4 Tourism development in Mexico Communities are experiencing intensified pressures to participate in the tourism industry

Box 6.4 Tourism development in Mexico Communities are experiencing intensified pressures to participate in the tourism industry

as it undergoes a shift from highly localized resort development to a mode that increas- ingly stresses the marketing of the physical and human environment, including the archae- ological remains of pre-Hispanic Maya civilization . . .

First, will the further penetration of tourism result in improved material and social conditions for the local population? Second, will these communities be given an oppor- tunity to play a significant role in determining their own future? And, . . . can the Maya generate sufficient political power to protect their property rights and minimize the social and cultural costs of tourism?

13111 From the beginning, the expansion of tourism in this part of Mexico . . . has been very much the work of national and international agencies and institutions, both public and private . . . Fundamentally, local people and local resources have been approached as elements to be ‘managed’ by planners engaged in macroeconomic strategies . . .

in places like Quintana Roo – if history and experience are any guide – a ‘managed’ environment is bound to translate into an environment managed by outsiders chiefly to satisfy the needs of outsiders. It is a short step from external direction to what can be termed a process of appropriation, by which physical environment, and within it human societies and historical remains, become subtly redefined as global patrimony – universal property . . .

These issues and questions – fundamentally matters of power and its representation – have been very much on our minds as we consider environmental and economic priori- ties as defined by outsiders and compare such plans and visions to the realities of life experienced at the local level in Coba, a Maya village and major archaeological site.

. . . much that now makes Quintana Roo so appealing as an ecological treasure house and location of well-preserved Maya antiquities is attributable to environmentally benign patterns of subsistence and the . . . inaccessibility.

Affluent, educated, and dressed in fashionable expedition gear, the visitors who lodge at the villas clearly represent the up-market end of the business. Altogether, Coba is as close to a soft-path archaeological tourist location as one is likely to find.

Source: Daltabuit and Pi-Sunyer (1990)

of threatened tropical forest and other wilderness areas over the past decade.’ For paying your £25 (approximately US$40) for an acre you will receive a personalised certificate and regular news updates. As was pointed out in Chapter 3, this example would appear to display the antithesis of local control.

In this context, Shiva sees the global debates around environmental concerns, such as those at the Rio and Rio + 10 summits, in a restrictive sense and as more akin to an application of eco-colonialism:

Unlike the term suggests, the global . . . was not about . . . [the] life of all people, including the poor of the Third World, or the life of the planet . . . The ‘global’ of today reflects a modern version of the global reach of a handful of British merchant adventurers who, as the East Company, later, the British Empire raided and looted large areas of the world.

162 • Socio-environmental organisations

And drawing conclusions from their work on tourism developments in Mexico (Box 6.4), Daltabuit and Pi-Sunyer describe the contemporary version of this global reach:

Environmental concerns clearly strike a deep chord in the educated Western public. Environmentalism often utilizes a powerful rhetoric that is virtually identical to that of nationalism. With it, however, comes an element of privi- leged discourse that harks back to the formulations that gave such authority to development theory, especially as it was applied to the Third World. In both cases, ideology legitimises interventionist policies. Problems are defined and solutions formulated not within the societies in question but by outside experts who are accorded extensive power and prestige.

(1990: 10) Colchester (1994) reaches a similar conclusion, arguing that the fashion for linking the

‘global’ and the ‘environment’ has encouraged international and state interventions – and this quite clearly carries connotations of the exercise of international power: environ- mental globalisation.

