developedand developing countries' and that, in point4, invokes, as it has done at the RomeConference in 1963, the Universal Declarationof Human Rights. Nevertheless, in 1963,such ideas were central and appear associ-ated with the freedom to travel, with thegrowth of international tourism and with thedevelopment of the poorest countries, withimpacts on peace and intercultural themes.In 1980, these objectives were less promi-nent than domestic tourism, being thatdomestic tourism is mainly a phenomenonand a concern of the developed countries.

Even international cooperation or theinternational development of tourism mustbe accompanied 'by a similar effort toexpand domestic tourism', and where theright to holiday that would be taken from adeclaration of human rights appears, in par-agraph 8, connected to the 'opportunity forthe citizen to get to know his own environ-ment, a deeper awareness of his nationalidentity and of the solidarity that links himto his compatriots and the sense of belong-ing to a culture and to the people are allmajor reasons for stimulating the individu-al's participation in domestic and interna-tional tourism...' (Manila Declaration).

There is another document to whichcould be assigned an exemplary status: the`Global Code of Ethics for Tourism' (GCOEFT)presented in 1999. This is a code of conductto be followed by all actors in the tourismprocess and it often seems to be a summaryof the former declarations on tourism,although under the rule of four structuralfeatures: a sustainable and responsible prac-tice, highlighting nature tourism and eco-tourism; a vision of a tourist consumptionand practices more preservationist at socio-cultural and environmental levels, asopposed to preceding developmental logics;the defence of tourism as a phenomenon ofhuman rights and as a way to fulfil existen-tial needs (rather than the expression of

hedonistic leisure); the repeated emphasison liberalization and deregulation of busi-ness activity and on industry self-regulation,while acknowledging some of its perverseeffects, such as job insecurity and excessiverepatriation of profits.

In fact, since 1980, in a progressivemanner, the speech of the IGOs startedrejecting the logic of growth, and the dis-course about the motivation for tourismacquired a mainly 'psycho-cultural' mean-ing, beyond the mere right to leisure andtravel. On behalf of a new orthodoxy, thepreservation of identities gains 'a normative,prescriptive value' (Lanfant, 1995, p. 31).

All this discourse seems to speak lessabout the development of poorer societiesand more about the problems or concerns ofdeveloped societies. It seems that it is con-cerned more with the motivations of thenew 'middle-class' tourist than with theneeds of host communities, in a process ofimmobilization of the cultural and naturalcharacteristics of the traditional (and poorer)societies.

The enunciation of these concerns isaccompanied, throughout the 1990s, by thedecline of the state and the growing advo-cacy of economic deregulation, of public-private partnerships and appeals to industrysocial responsibility in a framework of self-regulation. These are discourses in line withthe 'Washington Consensus' and with theneo-liberalism of the 1990s (see Santos,2001) and of the new millennium.

On the international dimension oftourism, what stands out is the issue ofinstitutional cooperation and harmoniza-tion assured by the states and the IGOs,focused on planning sustainable policiesin a coordinated manner, mainly speakingabout the need for regulatory mechanismsfor environmental protection and aboutinitiatives to promote the awareness ofthose involved.

Here and there, references are made tointernational inequalities, inferred mainlyfrom the issue of the socio-economic bene-fits to local communities. However, thequestion of international inequality as acharacteristic of the international system doesnot deserve the status of recurrent concern,

210 J. Ferraz

except in the 'Amman Declaration on Peacethrough Tourism', in 2000, and in theÌnternational Conference on Tourism,Religions and the Dialogue of Cultures', inCordoba, 2007. In the GCOEFT there is areference to this problem, when the aim ofpromoting sustainable world tourism orderis stated, benefits of which could be sharedby all members of society; nevertheless, thatconcern is presented in the context of anopen and liberalized economy.

As for the problem of interculturalism,peace and international security the scene issimilar: decades of near invisibility revived bythe 'Declarations' resulting from the confer-ences that took place in Amman and Cordobaand by the GCOEFT. In the GCOEFT, to bemore precise, the question is not really inter-culturalism, but mainly the contribution oftourism 'to mutual understanding and respectbetween peoples and societies' (Article 1,Global Code of Ethics for Tourism).

Following the declaration of the`Millennium Development Goals' in 2000,the issues of poverty reduction and theredistribution of economic benefits, nowassociated with the encouragement of smalllocal ownership, are back (see 'HueDeclaration', 2004; 'Harnessing Tourism forthe Millennium Development Goals', 2005).However, the principle of economic deregu-lation and international liberalization ofbusiness services and investment is not inquestion, it is only a request for 'liberaliza-tion with a human face' (see 'The SustainableTourism - Eliminate Poverty (ST-EP)Initiative', 2002).

In the IGOs' discourse of the past 10years there is a relative reduction in the pri-macy of environmental preservation, butit does not disappear. This is now accompa-nied by a need for a contribution from tour-ism to reduce poverty and injustice; theelected products and practices continue to becultural tourism and ecotourism associatedwith motivations related to identity issues,now legitimized by the claim that they haveeconomic virtues for local people, encourag-ing them to make the most of their activities,products and traditional crafts (see 'TheQuebec Declaration on Ecotourism', 2002;`Hue Declaration', 2004; 'Harnessing Tourism

for the Millennium Development Goals',2005). The communities of the most disad-vantaged societies are therefore still seen asobjects of glorification while they maintaintheir traditional way of life, frozen in time, inspace and in their aspirations. The aesthetici-zation of poverty is a possible result (seeMowfort and Munt, 2009).

Finally, and more recently, three newthemes have emerged: climate change,urban tourism and the dialogue of civiliza-tions. The meetings of Djerba in 2003 andDavos in 2007 added the concern of climatechange and the impact on tourism activityand industry, stating, in addition, the needto reduce poverty. The same was also saidin the conference of Kuala Lumpur, 2007.Besides that, we don't see major differenceswith what you can find in other recentdeclarations.

As for metropolitan tourism (the nameused by UNWTO), the emergence of twoconferences in the space of a year, in 2006and 2007, in Shanghai and Busan, agreewith the (re)emergence of the previouslylow profile urban tourism. This is a phe-nomenon that covers cultural tourism, busi-ness tourism, urban policies and regenerationof cities, creation of mega-events, develop-ment of creative industries and the connec-tion between the cultural and the economic(see Page, 1995; Roche, 1996); the political,economic and ideological process of touristurbanization affects mainly the most devel-oped societies (see Hoffman et al., 2003).Furthermore, these conferences were heldin cities of Asian countries that are impor-tant economic and financial actors in theglobal economy and (along with KualaLumpur) are in a geographical area ofrepeated significance for UNWTO, territo-ries of the most explosive growth in tourismfor the next decade (see WTO, 1998;Knowles et al., 2004).

To conclude we mention the issue ofpeace and dialogue of civilizations. Whenwe look at the conference 'Tourism,Religions and the Dialogue of Cultures' inCordoba, 2007, it seems that a circle closes.Coupled with the novelty of the economicopportunity offered by religious tourism, itseems that what is at stake here is the return


of the vision of tourism as a factor in inter-culturalism, dialogue and peace.

But the problem stated now is no longerthe Cold War, nor the issue of developmentand poverty as a cause of violence or advo-cating modernization and growth. The cur-rent problem is the dialogue and/or conflictbetween religions and civilizations'. TheÀmman Declaration on Peace throughTourism' in 2000 set the tone with the greatconcern of obtaining 'Peace through Tourism'.The International Conference of Cordobatook place after the September 11, 2001 andthe Madrid train bombings in 2004, whichgave more relevance to the issue. Besides therelevant presence of the High Representativeof the 'United Nations - Alliance ofCivilizations' at the conference, the finaldeclaration text itself expresses the notionthat tourism, if it brings development andreduces the distance between societies, willcontribute to the dialogue too. The summaryof the report (point 1.a.) refers to 'tourism'spotential to stimulate and facilitate the dia-logue among different civilizations'. Theconflict of civilizations, in this perspective, isthus a cultural, ideological, religious andsocio-economic problem.

We end this part of our chapter by say-ing that, from the results that we havereached and bearing in mind the nature androle of IGOs, it makes sense to subscribe tothe idea that these tend 'to create a sharedand overall vision of the development oftourism. However)... its involvement intourism varies according to the organiza-tions, eras and countries, in a process inwhich the IGOs perceive tourism as a func-tion of its political agenda' (PNUE/PAM,2005, p. 76).

Conclusions and Suggestionsfor Future Research

In analysing the contents of the variousIGO declarations we conclude that thereis a connection between civilizationalchanges and mutations in leisure, as wellas a strong consonance with themes, inter-ests and problems of emitter societies and

of the most powerful players. However,this connection is not the only content orconcern at stake, because the IGOs alsohave to meet the actual needs of the disad-vantaged, framed as they are in an interna-tional regime, supported in processes andcontents of legitimate domination thatcould respond in some way to problems ofthe world as a whole. The choice of topicsand subjects of the declarations reflects anuneven variety. That is, there is inequalityand asymmetry but not the reduction to asimple phenomenon of one-dimensionaldomination.

The structuring logic of internationaltourism is characterized by an interdepend-ent asymmetry between different societiesand actors, an unequal exchange, where theidea of a socio-cultural encounter and ofmutual social and economic benefits thatwould follow is primarily an ideologicalformulation that the IGOs ultimately legiti-mize. Moreover, the definition of thoseobjectives and how to achieve them appearas a technical scientific discourse, making itmore difficult to decipher the ideologicaldimension.

The logic and content of the discourseon international tourism, especially in itsideological content and when it promotescontact between the industrial and post-industrial societies with the traditionalsocieties (the former being mainly the emit-ter societies and the latter, the receptivesocieties), 'forces' the host societies to 'want'a particular place in an international spe-cialization of tourist sites and products,offering a unique product. The non-indus-trial cultures and lifestyles and/or a luxuri-ant nature untouched by industrializationbecome a tourist product ready for the lei-sure needs of the people from the emittersocieties.

This also happens because receptivecountries from the Global South are fre-quently very dependent on the incomeobtained from international tourism andhave few resources for endogenous financialinvestment. They also lack expertise, don'thave the appropriate cultural, political andsocial framework to play the game and needto gain more access to the mechanisms that

212 J. Ferraz

affect the tourism development process.They have little control on the global-localnexus referred to by Milne and Altejevic(2001). Furthermore, we see that the dis-course on tourism hides the unequal social,political and economic processes behindthe satisfaction of leisure needs, in whichthe issue of leisure as a human right appearsfree from social contexts and interests.

So the social, economic and ideologicaland political factors and the role of industryin leisure and tourism choices remain largelyunspoken. In this process, leisure acquiresan intrinsic 'goodness' because it is con-nected with human rights and is a responseto real profound human needs. Tourism isthen associated with interculturalism, peaceand economic development (mainly in theIGOs' earlier declarations) or with thedefence of culture and nature (more stronglyin more recent declarations). It addressessimultaneously (however, not equally) theneeds and concerns of the emitter and recep-tive societies. The defence of culture andnature that is made in the declarations(from the preservation of traditional identi-ties to the climate change problems) becomes

even more powerful and acquires the statusof a universal dogma. It appears as a com-mon heritage that asks for our urgent atten-tion, in the face of a world on the brink ofreal major disasters but never questioningwhether it is a choice of local societies.

Tourism politics, which is what is pro-posed in the 'Declarations', are neither merefacts nor neutral judgements, but choicesand political arguments that involve valuesand options that are difficult to uncover. Theuneven nature of the relationship betweenthe involved actors, the matrix of ideologicalinvisibility that is attributed to tourism, andthe ideological and legitimating power ofthe technical scientific discourse are part ofthe nature of tourism politics.

In conclusion, it must be said that a bet-ter determination of the ideological dimen-sion of discourse of the IGOs also implies ananalysis of the processes of choosing themesand decision making, bearing in mind thecorrelation of forces between the differentactors involved in the IGOs and their con-crete interactions in the organizations' eve-ryday life. This is work that still needs to bedone.

Notes

' We refer to development in the holistic perspective presented by Burns and Novelli (2008), who, withoutneglecting the importance of economic growth, technological advancement and the issue of wealthdistribution, integrate in a systematic way the societies, social and political structures and dynamics.

See, in addition to statistics of UNWTO, PNUE/PAM (2005), Cazes (1989) and FUster (1991).See the different views and perspectives on the problematic nature of current relations between the West

and Islam and the significant weight it has on the concerns of those involved in international relations(Huntington, 2001; Keppel, 2003; Khader, 2005)

List of Declarations

'Convention on Customs Facilities for Tourism', New York, 1954, United Nations.'United Nations Conference on International Travel and Tourism', Rome, 1963, United Nations.'International Charter for the Conservation and Restoration of Monuments and Sites (Venice Charter)', 1964,

International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) (Latter Recalled by the United NationsEducational, Scientific and Cultural Organization [UNESCO] Declarations).

'Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage', 1972, UNESCO.'Conference on Security and Co-Operation in Europe (CSCE). Final Act' Helsinki, 1975, CSCE.Policy Recommendations Adopted by the Seminar on the Social and Cultural Impacts of Tourism (Tourism:

Passport to Development?)', Washington, 1976, World Bank and UNESCO.'Charter for Cultural Tourism', 1976, World Tourism Organization (WTO) and ICOMOS, Among Others.


Recommendation Concerning the Safeguarding and Contemporary Role of Historic Areas', Nairobi, 1976,UNESCO.

The Manila Declaration on World Tourism', 1980, WTO.Acapulco Document', 1982, WTO Meeting.'Tourism Bill of Rights and Tourist Code', 1985, WTO.The Hague Declaration on Tourism', 1989, WTO (among others).The Charter for a Sustainable Tourism', World Conference on Sustainable Tourism, Lanzarote, 1995, WTO,

UNESCO and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).Agenda 21 for the Travel and Tourism Industry: Towards Environmental Sustainable Development', 1996,

WTO, World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) and the Earth Council.'International Conference on Sustainable Tourism in Small Island Developing States and other Islands',

Lanzarote, 1998, UNEP and WTO.'Global Code of Ethics for Tourism', 1999, WTO, (2001, United Nations).Amman Declaration on Peace Through Tourism', 2000, International Institute for Peace Through Tourism

(IIPT), United Nations and WTTC.The Quebec Declaration on Ecotourism', 2002, WTO and UNEP.The Sustainable Tourism - Eliminate Poverty (ST-EP) Initiative'. Presentation at the World Summit on

Sustainable Development (WSSD), Johannesburg, 2002, WTO.'Sahara Cultures and Peoples. Towards a Strategy for the Sustainable Development of Tourism in the Sahara,

in the Context of Combating Poverty', 2002, UNESCO.Agenda 21 - Sustainability in the European Tourism Sector. Discussion Document', 2002, European Union

(EU).

'Seven Mechanisms of Sustainable Tourism - Eliminating Poverty Programme (ST-EP). (Tourism and PovertyAlleviation: Recommendations for Action)', 2004, UNWTO.

The Djerba Declaration on Climate Change and Tourism', Djerba, 2003, WTO, UNESCO and UNEP (amongothers).

'Hue Declaration on Cultural Tourism and Poverty Alleviation', Hue, 2004, UNWTO.'Harnessing Tourism for the Millennium Development Goals', 2005, UNWTO'International Conference on Metropolitan Tourism', Shanghai, 2007, UNWTO.'Climate Change and Tourism. Responding to Global Changes. (Davos Declaration)', 2007, UNWTO, UNEP

and World Economic Forum (Among Others).'International Conference on Tourism, Religions and the Dialogue of Cultures', Cordoba, 2007, UNWTO.'International Conference on Metropolitan Tourism', Busan, 2007, UNWTO.'World Tourism Conference. Tourism Success Stories and Shooting Stars', 2007, Kuala Lumpur, UNWTO.

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15 The Paradoxes of Tourism Encountersin the Mass Tourism Spaces of the Gambia

Helen Pattison''Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, UK

Introduction

The tourism industry has been dubbed thevanguard of globalization; a major globaleconomic force. Tourism involves flows ofpeople, capital, policy, information, images,technology and organizations connectingdisparate cultures and societies in a con-verging and 'shrinking' world (Dirlik, 1994).To research tourism spaces involves explor-ing the complex interaction between theglobal, national and local that creates post-colonial global places. The field of tourismis a potentially rich site from which toexamine the fluidity of identity, the multi-ple discourses involved in identityconstruction and the competing modes ofrepresentations, all within an intercon-nected and interacting world (King 2008).Tourism studies have, however, been cri-tiqued for failing to conceptualize in anygreat depth the complexity of tourismspaces and experiences. A lack of meaning-ful engagement with the agency of the sub-altern 'host' and their position in thepostcolonial global moment has resulted ina simplistic binary of the host-guest rela-tion that overlooks the paradoxes, parallelsand micro-controversies inherent in tour-ism encounters. Within this chapter I

present the case for utilizing a postcolonial(global) framework of Foucauldian rela-

tional power as an epistemology and meth-odology to re-inscribe meaning to theexperience of the 'host'. I explore how localpeople become 'hosts' within the mass tour-ism industry of The Gambia, reconfiguringpower and identity to create a host-tourist(direct or indirect) encounter that generatesits own micro-controversies.

