Tourism as a right: a “frivolous claim” against degrowth?

Abstract

Social movements and academic sectors gather information on the negative consequences of tourism development. These consequences affect the rights of the local population, and favour global processes such as Climate Change. In light of this situation, numerous voices are calling for a slowdown in the growth of tourism. They are even calling for its degrowth. The strategy of the tourism sector has been to put forward discourses and actions aimed at preventing the application of limitations to its activity. This article focuses on an action promoted by the UNWTO: the aim to turn tourism into a human right. First, the text offers a critical analysis of what this idea is based on and the debate it has generated. It then investigates its motives. The work concludes that by legitimizing tourism as a supposed human right, it would allow the debate to centre on a conflict of rights (the right of the citizen as a tourist against the rights of the citizen as a resident of a territory or as a worker). Because a debate between rights always ends up in stalemate. This way, degrowth proposals in tourism would be neutralized.     

Territorial tourism planning in Spain: from boosterism to tourism degrowth?

Abstract

Tourism saturation and unsustainability have been studied in urban political ecology. Both of these problems are inseparable from tourism planning and they have resulted in proposed solutions based on growth containment and even degrowth. These types of measures have been applied to varying degrees in mature coastal destinations in Spain since the 1990s, and they are currently being used for the country's main urban destinations due to problems generated by tourism saturation. This study examines the progressive incorporation of these measures in territorial tourism planning in Spain and it points out that the traditional emphasis on urban-tourism growth is declining and that more restrictive policies are now being implemented. This shift is illustrated through the analysis of three innovative territorial tourism planning instruments in Barcelona, the Balearic Islands and the Autonomous Region of Valencia. These ostensibly progressive processes suffer from crippling contradictions due to their inability to directly confront the capitalist accumulation model underlying the tourism growth they address. Consequently, much stronger measures capable of transcending this accumulation model in pursuit of genuine, and fair degrowth without systemic constraints are needed.     

Buen Vivir: Degrowing extractivism and growing wellbeing through tourism

Abstract

Buen Vivir (BV) is a holistic vision for social and environmental wellbeing, which includes alternative economic activities to the neoliberal growth economy. This article looks at how tourism initiatives under a BV approach can lead to degrowth by drawing on a case study of how BV is put into practice through tourism in the Cotacachi County in Ecuador. We argue that by degrowing socially and environmentally damaging extractive sectors and growing alternative economic activities like community-based tourism, a BV approach could increase social and environmental wellbeing. We refer to LaTouche’s notion of degrowth as a matrix of multiple alternatives that will reopen the space for human creativity. This complements the notion of BV as a plural approach, and in turn works to decolonise the parameters of how we might understand degrowth. In the case of Cotacachi, the vision for tourism is based on the needs of the community, rather than to satisfy a Eurocentric ideal of development supported by a policy of extractivism. BV is key to how this community conceptualises the potentialities of tourism because it considers the wellbeing of the people and the environment. In this case, degrowth is a consequence of BV, rather than the objective.     

The social construction of the tourism degrowth discourse in the Balearic Islands

Abstract

In recent years, overtourism and tourism gentrification have been a central feature of public debate in the Balearic Islands, one of the most touristified regions on the planet. In this context, the discourse of tourism degrowth has thrived, being discussed across the political spectrum and even serving to legitimize a sustainable tourism plan and a new Tourism Act. This article provides a brief analysis of the debate around tourism degrowth in the 2014–2019 period and differentiates between two approaches. On the one hand, tourism degrowth has been used by socio-environmental platforms as a byword for detourisfication and the politicization of the hegemonic consensus on tourism. On the other, degrowth has been adopted as a green washing rhetoric in order to justify public policies aimed at tourist decongestion through deseasonalizing, while promoting tourism expansion. This work brings into focus the social construction of the tourism degrowth narrative by applying critical discourse analysis. We conclude that the debate over tourism degrowth is not just a discrepancy between different approaches to deal with overtourism, tourism pressure and gentrification. It is also a social struggle where the discourse over tourism degrowth has helped new democratic political subjects to coalesce and organize in civil society.     

Overtourism and degrowth: a social movements perspective

Abstract

Overtourism is a contemporary phenomenon, rapidly evolving and underlined by what is evidently excessive visitation to tourist destinations. This is obvious in the seemingly uncontrolled and unplanned occurrence of urban overtourism in popular destinations and arguably a consequence of unregulated capital accumulation and growth strategies heavily associated with selling cities as tourism commodities. The vested interests of social movements has converged into growing protests against overtourism and associated degrowth campaigns have emerged out of this activism that calls for alternative governance and management measures that eschew touristic monoculture and simplistic economic growth-oriented models. Accordingly, we explore the evolution of the tourism degrowth discourse among social movement activists in Barcelona, and in particular, where this is related to claims associated with overtourism and the extent to which this might be influencing a paradigm shift from ‘tourism growth’ to ‘tourism degrowth’. Methodologically, we draw from an overarching framework that leverages long-term ethnographic research in Barcelona. Here, we employ in-depth semi-structured interviews, participant observations, informal conversations and retrospective evaluation of field diary entries.     