Environmentalism and discourse

One way of representing the power reflected in environmentalism is through the notion of discourse (already discussed in Chapters 2 and 3). Adams argues that in adopting the terminology, or discourse, of sustainability, environmentalists have ‘attempted to capture some of the vision and rhetoric of development debates’ (2001: 3). But decontextualised from power and a more critical understanding offered through a political economy perspective, he argues that such usage has taken on a disturbing naivety and that sustain- able development (as defined by Brundtland), although superficially attractive, remains

a ‘better slogan than it is a basis for theory’ (1990: 3). It is an emerging aspect of this discourse that the activity of tourism can be con-

veniently linked with terms such as ‘environment’, ‘environmental management’, ‘bio- diversity management’ and ‘ecosystem protection’, to imply a notional sustainability of development. IUCN and WWF reports and pamphlets regularly talk of the protection of areas for and by the development of nature tourism. For example, the IUCN Central America Office’s publication Recursos refers to the objectives for the IUCN’s work in the Talamanca region of Costa Rica thus: ‘The community will use the land to pursue and create conservation activities, scientific tourism, research and demonstration plots, with the aim of stimulating new development projects in the area’ (1989: 58). And the WWF–UK’s annual review for 1991 refers to ‘great potential for tourism’ exhibited by the Gashaka-Gumpti reserve in Nigeria which after years of decline still has bright prospects, especially for tourism. ‘The Nigerian government has now declared Gashaka- Gumpti as a National Park and WWF has asked to assist in this work’ (1991: 15).

An added problem has been the intellectual weight afforded to the discourse of First World environmentalists. In Chapter 3 we referred to Sachs’s arguments that the concept of the ecosystem as discourse has provided scientific credibility to the environmental debate and movement. In a similar vein, Yearley argues that such problems are posed by the manner in which expert knowledge and scientific diagnosis and reasoning are employed in environmental management, a problem that can be applied to the issue of biodiversity.

Given the centrality of science, it is understandable that the discourse of science will affect the way that environmental problems are thought of . . . Unless there

Socio-environmental organisations • 163

are powerful reasons to the contrary, scientists assume that natural processes are consistent throughout the natural world . . . the point is that science aspires to universally valid truths . . . a universalizing discourse . . . This orientation has left its stamp on the overall international discourse of environmental management.

(1995: 226) It is interesting to reflect on Yearley’s use of ‘discourse’ here. Clearly, he is signalling

that ‘science’ and its use in addressing ‘environmental problems’ and ‘environmental management’ is a further way in which power is expressed. As he goes on to argue, doubts have been raised about the way in which the First World has analysed and inter- preted ‘global environmental questions’. A similar line of reasoning is equally applic-

13111 able to the debates over both the environmental impact of tourism and tourism’s role in addressing environmental degradation.

Cloning

There is a final route through which a First World conditioning of Third World environ- mental issues manifests itself – especially along the development and environmentalist channel, one which could be labelled ‘cloning’. Reservations have been raised about the manner in which environmental INGOs reproduce themselves at the local level. It is, in one sense, a well-crafted technique of propagating self-like organisations and claiming that the concerns of some organisations are also reflected, as by magic, in the Third World. The Third World is teeming with the ‘sons and daughters’ of development and environ- mental INGOs, many of which are created in a self-like image. In 1992 Jon Tinker, then President of the Panos Institute (UK), described this as the ‘parrot syndrome’.

A genuine global shift towards sustainable development in 1992? One barrier is the parrot syndrome: Northern environmentalists recruiting Southern NGOs to endorse Northern analyses and policies. Whales, the fur trade, global warming, Antarctica: the fact-studded, rhetoric-laden, morally impregnable and full-colour-lithographed NGO case often seems irresistible. Southern NGOs are too easily seduced into supporting it uncritically. They mirror Northern thoughts back to the North, and we call it a global network. But back home, the Southern NGOs begin to talk with strong Northern accents and rapidly become discredited. You can often detect the parrot syndrome when Latin American wildlife NGOs talk about rainforests. Some of them have lost their domestic credibility, because they now sound like North American clones. The remedy? More self-restraint among environmentalists in the UK and elsewhere in the North: less eco-evangelism, less certainty that we are right, more listening. And greater efforts to help Southern NGOs prepare and disseminate their own analysis of development issues.