The Trouble with Tourism Studies

Tourism studies have attempted to chartthe implications of the rapid rate of tour-ism development as concerns arise overthe neo-colonial nature of tourism and theimpact(s) that this may have on the desti-nation country. Until recently, however,tourism studies research has rested on anarrow theoretical and methodologicalbase and has been unable to conceptualize(in great depth) the complexity inherent intourism (Franklin and Crang, 2001).Franklin and Crang (2001, p. 5) believepart of the problem is that tourism studiesresearchers do not have 'the tools neces-sary to analyze and theorize the complexcultural and social processes that haveunfolded'. Phillimore and Goodson (2004)explored the paradigmatic influences anduse of methods within tourism research by


Tourism Encounters in the Gambia 217

reviewing academic articles published ineight tourism and leisure journals between1996 and 2003. They found that the over-whelming majority of research was framedby a positivist and post-positivist para-digm. This approach is scientific, rationaland technical. The researcher is perceivedto be an 'expert'; the voice of the researchedis often invisible as they become the dis-embodied objects of the researcher's gaze.Universalizing and totalizing explanationsfor social phenomena are sought for and/or applied, which has resulted in touristand host typologies (Humberstone, 2004).As Pernecky (2010, p. 2) argues, 'onewould presume that after forty years oftourism scholarship the field would haveachieved a certain degree of maturityand a plethora of issues would have beenexplored, theorised, and conceptualised.Yet the opposite appears to be the case'.Similarly, Pritchard and Morgan (2007,p. 13) believe that 'we still know too lit-tle about tourism identities, relation-ships ... and much of the new work onidentity, difference, the body ... which hasforced a rethinking of the social scienceintellectual universe remains on the mar-gin of our subject'. Pernecky (2010, p. 5)agrees that there is a lack of criticalapproaches in tourism studies and anyreal theoretical (and practical) engagementwith ontology, epistemology and method-ology. Thus, there exists a growing body oftourism researchers 'that call for innova-tive approaches to tourism', as 'the oldways of knowledge production may not besatisfactory any longer'.

The absence of a sophisticated engage-ment with ontology, epistemology andmethodology within tourism studies hasimplications for knowledge constructedabout, or perhaps more often for, non-Western 'hosts'. Tucker and Akama (2009,p. 513) say of tourism researchers: 'In theirdiscussions ... in relation to tourism thesame imperialist imagery that is employedin tourism promotions has unfortunatelybeen maintained by many commentatorson tourism, thus showing a desire by themalso to fix the "ethnic" identities of peoplesin tourism destinations into perpetual

"otherness" '. This simplistic viewing of theòther' has set rigid frameworks withinwhich to interpret tourism experiences,such as the host-guest paradigm'. Stronza(2001), Evans-Pritchard (1989) and Martinez(1996) focus on the host within the host-guest framework but whilst they attempt todescribe host-guest interaction they onlyserve to reinforce the binary opposition of`host' and `guest'; the host as the dominatedòther'. In more recent years Cheong andMiller (2000) have attempted to describe thecomplexity and fluidity of power within thehost-guest relationship by using aFoucauldian concept of relational power.Cheong and Miller (2000) argue that ratherthan a binary host-guest relationship thehosts act as middlemen between local peo-ple and tourists; this tripartite system is notfixed as the identities of local people, hostsand tourists can shift. Cheong and Miller,however, miss the (often subtle) complexityand dynamism of these relations as the tour-ist is reduced to a largely passive role. Maoz(2006) discusses how hosts perceive tour-ists (the local gaze) and how this perceptioncan influence the tourist gaze, or the actionsand behaviour of the tourist. Maoz (2006)suggests that the tourist gaze and the localgaze exist side-by-side; 'the local gaze isbased on a more complex, two-sided pic-ture, where both the tourist and the localgazes exist, affecting and feeding each other,resulting in what is termed "the mutualgaze"' (Maoz, 2006, p. 222). Maoz (2006),Cheong and Miller (2000) and the previousworks cited locate their work within a host-guest paradigm that Aramberri (2001,p. 741) believes is defunct; a myth; 'thehost-guest model does not help to explainthe nature of modern mass tourism; obscuresthe complex interactions between local cul-tures and their environments, and favors astatic and exclusionary vision of cultures'.Similarly, McNaughton (2006, p. 660)describes: 'The host-guest paradigm has notonly framed the way researchers think aboutthe interactions that occur in tourism, itsapplication predetermines the researcher'sunderstandings of the very relationshipsthey are there to observe, describe andinterpret'. McNaughton's (2006) empirical

218 H. Pattison

research in Pakaram, India, on the position ofhandicraft traders within the tourism indus-try led her to acknowledge 'the complexity oflife-on-the-ground'. Mc Naughton (2006)found that some groups, such as the handi-craft traders, have been marginalized byboth the tourist industry and academiabecause they do not fit into the role of 'host',but rather, are 'uninvited interlopers'(Mc Naughton, 2006, p. 659). Mc Naughton(2006) argues that this says a lot moreabout the discourse of tourism than what isactually happening on the ground, in tour-ism spaces.

Ladson-Billings and Donnor (2005,p. 294) believe that it is the responsibilityof the tourism studies scholar to 'transcendnarrow disciplinary boundaries if it is tohave any impact on people who residein subaltern sites or even on policymak-ers'. An engagement with the actions andinteractions between (host) agency and(Western) discourse (Bianchi, 2009) and afocus on the transitional spaces of tourismdevelopment will avoid the reinforcementof colonial binaries and 'unhelpful dichot-omies' (Tucker, 2010, p. 983). Tourismstudies have focused on either the local,and its difference and diversity, or macro-hierarchical structures of power and ine-quality. The agency of the subject withinthe local and its negotiation of macropower has been largely neglected (Bianchi,2003). Bianchi (2009, p. 491) sets a futureresearch agenda: 'What is needed, as else-where in the social sciences of our moment,is more systematic analysis of the actionsand interactions between agency and dis-course, and theorization of such defensivestruggles in relation to the reproduction ofinstitutional complexes and structures ofpower'.

Osagie and Buzinde (2011, p. 211) arguethat a critical approach to tourism studies`coupled with the critical structures of post-colonial research offer a lens through whichthe nuances and complexities of tourism,especially in developing nations, can bebetter articulated and embedded within adecolonizing agenda'. Postcolonial theory isuseful as it both emphasizes 'the pervasive-ness of the legacies of colonialism in

tourism' and also 'the ways in which tour-ism might act as a medium for offering post-colonial counter-narratives of resistance tothose colonial relationships' (Tucker andAkama, 2009, p. 504)2. Treacher (2005,pp. 44-45) defines postcolonial theory as:

A body of work that attempts to explore theinextricably linked relations between thewestern people and those from thenon-West. It is a way of conceptualizing,understanding and speaking about thecomplex relations between the colonizedand the colonizer, and these psychologicaland political inscriptions mark us allwhatever our history of colonization.Critically, it is committed to opening up aspace in which those without a voice canspeak and be heard, to extending theoreticalviewpoints and analysis, to encompassknowledge and understandings developedoutside of the West.

Listening to the subaltern leads to thepossibilities of alternative discourses to thatof Western/colonial discourse (Dirlik, 1994).Indeed Loomba (2005) believes postcoloni-alism to be involved with recovering theviews of previously colonized subjects andas such engages us in debates over authen-ticity, hybridity and colonial identities, toname a few. Although postcolonial theory isinvolved with recovering the voices of thesubaltern, the discipline has been criticizedfor reproducing Western (colonial) dis-course, through homogenizing and 'other-ing' the postcolonial subject, condition andexperience (Finnstrom, 1997; Loomba,2005). Appiah (1996, p. 62) has pronouncedWestern intellectuals to be 'othernessmachines' and postcolonial authors topresent a 'dark vision' of the 'other' as it issuffocated by Western discourse. Throughher seminal essay 'Can the subaltern speak?',Spivak (1988) asks the question of whetherthe voices of the subaltern are condemnedto be forever distorted through representa-tion, or whether they can speak for them-selves. One of Spivak's conclusions is that itis not the inability of the subaltern to speakthat is the problem but the inability of thedominant West to listen (McEwan, 2009). Inthe following section I argue that combiningpostcolonial theory with Foucault's notion


of relational power enables me to re-centrethe agency of the subaltern.

An Alternative Theoretical andMethodological Base; a Postcolonial(Global) Framework of Foucauldian

Relational Power

The framework positions the subalternwithin macro-structures of asymmetricalpower (Western discursive and non-discur-sive practices) but also enables me to recog-nize that power is not static but 'mobile,reversible and unstable' (Foucault 1996, p.442). Foucault (1982a, 1982b) presents acomplex, dynamic and localized form ofagency and resistance (of the subject)through his description of power as arelation; every subject is an object of powerbut also has the capacity to exercisepower through acting upon another; actingupon the actions or conduct of a subject.Furthermore, the subject is constitutedthrough this possibility of resistance withinpower relations. Butin (2001, p. 169)explains, 'The individual is not passivelymade by power, but makes herself by beingable to resist within power relations'. I arguethat this enables me to conceptualize thedynamics of power in the tourism spaces ofThe Gambia by positioning the 'host' as anactive agent within the macro-structuresof discursive and non-discursive practices.As power is relational, diffuse and multi-directional the 'host' is not passive but isable to act, resist and negotiate the manyinfluences inherent to tourism spaces; thehost becomes both the object and agent ofpower and Western colonial binaries of`subject' and 'object', 'active' and 'passive'are deconstructed.

Whilst presenting the case for a post-colonial Foucauldian framework for tour-ism research it must be recognized that arelatively new global order has emergedthat conditions the development of tour-ism. Hardt and Negri (2000) argue that thisis an age of global flows (of capital, infor-mation, technology and people) that con-nect geographically and socio-culturally

disparate spaces and places within ade-centred, de-territorialized 'Empire'. Assuch, 'globalization represents a new wayof perceiving the world that distinguishesthe present from the world of colonialismand neo-colonialism at the moment ofdecolonization in the aftermath of WorldWar II' (Dirlik, 2002, p. 429). I argue thatboth postcolonial theory and globalizationtheory can learn from each other, in orderto better understand the complex configu-rations of power within place(s). Forexample, despite this insistence upon anew world order that has radically trans-formed global systems of power, the con-temporary moment is not ahistorical; it isnot rootless. As such, 'the shift from "colo-nial" to "postcolonial" to "global" [is]much more problematic than Hardt andNegri ... named' (Ganguly, 2007, p. 31). Itcan be argued that globalization hasbrought into existence new forms ofcolonialism/imperialism (Dirlik, 2002;Ganguly, 2007) and also 'intensified pre-existing global asymmetries, particularlythose that were produced by modern colo-nialism (Loomba, 2005, p. 215). By engag-ing with globalization theory, postcolonialtheory can be made even more relevant tothe contemporary moment.

A major criticism levelled at postcolo-nial theory is its preoccupation with texts,discourses and the 'cultural' to the neglectof the persistence of colonialism/imperial-ism through the non-discursive/material(Cook and Harrison, 2003; Mc Ewan, 2009).Postcolonial theories are not easily trans-lated into action on the ground, or the 'real'world (Mc Ewan, 2009). As Cook andHarrison (2003, p. 298) state 'contemporarypostcolonial criticism leaves largely undis-cussed the articulation of imaginative andmaterial geographies, "culture" and "econ-omy", and "postcolonialism" and globalcapitalism'. Schwarz (2000, p. 7) calls for a`materially grounded postcolonial studies'whilst according to Dirlik (2002) part of theproblem is that postcolonial theory is toofocused on past legacies to the extent that itis largely oblivious to contemporary con-figurations of power. Whilst colonialism/imperialism persists, it can often appear

220 H. Pattison

differently as it is refracted through a con-temporary reconfiguration of global rela-tions, presenting 'new questions both ofpolitics and of cultural identities' (Dirlik,2002, p. 445). Thus, postcolonial theorymust place old and new imperialisms/colo-nialisms in a globalizing, re-materializingframe.

Whilst postcolonial theory needs to bebrought into the present, globalization mustbe re-historicized in order to recognizethe persistence of colonialism/imperialismwithin global configurations. Colonialismcreated bonds/binaries between the colo-nized and the colonizer, constructing iden-tities and stereotypes that remain entrenchedin contemporary discourses, structures andpractices, in a form of latent orientalism.Contemporary identities are influenced by ahistory (that includes colonial history) ofracial and cultural òthering', and mixing, toproduce complex plural contemporaryidentities (Ganguly, 2007). Ganguly (2007,p. 38) believes that concentrating on the`now' of the global order dislocates andflattens out complex, dynamic identitiesand experiences. Instead, there needs to bean 'opening up of the temporality of the"now" to reverberations of other times thatco-exist with it ... pasts-and-futures-in-the-present that co-exist with late capital'.Postcolonial theory can help to bring thepast into the present and historicize chang-ing social relations.

A postcolonial (global) framework ofFoucauldian relational power will enable meto focus on the experiences of the 'host' whilstalso recognizing that the 'host' is part of aninterconnected web of power. This allows meto grasp a more comprehensive understand-ing of contemporary configurations of powerand identity - embracing temporal (local,national and global) and spatial (past-and-futures-in-the-present) dimensions - that aremanifest in, and also expressed through host-tourist encounters.

A p ostc olonial framework ofF ouc auldianrelational power can also be used as a meth-odology that opens up a space within thefield of tourist studies from which to uncoverthe voices of the subaltern 'host'. By provid-ing the 'hosts' with cameras and listening to

their voices through photo-elicitation inter-views (PEIs) I aim to enable them to `speak';they are the 'experts' of their own lives andthe researcher should not presume to 'know'for them. I pay particular attention to theuse of cameras as, whilst visual methodshave been used as a research techniquewithin the social sciences, in tourismresearch they are 'simply not on the agenda'(Feighey, 2003, p. 78). I argue that camerasare more than just a research tool; theybecome inextricably bound up with theirowner's personal subjectivities, enmeshedin micro- and macropower relations, andcan frame the dominant discourse of a soci-ety; they can be both colonizing and decolo-nizing. The visual is a significant element oftourism; the tourist gaze is premised on thevisual nature of tourism as images represent(and signpost) people and places to be con-sumed by the gaze (Urry, 2002). Such imagesoften construct 'imaginary' people andplaces in a (re)colonizing gaze. Through thelens of the camera 'hosts' are able to repre-sent the multiple, complex identities of`self', 'other' and place and reveal the para-doxes and parallels between the host gazeand the tourist gaze and how these are man-ifested through encounter.

Researching the Tourism Spacesof Kotu and Senegambia

Tourism research has not fully conceptual-ized the multiple interconnecting influ-ences that constitute place, thus has beenunable to comprehensively understand theagency and (possibilities for) resistance ofthe subaltern 'host'. I briefly describe thewider socio-political context of tourismdevelopment in Kotu and Senegambia,The Gambia so that the paradoxes, ambigui-ties and parallels that are inherent inhost-tourist encounters can be betterunderstood.

Since 1974 (with the establishment of aTourism Development Area (TDA] along theNorth West coastline) the Gambian govern-ment has sought to combine socio-economicdevelopment with foreign investment in


tourism. A series of five-year plans inte-grated national development policies andtourism policies within a framework ofnational objectives. This approach todevelopment reflects the Eurocentric valuesof linear progress and modernization that,with respect to The Gambia, is not consider-ate of the postcolonial local context. As partof the TDA, Kotu/Senegambia has experi-enced heavy investment in tourism develop-ment by Western transnational corporationsresulting in many foreign-owned touristresorts. The tourist industry within thesespaces is characterized by a high percentageof economic leakage, high levels of foreignimports and poor links between the touristindustry and other sectors of the local econ-omy (agriculture, manufacturing/industry).This equates to a lack of tourism revenue toinvest in socio-economic development andthe exclusion of local people/businessesfrom the tourist industry. In addition, thereare few Gambians employed in managerialpositions within the industry and in at leastone tourism resort, the employees are notpaid a wage. In general, many local people(in Kotu/Senegambia) feel that their countryis being run by foreigners and that they arebeing placed on the margins; this is nothelped by the lax immigration policy asex-pats and non-Gambian Africans are per-ceived to have colonized Gambian spaces.The sense of alienation and exclusion isexacerbated by the presence and actions ofthe tourist police; the government commis-sions them to 'clean up' the area of anyunwanted 'hosts' that threaten the West'simage of a paradise. This gaze of the govern-ment and the tourist police is internalizedwithin the tourist gaze; the 'hosts' becomethe dangerous 'other' from which they needto be protected by gun-wielding securityunits.

On the micro-scale the materialities,practices and policies of the tourist resortsand the tour companies who operate within,reinforce the stereotypes of 'African' peopleand place (that are preconceived throughGambian tourist brochures), and create adivision between the 'inside' space of theresorts and the uncertain space 'outside'. Forexample, certain stereotypical images, or

signs, are utilized within Palm Beach Hotelto create an exclusive place for tourists toconsume with their gaze; a European Africawith a hint of the exotic; an imaginaryGambia. The space is designed andcontrolled (through aesthetics, facilities andentertainment) to keep the tourists inside,whilst security guards and tourist policekeep the local people out. The practices ofthe tour operators (such as the introductorywelcome talks) exclude and homogenizelocal people who do not work in purifiedspaces nor conform to the romantic notionof the 'other'. The tour operators portraythemselves as the 'hosts' whilst many of thelocal people in the outside 'other' space areùnwanted nuisances' (own observation of awelcome talk).

