Tourism and Sustainability (PDF)

Increasingly advocates of tourism argue that tourism growth offers a means for Third World countries to escape the confines of 'underdevelopment' and that new forms of tourism in particular allow this transition to be achieved sustainably and equitably. Building upon this fundamental precept, this book explores and challenges the notions of sustainability, globalisation and development and their relationship to contemporary tourism in the third world.

Adopting a broad geographical and conceptual perspective, the authors contend that a clear understanding of the tourism process and its relationship to development can only be achieved by an interdisciplinary approach, touching on environmentalism, sociocultural studies, human geography, economics and development studies.

In the first part of the book the emergence of the concepts of sustainability, globalisation and development and their application to contemporary tourism are critically examined. Tracing the inception of sustainability within environmentalism, it is argued that sustainability has emerged as a hegemonic discourse. The meaning of sustainability is competed over by a variety of interests and the relationships between these interests and the growth of new forms of tourism are discussed. It is argued that tourism can only be fully assessed within a broader consideration of the structure and relationships of power.

Developing this conceptual framework, the second part of the book explores a number of critical themes. There are chapters on tourists, their relationship to new social movements, tour operators, tourist destinations the policies adopted by national governments and on the impact of international and supranational agencies. The conclusion of the book draws the various strands together and considers a number of alternative ways in which the development of tourism in the Third World might progress.