(1992) As Tinker implies, part of the answer must lie in acknowledging that First World agen-

cies, organisations and institutions do not have all the right solutions, and it is neces- sary to move beyond the somewhat patronising viewpoint that we can ‘help others from developing countries to help themselves’ as Coral Cay Conservation put it (Expeditions brochure, 1996). This cloning has its reflection in the field of tourism where there is a strong sense that the First World has the blueprints for successful environment-friendly

11111 tourism.

164 • Socio-environmental organisations

We return to the local dimensions of new tourism in Chapter 8; suffice it to note at this point the way in which the notion of a benevolent ‘local community’ has been so universally subsumed by First World organisations and commentators. So much so that it could even be argued that this is a further reflection and extension of commodifica- tion; Third World local communities have emerged as commodities utilised by the myriad INGOs that have emerged in the late twentieth century, to secure grants and aid, and on their behalf widespread fundraising is undertaken. As Korten (1996) concludes, while NGOs can clearly have an important role in building local economies and in advo- cacy for policies that strengthen local control, not all NGOs are created equal.

Conclusion

Environmentalism and environmental issues are central to the debates over contempo- rary tourism and the emergence of new, alternative types of activity that seek to escape the environmental harmfulness associated with mass tourism. Rather than cataloguing types of environmental degradation and the responses to it, this chapter has tried to demonstrate the scope of environmentalism and how this is reflected in the debates and types of action related to tourism and notions of sustainability and sustainable devel- opment.

Our discussion started from a recognition of broader contemporary change, and charted the linkages between environmentalism, the new middle classes and new forms of politics, especially as expressed through the socio-environmental movement. This is an important starting-point for comprehending the nature and content of the debate and the advocacy of new forms of tourism.

Although not strictly linear and exclusive, the environmental types identified by Eckersley help capture the continuum of environmentalism and environmental politics. Above all, this is a means of demonstrating that environmentalism itself is a highly contested arena, with socio-environmental organisations differing markedly over the most appropriate interpretations, policies and programmes, and especially how these relate to ‘sustainable tourism’.

Central to the discussion is the manner in which these debates are transmitted through INGOs. This is important, for as later chapters discuss, while it is the most powerful countries together with the World Bank, IMF, other supranational agencies and the transnational tourism industry, that represent the centres of power and are often presented as the protagonists in discussions of Third World tourism, much less critical attention has been applied to the activities of the multinational INGOs and smaller NGOs. These organisations, often mobilised under the cloak of benevolence and respectability around issues of environment, have tended to escape criticism. However, the formulation of environmental politics in the First World and the drawing of other, Third World, places into a global environmental order are significant elements in the way in which power is reflected through new forms of tourism.

7 The industry: lies, damned lies and sustainability

13111 Of all the players in the activity of tourism, those in the tourism industry itself have traditionally faced more blame than all others. They have been the target for some much- deserved criticism; and they have also been the easy scapegoat for many negative impacts of tourism developments.

This chapter considers the tourism industry’s adaptations to the new forms of tourism and the different means by which it has made and is making these adaptations. In order to set the scene we first attempt to place the tourism industry in the context of the system of free trade that currently prevails in capitalist economies. This discussion is extended to include a consideration of the notion of fair trade in tourism. The scene-setting also necessarily includes a consideration of the size and structure of the industry which helps to explain some of the adaptations to the notion of sustainability that both the conven- tional mass and the new forms of the industry are making.

We recognise that in themselves the two descriptive labels, ‘mass’ and ‘new’, are problematic and that there is considerable blurring at the divide between them. There is great uncertainty about the relevant definitions, as Chapter 4 illustrated – what is consid- ered as a ‘new’ form of tourism and as ‘sustainable’ varies from person to person, value to value, and within the industry. This blurring of the distinction between the two types is increasing as two processes unfold: first, the large companies offering conventional mass tours are increasingly diversifying their activities to offer exclusive tours with a difference; and second, as the growth in new and alternative tours continues, a number of specialist companies have started to emerge as dominant within this sector and, we would argue, take on certain characteristics more commonly associated with the large- scale operators.