Whilst local 'hosts' appear to be posi-tioned within an asymmetrical power rela-tion with the tourism industry and thegovernment - as they are excluded andlabelled the dangerous 'other' or unwantednuisances - the 'hosts' are able to resist, nego-tiate and transform this power, to become thevehicle of power (and not just its object). The`host"becomes' through forms of micro-resistance to the macro structure of the tour-ist industry, the politics of the tour-operators/resorts and the approach of the government.The 'host' also 'becomes' through beingenmeshed in micro-politics within the 'hostcommunity'; there is constant conflict andcompetition amongst many local people inthe area to become a 'host', to prove that theyare a 'host' and to sustain their position as a`host'. The meaning of a 'host' is fluid and thesectors of the industry - formal, informal andbumsters - are interchangeable. The multiplemeanings that underpin 'host' are manifestedin the host-tourist encounter, and theseencounter(s) also contribute to the creation ofthe identity and meaning of 'host'. Host-tourist encounters (of the 'intimate enemy'involving friendship and sex/crime and vio-lence) represent the ambivalent relationshipthe hosts have with the Western tourismindustry. The 'hosts' actively resist theWestern tourism industry so they can openup opportunities to be included by the Westand embody Western wealth. Through activeresistance 'hosts' constitute and reconstitute

222 H. Pattison

their 'self', to become multiple 'selves', andmultiple 'others' to different people (whichmay either reinforce or deconstruct stereo-types). The actions of the 'host' upon theactions of the tourist also influences touristbehaviour and how they perceive and expe-rience the 'inside' (resort) and 'outsideòther' spaces of Senegambia and Kotu. Thefollowing three sections highlight a few ofthe paradoxes and parallels in host-touristencounters within tourism spaces. Eachsection is based on the nature of the photo-graphs (and the associated informationcollated through PEIs) taken by the Kotu/Senegambia 'hosts'.

'Intimate Enemy3'; The ParadoxicalRelationship between the Host

and the Tourist

For many of the 'hosts' in Kotu/Senegambia,hospitality and friendship are key traits of agood 'host' and they base their encounterswith tourists on such sentiments. However,the 'hosts' image of the tourists as the richWestern 'other' along with their exclusionfrom the tourist industry by the resorts, touroperators and the Gambian government cre-ates a somewhat ambiguous relationship withthe tourists. The tourists become the para-doxical 'intimate enemy'. Foucault (Foucault1982a, 1982b) believes that actions (and thepotential for actions to influence other peo-ple's actions and behaviour) are a form ofpower and resistance. In Senegambia localpeople's actions are underwritten by ambi-guities; local people resist exclusion from thetourist industry and the tour operators byincluding themselves, and creating friend-ships with tourists based on materialism. Thelocal people seem to dislike and disrespectthe tourists, calling then 'lazy crocodiles' and`beach potatoes', and believe they are ignorantfor expecting 'Africa' to be another Europe.As Alieu, the front of house manager atPalm Beach tells me, 'tourists sometimesdo not understand they are not in Europeanymore ... they forget they are in Africa. Sothey want to see all things like Europe. That isnot possible. There is a big difference between

Europe and here'. Despite this perception oftourists, however, the 'hosts' embrace themand their lifestyle in a paradoxical relation-ship. They desire what they dislike for thebenefits it can bring them. The tourists areperceived in binary opposition to the localpeople in terms of material wealth and moneyand for the difference in culture but the tour-ists are not necessarily civilized or superior(as colonial legacy would have it).

The 'hosts' become 'other' to their`selves' in order to secure the tourists friend-ship; they conform to a pre-constructedidentity of an exotic, poor 'African' but alsodemonstrate that they aspire to a Westernsense of progress/development and lifestyle,in order to gain a tourist's trust and friend-ship. If they do not internalize the touristgaze they become a hassling nuisance, or anegative 'other'. As Foucault (1982a) wouldhave it this internalization is still a form ofresistance as the local people choose to actthis way, and these actions open up alterna-tive possibilities for material benefits. In thelong term, resistance may become strongeras the local person chooses to discard thefriendship. Local people may also choosenot to conform to the tourist gaze from thefirst encounter and use hassling and aggres-sion to take what they want from the tourist.Whichever alternative they choose, localpeople have the power to influence the tour-ists' behaviour to make them choose to actin a certain way, to create a certain place inwhich the tourists act.

For many tourists, Kotu/Senegambia isan uncertain, disturbing and undisciplinedplace; a paradise confused, where local peo-ple force embodied encounters by invadingthe tourist's personal space. The tourists arenot used to such physical proximity with`strangers', such embodied encounters. AnEnglish boy on holiday with his parentscommented, 'Hassling is not aggressive butthe locals are too friendly. They put theirarms around mum and won't let go'. Suchexperiences are manifested through tour-ists' movement through space: rushed.Heads are down to avoid eye contact withlocal people, so they cannot easily beapproached. Bodily movements become adefence mechanism for many tourists.


A Romantic liaison withan 'Intimate Enemy'

The majority of photographs taken of host-tourist encounters and interaction withinKotu/Senegambia were of young Gambianmen and white Western women (Fig. 15.1).Various names are given to The Gambiancoast by the media, in which sexual innuen-dos abound, 'Sex Paradise', 'Haven of Sex',`The lovers paradise' to name but a few(Nyanzi et al., 2005).

The nature of the encounter is differentfor each character; for the Gambian it is amaterial encounter, for the Westerner it is anemotional encounter, of love and compan-ionship. They are each other's 'other'.However, the host and the tourist do not stayin their stereotypical roles but by embracingthe 'other' they attempt to align themselveswith the 'other' and in part, become theòther'. The men desire Western materialismand a Western lifestyle and the women wantto become more exotic, carefree and sexy.

The women enjoy sexual encounterswith Gambian Rasta as they are charmed,chased and `loved'; they are desired byyoung, attractive men. The women become

sexual 'objects' themselves, somethingwhich they gain power from and invite. AsTaylor (2000, p. 46) says 'Sex tourism allowssome Western women to sexualize theirbodies in ways that would be difficult toachieve back home'. The women rediscovertheir sexuality through the attention of maleGambians; they want to become differentand 'other' from the 'selves' that they asso-ciate with in the West. Power comes throughthe women discovering their 'self' as 'other'and discovering the power, or lure, of theirbody; to be able to 'hook' an exotic man andto own his body. There are Western womenwho project their fantasies on the Gambianmale body, who, through their gaze, inscribethe body with Western discourse. The blackAfrican man has sexual prowess; a largerpenis and greater stamina than the whiteWestern man. The African is primitive, withan animal-like quality, 'an Other who isendowed with a primitive masculinity'(Phillips 1999, p. 189). The women want tofeel desired and protected by the primitiveinstincts of the African but they also want totame (to make the 'other' more like 'self); toconquer and consume the 'noble savage'.The women also wish to care; to provide for

Fig. 15.1. Photograph taken by Gupta, a shopkeeper.

224 H. Pattison

their man by paying for food and drinks,and buying gifts.

Many Gambian men inscribe the bod-ies of Western women with their own fanta-sies, the image of wealth and an affluentWestern lifestyle; there are Gambians whobelieve all Western tourists to be rich. Theseimages are reinforced by the behaviour oftourists, who often flash their moneyaround; some females doing so on purposein order to seduce men into a relationshipwith them. Tourists are 'using their eco-nomic power to obtain sexual experiences'(Taylor, 2000, p. 41).

The Western female and Gambian maleboth have power in the reciprocal tourist-host encounter; power is relational. 'Hosts'internalize the female tourist gaze to becomethe 'other'. By conforming to stereotypes,however, the Gambians do not considerthemselves as powerless, but rather that theyhave control over their own òtherness'; it ispurposeful 'otherness'. This 'otherness' isused as a form of resistance to the exclusionof the tourism industry. The male Gambiansuse their bodies as a form of power to attaintheir aspirations of a Western lifestyle and totake control of their livelihoods. Appearanceis important in terms of the construction ofidentity of the Gambians. The 'boys' deliber-ately grow long dreadlocks to fit the image ofthe Rasta, in the belief that women find themexotic, 'rugged' and masculine. They weartight vests to show off their muscular bodies.

For the Gambian male the power comesnot necessarily through sex, but what theseduction of the Western women repre-sents. Many Gambians feel empowered bythe conquest of rich, Western women. Thesex is a form of power and resistance to theexclusionary nature of the tourism indus-try; the Gambian is able to manipulate thetourist industry, an industry perceived tosuppress and exclude them. The material,sexual encounter gives a Gambian powerover his social peers: through the conquer-ing of the rich Western foreigner, throughacquisition of wealth and through image.There are high expectations and peerpressure for a young local male to get into arelationship with a white foreign female.There is a certain respect or social standing

given to those local people in such arelationship. This varies with the type oftourists they are with and the nature of therelationship. Gambian men often have sev-eral wives. The greater the number of wives,the greater the respect for the husband; hegains a higher social status. The wives are asymbol of power and wealth for the man;the women represent status symbols.Alongside this cultural and religious tradi-tion has grown an alternative practice,albeit one which embraces a similar atti-tude to the aforementioned. Many Gambianmales use white, Western women as sym-bols of wealth, respect and power. For theGambians, the older and richer the femaleis, the greater the respect for the maleamongst his peers. The richer, older womanis also more likely to take the 'boy' back toEurope. And as Richard from ASSET(Association of Small Scale Enterprises inTourism) reveals, 'a few think going toEurope is heaven; they make women fall inlove with small boys'.

Power and control also emerges in theway some 'boys' treat the women; thewomen are seduced for their sex and moneyand then left in the cold. Carlos, a touristpoliceman, sees the aftermath of such treat-ment. He gives an example of a womanwho had been on holiday with her familyand had stayed on longer to be with herGambian boyfriend, who 'ate' all her moneyand the money her family sent her, to leaveher with nothing and no way of gettinghome.

For many of the women seduced byromance encounters, the actual experiencecan unmask the projected fantasies/myths.Modou says that once the Gambian men getto Europe they leave the woman for ayounger girl whom they can start a familywith. Comments left on an internet forumentitled 'British Women who love Gambianmen??! (Topix, 2008)' attest to disillusion-ment with the romance encounter and therealization that they are the 'intimateenemy'. Laura M from the UK says:

Any British woman wanting the fairytalebelieve me it only exists for so long,Gambian men know how to sweep you offyour feet and get you hooked but oppose


them or challenge them on anything andbelieve me you will see a different side.

Behind the Scenes: The Gazeof Resort Employees

Kevin's photographs (e.g. Fig. 15.2) depictsimilar scenes to the images in the holidaybrochures; the scenes depicted could beanywhere, not necessarily The Gambia andmany of the photographs are posed, or care-fully framed. The most obvious difference,however, is that in these photographs theòther' of the brochures becomes 'self'. Mostof the photographs are self-portraits and`self' is inserted as the focus, or the centre,of the scene whilst tourists are shown in thedistance, off to the side, or not at all. Theemployees themselves gaze upon the tour-ists as the Beach Attendant's pictures reveal.The employees are the central focus of thepictures; with their gaze they make thetourism place their own. Figure 15.3 showsa series of photographs taken by Demba, a`maintenance boy'.

In these photographs the professional`self' is a central focus of the resort employee.Demba portrays himself as skilled in

repairing and maintaining Westerntechnology and sees himself as integral tothe smooth operation and functioning of theresort. Demba photographs what the touristsmay find banal and captures the 'blindspots' that the tourist gaze and tourist cam-era do not reach and in doing so acts todeconstruct the stereotypes of the brochuresthat depict Gambians as exotic, or part ofthe landscape to gaze upon. The 'self' withinall of the employees' photographs has aphysical presence and a central functionrather than (as Enwezor, 2006, p. 13)describes of typical Western photographs ofthe ' other'), a 'primitivist essence'. Thisforms part of an unseen 'host' gaze that nev-ertheless creates a place for the tourists.

Conclusion

I have argued that tourism studies researchrests on a narrow theoretical and methodo-logical base that (largely) inadvertentlyconstructs or reinforces existing stereotypes(for example the passive, negative host, or' other'); 'through... [a] ...simplistic viewingof the other' (Phillimore and Goodson, 2004,p. 10). Any meaningful engagement with

Fig. 15.2. Self-portrait of Kevin, a beach attendant for Palm Beach resort.

226 H. Pattison

Fig. 15.3. Demba and his colleagues working as 'maintenance boys' in Palm Beach hotel rooms.

the voices and experiences of the 'hosts'within the context of interconnectingglobal-national-local spaces is largelyabsent. This has resulted in a rather simplis-tic definition of a 'host' and a host-guestparadigm that is no longer sufficient to con-ceptualize the complexity of the contempo-rary tourism experience.

A postcolonial (global) framework ofFoucauldian relational power has enabledme to focus on the experiences of the`host' whilst also recognizing that the`host' is part of an interconnected web ofrelational power. The actions and identityof the 'host' are influenced by the differ-ent spatial (local, national and global) andtemporal (past-and-futures-in-the-present)dimensions that configure complexplace(s). There are multiple meanings of`host' that are constructed by and areintertwined with different forms of rela-tional power. Such meanings are definedby Western discourse, the tourism indus-try, tourists, the Gambian government andthe local Gambian 'hosts'. The 'host' is notpassively determined by external influ-ences but acts to resist, adapt and negoti-ate such influences to create their ownpostcolonial (global) futures. The 'host' isnot a static entity or a meaningless term,rather the 'host"becomes' through activelyengaging in complex, fluid, shifting

networks of power and continuouslyreconfiguring identities that are acted outthrough the host-tourist (direct or indi-rect) encounter. Dichotomies of global-local, ùs'-`them' and host-guest aresurpassed as the discontinuous nature ofbinaries and boundaries are illuminatedby utilizing a postcolonial (global) frame-work of Foucauldian relational power.

There are many controversies visiblein the tourism spaces of The Gambia thatmay also be inherent to mass tourism in`developing' countries. These include theexclusion or displacement of local peoplefrom the tourism industry and the policiesand practices of a nation's government inmarginalizing and alienating sections ofthe population in favour of Westernnotions of progress and development. Thischapter has, however, highlighted a few ofthe ways in which 'hosts' deal with suchcontroversies, negotiating identities andcreating opportunities for livelihoodconstruction through the host-touristencounter. The local responses to suchcontroversies generate new paradoxes,ambiguities and parallels in the host-tourist relationship that create certainplaces and experiences. This needs to begiven equal attention by policy makers tothe already visible controversies in masstourism spaces.


Notes

' The traditional host-guest paradigm was introduced through Smith's (1989) seminal edited collection Hostsand Guests: the Anthropology of Tourism.

However, thus far the tourism studies field has not meaningfully engaged with postcolonial theory touncover the voice of the subaltern host (Osagie and Buzinde, 2011).

A term borrowed from Nandy's (1983) 'Intimate Enemy: Loss and Recovery of Self Under Colonialism'.

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16 Tourism or Conservation? A Controversyin Chitwan National Park, Nepal

Kalyan Bhandaril'School of Interdisciplinary Studies, University of Glasgow,

Dumfries Campus, Scotland, UK

Introduction

Tourism in Nepal relies on nature-basedattractions. Trekking and mountaineeringhave remained one of the most-liked tour-ism attractions in Nepal and are well knownall over the world. But a lesser known fact isthat about 45% of Nepal's half a milliontourists visit various national parks andprotected areas (NTS, 2009). ChitwanNational Park (CNP) is the most visitednational park, receiving 40% of the totalnational park visitors, which is three timesmore visitors than the famous Mount Everestregion (NTS, 2009). The CNP is popular forjungle safari and 'is recognized as the bestpreserved conservation area in all Asia witha fascinating range of wildlife roaming free'claims the Nepalese Tourist Board (NTB)(NTB, 2010). There are well-served hotelsand other tourist service providers locatedoutside the national park. Additionallythere are seven high-cost concessionaires(Eco-lodges) inside the park. The presenceof these concessionaires recently became anational controversy and the nation's big-gest obsession.

The main issue of the controversy waswhether the national park should or shouldnot allow tourism businesses to operatewithin it. The primary arguments putforward by conservationists were that

allowing any commercial business withinthe national park boundary is against thevery principle of conservation; and thebusinesses were less sensitive to the con-servation issues and that this is one of thereasons behind increased poaching withinthe park, allegations refuted by the tourismentrepreneurs. This controversy involvedlocal stakeholders, tourism entrepreneurs,government ministries, departments andultimately parliamentary committees: andleft the seven concessionaires inside thepark shut for 6 months. This chapter dealswith this controversy that arrested theentire country's attention in the latter halfof 2009.

In this chapter we will see that thelicence controversy is an extension of theconflict within the park. It emanates fromthe park politics, business interests andlocal communities' antipathy towards theconcessionaires, and is less grounded in thereal conservation issue alone. The busi-nesses inside the park enjoy more privilegeon park resources than other stakeholdersadjoining the park, which has brought acommon resentment against these busi-nesses. The controversy is thus a reactionagainst this disparity in access to parkbenefits. This chapter suggests that anintegrated approach to park managementthat ensures equitable distribution of park


230 K. Bhandari

benefits can help establish harmonybetweentourism and conservation in the future.

The Founding of ChitwanNational Park

Wildlife hunting can be identified as one ofthe earliest forms of tourism in Nepal.Nepal was closed to outside visitors until1951 because the country was run by thedictatorial Rana oligarchy that was appre-hensive of outsiders' presence in the coun-try. Any visit by outsiders was forbiddenexcept if they were the British missionarieson whom the Rana regime (1846-1951)relied for their political survival (Bhandari,2004). One of the most effective politicalmeans the Ranas exercised to remain inpower was by appeasing the British EastIndia Company. Inviting British dignitariesto Nepal for wildlife hunting in the denseforest in the southern plains was a populardiplomatic practice. Chitwan remained thefavourite one for the purpose, a trend thatcontinued even after the end of the Ranaregime in 1951 (Piessel, 1990); for example,the then king in 1961 hosted a tiger hunt inthe area for Queen Elizabeth and PrincePhilip when they were on a state visit toNepal (Thapa, 2009).

