Tourism: A Vehicle for Development?

Richard Sharpley

Introduction

Tourism is, without doubt, one of the major social and economic phenomena of modern times. Since the early 1900s when, as a social activity, it was largely limited to a privileged minority, the opportunity to participate in tourism has become increasingly widespread. At the same time, distinctions between both tourism destinations and modes of travel as markers of status have become less defined; tourism, in short, has become increasingly democratised (Urry & Larsen, 2011). It also now 'accounts for the single largest peaceful movement of people across cultural boundaries in the history of the world' (Lett, 1989: 277), an international movement of people that, in 2012, reached over 1 billion arrivals for the first time (UNWTO, 2013b). In 2013, international arrivals reached 1087 million, a 5% increase on the 2012 total (UNWTO, 2014). Moreover, if on a global basis domestic tourism trips are also taken into account, this figure is estimated to be between six and 10 times higher.

Reflecting this dramatic growth in the level of participation, what has long been referred to as the 'pleasure periphery' (Turner & Ash, 1975) of tourism has also expanded enormously. Not only are more distant and exotic places attracting ever-increasing numbers of international tourists – as noted in the introduction to this book, more than 70 countries, including Jordan, Cuba, Peru, Chile, Costa Rica, Vietnam and Cambodia, now receive in excess of 1 million international visitors each year – but also few countries have not become tourist destinations. Even the world's most remote or dangerous areas are attracting increasing numbers of visitors. For example, in 1997 some 15,000 tourists visited the Antarctic, a figure that had reached 37,552 by 2006–2007 (British Antarctic Survey, 2011), while, prior to the 2003 war, Iraq was promoting itself as a tourist destination, ironically using the slogan 'From Nebuchadnezzar to Saddam Hussein: 2240 years of peace and prosperity' (Roberts, 1998: 3). By 2009, tour operators were again officially escorting tourists to that war-torn country and recent reports point to a resurgence of tourism there. Moreover, as evidence of this emergence of tourism as a truly global activity, the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) now publishes annual tourism statistics for about 215 states.

However, tourism is not only a social phenomenon; it is also big business. Certainly, 'mobility, vacations and travel are social victories' (Krippendorf, 1986: 523), yet the ability of ever-increasing numbers of people to enjoy travel-related experiences has depended, by necessity, upon the myriad of organisations and businesses that comprise the 'tourism industry'. In other words, tourism has also developed into a powerful, world-wide economic force. International tourism alone generated over US$1.075 billion in 2012 (UNWTO, 2013b) whilst, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), if both direct and indirect expenditure is taken into account then global tourism – including domestic tourism – is a $7 trillion industry, accounting for over 10% of world gross domestic product (GDP) and around 9% of global employment. Such remarkable figures must, of course, be treated with some caution; as Cooper et al. (1998: 87) once observed, 'it is not so much the size of these figures that is so impressive, but the fact that anybody should know the value of tourism, the level of tourism demand or to be able to work these figures out'. Nevertheless, there can be no doubting the economic significance that tourism has assumed throughout the world.

Owing to its rapid and continuing growth and associated potential economic contribution, it is not surprising that tourism is widely regarded in practice and also in academic circles as an effective means of achieving development. That is, in both the industrialised and less developed countries of the world, tourism has become 'an important and integral element of their development strategies' (Jenkins, 1991: 61). Similarly, within the tourism literature, the development and promotion of tourism is largely justified on the basis of its catalytic role in broader social and economic development. Importantly, however, prior to the early 2000s, relatively little attention had been paid in the literature to the meaning, objectives and processes of that 'development'. In other words, although extensive research had been undertaken into the positive and negative developmental consequences of tourism, such research had, with a few exceptions, been 'divorced from the processes which have created them' (Pearce, 1989: 15). Over the last decade, of course, increasing academic attention has been paid to the relationship between tourism and development, including the first edition of this book. Nevertheless, tourism's alleged contribution to development generally continues to be tacitly accepted whilst a number of fundamental questions remain unanswered. For example, what is 'development'? What are the aims and objectives of development? How is development achieved? Does tourism represent an effective or realistic means of achieving development? Who benefits from development? What forces/influences contribute to or militate against the contribution of tourism to development?

The overall purpose of this book is to address these and other questions by, in particular, establishing and exploring the links between the discrete yet interconnected disciplines of tourism studies and development studies. In this first chapter, therefore, we consider the concepts of and interrelationship between tourism and development, thereby providing the framework for the application of development theory to the specific context of tourism in Chapter 2...