Notwithstanding these difficulties of definition, the chapter develops the critique of new tourism outlined earlier in the book as it applies to the industry. The section ‘Re- defining sustainability’ (pp. 179–99) examines some of the ways in which both forms of tourism manipulate the notion of sustainability to their own ends, and the last section of the chapter (pp. 200–9) briefly sketches some of the new personnel involved in new forms of the industry and some recently emerged features of the industry.

Trade and tourism

It is important to emphasise that the ideology of free trade as the most efficient means of operating and managing economies is synonymous with economic globalisation, and as we have argued the spread of capitalist relations of production is pervasive and is witnessed in the rapid growth of tourism. Free trade also implies the need for global harmonisation between trading entities (sovereign nation states). More notably, free

166 • The industry

trade, economic growth and development are regarded as axiomatic in the hegemonic discourse of development, that is, the discourse that pervades the supranational and national agencies: the World Bank, IMF, United Nations, Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), EU and G8 governments.

Development, as Rist (1997) argues in his history of development, has a rich lineage. Discourses on development can be traced back to the so-called founding father of economics, Adam Smith, and the pervasive influence of An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (first published in 1776). As Rist (1997) argues, the ‘nature’ of change and development is significant here in drawing parallels to natural progression and growth, the triumph of social evolutionism in which the superiority of the West was guaranteed and a general creed of development emerged whereby:

there was general agreement on the three essential points: that progress has the same substance (or nature) as history; that all nations travel the same road; and that all do not advance at the same speed as Western society, which therefore has an indisputable ‘lead’ because of the greater size of its production, the dominant role that reason plays within it, and the scale of its scientific and tech- nological discoveries.

(Rist, 1997: 40) Herein lie the roots of a ‘totalizing discourse’ (Rist, 1997: 39) of development as a single

linear progression of economic growth and well-being, a model that, as discussed in Chapter 2, has been adopted by a number of theorists as a series of steps or stages (such as Rostow’s The Stages of Economic Growth) to the ‘promised land’ – a developed state. And as Chapter 4 demonstrated similar conceptual models have been advanced in tourism studies. It is the universal acceptance that there can be no ‘development’ without economic growth, an equation that commands near universal respect and that needs to

be questioned (Rist, 1997). And so it is open and deregulated markets – free trade – that appear to provide the cornerstone for ‘development’. World Bank Senior Adviser William Easterly under- scores the significance of free trade both to the World Bank and his analysis of devel- opment economics:

exporting those things and importing the things that they are not so good at

Free trade allows economies to specialise in what they are best at doing,

producing. Interference with trade distorts prices so that inefficient producers will get subsidised. This distortion could affect growth because inefficient resource use lowers the rate of return to investing in the future.

(2001: 230) And yet the myth of free trade itself manages to hide the uneven and unequal economic

interdependencies manifest for example in trade protectionist measures adopted by First World governments. In this regard the hegemony of the USA is noteworthy, though equally the power vested in the G8 and key trading blocs (especially the NAFTA and the EU) should not be underestimated. Arthur MacEwan challenges these orthodoxies arguing that neoliberalism is:

based on the ideology of free markets, and the practitioners of neoliberalism argue that free markets are the best means by which to support the interests of US businesses and, through US business, the interests of the US economy and US citizens. Yet guided by the fundamental principle that their goal is to

The industry • 167

promote US business interests, US policy makers must continually violate free market principles.

(2001: 28) MacEwan argues that while neoliberalism fosters economic globalisation and the emer-

gence of global markets, ‘power always involves rivalries and those rivalries lead to inter- and intra-regional conflicts’ (2001: 30).

Vandana Shiva is equally critical of the market liberalisation agenda pursued by the centralised and undemocratic WTO/OMC, whose rules she argues ‘are driven by the objectives of establishing corporate control over every dimension of our lives’ and which need to give way to the ‘rights of all species and the rights of all people . . . before the rights of corporations to make limitless profits through limitless destruction’ (1999: 8).