The establishment of the CNP was theinitiation of a few devoted affluent conser-vationists close to the royal family. Duringthe Rana regime Chitwan was protected as aroyal hunting reserve. After the reinstate-ment of monarchical rule (1951-1990), theexcellent hunting environment in Chitwanmade it a favourite one for the king andother members of the royal family for theirrecreational activities. Members of royalfamilies were above the law and hunting forthem was organized by government employ-ees. Tiger Warden, a memoir written by thewife of the country's leading conservation-ist who served as the first warden of theCNP, reveals that the national park staff hadto assist fulltime when a royal hunt was on(cited in Thapa, 2009). Preparations forthese hunts got underway months beforethe royal family arrived. The king's interest

in hunting, and Chitwan as his favouritehunting location, was adroitly maneuveredby the king's associates in getting the royalnod to declare the area a national park in1973.

Despite being declared a national park,even after 1990 when the country adoptedconstitutional monarchy, the royal familyenjoyed impunity and hunting expeditionsby royal family members continued una-bated. The strong royal presence and theidea of a national park that laid emphasis onthe separation of human society from thenatural environment was one of the reasonsthat created a local resentment to the park,writes Thapa (2009):

The people living near the national parkcame to view the park staff as guarding thejungles for the exclusive use of the royalfamily. It did not help that some of thearmy personnel guarding the parksindulged in hunting, and even poachingand the smuggling of wildlife contraband.The Royal Nepal Army, for its part,behaved as though the people of the areawere menaces to be kept away by the use offorce. This led to parks-vs-people conflictsand, more generally to an erosion of trustregarding the entire concept ofconservation.

Thapa (2009, p.101)

There is another source of conflict in theCNP. Nepal's dense southern forests wereprotected during the Rana regime as adefence against external invasion, as theseforests were malaria infested. Tharus werethe native inhabitants in the region andtheir livelihood depended on the exploita-tion of forests and grasslands (Guneratne,2001). The eradication of malaria in the1950s gave rise to mass migration from thehills and as a result there was mass forestclearing to provide human settlements andcrop cultivation. The establishment of anational park by displacing a large numberof the local population created resentmentamong local people, as it put on hold for-est encroachment and severely restrictedtheir access to park resources (Nepal andWeber, 1995). Around 22,000 local peoplewere evicted to establish the park (Thapa,2009).

Tourism or Conservation? 231

Wildlife Tourism in Chitwan

Chitwan is Nepal's most popular tourist des-tination after Kathmandu and Pokhara. Thenumber of foreign tourists to the CNP hasincreased from fewer than 1000 in 1974 to83,000 in 2008 (NTS, 2009). Additionally,about 35,000 local visitors visit the parkevery year (NTS, 2009). The main activitiesin the park are wildlife watching from ele-phants' backs, four-wheel-drive tours, canoetrips, fishing and bird watching. Some 50species of mammals are recorded in the park.The principal attraction of the park is the lastNepalese population of the one-horned rhi-noceros. According to the wildlife census ofNepal in 2008, out of the total of 435 rhinosin Nepal, 408 were in the CNP (NepalNational Rhino Count, 2008). There are morethan 70 low-budget lodges and guest housesoutside the Park, mostly at Sauraha, in addi-tion to the seven luxury Eco-lodges withinthe Park. The park is served by an airport atBharatpur 20km to the north and is accessi-ble from Kathmandu by road.

Chitwan is Nepal's first national park.Its importance in the global biodiversitypreserve recognized, the CNP was declareda World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1983.The CNP is situated in southern centralNepal and covers a total of 932 km2 in area.An area of 750 km2 surrounding the park isdeclared a buffer zone, which consists offorests and private lands, including culti-vated lands. More than 200,000 peopleinhabit the buffer zone area. It is also one ofNepal's earliest developed tourism destina-tions. The first wildlife safari lodge wasestablished in the 1960s before the area wasdeclared a national park. Nepal's conserva-tion movement has achieved a remarkablefeat since the establishment of the CNP. By2009, Nepal had designated more than 23%of its total area as national parks and conser-vation areas. It has 10 national parks, 3wildlife reserves, 1 hunting reserve, 6 con-servation areas, and 12 buffer zones - allcovering an area of 34,186.62 km2, which ismore than the entire size of Belgium. Thepark and the local people jointly initiatecommunity development activities andmanage natural resources in the buffer zone.

The government has made a commitment ofproviding at least 30-50% of the park reve-nue for community development and natu-ral resource management in the bufferzone.

Conflict in Conservation Areas

Parks versus people conflict is widelyresearched and debated in conservation dis-course. The root of this conflict, to an extent,goes back to the very philosophy on whichthe establishment of the national park isfounded. The idea of conservation startedfrom the west as a reaction against the trans-formation of nature and increasing capitalaccumulation (Akama, 1996; Boyd andButler 2000). According to Akama (1996),these pioneer conservationists, composedof the gentry and affluent members of soci-ety, started to campaign against the destruc-tion of pristine nature areas, both at homeand in the colonies. These were people whowere not living at the economic margin andwanted the remaining pristine nature areasto be preserved and protected against whatthey perceived as the 'greed and rapacity' oftheir fellow countrymen. They campaignedfor the remaining pristine nature areas to bedemarcated and fenced off to form protectednature sanctuaries, which led to the estab-lishment of national parks. Thus, the ruralcommunities surrounding protected naturalareas have little or no influence on decisionmaking or the institutions of wildlife con-servation and tourist management (Akama,1996). According to Macleod (2001), theWestern attitude towards local people andthe deeply rooted intellectual separation ofhuman society from the natural environ-ment has created much of the park-peopleconflict. He pinpoints that this separationcan be witnessed in the 1975 definition of`national park' by the IUCN, which specifi-cally lays down the condition to isolate thepark from the people.

Where one or several ecosystems are notmaterially altered by human exploitationand occupation, whose plants and animalspecies, geomorphologic sites and habitants,

232 K. Bhandari

are of special scientific, educative andrecreative interest, or which contains anatural landscape of great beauty. Where thehighest competent authority of the countryhas taken steps to prevent or eliminate assoon as possible, exploitation or occupationin the whole area and to enforce effectively,the respect of ecological, geomorphologic oraesthetic features that have led to itsestablishment.

West and Brechin (1991)

The need for a people-centred approach tonational park management is widely reiter-ated for reducing the conflict (Hannah,1992; Wells et al., 1992; Nepal and Weber,1993; Ghimire and Pimbert, 1997). Nepal(2000a, p. 73) argues that, `...if parks andprotected areas are to remain viable infuture, local communities must be given agreater role in park management, and liveli-hood issues must be adequately addressedin park policies'. According to him, tourismcan be one of the significant ways to enhancea positive relationship between parks andpeople. He notes that programmes that arebased on revenues generated by or throughparks-based tourism have had positiveimpacts on local people, which not onlyoffer employment opportunities but alsodevelop in them positive feelings towardsprotected areas.

Tourism has always been a major fea-ture of national parks in most countries(Butler, 2000). McNeely (1995) views tour-ism as a resource that is capable of expand-ing a partnership between local people andnational parks. It can play the role of medi-ator to strengthen the conservation capac-ity of the park authority and at the sametime influence local attitudes towards con-servation (Nepal, 2000b). In developingcountries, tourism can have a greater roleas it can provide economic support to com-munities that have lost access to naturalresources as a consequence of nationalpark creation (Liliholm and Romney, 2000).But the relationship between tourism andconservation has not been as easy(Kenchington, 1989). Boyd (2000) notesthat with increased promotion of tourismin the park, the focus of priority is shiftingtowards a 'protection' mandate, as opposed

to use. This discourages tourism in nationalparks.

But the best option to tackle a tourismor conservation mandate can be sought afterconsidering the varied level of interactionsbetween them. Budowski (1976) identifiesthree different relationships between tour-ism and nature conservation: conflict, coex-istence and symbiosis. He notes that poorlyplanned tourism can lead to conflict in con-servation areas, whereas better thought outplans and effective management can help inachieving a balance between tourism andconservation. The ideal symbiotic relation-ship between the two can be achieved withsome attitudinal change by both the parties,writes Budowki (1976). Getz and Jamal(1994) believe a symbiotic relationshipdevelops where stewardship of the ecologi-cal environment becomes a necessity notonly for long-term habitat preservation, butalso in order to preserve the quality of lifedesired by local inhabitants. According tothem, the type, scale and pace of tourismand resort development must considerimpacts on the ecological environment andon the socio-cultural environment of thelocal communities in the region.

Chitwan occupies an important placefor both conservation and tourism. Its con-servation value is well acknowledged.Because of the large amount of human habi-tation surrounding the park, Chitwan hasremained at the forefront of park-peopleconflict in Nepal. Most of the earlier con-flicts in the park concerned the contrastingpriorities of the park administration andlocal people (Nepal and Weber, 1995), spe-cifically agricultural land use (Milton andBinney, 1980) versus grazing and fodder(Sharma and Shaw, 1993). Mishra (1982)has outlined the four basic areas of conflictin the park, namely, loss of life, loss of live-stock and crops to wildlife and difficultiesdue to resentment arising from the park reg-ulations. Nepal and Weber (1995) haveidentified five causes of park-people con-flict in Chitwan: illegal transactions of for-est products from the park, livestock grazing,illegal hunting and fishing, crop damage bythe park's wild animals, and threatsto human and animal life. The effects of


tourism on the national park and itsconservation goal have not been well stud-ied except for the impact of wildlife tourismon animal communities (Curry et al., 2001).The presence of concessionaires inside thepark was not part of any of the above con-flicts. It never occurred before that theseconcessionaires were detrimental to thepark's conservation goal. There was noreported conflict between the concession-aires, the conservationists, the national parkauthorities or the local people. The issuecame up suddenly after the governmentfailed to renew their contract; then a muchdeeper conflict between tourism businessesinside the park and the conservationistswas exposed.

Controversy in Chitwan National Park

Whereas all past conflicts in Chitwanremained limited to a clash over the use ofpark resources, the concessionaires' conflictgraduated into a full-blown controversy.Conflicts exist when incompatible activitiesoccur (Deutsch, 1973, 1980). But contro-versy is a special kind of conflict and occurswhen one person's ideas, opinions, conclu-sions, theories and information are incom-patible with another's when they discussproblems and make decisions (Tjosvold,1985). According to Tjosvold, decision mak-ers disagree when they define problems,outline alternatives, make choices andimplement solutions. Controversy involvesdifferences of opinion that at least tempo-rarily prevent, delay or interfere with reach-ing a decision. Persons in controversy haveopposing views about how they should pro-ceed, and face the pressure to resolve thesedifferences in order to reach a decision andmove forward (Tjosvold, 1985).

The Chitwan controversy began in July2009 when the latest 15-year contract thatallowed seven concessionaires to operateinside the park came to an end. In 1993,the government had issued an operatinglicence to seven resorts for a span of 15years. The government did not renew theiroperating licence before their term expired

in 2009 and neither gave any advance noticeof its intention nor furnished any reason forits failure to renew the licence. This leads touncertainty over the future of these conces-sionaires, the businesses inside the parkwere closed temporarily and guests wereevacuated until the issue was to be resolved.But what lay ahead was more controversy,and deeper divisions started to arise betweenthe various stakeholders in the ensuingdays.

The difference of opinion initially camefrom within the government. The Ministerfor Forest and Soil Conservation was report-edly in favour of renewing the licences ofthe hotels, whereas his top civil servant, theForest Secretary, was against the renewal.The divergent views within the governmentmeant indecision on licence renewal, as theForest Secretary declined to recommendtheir renewal. The failure to renew theseven eco-lodges raised disputes betweenthe entrepreneurs and government officials.The government, mainly the bureaucracy,and wildlife activists argued the hotels hurtthe environment inside the park and weredetrimental to conservation goals. On theother hand, the resort owners argued theirhotels have actually helped raise awarenessabout conservation and helped fund thenational park through royalties. 'It is clearthat the smugglers and poachers active inthe park find our presence there a threat tothem and want us closed,' said one ofNepal's pioneer tourism entrepreneurs andowner of a concessionaire in the park.

The intensity of the conflict started toreach a higher level and the NepaleseParliament's Public Accounts Committee(PAC) intervened. Initially the PAC decidedto stop the hotels operating within the park.Later, it formed a sub-committee to lookinto the environmental impact inside theCNP due to the presence of the hotels andasked it to submit the findings within 15days. The sub-committee recommendedthree options. The first was that hotelierswill be given 6-7-year contracts to run thehotels outside the park in the buffer-zonearea of the CNP if they relocate outside thenational park within 6 months. In the sec-ond option, the contract will be for the next

234 K. Bhandari

4 years if they take about a year to relocatethe hotels. The third alternative was that thehotels will be allowed to operate inside thepark for 2 years but they will not be givenpermission to operate them anywhere afterthat period. 'We recommended these optionsas Nepal is celebrating Nepal Tourism Year(NTY) in 2011 and we don't want to create aserious impact on the tourism sector of thecountry', it was said (Nepalnews, 2009).

While the government was consideringthe PAC options over the issue, another par-liamentary committee - Natural Resourcesand Means Committee (NRMC) - challengedthe PAC decision, arguing that the PAC hasno jurisdiction over the issue. The NRMC'sargument was that the issue over the use ofthe natural resources falls under its jurisdic-tion and the PAC has no authority to decidethe case. The NRMC directed the govern-ment not to arrive at any decision before ittook the final decision, after initially rulingthat the resorts needed to be shut downimmediately. It formed another subcommit-tee to look into the matter. The subcommit-tee held interactions at various levels, whichbecame a platform for heated discussionsbetween hoteliers and their opponents,where the hoteliers faced humiliation andaccusations of looting and smuggling wild-life, as reported by a national newspaper(Republica, 2009). For example, citing anearlier report, a government bureaucrat com-plained that most of the rhinos and tigers inthe park have been found killed near thehotels. 'Was the national park made for bio-diversity conservation or hotel operations?'he questioned. A local conservation activistaccused the hoteliers of looting by evadingtax while enjoying exclusive rights of operat-ing hotels inside the park at the cost of wild-life. Most of the lawmakers in the meetingopined that the hoteliers should be immedi-ately evicted from the CNP as the law barsanyone from enjoying exclusive rights topublic property. 'It will be unfair to allowthem to enjoy exclusive rights to operatehotels inside the CNP, while barring thelocals from using the resources there. Theyshould immediately pack up,' said a law-maker. The hoteliers were infuriated by theaccusations. An owner of a concessionaire

asked, 'Were we invited to the meeting to behumiliated?' The subcommittee chairmanhad to apologize to the hoteliers about someremarks in the meeting. Despite all this, theNRMC members were divided over the mat-ter and delayed their final recommendation.

The most contentious of the issues inthe park has been the poaching of wild ani-mals, especially the endangered one-hornedrhinos, in the vicinity of the concession-aires inside the park. Chitwan is the hometo Nepal's successful project to conservethe endangered one-horned rhinos. Thelarge number of rhinos in the park has beentargeted by poachers and there have beenquite a few instances of rhino poachinginside the park. A government reportclaimed that most of this poaching wasfound to be done near the concessionaires,and this has remained a central issue in therelationship between conservationists andbusinesses inside the park. Nepali mediaraised this issue constantly while coveringthe news on the licence row. To raise aware-ness about wildlife concerns, a cartoonpublished in Nepal's national English dailyshowed a minister voting for the hotels andall the animals voting a 'No' to hotels insidethe park.

The minister concerned was underpressure from the big business communi-ties, and said he was confused as the twoparliamentary committees had taken up theissue. There was a demand from the busi-ness fraternity to renew the contract forwhich some intense lobbying was done bythe hoteliers. The business chambers wereof the opinion to let the hotels operate atleast until 2011, the year the government iscelebrating as NTY. Nepal's nodal tourismpromotion body that also aims to achievenational conservation goals through itstourism effort was on the hoteliers' side,though it seldom tries to expose itselfopenly on such matters. 'The CEO wantedthem to be renewed if not for a longer termthen at least till the end of 2011 since NTYwas approaching', said an NTB official.

Seeing the divergent views and contra-dictory opinions of the parliamentary com-mittees, the government formed its owntaskforce headed by the Finance Minister to


make recommendations to the cabinet. Thetask force made a vague recommendation tothe government to decide on the basis of thedirectives of the parliamentary committees,whilst also keeping in view the statutoryobligation to provide licences on the basis ofopen tender. The National Park and WildlifeConservation Act, 1973 says the governmentmay contract through sealed tender to oper-ate hotel, lodge, public transport or otherservices within the protected area for itswider benefit.

While the two parliamentary commit-tees were still fighting over jurisdiction onthe matter, the cabinet finally decided toallow the seven hotels to operate for another3 years, keeping in view Nepal's prepara-tion for celebrating 2011 as NTY. Thoughthere were some reservations from the con-servationists about this decision to tempo-rarily allow the businesses to operate, fornow the issue has been shelved until thenext renewal in July 2012.

The dimensions of the controversy

Though the controversy seemed to be pri-marily concerned with the conflict of thepriority of conservation over tourism in thepark, there were other dimensions that weremore importantly driving the whole epi-sode. Most important of them was Nepal'schanged political context.

Nepal's changed socio-political context

Nepal has witnessed an enormous politi-cal change in recent years; in particular,the past 20 years have been the mosttumultuous period in Nepal's history. Thecommunist war led by the Maoist Partyintensified in recent years and the politi-cal parties finally agreed to abolish the250-year-old institution of monarchy andadopt a new Republican constitutionthrough a constitutional assembly. Sincethen Nepal is on an interim constitutionand a transitional government is in place.There has been an intense demand for fed-eralism and power devolution for theexploitation of regional or local resources.