Fair and ‘fairer’ trade

The protests at the Seattle WTO/OMC Ministerial Conference in 1999, the protests at subsequent meetings in Prague and at the 2001 G8 Summit in Genoa, have brought to

a head the fundamental significance of trade, debt and development and the impact of economic globalisation; issues where emotions run deep and opinion is very sharply divided. The significance of trade and debt to global development is certainly not new, and the staggering accumulation of Third World debt, and the central role of the indus- trialised nations in fuelling this crisis, from the 1960s is well-documented (George, 1988; Payer, 1991, see Chapter 9). What is noteworthy is the way in which the impacts, oppor- tunities and responses to globalisation have been steadily interpreted as ‘economic’ in nature.

There is little surprise that the myriad of social movements protesting and advocating against globalisation have honed in on the impacts of trade liberalisation, unequal trading dependencies and the relationship between debt and poverty. Indeed, some suggest that the mounting campaign for fairer global trading rules is set to become the next global campaign mounted by a coalition of INGOs and assorted civil society interests (Denny, 2002b). Equally there are moves to consider fairer, more ethical and more sustainable forms of trade and corporate governance (Starkey and Welford, 2001) and alternatives to globalisation through the growth of the localisation movement (Hines, 2000).

and to the role of business in sustainability. In recent years there has been a steady

In the 1990s the business sector slowly awoke to the sustainable development agenda

growth in ‘corporate social responsibility’ (CSR) and ‘triple bottom line reporting’ within which the impact of business in the economic, environmental and social sectors are accounted for and audited (Elkington, 2001); and the different forms of capital (economic, natural and social) have been defined. The degree of progress is question- able, however, and the fundamental inequalities in the structure of the global trading system remain intact. The questions remain to what degree is CSR an adequate response to global poverty and inequality, and to what extent is it a largely postmodern philan- thropy centred upon the power of consumers and an incremental and partial voluntarist response in an inadequately regulated global environment (Tourism Concern, 2002b).

There is also sceptisim from the business community, economists and observers. Former chief economist at the OECD, David Henderson, asserts that ‘widespread adop- tion of CSR would undermine the foundation of the market economy’ (Denny, 2001: 27). Commentators such as Klein (2001) contend that a large degree of the response has been to head off or respond to corporate ‘public relations’ disasters or alternatively to retain market share and customer loyalty in the context of heightened consumer aware-

11111 ness. Of course, when applied to the tourism sector where profit margins tend to be

168 • The industry

exceedingly tight, there are also issues of how far CSR can reasonably extend beyond relatively glib codes of conduct and tourist education exercises.

Codes of conduct, CSR and other techniques of regulating the industry are examined later in this chapter in the context of the debate around imposed regulation against self- regulation. As governments flirt and rut with globalisation they (and especially the powerful G8) have been negligent in accepting that ‘business is in the business of busi- ness’, at any cost so it seems, and have tacitly endorsed the worst excesses of economic globalisation on the premise that they are powerless to do anything. And worryingly protestors against inaction, unethical and unequal trade policy have been dismissed as naive fractional anarchists. The absence of ethical international leadership has been astounding. To many critics of the prevailing structures of power, one thing would appear clear: left to its own devices the western industrial and financial edifice is in- capable of genuine self-regulation and the social and environmental consequences are ominous.

Box 7.1 illustrates the continuum of different approaches to trade; the table’s presen- tation of material should not suggest a duality or polar opposites. Both approaches share

a common objective of seeking to improve the incomes and working conditions of Third World producers and workers. However, as Traidcraft the UK’s leading fair trade organ- isation argues, ‘they differ in the groups of producers and workers they target, and in the methods used to achieve their objectives, as well as the underlying objectives of the organisations involved in them’ (2001b). Whereas ethical trade seeks the ‘minimum’ adherence to legally enforceable international labour standards, fair trade purports to pursue the deeper objective of working directly with marginalised Third World producer communities to eliminate poverty and assist ‘development’. More specifically, fair trade approaches go beyond a number of common principles which include fixing a fair price, advancing payments and facilitating credit where necessary, establishing long-term rela- tionships between producers and fair trade partners and customers and forming direct trading relationships within fair trade partnerships.

Fair trade and tourism

There is not a single definitive description of what fair trade is. The international move- ment to secure a fairer deal for Third World producers is most readily associated with the trade of bananas, coffee, chocolate and ‘crafts’, and the activities of niche trading groups such as Traidcraft (UK). But there have been recent attempts to extend and apply fair trade ‘principles’ to holidays.

Fair trade has worked most effectively to date with simple and tangible commodities. Because wages and the share of total profit are usually lowest at the source of produc- tion (the small growers, pickers and packers), fair trade seeks to achieve a realistic wage per production cost for the most economically marginalised and vulnerable in the production and logistic chain. It is a challenge to traditional economic theory and prac- tice in that it seeks to set a price based on principles other than those of pure profit maximisation and on practices other than seeking the lowest cost of production in so-called efficient markets.

There is a number of initiatives that have some resonance of ‘fairly traded tourism’ most particularly through the ‘awareness holidays’ run directly or promoted by a growing number of non-governmental development organisations such as Oxfam and ActionAid. And there are elements of tourism related activities, such as the production and sale of local handicrafts, that provide the opportunity for elements of fair trade (Ashley et al., 2001). However, in one of the few attempts to provide a consolidated understanding of fair trade in tourism, Cleverdon and Kalisch observe: ‘Little or nothing

The industry • 169

Box 7.1 Fair, fairer, just and ethical tourism Fair(er) trade

Ethical trade

Bottom-up people-focused development Top-down development Producer/community driven – marginalised

Consumer-driven – what the market will producers in the Third World

bear

Forward linkages (South focused) from Backward linkages (North focused) Community Based Enterprises and Small

from Small and Medium Enterprises, and Medium Enterprises – organisations

Multinational and Transnational 13111

with explicit aim of providing benefits to

Corporations

their workers Social sustainability bottom line = fair

Sustainable development triple-bottom prices and poverty elimination or

line accounting with retained markets reduction

and shareholder equity. Economic primacy dictates

Direct trading relationships Mediated trading relationships Moral responsibility to ‘pro-poor’ trading

Corporate social responsibility and conditions and rules

market legitimation – codes of conduct Price determines ‘fair deal’; supported by

Enforcement of international standards: access to credit and other forms of

supplier codes; International Labour assistance

Organisation standards to monitor and verify

Fair trade and self-reliant trade

Managed trade

Fundamental economic change with new Manage democratic capitalist economies trade rules, global social justice and poverty through corporate governance, and state elimination as key objectives

and supranational agency regulatory frameworks and standards

Sources: Hines (2000); Dunkley (1997); Traidcraft (2001a, 2001b); Ethical Trading Initiative (2001)

is known about fair trade in services, let alone fair trade in the hospitality sector’ (2000: 175). Involving primary research and including a dialogue with tourism providers from Third World countries, their work provides one of the few focused insights.

Cleverdon and Kalisch (2000) document a number of key differences between fair trade in services and primary commodities as a means of identifying the potential and shape of fair trade in tourism. Perhaps the most significant difference is that fair trading organisations are non-profit making, and those small independent tour operators who are practising some quasi-fair trade elements (such as direct trading relationships) also need to ensure commercial viability. Price is a significant element here, and the authors argue that the tourism industry depends on low prices that are flexible, and whereas, for instance, the price of products like coffee can be gauged in relation to a fixed world price, the same would be difficult if not impossible in the tourism industry. This begs

11111 the questions as to whether price should be the main determinant of fair trade tourism

170 • The industry

and whether there are other attributes such as the degree of local control or the distrib- ution of benefits that may be more significant. There are also issues concerning the lack of collective organisation among Third World tourism producer communities, contrasted to the degree of collective organisation exhibited by primary commodity producers.