Most of these demands have been informedby leftist ideology and increased ethnicmovements.

The monarchy was formally abolishedin 2008 and since then there have beenassaults against royals (Bhandari, 2010) andeven against those who are viewed as mon-archists. During the past decade of Maoistinsurgency, the Maoists systematicallyspearheaded propaganda against the royalfamily, their businesses and the Nepalesearmy. Nepal deploys army personnel toprovide the park with security and therewere frequent skirmishes between the armyand the Maoists in the past (Baral andHeinen, 2006). The Maoists' propagandawas largely successful in creating resent-ment against the royals and the armyamongst the general public and the localcommunities.

Nepal's changed political context washighly relevant in this case. If there wasgenuine concern about conservation, it waspossible for conservationists to raise theissue because of the recent political change.Nepal's conservation movement is largelydominated by conservationists employed ingovernment institutions. 'Conservationistswere always against the licensing of hotelsinside the park but kept themselves quiet onearlier occasions due to their job insecurity,but the present timing made it easier forthem to speak up', believed a conservation-ist (LPD; respondents are designated by ini-tials), who had been a senior conservationofficial with the Nepal government.According to him, the changed politicalcontext and fluid political dispensationmade it easier for them to raise the issue thistime.

Many respondents this author talked toopined that the practice of allowing the con-cessionaires inside the park served royalinterests during the earlier regime. Theirview was that this was why licences wereissued without holding any consultation ontheir possible impact on the park environ-ment, and no tender process was carriedout. There was no consultation within theDepartment of National Parks and WildlifeConservation (DNPWC) or with conserva-tionists. Due to this lack of consultation on

236 K. Bhandari

earlier occasions, no one within the DNPWCwas taking the ownership of earlier agree-ments with the concessionaires, said a con-servationist (KT). Although the latest licencewas issued just after the political changethat ended the monarch's direct rule in1990, it was done largely because of theroyal regime's precedence, favouring thoseconsidered close to political power. It mustalso be noted that the government formedafter the political change of 1990 stronglypursued capitalist policies and tourism wasgiven a foremost priority in achieving thecountry's economic goals. This favoured bigcompanies getting the licence. Some of theconcessionaires were believed to be relatedto Nepal's ex-royals or closely associatedwith them. Quite a few of them had beenardent supporters of absolute monarchy inthe past. This obviously made some politi-cal parties oppose them, such as the ultra-leftist Maoist Party that had fought for theabolition of the monarchy in the past andwhich has emerged the largest party now.To an extent the licence case metaphoricallybecame a conflict between the new orderand the old order in Nepali politics. Forexample, the political careers of both theMinister of Forest and Soil Conservationand Minister of Tourism and Civil Aviationwere groomed during the erstwhile monar-chical rule of the pre-1990 era and theywere front-running supporters for licencerenewal. For the majority of the local com-munities, the concessionaires inside thepark represented Nepal's elite class andwere seen as rightists and thus wereopposed.

Different Mandates between Tourismand Conservation

The convergence of tourism in a conserva-tion area is definitely a source of conflictbecause of different mandates between tour-ism and conservation. Boyd (2000) identi-fies this presence of dual mandates within apark system, namely the protection of natu-ral and cultural heritage, and the provisionof the opportunities to enjoy and benefitfrom the parks as problems national parkmanagers face. The nature of the bipolarities

between tourism and conservation can beunderstood from Burns' (2004) dichotomybetween the 'Tourism First' (rightist) schooland 'Development First' (leftist) school(Burns, 2004). According to Burns (2004),the Development First school is concernedabout economic and social dualism, core-periphery relationships, and concomitantunderdevelopment. The Tourism Firstschool has as its key concerns economicgrowth on trickle-down or multipliers ofdevelopment; however, the main benefici-aries of this approach are the internationaltourism industry and local elites. As men-tioned before, the concessionaires or the bigbusinesses were the proponents of theTourism First school, whereas the conserva-tionists and the local businesses representedthe Development First school. This conflictrepresented a confrontation between them,metaphorically between the political leftistand the rightist.

The division of mandate between tour-ism and conservation was clearly visible inthe opinions expressed by respondents thisauthor contacted. For the conservationiststhe presence of hotels inside the park canbe viewed as a serious breach of the pur-pose of conservation. 'It marginalizes con-servation efforts and is against the welfareof animals', viewed one respondent (ERS).He continued:

From a conservation point of view, I amtotally against it. Based on past experiencesand research, it has been reported that muchwildlife is being killed around hotels. Inaddition, as the hotels are located atstrategic locations, mainly in biodiversityhot spots, there remains a chance of a threatto tourists and locals by wild animals,mainly tigers.

Conservationists have used the report thatclaimed that a significant number of rhinoswere poached near the hotels inside thepark. To most conservationists, it was notclear why these businesses had to be locatedwithin the park and even some of the tour-ism people were critical of the idea of hav-ing businesses inside. A respondent (BKS)who is with the national tourism boardbelieved:


The hotels should be allowed to operateinside the park only on condition that theiractivities are being closely monitored andthat the resorts are complying with the rulesof the park in matters of conservation.Since poaching, use of firewood, noise,disturbances and other nuisances arewidespread and the monitoring part is verypoor in Nepal fuelled by rampantcorruption, it is advisable not to have theresorts inside the park.

The allegations of conservationists are notbaseless. These Eco-lodges are private com-panies and there tend to be various conten-tious issues by virtue of their nature. Thereis a wide range of criticism of their low levelof accountability and transparency in theiroperation elsewhere (Hannah, 2006). Themain emphasis of the private companies ison their clients or market demands, not onthe broader segments of society; they do notseek a broad social sanction (Kwan et al.,2008), and little is known about the privatesector's role in protecting biodiversity (Krug,2001). But despite this, concessionaires areimportant intermediaries in achievingparks' economic goals and many pioneeringcountries have favoured them. For example,the National Park Service (1998) of the USAhas 600 profit-oriented concessionairesunder contract. New Zealand relies heavilyon commercial enterprises for providingvisitor services, with 1134 concessionaires,and has seen a rapid growth in the numberof concession operators (Cessford andThompson, 2002 cited in Eagles, 2009). InChitwan's case, 'it must be noted that theconcessionaires play an important role inthe promotion of Nepalese tourism abroad,particularly Chitwan's jungle safari is exclu-sively promoted by them internationally',acknowledged a respondent (LBB) from theNepalese tourism board. This makes itimperative to accommodate concessionairesalongside the park's conservation goals.

Rivalry between BusinessesInside and Outside the Park

Burns (2004) believes that local politics inmany countries, developed and developing,can be characterized by petty-mindedness

and internal factions of various interestgroups, not to mention corruption.Interestingly, among those who were singingthe conservation tune were also a section oftourism business and hotels themselves.These were the businesses located outsidethe park that were in competition with theconcessionaires inside the park. It has moreto do with their business interests than anyserious conservation commitment. 'Thoughon the surface it seems that the conflict isassociated with conservation as conserva-tionists are raising their voice in its favor, itis strongly associated with economic per-spectives', suggested a respondent (ERS).

There is a deep-rooted conflictbetween businesses inside and outside thepark. Outsiders are demanding with thegovernment to be given access to their ele-phants (for Jungle Safari) inside thenational park. The park prohibits ele-phants from outside to enter the park.Businesses outside the park can offer jun-gle safari to the tourists in the communityforest in the adjoining buffer zones but notinside the park. There are currently 45 ele-phants outside the park. The concession-aires enjoy the exclusive right to offerjungle safari inside the park on their ele-phants. The local businesses have beendemanding access to their elephants forjungle safari inside the park. The parkauthorities have been refusing this byarguing that permitting outside elephantsinside the park can spread contagious dis-eases to park animals.

There are other issues. The hoteliersoperating outside the park believe thatduring the off season these concession-aires who are supposed to cater to high-end tourists accommodate budget tourists,which is against their contract and notacceptable to hoteliers outside. Likewise,there is another debate concerning labourused in the park hotels: most of the labourand consumables are not locally hired andlocals get minimum benefits from them.There is even some corruption at the pol-icy level, a respondent (ERS) alleged.Being situated inside the park was itself aspecial privilege that gives a comparativeadvantage to the licence holders over the

238 K. Bhandari

ones who are outside the park. Most of thehigh-paying tourists were monopolized bythe hotels inside the park because of theirprivileged location. A respondent (BKS)took the view:

It [the controversy] is a combination of boththe genuine concern and the disparity oflocation from a business point of view. Theresorts located inside the park are alwaysusing that factor as a USP for promotingtheir business at the cost of others. Besidesthese ingredients for conflict, the poachingof rhinos has aggravated the situation toboiling point and attracted nationalconcern.

Local Antipathy Towardsthe Concessionaires

Since the local communities were not ben-efiting substantially from the businessesinside the park, these businesses were seenas benefiting themselves without being seri-ous about conservation or the welfare of thelocal communities. A credible and exten-sive review of the CNP was done in 1996and no such assessment since then has beencarried out. The 1996 report to assess thevalue, threat and evaluation of the nationalpark categorically said that fewer than 2%of 290,000 people around the park wereemployed by the local tourism businesses:most of them were working temporarily ona daily wage basis. There was a very mar-ginal use of local agricultural products bythe businesses (KMTNC, 1996). There havebeen no significant policy measures toimprove local access to tourism benefitsapart from introducing a policy of plough-ing back the revenue generated by them.

The concessionaires were not abidingby their contractual duty. There weremillions of payments in arrears by theseconcessionaires at the time of the licencerenewal row. The government collects roy-alties and conservation fees from the con-cessionaires. Some concessionaires stoppedpaying their royalty and conservation fees afew years ago, asking the government towaive their liability. They claimed that theyhad suffered a huge loss during the periodof heightened Maoist conflict when Nepal's

tourist arrivals nose-dived, that is, during2000-2005. Lack of revenue to governmentmeant that there was no revenue ploughedback to the national park area and to thelocal communities. This resulted in generalantipathy against the concessionaires.

Importantly, the excluded group in theentire controversy was the local commu-nity. Although the parliamentary subcom-mittees reached the area to get the localpeoples' opinion on the matter, no properrepresentation of local voice was evident inthe entire debate. It was widely believedthat most of the locals were against theseconcessionaires as the local benefit to themwas minimal. The absence of local peoplefrom the entire debate is unfortunate butnot new, however. There was no local con-sultation while issuing licences to thehotels on earlier occasions. All respondentsthis author reached believed that thenational park was established at the cost oflocal people who have been denied the useof their forest resources, and it is equallyimportant to respond to their demands.Sharing of hotel income with the local com-munity would be a wise strategy, so it isimportant to allow hotels inside the park ifthat were to mean benefit to the local com-munity. This also makes it imperative tofind a long-term and sustainable solution tothis issue.

Conclusions

In this chapter we have seen how contestedtourism and conservation can be at times.The mandate with which both of them workis often fraught with contradictions and it isa challenge for authorities to achieve a finebalance between the two. Even if there isany balance between the two, it tends to failat times because of its intricacies broughtabout by both internal and external factors.The failure of the concessionaires to meettheir contractual obligations and questionsover their conservation commitment has ledto local stakeholders' antipathy towardsthem. The change in the political regimeadditionally posed an important question as


to their significance in the country's newpolitical context.

This case also brings forth the issue ofthe ideological dilemma between tourismand conservation and the difficultly it posesto tourism planners. Tourism existed in theCNP before the park was established andthere should be no reason that they cannotco-exist in the future. Butler (2000) arguesthat no attempt to delete tourism's role innational parks, either unilaterally or glo-bally, can be realistic. It would certainly becounter-productive to the parks movementas it would remove a great deal of publicsympathy and support for the parks concept(Butler, 2000). With such a scenario, plan-ners face a great challenge to effectivelyaccommodate both tourism and conserva-tion goals in the national park system.Burns' (2004) proposal of middle-ground inplanning can be relevant here. He notes thattraditional tourism planning has failed toachieve the development of the poor mar-ginalized people who are the target benefi-ciaries; and thus local communities seelittle or no benefit from what is going onaround them. According to him, the rela-tively newer ideas of the alternative modelthat lays more emphasis on 'leave only foot-print' exhortations does not bring in dollarsto develop the industry, or supply large-scale employment, or a reliable stream oftax revenues to government. Burns (2004)proposes a more integrated approach thatcan balance tourism systems and institu-tions by taking into account local-globalpartnerships/networks, consumption pat-terns and the effect of the culture.

The integrated approach can be a wisestrategy for the CNP. Both tourism and con-servation people would be happy if thehotels could be licensed under a stringentquality regime. That is, there should be aneffective and efficient monitoring mecha-nism. Only high-end tourists should becatered for by these concessionaires andsmooth channelling of hotel revenues tolocal development should be ensured. Thisrequires effective implementation of thegovernment's plough-back policy. The strat-egy could address economic benefit to thelocal community, whilst maintaining thevery objective of biodiversity conservation.

This controversy teaches us someimportant lessons that can be useful to otherconservation parks thinking of openingtheir territory to tourism businesses. It laysout the complexities that can come with dif-ferent mandates between conservation andtourism. Though Nepal's case of politicalinstability can be atypical in this case, aneed for a balanced approach between tour-ism and conservation, understanding oflocal business interests, and importance ofstakeholder consultations in policy planningis a lesson for others in the policy-makingprocess in similar cases.

Acknowledgements

The author thanks Dr Shant Raj Jnawali,Kiran Timalsina and Deepak Raj Joshi (NTB)for their assistance in the preparation of thischapter.

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21-37.Wells, M., Brown, K. and Hannah, L. (1992) People and Parks, Linking Protected Areas with Local Communities.

The World Bank/ WWF/USAID, Washington, DC.West, P. and Brechin, S. (1991) Resident Peoples and National Parks: Social Dilemmas and Strategies in

International Conservation. The University of Arizona Press, Tucson, Arizona.

1 7 Volunteer Tourism: CommodifiedTrend or New Phenomenon?

Angela M. Benson' and Stephen Wearing2'Tourism and Travel, University of Brighton, School of Service Management,

Eastbourne, UK; 2School of Leisure, Sport and Tourism, Faculty of University ofTechnology, Sydney, Kuring-gai Campus, Australia

Introduction

There is no overt criticism of volunteertourism in the literature, in part becauselittle research has been undertaken on thistopic, but also because its laudablecharacter and outcomes may render it moreresistant to critical scrutiny.

Weaver (2006, p. 46)

As indicated in the opening quote byWeaver (2006) and highlighted by Sin(2009) there is a dearth of academic litera-ture that takes a critical perspective of vol-unteer tourism. The literature on volunteertourism has predominantly been writtenfrom 2000 onwards, it has tended todescribe the volunteer tourism phenome-non rather than understand or identify itspotentially controversial nature. The focushas been, and still is to some extent, on thevolunteer with a small and fragmented lit-erature associated with host communities,the organizations offering volunteer tour-ism and other key stakeholders. Recently,however, volunteer tourism has come underscrutiny not only in the academic literature(see a series of research probes in theTourism Recreation Research Journal byButcher, 2011; Guttentag, 2011; andRaymond, 2011) but also in the media. Thischapter will examine the criticism andengage in a critical evaluation of volunteer

tourism and, more specifically, look at itsrelationship to the projects it engages inand the communities in which many of itsprojects occur.

Volunteer Tourism

Volunteer tourism has become a global phe-nomenon with market predictions indicat-ing growth in both size and value (Mintel,2008; Tourism Research and Marketing(TRAM), 2008). In 2009, predicted growthindicated 62% of volunteer tour operatorsexpected to send more volunteers abroadthan the previous year, 16% expected tosend a similar amount and 20% expected tosend less (Nestora et al., 2009). As of 2011,there are no clear statistics as to the size ofthe volunteer tourism market with themajority of figures being derived from web-site hits (e.g. Ingram, 2011), volunteer sur-veys and supply side operators. Mintel(2008) estimated that the market reachedUS$150 million in 2006; TRAM (2008) sug-gests that 'the total expenditure generatedby volunteer tourism is likely to be between£832 million (US$1.66 billion) and £1.3 bil-lion (US$2.6 billion)' (p. 42) 'with a total of1.6 million volunteer tourists a year' (p. 5).

This growth has brought a proliferationof firms and organizations moving into this


Volunteer Tourism 243

market, predominantly from Western coun-tries. Whilst many volunteering opportuni-ties are linked to charitable organizations,it is also evident that some of the growth inthis sector is by profit-making companies.While some of these new entrants can belinked to social entrepreneurship, othersare purely commercial. The market place isnot static and whilst new firms enter themarket, others change their status. Forexample, the volunteering company i to iwas bought by First Choice Holidays, aprofit-maximizing firm, for around £20million in 2007. Trekforce Expeditions, acharitable organization offering volunteeropportunities ceased to trade in 2006; theformer managing director took the oppor-tunity of forming a new company in thename of Trekforce Worldwide, which isstill operating today. The projects offeredby such companies are wide ranging: socialjustice projects, teaching English, archae-ology digs, community development, wild-life and conservation projects, care andhealth related. These projects are found inboth terrestrial and marine environments.The market segmentation includes projectsdirected towards individuals, families,groups, students (in particular the gap-yearstudents), career breaks and the corporatemarket. This growth and segmentation ofthe market has produced a range ofresources, websites and publications,which are regularly updated, and arelargely descriptive but offer informationthat outline the myriad of volunteer tour-ism projects available (e.g. Hardy, 2004;Ausender and Heyniger, 2007; Hindleet al., 2007; McCloskey, 2008). The messageof some of this material has changed overrecent years and now includes challengingthe ethical status of volunteer tourismrather than the previous passive accept-ance of volunteer tourism as a 'saving theworld' concept (Benson, 2011).