Other differences are perhaps less significant. Cleverdon and Kalisch argue that tourism is fundamentally different from traditional fairly traded commodities in that the ‘product’ – tourism – is intangible and invisible and is a multisectoral service activity incorporating diverse activities and sectors such as transport and agriculture. Of course, while the degree of complexity in tourism compared with fair trade commodities is beyond doubt, the production and distribution of commodities such as bananas also use

a diverse range of services from the non-agricultural sector, not least the logistic chains necessary to get products from producer to consumer (Cook, 1993). Although such prod- ucts may be ‘simple’, the multiple service chains involved are not.

Cleverdon and Kalisch identify six variables as ‘prerequisites for fair trade in tourism’. These are certainly not unique to the tourism sector, and must be understood within the context of a broader critique of development. As such they are reflective of the causes of unevenness and inequality that condition the activity of tourism. The prerequisites are ‘access to capital, ownership of resources, distribution of benefits and control over representation of the destination in tourist-generating countries, and it needs to ensure transparency of tourism operations, including price and working conditions’ (2000: 178). In short, this brew of fair trade in attempting to ‘provide a better deal for producers or, in the case of tourism, service providers in the South’ (178), has reflections in new forms of tourism and is not dissimilar to pro-poor tourism initiatives (Ashley et al., 2001).

In the context of economic globalisation and growing, not diminishing, inequalities, commentators have been quick to acknowledge the weaknesses and shortcomings of the fair trade movement. Small changes can undeniably make a significant positive impact to the lives of those involved. But the degree of change is likely to be minuscule in its impact on trading patterns and trends, at least for the foreseeable future. For example, while pro-poor tourism advocates claim their experiment is in its infancy, in terms of national poverty reduction pro-poor tourism has had little impact (Ashley et al., 2001: 41), and clearly tourism cannot be regarded as a panacea for rural development. (There is little or no literature on pro-poor urban tourism though it has begun to emerge in European cities involving immigrant communities.) Fair trade products also demonstra- bly involve niche markets. As Cleverdon and Kalisch (2000) observe, fair trade products constitute around 3 per cent of the commodity market, and there are no reasons to believe that fair trade tourism would comprise anything but a small percentage of the total global tourism industry; though the percentage contribution in individual countries can vary con- siderably, a point to which we return in the case study of Costa Rica (Chapter 9).

This once again raises questions among commentators as to the relative merits of fair trade (small-scale exemplary holidays, for example) as opposed to corporate social responsibility and ethical trade in tourism (involving corporate codes of conduct, regu- lation of the industry and compliance with minimum standards), or ultimately to local- isation and a reduction in western consumption (essentially travelling less). Although Hutnyk appears to sympathise with the good intentions of fair and alternative trade advo- cates, he concludes from his ethnographic study of alternative tourism in Kolkata (India): ‘Alternative travel, just as much as the alternative trade promoted by many organized aid groups, works as a reassuring front for continued extension of the logistics of the commodity system, even as it masquerades as a (liberal) project of cultural concern’ (1996: 215). And from an ethical perspective there are question marks against the promo- tion of elite ‘ethical’ niche markets, consumption patterns and trading systems that may reinforce, rather than challenge, global inequality.

The industry • 171

Size and structure of the industry The effect of scale of operation: is size important?

An outline of the size and structure of the industry is important because, as well as being the world’s largest single industry, it is also highly fragmented and diverse. It is composed of several different branches: tour operators; travel agents; accommodation providers; carriers; tourism associations (both NGOs and market-oriented associations); destination organisations (such as tourism chambers of commerce); and consultancies. Each of these can be further sub-divided. Figure 7.1 attempts to capture the significance of this scale and diversity.

This fragmentation is one of the factors which has led to minimal environmental regu- 13111

lation, while at the same time ensuring that plenty of examples of environmental ‘good practice’ can be found. These can be and are employed as marketing tools for the public image of the industry.