Criticisms are also evident from organi-zations not directly involved with offeringvolunteer tourism per se, but who are situ-ated within the voluntary sector:

This week, Voluntary Service Overseas(VSO) opined that the 'charity tourism'

of many year-out programs was a newform of colonialism. Students who travelto developing countries risk doing moreharm than good, argued Judith Brodie, UKdirector of VSO, criticizing the emphasis onvolunteer enjoyment rather than on how tohelp the communities they work in.

Bartham (2006)

This criticism refers to the consump-tion of volunteer tourism products as exoticadventures with an implied altruistic phi-losophy, but are designed more to cater tothe needs of the tourists than the needs ofthe communities that they purportedlyserve. The volunteer tourists inadvertentlyfetishize and regard the host communitiesas exotic or impoverished 'others', ratherthan making a meaningful connection withtheir hosts or developing any insight intocultural diversity. VSO continued to voiceconcerns in 2007:

VSO has warned that gappers risk becomingthe 'new colonialists' if attitudes to voluntarywork in the developing world do notchange, accusing gap year companies ofincreasingly catering to the needs of youngpeople seeking to combine a little worthinesswith a lot of travel, rather than the communitiesthey claim to support.

Ward (2007)

These sentiments are echoed by PatriciaBarnet (Director of Tourism Concern, UK)Ìt's a new form of colonialism; really...Themarket is geared toward profit rather thanthe needs of the communities' (Fitzpatrick,2007).

Whilst this rhetoric does not specifi-cally mention volunteer tourism, gap-yearproducts often include a volunteer experi-ence, and many of the companies offeringvolunteer tourism also offer gap years.

Academic research into volunteer tour-ism has grown significantly since 2000.Wearing (2001, p. 1) defines volunteertourism as 'tourists who volunteer in anorganized way to undertake holidays thatinvolve aiding or alleviating the materialpoverty of some groups in society, the resto-ration of certain environments, or researchinto aspects of society or environment'. Sincethis definition, which is now considered to

244 A.M. Benson and S. Wearing

be fairly narrow in its focus (Lyons andWearing, 2008), a number of other defini-tions have begun to emerge (Singh, 2002;Ellis, 2003; Uriely et al., 2003; Singh, 2004;McGehee and Santos, 2005). Despite theemergence of these new definitions, theredoes not seem to be one that has captured thechanging boundaries of volunteer tourismand Wearing's definition of 2001 still remainsthe most cited. The early definitions of vol-unteer tourism have tended to favourthe altruistic side of volunteering. Morerecent debates, however, ask 'Is it (volunteertourism) altruistic or ego-centric?' (or one ofmany positions along that continuum).A more common view is now being recog-nized that most forms of volunteer tourism(and indeed, modern volunteering) are notjust about 'doing good for others' but alsoabout 'doing good for self' (Matthews 2008,p. 111) which is echoed in the United Nations(UN) definition of volunteering (UN, 2001).Whilst the 'doing good for others' will bediscussed in more detail later in the chapter,the 'doing good for self' can often be seen onuniversity and first job application formsand volunteer curricula vitae.

Volunteer Tourism in the Contextof Sustainability

Sustainable development became a promi-nent issue in the early 1980s at a generalsocietal level. The World ConservationStrategy established sustainability as a foun-dational principle for a large number ofprojects based in developing countries.Sustainability is currently defined generallyas development that is able to supply currentneeds without jeopardizing the needs of peo-ple in the future (World Commission onEnvironment and Development, 1987).Volunteer tourism is often associated withthe concept of alternative tourism, ecotour-ism and sustainable tourism but while it isassociated with these concepts, the discus-sion of volunteer tourism within the sustain-able tourism development paradigm islimited and problematic. While there hasbeen much theorizing about the concept of

sustainable tourism, the actual implementa-tion and engagement into practice has takena long time and even now is limited andpiecemeal. A key barrier to this has been ashared vision between key stakeholders.Butcher and Smith (2010) echo this andhighlight the gap between theoreticallyespousing, sustainable practices and actuallyimplementing them in an effective manner.Even if implementation is happening withinthe context of volunteer tourism, it is diffi-cult to determine whether all organizations,in all destinations and within all projectsembody the ideals of sustainable tourismdevelopment all of the time. One of the mainissues when trying to determine whethersustainability is taking place is the measur-ing and evaluation of it. Consequently, vol-unteer tourism is only associated with ormeasured against the three fundamental pil-lars of sustainability - economic, social andenvironmental - to a limited extent. This istrue within both the volunteer tourism litera-ture and the wider tourism literature. Mostcase examples have been undertaken byfocusing on a single dimension (or impact) atone moment in time. This is due in part todifferent dimensions of impact evaluationrequiring their own methodologies and capa-bilities. Consequently, tools, methodologiesand capabilities for taking a holistic approachto evaluating the combined social, economicand environmental contributions are in theirinfancy. Despite this, the literature clearlyindicates that balance between the three pil-lars is essential if sustainability is to beachieved (Cronin, 1990; Burns and Holden,1995; Clarke, 1997; Swarbrooke, 1999; Hardyet al., 2002; Ko, 2005; United NationsDevelopment Programme, 2005). Any impactresearch conducted on just one element isinsufficiently rich to create meaningful dataupon which to engage in critical discussionor make informed management decisions.For volunteer tourism to succeed, it has to besustainable for both the social and naturalenvironments of the area visited while notbecoming another form of tourism basedmainly on economic development but rathera mixing of elements with communityand the natural environment as key ele-ments, while allowing the volunteer to return


home and in turn engage and influencetheir original community.

Volunteer Tourism andthe Mass Tourism Debate

There are criticisms inherent in attemptingto discuss and compare volunteer tourismand mass tourism. One could argue volun-teer tourism is yet another subset of masstourism, as the proliferation of commercialvolunteer tourism packages and productswould imply (Wearing, 2001). Volunteertourism experiences do tend to occur incommunities that are living in marginal orenvironmentally threatened areas whilemore mainstream tourism tends to focus onestablished towns and centres. But does thisalso imply that the socio-cultural impacts ofvolunteer tourism are less harmful thanmass tourism? Is not a footprint a footprintregardless?

We would argue that volunteer tourismcan be differentiated at a more fundamentallevel through the approach that it attemptsto take. Although this has been critiqued byButcher and Smith (2010) as unrealisticwith the number of NGOs and not-for-profitorganizations engaged in this form of tour-ism, it is obvious that it has developedaround a set of ideals that may or may notrealize a more altruistic outcome. It couldbe argued, however, that new 'ethical' tour-ism practices (Butcher, 2005) emerging froma greater global awareness and a motivationthat is counter to mass tourism are, argua-bly, more cosmopolitan in basis and altruis-tic in outcome. It can then be posited thatvolunteer tourism is one form of tourismthat is growing in popularity and, as it hasbeen presented in the literature, as a form ofalternative tourism that creates the types ofencounters that foster mutual understandingand respect (Wearing, 2001). This is a fun-damental way of differentiating it.

There is a growing literature on volun-teer tourism that questions its approachand foundation on social consciousnessand cross-cultural understanding. ForRaymond and Hall (2009), cross-cultural

understanding is by no means a given out-come. Similarly, Nyaupane et al. (2008,p.652) state that `...contact alone willnot necessarily provide a positive cross-cultural experience...'. Simpson's work(2004, 2005) suggests that existing stereo-types may actually be reinforced, therebydeepening dichotomies. Others questionthe reciprocal benefits of such cross-cultural interaction given the inherentcomplexities of significant cultural (andeconomic) divides and, more importantly,the dearth of research on host communityexperiences (see McGehee and Andereck,2009; Woosnam and Lee, 2011). Sin (2009)argues that volunteer tourists are moti-vated more by a desire 'to travel' than by adesire 'to contribute', and that they oftenregard aid-recipients as inferior. Sin foundthat 'many volunteer tourists are typicallymore interested in fulfilling objectivesrelating to the "self "' (Sin, 2009, p. 497).This particular finding critiques the altru-istic motivations that earlier research hadclaimed as a key foundation of volunteertourism (see Wearing, 2001). Butcher andSmith (2010, p. 33), although more posi-tive, have also explored the notion of the`self' in volunteer tourism, finding that`the "desire to make a difference" ... [hasbecome] connected to lifestyle ... [and]closely linked to a narrative of personalgrowth'. Some of these issues are funda-mental to differentiating volunteer tour-ism. Table 17.1 sets out some means ofexamining this. It is set in the context ofthe ways volunteer tourism seeks to differ-entiate itself from mass tourism.

The Volunteer

The growing number of journal articles hasfocused heavily on the volunteer (Brown andMorrison, 2003; Galley and Clifton, 2004;Stoddart and Rogerson, 2004; McGehee andSantos, 2005; Mustonen, 2005; Brown andLehto, 2005; Campbell and Smith, 2006)and more specifically the self (Wearingand Neil, 2000; Wearing, 2002, 2003; Wearingand Deane, 2003; Wickens 2011). Despite the


Table 17.1. Differentiating volunteer tourism from mass tourism.

Mass tourism Volunteer tourism

Management of 'evolutionary' change (survival ofthe fittest) within a Western neo-liberal rationalistapproach based on free-market economicprinciples

Maintaining social order, existing tourism systemsunquestioned

Greater efficiency of current tourism systems henceincreased profitability

Appearance of harmony, integration and cohesionof social groups involved in the tourism process

Focus on ways to maintain cohesion andconsensus to ensure the tourist experience isnot disrupted

Expect homogenous host communities

Identifying and meeting singular economicstakeholder needs within existing social system

Focused on actuality, discovering and understandingwhat is available and how it can be used

Focus is on co-operatives and community-basedapproaches where dominant free-marketprinciples are relevant but secondary toprinciples associated with NGOs andvolunteering

Micro-level social systems, attempting to movebeyond macro-assumed social order tocommunity needs

More just and equitable systems that can expandthe efficient tourism system to include socialissues

Contradictions between social ideals and reality,attempts to demonstrate this and find projectsthat alleviate it

Ways to ensure a dialogue is created that allowsneed to become a part of the process andrealized in the tourism experience

Attempt to acknowledge difference in hostcommunities

Attempting to re-examine stakeholder needs andfocus on basic human needs within and outsideexisting social system

Focused on potentiality: providing a vision of whatcould be and building pathways to achieve it

focus upon the volunteer in the literature,there is no one profile that fits all. Casestudies tend to outline demographics of acertain group, for example, youths are thevolunteers in the Galley and Clifton (2004)study; however, this is more to do with theorganization under study and their market-ing to a specific target group (i.e. universitystudents) than a generic profile of volun-teers. This being said, the majority of volun-teers are from industrialized, developednations seeking an experience in a develop-ing country or a country in transition. Theytend to be affluent and free (albeit for peri-ods of time, e.g. between college and uni-versity, between jobs, retirement). This givesthe volunteer both time and money toengage in volunteer projects.

A number of the studies have examinedvolunteer tourists and the influencing fac-tors of why they engage in volunteer activi-ties. Wearing (2004) believes it is difficult togauge the motivations of volunteer tourists.He continues by outlining that the internal

push motives (Crompton, 1979), such asdiscovery, enlightenment and personalgrowth, are important but features of a des-tination are more than simply pull motives.To this group, physical locations in devel-oping countries also act as a motivation.Additionally, volunteer tourists are attractedby many of the elements that make up amainstream tourist experience. In addition,due to their psychographic characteristics,pull factors may be ranked higher for volun-teer tourists than mainstream tourists. Inthe study by Benson and Siebert (2009),however, the results did not show this andof the top five most important motivationalfactors - 'to experience something different,something new'; 'meet African people'; 'tolearn about another country and cultures';`to live in another country'; and 'to broadenone's mind (cultural experiences)' - fourwere push factors. Brown and Lehto (2005)argue that the volunteer tourist is able tolearn beyond the typical tourism platformand that volunteer tourism introduces a


concept of making a difference. This is sup-ported by Wearing (2001) who uses the termaltruism. Lyons (2003), however, disputesthis, arguing that altruism is not the mainfocus, as volunteers are not homogenousentities. Gazley (2001) examined the moti-vation of episodic (short-term) volunteersand noted that, although volunteering wasthe main reason for travel, other motiva-tions such as fun, adventure and learningwere also important. Learning and educa-tion are also seen as key components byBenson (2005). This was supported byGalley and Clifton (2004) who examinedthe motivations of research ecotourists andfound the motives 'personal development'and 'academic achievement' were frequentresponses made by volunteers as to whythey engaged in volunteer tourism.

Volunteer Organizationsand Management

Wearing et al. (2005) examined NGOs as akey stakeholder between volunteer touristsand communities. A small number of papershave engaged in research linked to theorganizations: Wearing (2004) concentratedon conservation organizations; Coghlan(2007) examined a number of volunteer tour-ism organizations and offered an image-based typology. A further study by Coghlan(2008) explored the role of organization staff.Benson and Henderson (2011) conducted astrategic analysis of research volunteer tour-ism organizations. Holmes and Smith (2009)examined managing volunteers in tourism.More recent work by Blackman and Bensonhas been more management focused; theyhave examined the psychological contractwithin volunteer tourism (Blackman andBenson, 2010a), knowledge stickiness aspart of knowledge transfer (Blackman andBenson, 2010b) and distributed leadership(Benson and Blackman, 2010).

Despite the limited academic research,organizations often appear to receive poorpress; the lack of empirical evidence to sup-port or refute these debates, however,remains an issue. Whilst organizations may

only want their successes published ratherthan their failures, this does not seem to bedifferent from organizations in any othersector. Organizations are often criticized forthe short time a volunteer spends on aproject; however, this does not appear to bebalanced by how long the actual organiza-tion has been at a destination/project site.There are examples of organizations thathave been engaged in projects for a numberof years: for example, Operation Wallaceahas been operating in Wakatobi MarineNational Park, Indonesia since 1995, andthe Malaysian Bat project has been sup-ported by Earthwatch since 2001. What isnot clear is the extent to which these projectshave left lasting legacies, either for thecountry or local communities. Consequently,these examples are not given in order todefend organizations but to demonstratethat there is still much research to be under-taken. Longitudinal studies of volunteerprojects are non-existent, at best there are afew studies that use a retrospective gaze(Mittelberg and Palgi, 2011; Zahra, 2011).

It is acknowledged in the literaturethat volunteer tourism is associated withpayment. Volunteer tourists, just as withecotourism, often pay a premium to partici-pate in the projects that they engage in.Actual research in this area, however, isnegligible. Despite this, discussions areevident in respect of how this profit isexpended. The majority of the organiza-tions in the volunteer tourism sector nowpublish some form of data on how the vol-unteer payment is distributed; however,this often lacks detail and is mostly unsat-isfactory. A general understanding is that(depending upon the project) the moneycontributes to company administration,project staff, food, accommodations andfinancing the community projects, via pay-ments to employ community members or topurchase materials, and so on. The debatesabout what does happen to the money andwhether the additional payment actuallycontributes to the projects' front-lineresources or to the profit of the organiza-tion involved, still needs to be addressed.This seems to be a fundamental issue in theevaluation of volunteer tourism.


Discordant views between academicresearch and organizations are evident. Forexample, recently Linda Richter and AmyNorman (2010) of the Human SciencesResearch Council, South Africa, claimedthat some volunteer overseas trips are detri-mental, such as in the case of 'AIDS orphantourism'. This criticism is based on the factthat the projects volunteer tourists work onare often short term, and the work is oftenlow skilled and risks displacing locals whoneed the employment. In particular, whenvolunteers are working with children,Richter and Norman (2010) argue that theformation of an intense bond between a vol-unteer tourist and a child (who may havebeen abused or abandoned previously) canbe devastating to the child when the touristleaves. A follow up article by Peter Stowe,Founder of Projects Abroad, and Britain'slargest gap-year organization stated 'Ourexperience... is entirely at odds with thosefindings. We hear hundreds of success sto-ries every year about the work our volun-teers have done in teaching, conservationand care projects in South Africa as well asmany other countries' (Stowe, 2010).

These conflicting views of volunteer tour-ism highlight a need to avoid a generalizedassumption that volunteer tourism is automat-ically good, just and altruistic. It is a layeredphenomenon, with multiple stakeholders whohave multiple needs and agendas, and contin-ues to require a more critical analysis and theuntangling of its components.

Volunteer Tourism and Communities

A number of studies have focused on volun-teer tourism and host communities (Singh,2002; Broad, 2003; Higgins-Desbiolles,2003; Singh, 2004; Clifton and Benson,2006; Gard McGehee and Andereck, 2009)and in particular cultural aspects (Lyons,2003; McIntosh and Zahra, 2005; Raymondand Hall, 2008). Despite this small amountof literature, the debates surrounding vol-unteer tourism and host communities areextensive. Does volunteer tourism 'make adifference' to the host communities where

the project is taking place and whether itdoes or does not, what are the associatedproblems with having volunteers in com-munities, e.g. neo-colonialism. Whilst thissection will discuss volunteer tourism andcommunities, it needs to be acknowledgedthat some volunteer tourism does not takeplace within a community setting; for exam-ple, two projects organized by the volunteerorganization Earthwatch, (i) monitoringpink dolphins on a boat in Peru and(ii) determining the health of a bat colony ina jungle in Central Malaysia, were not directlyassociated with any local communities.