Given its size and structure, it is in fact tempting to ask as Tourism Concern does, what exactly is ‘the tourism industry’? Is there any such monolithic thing as

the title implies? In fact, what we call tourism really embraces a vast and diverse range of activities, from large-scale mass or package tours to small-scale,

HOTELS CARRIERS OPERATORS

Increases

TNCs

e.g. Hilton Hotels

British Airways

BA Holidays

(large)

ITT Sheraton

American Airlines

Swire Group

Accor

Lufthansa

Going Places

Hyatt

Japan Airlines

Saga

airlines – national operators in Power,

Smaller

Other trans-

First World Control

hotels

carriers

cruise ships

High Places and

e.g. Kenya Air

Carnival Corp.

Africa Exclusive

Nepal Air

Tica Bus

Dragoman

Small hotels,

Smaller carriers:

Service providers: Decreases

caterers, guides, Small

pensions,

car hire firms,

lodges,

taxis, buses, etc.

dive companies,

eco-lodges

(plus informal

Figure 7.1 Elements of the tourism industry Note: The companies are merely examples in the category: the list is not intended to be representative,

still less all-inclusive

172 • The industry

individually-tailored holidays; from internal domestic visits to family or friends, to international or intercontinental journeys, to business trips and ‘sun sand and sea’ recreational breaks; from activity, sports, nature, health, ‘green’ or alter- native holidays, to culture or adventure.

(Tourism Concern, 1992: 1) We accept the fact of this diversity and range of activities within the industry and believe

that the power held by different branches of the industry varies with size and scale. At its simplest level this means that transnational companies wield great power and influence over Third World governments while small-scale hoteliers have little clout, although at the local level this is not always true; transnationals and international industry organisations are able to influence the practices of the industry and the legislation of national governments, while local catering establishments cannot bring about changes in the industry even though they may adapt their own practices in response to external pressures; the northern tour operator has ready access to the clientele, while the Third World tour operator expends much energy attempting to capture the passing market of First World tourists. As stated here, this is greatly simplified, and of course there are small-scale companies and establishments which are highly significant within their local communities. But in general the scale of operation reflects the level of power and the ability to influence other relevant organisations in tourism such as government.

These differing levels of power are reflected in different ways of adapting to change. Companies vary considerably in the way they absorb the practices of new tourism or redefine sustainable practices so that they merge into existing practices with relative ease.

It can be argued that the greater the size and power of the company the stronger the profit maximisation motive – although this latter term can cover a number of business management strategies – and the more likely it is that the industry will use consulta- tion, codes of conduct, internal management restructuring and other methods as public relations exercises to ‘green’ their image and as alternatives to introducing significant changes in practice. Such changes would reduce the impact of their development and move towards sustainability, but would also run the danger of reducing profits. The imperative and methods of sustaining profits have already been discussed in Chapter 2. Conversely, the weaker the profit motive, the more willing the operators of the company will be to change practices. This can be argued as a general rule, but it is clearly one

that has many exceptions.

It is important to add that ethical issues are not necessarily uppermost in the minds of those who run small-scale, specialist tourism businesses. Any consideration of the effects of size, however, must obviously take in the power of the transnational corpo- rations involved in tourism and their ability to determine the nature and direction of developments in the industry.

Transnational companies (TNCs)

Lea (1988) pointed out that ‘the three main branches of the industry – hotels, airlines and tour companies – have become increasingly transnational in their operations in the 1970s and 1980s, to the point where these large enterprises dominate all others’ (1988: 12). Hong (1985), Lea (1988) and Madeley (1996) have all claimed that the operations of TNCs dominate and control the development of tourism, and Kalisch claims that ‘Eighty per cent of the mass tourism market is dominated by TNCs’ (2001: 2).

TNCs achieve this domination in a number of ways. For the hotel industry in Third World countries, for instance, Hong identifies five forms of TNC participation (see Box

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