It is essential to recognize that a two-way interactive process between host com-munities and guests (the tourists) occurs intourism. As Sofield (1991) states, 'the cul-ture of the host society is as much at riskfrom various forms of tourism as physicalenvironments' (p. 56). From definitions ofvolunteer tourism we can find a central aimof sustaining the well-being of the localcommunity where tourism takes place.Consequently, it is possible that volunteertourism can be viewed as a developmentstrategy with the potential of leading to sus-tainable development and centring the con-junction of natural resource qualities, localsand the visitor that all benefit from tourismactivity, albeit of a certain type.

There is a clear recognition at a commu-nity level of the threat that social and envi-ronmental degradation poses to communitywell-being when profit-by-any-means eco-nomics becomes the sole focus of outcomesfrom tourism (Guttentag, 2009). At the sametime, communities perceive that tourism,if conducted carefully, can assist in theirown efforts to maintain and enhance theirlocal social environment; however, this canbe exploited by the tourism system wherecommunities are living subsistence lifestylesand will accept what might be consideredinequitable outcome. The tourism sector issimultaneously developing an understand-ing that there is a significant and growingmarket for tourism products that not onlypresents the natural environment and com-munity heritage but that demonstrably sup-ports the maintenance of that heritage, butdoes not hinder community development.


Volunteer tourism is often positionedas an alternative to mass tourism when alocal community is seeking a tourism solu-tion that will generate local income whileallowing the community to remain in con-trol of managing and protecting their sociallives and environment. Further researchand a systematic evaluation is requiredacross this sector to see if the outcomes arebeing reached; currently Guttentag (2009)and Butcher and Smith (2010) provide someexamples of the negative impacts createdthrough projects in host communities. Weneed to gain insight into how people canparticipate in the development of volunteertourism as an aid to better mitigate the nega-tive impacts of tourism and increase bene-fits to the local community. The two mainpremises underlying the need to undertakeresearch and to establish a framework forsustainable environmental management forvolunteer tourism are (i) that there is nomechanism for evaluating this area and theprojects that are taking place without aframe of reference and (ii) continued anec-dotal examples cannot allow comprehen-sive insights into how it can be changed andimproved. For example, one issue that con-tinually arises is that volunteer projects aremore likely to succeed when active local-level support exists than when not. Thischapter does not claim to establish that vol-unteer local-level participation in tourismis sufficient by itself to ensure positive out-comes for stakeholders but that more sys-tematic evaluation is required to providethe basis for further discussion.

Specifically, the emphasis in much ofthe literature on sustainable developmentand participation has not been on people'sinitiatives as keys to finding solutions forenvironmental problems; rather it has beenon people's lack of participation as an obsta-cle to the solution (by outsiders). In otherwords, there has been much more attentionpaid to ways in which local people can bepersuaded to provide the necessary supportfor tourism projects designed outside thecommunity and presented as capacity build-ing than to ways in which community ini-tiatives can be facilitated to inform andpossibly create more successful tourism

projects. Of course, local people cannot anddo not always provide solutions to theirproblems, but the argument made here isthat the potential of community-based tour-ism has been unduly neglected, and that awider recognition of the ways in which peo-ple can find solutions in volunteer tourismprojects can only enhance the knowledgebase of working on projects in the tourismfield.

High economic leakage, little controlover operations and relatively few localpeople being employed in the industry haveoften been the critique directed at the tour-ism industry. Volunteer tourism is presentedas trying to change this profile but no evi-dence exists as yet to provide support toshow that it has achieved this. Wearing's(2001) original work found that lack of skillsand recognition of decision-making struc-tures in local communities, particularlyindigenous ones, is a major factor contribut-ing to and perpetuating this occurrence. Hedemonstrates how the existence and recog-nition of the community's skills might pro-vide a twining and symbiotic relationshipfor volunteer tourism projects, in that thevolunteer (who generally has limited skills)needs to be taught by the community mem-ber (who generally has the skills requiredfor the on-the-ground project). This couldlead to a reversal of the roles where the skillof the community member is recognizedand valued and required for success in theproject. Through this, avenues to more suc-cessful community-based tourism develop-ment could be found and also allow thelocal people to educate tourists in both cul-tural and environmental aspects of the localarea (initiated through the activities of workon the volunteer tourism project), thusmeeting a fundamental goal of volunteertourism.

In order for communities to becomeaware of the place and role volunteer tour-ism can have in community-based projects,it is important to make them aware of thediffering needs of the various operators inthe tourism industry and the tourism sys-tem. This can be achieved with training andeducation of local communities as well asempowerment of indigenous systems in


larger planning structures. The differentsectors such as governments, private enter-prise, local communities, conservationorganizations, non-governmental organiza-tions and international institutions all needto be able to see the potential for linking thissector of tourism with local communities. Itis recognized, however, that this is a tallorder for all these key stakeholders to beengaged in a co-ordinated approach, but ifcommunities can reach an understanding ofwhere they fit within the broader frame-work of the tourism and conservation sec-tors there is a better chance of carefullydesigned volunteer tourism programmes.This would enable communities to have theopportunity to control where they fit in thetourism industry and enable a focus for fos-tering host communities' values while pro-viding education for volunteer tourists. Theprinciples of community-based tourismincorporate the facilitation of sharing own-ership and control, of tourism and the asso-ciated resource. In the context of volunteertourism, the application of these principleswould allow indigenous communities self-determination and to halt the continuingappropriation of their culture by govern-ment and non-government, conservationand tourist agencies. We believe that volun-teering and community-based tourism arenot just activities undertaken by the volun-teer tourist, but should be a partnershipbetween the volunteer tourist, the companyorganizing the project and the communitythey are visiting. The project, whilst notoutliving its usefulness to the community,should have longevity as indicated above.In creating a partnership experience, thoseinvolved not only attempt to reduce nega-tive impacts on the community but putsomething back into the community.

Community-based tourism linked tovolunteering has caught the imagination ofmany NGOs and local communities, govern-ments, international organizations and thetourism industry. There is a current debateworldwide concerning how community-based tourism projects should be undertaken.This is generating increasing interest in thepotential of community-based tourism, par-ticularly by a range of NGOs operating in

developing countries. For while community-based tourism is increasingly being seen as away to promote sustainable tourism it is alsoseen as being able to provide valuableincome. Volunteer programmes and commu-nity-based tourism potentially offer newpaths towards sustainable development andnew ways of doing tourism. A wide range ofinstitutions and organizations do, and willcontinue to, play an important role in thedevelopment of the community-based tour-ism industry. The types of organizationsvary considerably and a number provideinternational support and sponsorship forthe implementation of research projects andcommunity development. These organiza-tions facilitate this process through the pro-vision of necessary resources that may nototherwise be available. The internationalscope of these organizations can prove to beinvaluable assistance in terms of their accu-mulated knowledge and experience.

The tourism industry may be able toembrace the concept of volunteer tourism asother NGOs and developing governmentshave done. The ideas of self-sufficiency aregrowing and local communities now face thedilemma of how their small-scale effort can bedeveloped without being commodified anddominated by wider market forces.

Conclusions

In the past, there was value considered in the`tourist gaze'; that is, that tourists visitingbrought in economic benefit and couldobserve new and novel lifestyles and cul-tures, although primarily through the localservice industries, the built and natural envi-ronment and less so from intimate interac-tions with local members of the community.Volunteer tourism has been positionedas having potential to shift the value tointeractions with the members of the com-munity. Value is defined here more broadlythan its use in economics, which sees it as amonetary measure (Peterson et al., 1988,p. 4) to which it embodies meanings impor-tant to the community (Australian HeritageCommission, 1992, p. 10). The future of the


Earth's biological diversity is dependenton improving the security and quality of lifeof many, so they are not forced to depletenatural resources (Boo, 1990, p. 3). Manydeveloping countries require sustainabledevelopment to ensure the needs of thepresent communities are met withoutcompromising the needs of future ones(World Commission on Environment andDevelopment, 1987, p. 8), and this may beachieved with a shift to this way of valuing.

Volunteer tourism can offer someanswers in response to these requirements.Volunteer tourism seeks to capitalize on thegrowth in tourism to different cultures insearch of authenticity and return the bene-fits of this to the host community. Volunteertourism is premised on the idea that it canonly be sustainable if the natural and cul-tural assets it is reliant on survive and pros-per. This chapter suggests a more systematicresearch agenda is required before anyassessment can be made of the area of vol-unteer tourism and its success or failure.The chapter has raised and examined manyof the concerns raised about volunteer tour-ism and finds that evidence is at best anec-dotal as to the outcomes of volunteertourism projects.

The chapter has suggested that a keyarea in need of research is that of the volun-teer tourism project, with areas, such as thelack of opportunities for involvement indecision making relating to tourism by hostcommunities engaging in volunteer tour-ism projects, being a key. The second areaarises from what could be regarded as inad-equate responses from governments andthe tourism industry when administrativeor legislative mechanisms are being estab-lished to enable the creation of theseprojects. The third relates to the lack offinancial, social and vocational benefitsflowing to these communities from projectsthat could now be considered to be com-mercially exploiting these communities.The fourth relates to the need to establishbetter tools for evaluating socio-culturalimpacts in assessing outcomes of volunteertourism projects.

These concerns embrace a wide rangeof issues relating to the management of

community resources adjacent to thesecommunities and arise from perceptionsof inadequate levels of participation bythese communities in the management ofwhat they regard as their traditionaldomains. The area is a large and diverseone, and the main emphasis here is inregard to the dynamic social exchangebetween the tourist, the volunteer tourismorganizations and the host community.It is obvious that if the social structureand context of the community is notsustained then the experience for thevolunteer tourists themselves is threat-ened. Of interest here is how processes areset up to achieve this and the researchrequired to engage in finding solutionsthat suit the objectives of volunteer tour-ism approaches rather than traditionaltourism; one obvious area is the solutionsthat have been researched and found inthe area of ecotourism.

The outcomes above present potentialfor stakeholders interested in establishingforms of community-focused volunteertourism projects to rethink the way theyseek to engage with others. Evidence fromthe literature indicates that very littleresearch exists on the outcomes of theseprojects but it is suggested that theseprojects can have significant effects, bothpositive and negative, upon the host com-munities. Currently the underlying differ-entiation of volunteer tourism from masstourism (see Table 17.1) would suggest thatvolunteer tourism, as with ecotourism, canseek to find different processes and mecha-nism to achieve its outcomes and that inno-vation and research is required to enablethis, with some suggestion that the applica-tion of principles and process found in eco-tourism and community-based tourism mayprovide some guidance. Despite the grow-ing popularity of volunteer tourism, sys-tematic academic research in this area isstill in its infancy. There is no doubt thatthe concept of volunteer tourism and ourunderstanding of it have developed over arelatively short period of time but there isstill much work to be done in order toappreciate and understand fully the valueof this area.


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Conclusion

The study of controversy is both complicatedand complex. It is complex in that so manycharacters are involved in so many mean-ings and interpretations, and its complexityresonates in the difficulty of making soundjudgements (which will of course mean dif-ferent things to different people). Evenwhere clarification of major points of disa-greements between actors exist, lingeringdoubts remain, like sharks in the waterwaiting to attack our preconceptions andsupposedly settled minds just as we thoughtit was safe to go back into the water! Whetherwe side with Prospero or Caliban in this`Tempest' of a world, our job as teachers andstudents of controversy is to understandand present the situation from different per-spectives. Certainly, a controversy is not acontroversy if its nature does not cover thediscourses representing opinions of thosewho support a strategy or policy and thosewho do not. In tourism, with its complexnature and multiple stakeholders (somewilling some not), no decisions are easy,and very few can be made without contro-versy. Thus when decision makers are con-fronted with a controversial issue, evenwhen they are provided with the most com-prehensive picture, the granularity, themurkiness, the dark shadows, are everpresent. However, in the case of tourism,with its extended supply/ value and interest

chains, it is even more difficult for sounddecisions to be made because sound analy-ses of the controversy are so often missing.

The contributors to the present bookhave selected a controversy based on theirinterest and expertise. Although it was dif-ficult for some authors to remain neutral, oremotionless in their discussion and analy-sis, the reader might, in some cases, havefound the discussion skewed to a particularviewpoint, which may not coalesce withmainstream opinion. Consequently, somereaders may argue that studying contro-versy may be all well and good, but whatabout, they may ask, the truth? Is the studyand analysis of controversy supposed to bea means to an end? Absolutely yes. Wewould not be offering this volume if we didnot think that some views are more produc-tive, pragmatic and, indeed, noble than oth-ers; if we did not believe in the critical andcultural contexts of tourism; if we did notbelieve in tourism as having the potentialto shape our futures; if we did not believein its potential for leading humanitytowards the good life. Understanding thecontroversial nature of tourism is for us`not the opposite of reaching resolution buta precondition of doing so' (Graff andPhelan, 2000, p. 101).

Where, then, do we stand in the debatebetween those who ask for more moralization


256 Conclusion

of tourism and those who are irritated by it?Our own answer, for what it is worth, isthat although in some cases we believe thatthere is merit to both positions, we never-theless have no hidden meaning: the truthis out there and is reflected in the ways wehave been doing tourism. In Chapter 1,Moufakkir argues against the invisibility ofthe moralization of tourism in tourism pro-motion and education, emphasizing theneed for more education for freedom evenif this education will set limits to our tour-ism freedoms. Where, then, do we stand inthe debate about unity in diversity, or whatAykin addressed in Chapter 2 when dis-cussing the conflicting views about a com-mon European tourism policy? Where,then, do we stand in the debate about devel-opment and/or progress, as stressed inChapter 3 by Papanicolaou in her discus-sion of the development of tourism and the`development' of the Mayan culture inher region, or what Novel li and Tisch-Rottensteiner in Chapter 4 have observedabout the increasing demand for authentic-ity and for development in their case study,and the ongoing contradiction between thepromotion of pro-poor tourism and thedemand on natural and cultural preserva-tion? Where, then, do we stand in the con-troversies surrounding medical tourism aspresented by Vequist and his colleagues inChapter 5, who themselves have concludedthat there are still many gaps to be filled tocome to a conclusion about this emergingphenomenon? How are we to deal withsupporters or adversaries of wildlife tour-ism and trophy hunting, when Dobsonhimself in Chapter 6 has left us perplexed,yet enlightened, but completely undecided?Where then do we stand when, despite 20years of past research, we are still asked tocomment on how èco' ecotourism is orhow it benefits indigenous people, whilewe know from Boyd's excellent review andanalysis of the topic (Chapter 7) that disa-greements about its definitions, meanings,operations and implications still exist?Indigenous cultures are sold and bought,and to these ends both vendor andbuyer are orchestrating the transformationof culture's authenticity in a mutually

dependent yet unequal partnership; onewhich is economically needed but cultur-ally unwelcomed, although cultural com-modification and change may, to some,seem unavoidable and transformational(Chapter 8). So, where, then, do we stand inrelation to power and control over ethnicculture and its hybridization? Is culturehybridization a phenomenon that we shouldwelcome, reject or just ignore, despite ourconsciousness of the realistic powers of cul-ture fluidity? This is the complex questionthat Xie has left us with. We are left with somany questions that to take sides, some-times, seems to us is nothing but a gamble.

Even with a growing phenomenon suchas casino gaming (as presented by Moufakkirand Holecek in Chapter 9), we gain theimpression that we have left the readerwith the idea that any gaming developmentis a gamble. It is, however, clear to us thatgolf tourism, in some development con-texts, is a clear indication that we are gam-bling with nature, the economy and thelocals' long-term quality of life despite therecommendations offered by Boukas andhis co-authors in Chapter 10. While dis-cussing the controversies surrounding resi-dential tourism in Chapter 11, Huete andMantecon have left us with questions evenmore pressing than those directly related tothis phenomenon, questions to make usthink even beyond the European identity toconsider the realities of global citizenshipand the right to travel and tourism. Craigand Thompson's chapter (Chapter 12)brings us closer to death and makes usthink about the dark side not only of tour-ism but of human behaviour, which, tosome extent, lightens our existence anddarkens our human realities. Discussingthe impacts of cultural events on the localcommunity, Addo (Chapter 13) confrontsus with the disillusionment of economicbenefits of such events, but more impor-tantly leaves us thinking about postcolonialcelebrations of independence and theexploitation of those celebrations for eco-nomic and political reasons.

Exploitation has also been manifestedin the discourse and actions of intergovern-mental organizations, whose raison d'être is

Conclusion 257

to build a fairer and more equitable world.But events have travestied implicitly andexplicitly into what Ferraz in Chapter 14refers to as a phenomenon of cultural andeconomic hegemony, serving the interest ofthe more powerful actors. In another takeon power, 'pleasure' tourists to less devel-oped countries (the people of which arecontroversially called the 'bottom billion'by Paul Collier, 2007), as those depicted byPattison in Chapter 15, are powerful actorswho through their right to pleasure empowerand please their powerless hosts. In thispleasure-power context, the powerless andpowerful are both engaged in a mutuallyorchestrated power-resistance game rela-tionship. To some, this topsy-turvy situa-tion is rather a game of convenience; toothers, the winners and losers are obvious.In Chapter 16, Bhandari discusses contro-versies related to tourism and conservationand his case illustrates vividly that despitereaching a consensus among the stakehold-ers involved, no matter how good or willingthey may be, the question of who is losingand who is winning still resonates, and tosome, its answer may depend less on prag-matism than on idealism. To others beingpragmatic is a more realistic way to solveconservation and development issues. Eventhose volunteer tourists who are pragmaticin their idealism are not spared from criti-cism. Focusing on volunteer tourism,Benson and Wearing (Chapter 17) have leftus with many questions and suggestions forfurther research. One question that canexemplify our struggle with writing aboutcontroversies is: does it matter that volun-teer tourists are or are not altruistic, sincethey make a difference in their lives and inthose they have touched?

The controversies presented in thisvolume can be used to re-emphasize thecomplexity of the tourism environment,and the realities of decision making intourism policy, planning and develop-ment, which cannot be dissociated fromwho we are as people. The complexity oftourism is also manifested in the verynature of the diversity of tourism stake-holders, their roles, power and influence.The absence of debate can lead to myopic

understanding, limited vision and a 'busi-ness-knows-best', neo-liberal future wherefinance and profit dominate culture andsocial systems. The purpose of this volumeis to expose our readers to conflictingviews, broaden horizons and subject ourviews to a critical gaze. These controver-sies may also be valuable in fostering thepedagogical goal of building interest andaiding the formation of critical principles.It is our hope that the contents of this vol-ume spark discussion in the classroom andtourism development office, with the viewto building appreciation for the kind ofresearch and reasoning on which gooddevelopment can be built. The purpose ofthis book was to present a controversialview of tourism with the objective of pro-viding the reader with a picture compre-hensive enough to facilitate decisionmaking with the capability of foreseeingthe best possible scenarios for future tour-ism behaviour, development and outcome.Once evaluated, the controversies canprovide important indications for a desti-nation management organization.

Learning by controversy offers apractical classroom solution to the angrilypolarized debates of our time. Indeed,this strategy presents a model of how thequality of cultural debate in our societyat large might be improved. It is acommon prediction that the culture ofthe twenty-first century will put apremium on people's ability to dealproductively with conflict and culturaldifferences. Learning by controversy issound training for citizenship in thatfuture.

Graff and Phelan (2000, p. vii)

Our engagement with controversy can onlydeepen our engagement with tourism devel-opment. Our point here is when a commu-nity has to decide on a tourism policy andwhat type of development to embrace, 'youand your fellow citizens do not have theluxury of saying, "it's all a matter of subjec-tive opinion (...)" Simply to opt out of adebate is to surrender one of the mostimportant forms of action available to acitizen of a democracy' (Graff and Phelan,2000, p. 106).

258 Conclusion

References

Graff, G. and Phelan, J. (2000) A Case Study in Critical Controversy: The Tempest. (William Shakespeare)Macmillan Press, Hampshire, UK.

Collier, P. (2007) The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can be Done About it.Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK.

Index

Aboriginal tourismadvent 115popularity 115-116process 116

Agriculture and golf tourismenvironment 151-152GDP 151

Alltournativeannual growth 47-48attractions 49authenticity 48-49`cultureless' activities 49ecotourism companies 47encounters 48socio-economic conditions 48

Areca Manorbamboo-beating dance 122-123Chiyou tribe 121-122description 121inhabitants 121`kitsch' 122Li dance hall 122

Authenticity versus development, Hill tribesof Thailand

dichotomy 64globalization 67immigrants 67lifestyle 67

CAMPFIRE scheme see Communal AreasManagement Program for IndigenousResources scheme

Chitwan National Park (CNP), Nepalbusinesses inside and outside,

rivalry 237-238

concessionaires 238conservation areas, conflict 231-233controversy 233-235founding 230NTB 229socio-political context 235-236tourism and conservation,

mandates 236-237wildlife tourism 231

Communal Areas Management Program forIndigenous Resources (CAMPFIRE)scheme 90

Controversies, medical tourismclinical trial, drug 77`death tourism' 77drivers 74economic considerations

business trend 74development issues 74monitoring 75national resources 75outsourcing model 75

economies 83estimation 73evaluations 82-83evidence 73,82factors 73growth 74Hadi's framework 77-81insurance plans 82intervention 77legal and public policy issues

liability 75medical outsourcing 75restrictions 75

marketing and consumer behaviour 83

259

260 Index

Controversies, medical tourism (continued)operational issues 83patient-protective concerns 76regulatory and statutory frameworks 76reproduction and organ

transplantation 75-76stakeholders 76surrogacy case 77`themes' 852weakness 82

Convention People's Party (CPP) 189Cyprus Tourism Organization (CTO) 146

Dark sun resorts 178Dark tourism

cemetery 180`darkest' 178death and suffering 178description 174destination categories see Destination

categories, dark tourismholiday trip 178intrigue 181marketing efforts 177media contribution 181multitude and diversity 178origins

CNN phenomenon 174-175modernity and postmodernists 176tourism literature 175tourist behaviour and demand 175

personal interpretation 182-183pleasure, observing death 182supply 178-179tourist experience 181-182

DDE see Doctrine of Double EffectDepartment of National Parks and Wildlife

Conservation (DNPWC) 235-236Destination categories, dark tourism

battlefields 179dungeons 179graveyards and cemeteries 179murder and genocide 179museums 179re-enactments 179-180

DNPWC see Department of National Parks andWildlife Conservation

Doctrine of Double Effect (DDE) 94,96

Ecotourismàlternatives' 100approaches 102components 101core criteria 103-104disagreement 99

economic impacts 109environments, broadening

mass tourism 107primary and secondary destinations 106sport and trophy hunting 106-107terrestrial and marine settings 107urban 107

ethicsbehavioural considerations 107-108ethical principles 108

evidence, inquiry 100evolving discourse 101factors 102-103growth 99,104indigenous stewardship 108-109intentions and outcomes 102Lascurain definition 100linkages

alternative and sustainabletourism 105-106

characteristics 106hybrid 106nature tourism 105

local participationeconomic benefits issue 110stakeholder theory 110

natural capital 109-110quality control and certification 110-111scholars 100spectrum, poles 102sustainable development 99-100tenets and emphasis 103typologies

development 104hard-soft model 104

ECU see European currency unitsEducation, tourism

freedomgenuine and artificial needs 18goal 19personal and social 19

leisure 17-18recreation business and leisure

industry 16-17EEC see European economic communityEnvironment and golf tourism

incentives 154-155landscape deterioration 155olive trees 153profits, owners 153watering 154water use 154winter months 153

Ethnic panopticonaboriginal tourism 115-116Areca Manor 121-123concept

Index 261

aboriginal folk village 119gazer-gazee construct 117-118knowledge and power 116socio-cultural gap 118structure 117tourist-host interactions 118-119

description 115Hainan Island and Aboriginal Li

Autonomous Region 121description 119-120populations 120-121tattoos 120

European currency units (ECU)Philoxenia programme 30tourism awards 25

European economic community (EEC)economic entity 25tourism policy 24Treaty of Paris 24

FDIs see Foreign direct investmentsForeign direct investments (FDIs) 80Foucauldian relational power

colonialism/imperialism 219-220contemporary identities 220contemporary moment 219description 219`host' 220postcolonial and globalization theory 219visual 220

Gambiacomplex interaction 216Foucauldian relational power see

Foucauldian relational powerhost and tourist, relationship 222host-guest relation 216Kotu and Senegambia 221-222paradoxes 226resort employees, gaze 225romance encounters 223-225spatial and temporal dimensions, 'host'tourism spaces and experiences 216tourism studies

agency and discourse 218handicraft traders 218host-guest paradigm 217innovative approaches 217postcolonial theory 218-219problems 216researcher 217tourist and local gazes 217

Gaming, USAcasino issues

development 132-134

Las Vegas and Atlantic city 132commercial casino

gambling debts 129Las Vegas and Nevada 128

community 139-140cost and benefit 140crime, community

offences and property 137opponents 137Potential 136-137

developmentalcoholic beverages 128colonists 127environment 127-128history 127lotteries 127

economic contribution, communityDetroit 134expansionary and redistributive

effect 136extractive activity 136impact studies 135opponents 135substitution activity 136

gamblingcasino industry 139effect 138US population 138

human activity 126legislation 125license, tax and regulation

governments 130-131horse and dog races 130Illinois and Iowa 130legal casinos 129Michigan voters 130Nevada experiment 129New Jersey 129-130race track 130

limitations 126literature 139Native American Indian Casinos 131-132NGISC 125-126

226 opposition 125GCOEFT see Global code of ethics for tourismGDP see Gross domestic productThe General Agreement on Trade in Services

(GATS)`brain drain' 80modes, health services 80

Ghanacelebrative events and controversies,

cultural tourismfestivals and anniversaries 186-187literature 187socio-cultural benefits 187sub-Saharan Africa 187-188

262 Index

Ghana (continued)description 186geography, history and political economy

CPP 189description 188ethnic groups 188Nkrumah 189-190PDA 189UGCC 189

golden jubilee, independence 194-196Panafest 196-198tourism industry

AICC 191-192European-built forts 192golden jubilee of

independence 192-193GTB 191international tourist arrivals and

receipts 191national pledge and anthem 194objectives 193observations and interviews 193organizations 190-191

Ghana Tourist Board (GTB) 186,190,191Global code of ethics for tourism (GCOEFT) 209Golden jubilee of independence, Ghana

NPP and NDC 195-196political controversies 195`presidential dress code controversy' 194`The Big Six' 195

Golf tourism, Cypruscharacteristics 144contradictions

agriculture 151-152description 151environment 153-155real estate development 152-153

contributiondescription 147destinations 147economy 147-148income levels 148tourists 148

course developmentCTO 146financial incentives 147policy 147

courses, construction 146development 144economic crisis 146government 145organized efforts 144-145situation 145sustainability

biodiversity 150-151development 149financial growth 149

Malta 149social and economic

dimensions 148-149Valderrama Declaration 150water 149-150

tourist arrivals and revenues 145Gross domestic product (GDP) 151GTB see Ghana Tourist Board

Hadi's framework, medical tourismeconomic and social 80ethical issues 79FDIs 80GATS 79-80globalization process 81HBMs 80-81health outcomes

dissertation 77level of service 78-79liability issues 77-78

nursing systems 79reproductive technologies 80

Hainan Island and Aboriginal LiAutonomous Region 121description 119-120populations 120-121tattoos 120

HBMs see Human biological materialsHill tribes of Thailand

attractions 59authenticity versus development 64,67commercialization 60ethnic/indigenous tourism

activities 57-58benefit 58expectations 58

evidence 67-68expectations, tourists

behaviour 63citizenship 63-64elephant camps 64fairtrade shop 64,65handicrafts 64,65income 64life-style 63observations 63questionnaire 62

expression, globalization 60fieldwork 54globalization and authenticity

concerns 56-57modernization 57performances 57transformations 57

identity 6-7natural environment 68

Index 263

nature and spirits 59quantitative and qualitative methods

anonymity 61data collection tools 60-61in-depth interviews 60

respondents 61-62sex tourism 58-59social issues 60theories and issues

colonialism 55ecotourism 56leakages 55modernization and economic

growth 54-55pro-poor tourism 56sustainable development 55-56

tourism versus developmentadaptation, Western ideas 62ecotourism 62major landmarks and attractions

Vietnam war 58Hospitality, golf tourism

developers opinion 152properties owners 152-153

Human biological materials (HBMs)exploitation 81medical travel 81omissive coercion 81

members andinstitutionalization 203-204

power 204ideology and tourism

neo-colonial type 205-206`new tourism' 205òld tourism' 204-205tourist experience 204work versus leisure 204

importance 202international tourism 211role 201thematic categories 203tourism politics 212UNWTO 201

Ironiesacademic coverage, ethics 13-14codes, conduct and consumers 14-15consumers' knowledge, ethics 12-13

62 ethics, programmes 14moralization 12predispositions, consumers 13

IGOs' see Intergovernmental organizationsIndian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA) 131Indigenous stewardship, ecotourism

aboriginal community development 109cultures 108literature 108sustainable implementation 109

Intergovernmental organizations (IGOs')contemporary societies and tourism

action and discourse 206-207organization and institution 207role and significance 206UNWTO 207

declarationsdescription 207-208development and poverty 211GCOEFT 209Manila 208-209metropolitan tourism 210`Millennium Development

Goals' 210references 209-210

description 201discourses 202factor 202ideology and discourse

concept 203

Kotu and Senegambiaemployees 221`host' 221-222ìnside' and 'outside' space 221TDA 220-221tourist police 221tour operators, practices 221

Lifestyle migration see Residential tourismLisbon Treaty

community method 36European Commission (2010) 37political integration 35

Mass tourismcontroversies 11culture and environment, host peoples 10development 11-12negative impacts 10

Mass versus volunteer tourism 245,246Mayan culture in Mayan Riviera

achievements 42Alltournative 47-49authenticity and commodification

arguments 43critics 44detachment 43ethnic tourism 43polluting agent 44questions 51staging and ensuing 43

264 Index

Mayan culture in Mayan Riviera (continued)`Cancun-Tulum corridor' 42construction 41globalization 50issues 50,51`living culture' 42maintenance, myth 50marketing 42`sun- and- sand' playground 41tourism

all-inclusive resorts 44-45attractions 45SECTUR 45transformation 44

tourist attractions 42-43Xcaret 45-47

National Gaming Impact Study Commission(NGISC) 125

Native American Indian CasinosCalifornia versus Cabazon 131IGRA 131-132tribe 132

Natural Resources and Means Committee(NRMC) 234

Nepalese Tourist Board (NTB) 229,234Nepal Tourism Year (NTY) 234,235NGISC see National Gaming Impact Study

CommissionNRMC see Natural Resources and Means

CommitteeNTB see Nepalese Tourist BoardNTY see Nepal Tourism Year

PAC see Public Accounts CommitteePanafest

cultural and political significanceactivities and attractions 197African union 196-197Diaspora 197-198objectives 196

experiential controversies 198Preventive Detention Act (PDA) 189Public Accounts Committee (PAC) 233,234

Quality control and certification,ecotourism

benefits and local communities 111cultural equity 111eco-labelling programmes 110-111

Residential tourismanalytical tool

international 166sampling method 166

concept 161description 160healthcare

EU country 163northern European retirees 164services 163

interactionsprecarious situation 165Spanish and European citizens 165

Mediterranean 160migration 160political implications

EU member states 165local elections 164organization 164-165

social problemsdevelopment 162European retirees presence 162-163situation 163

Spain's Mediterranean coast 162typology

characteristics 169,170Costa Blanca 167lifestyle migration 167-168nationality, lifestyle migration 167,

168property possession, home

country 168reason, moving 169socio-demographic data

analysis 166-167Respondents, Hill tribes of Thailand

damage 62economic gain 61multimedia 61-62

Small and medium enterprises(SMEs) 23,27

Spain's Mediterranean coastAlicante province 162socio-economic modernization 162tourism industry 162

TDA see Tourism Development AreaTourism

alternative 12description 7destination's infrastructure 19education

freedom 18-19leisure 17-18recreation business and leisure

industry 16-17

Index 265

ethical deficitfeatures, modern society 9green tourism 9principles creation 10types 9

and freedom 7-8ironies 12-15mass tourism 10-12morality

agent, change 8-9articles, ethics global code 15,16problems, industry 15-16social and political decision making 8

Tourism, 1990-2000Green paper, European Union (EU) role

mutual consultation 28-29positions, institutions 29social and economic harmony 27statistical data 30

years, progresscommunity policies 27ECU 25Maastricht Treaty 25principle, subsidiarity 26

years, recessionintergovernmental conference 31international measures 31Philoxenia programme 30

Tourism Development Area (TDA) 220-221Tourism policy, European Union (EU)

actions addressing tourism before 1990EEC 24single European Act 25World War II 24

after 2000Barroso period 35Draft Treaty establishing constitution,

Europe 33-34Lisbon Treaty 35-37Prodi period 32-33sustainable and competitive

tourism 34-35decade, 1990 to 2000

Green paper, European Unionrole 27-30

recession years 30-32years, progress 25-27

SMEs 23strategic targets and priorities 35voluntarism 23

Tourism Research and Marketing (TRAM) 242Trophy hunting, ethical issues

argumentsanimal suffering 91argali sheep and white rhino 92blue wildebeest 91breeding programmes 91

breeding stock 92CAMPFIRE scheme 90catch-and-release fishing 92DDE 96economic value 90hunting community 93put-and-take hunting 93-94red deer stag 93resilience 90transformation 90,96trophy-hunting scheme 92white rhino populations 91wildlife tourism 90

colonial expansion 86consumptive wildlife tourism see Wildlife

tourismdefined 87disagreement 87ethical lens

ènvironmental ethic' 94-95moral consideration 95moral rights 94opponents 95thinking 94trivial and urgent interests 95-96utilitarianism 95

human activity 86issues 96-97travelling 86

United gold coast convention (UGCC) 189

Vagabond 20Valderrama Declaration 150Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) 243Volunteer tourism

area 251and communities

community-based tourism 250environmental problems,

solutions 249institutions and organizations 250interactive process, host and

guests 248local community, seeks 249local social environment 248neo-colonialism 248sectors 250skills and recognition, local

communities 249sustainable environmental

management 249tourism industry 250

criticisms 243demographics, groups 245-246

266 Index

Volunteer tourism (continued)ecotourism 251firms and organizations, market

place 242-243literature 242market segmentation 243mass tourism debate 245organizations and management 247-248psychographic characteristics 246-247sustainable development 244-245TRAM 242Trekforce expeditions 243VSO 243Wearing definition 243-244

VSO see Voluntary Service Overseas

Wildlife tourismcaution 89conceptualization 87

concern 88definition, non-consumptive 88dualism 87embodied experience 88plastic and slob hunting 89protected areas 88shooter 89sports hunter 89viewing activities 88

World Tourism Organization (WTO) 15

Xcaretarchaeological ruins 46Tisney-like' 46-47impression 47recreational activities 45scholars' reactions 46staging 47witness 46

Documents

Controversies in Tourism - Ultimate Kashmir€¦ · controversies in tourism are both ample and widespread. For example, regarding devel-opment, Spretnak (1999) asks whether the discourse