Opportunity or threat? Finnish hunters’ attitudes to hunting tourism

This article examines elements of the social sustainability of hunting tourism development by scrutinising Finnish hunters’ opinions on three possible scenarios related to hunting tourism: the threat of an exclusion of local hunters, the threat of rising rents of hunting land and the threat to Finnish hunting customs and practice due to increasing numbers of foreign hunting tourists. Hunters’ positions on these three issues are mapped and the determinants of their attitudes are analysed using unique national survey data on Finnish hunters and their attitudes (N= 1193). The results show a clear ambivalence to hunting tourism among hunters. While a majority of hunters tend to view hunting tourism as a threat, a large minority relate to it more positively. These attitudinal patterns can be explained only partly by socioeconomic factors, whereas factors pertaining to hunting experience and hunting profile play a somewhat more prominent role in understanding the legitimacy that hunting tourism enjoys in the eyes of hunters in Finland. Age, rural residence and participation in wildlife management are also found important for some issues. The ambiguities revealed could pose major problems for social sustainability and hunting tourism management and development.     

Organic farm volunteer tourism as social movement participation: a Polanyian political economy analysis of World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF) in Hawai‘i

In recent years, Karl Polanyi's concept of the “double movement” has been resurrected to describe growing international resistance to neoliberal global capitalism. The double movement originally referred to counter-movements for social protection against the 19th and early 20th century laissez-faire market. Today, it describes the growth of new social movements which often resist neoliberal economic practices and ideologies. Drawing on Polanyi's concept of the double movement and on recent work on neoliberalism and new social movements, this article examines farm hosts' motivations for participation in World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF). It argues that farm hosts tend to articulate their motivations as an attempt to proclaim solidarity with organic, spiritual, and educational new social movement agendas. It describes how a loosely articulated organic identity converges around three corollary protective counter-movements: organic food production and consumption, spirituality, and alternative education, exploring the creative ways people are resisting neoliberal capitalism at the intersection of alternative tourism and organic agriculture. Yet, despite hosts' intentions, the article illustrates how new social movement participation through WWOOF is in constant tension with the neoliberal agrarian and tourism marketplace in which it operates, as well as the perhaps unforeseen limits of its radical horizon.     

An environmental social marketing intervention in cultural heritage tourism: a realist evaluation

ABSTRACT

Following Pawson and Tilley's principles of realist evaluation and the context–mechanism–outcome (CMO) framework, this paper conducts a process evaluation of an environmental social marketing intervention in a heritage tourism organisation. Social marketing and employee environmental interventions have received relatively scant attention in tourism. Additionally, prior literature mostly focused on the evaluation of intervention outcomes (i.e. how far the intervention produces precise targeted outcomes) and ignores the importance of process evaluation (i.e. identifying what works, for whom, under which circumstances and how, plus issues of intervention maintenance). This paper fills this literature gap using realist evaluation theory and academic perspectives, as well as via the reflections of practitioners involved in intervention design and delivery. Findings suggest that a good understanding of the tourism and organisational context (regarding the dimensions of structure, culture, agency and relations) and the use of tailored, action-focused mechanisms (for each context dimension) are critical to achieving transformational outcomes in environmental interventions in cultural heritage organisations. Based on these findings, it is concluded that the CMO is a useful framework for assessing environmental social marketing interventions in tourism (both for heritage and other tourism organisations). Implications for tourism practice and further research directions are also discussed.     

Human resources development for tourism in rural communities: A case study of Kerala

Considering the relative backwardness of rural areas, human resources development (HRD) seems to have a very important role in rural tourism development. However, tourism HRD in rural communities is affected by a number of drawbacks. In the absence of any significant private sector presence, especially during initial stages, the public sector need to take the initiative in equipping and empowering the local community to meaningfully participate in tourism. This paper suggests a multi‐pronged approach to educate and empower the members of the host community, the tourism industry personnel, and visitors to facilitate rural tourism development, which is sustainability‐oriented and can help localize the benefits. The experience of Kerala provides an example of how the public sector initiated HRD activities could contribute to the development of rural tourism, especially in engendering local entrepreneurial endeavors and giving tourism a higher profile. The Kerala experience represents some of the issues in HRD for rural tourism and suggests potential strategies for other rural communities involved in tourism development.     

Growth machines and social movements in mature tourist destinations Costa del Sol-Málaga

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to analyse the new processes of tourism growth and its conflicts from the perspective of social movements. First, the urban growth machine analysis model is applied by the systematisation of six projects. Second, the resistance movements against those projects and whether this resistance could be the start of local tourism degrowth policies are examined. The methodology is qualitative, based on documentary analysis, participatory observation, discussion groups and interviews. The case study is the destination of Costa del Sol-Málaga. The results enable the development of the urban growth machine model in tourist destinations. Meanwhile, social movements demystify the argument based on neoclassical economic progress. The social movements condemn the effects of large-scale top-down projects, and implement alternative bottom-up proposals. Although the social movements do not reject tourism, they call for greater control over its impact, denounce unlimited growth, overtourism and the loss of urban quality of life. These movements advocate a lifestyle linked to the everyday space, which they believe is threatened by excessive urban-tourism growth. They are a symptom of the need to devise a proposal using the principles of degrowth.     

Tourism and degrowth: an emerging agenda for research and praxis

Abstract

This article outlines a conceptual framework and research agenda for exploring the relationship between tourism and degrowth. Rapid and uneven expansion of tourism as a response to the 2008 economic crisis has proceeded in parallel with the rise of social discontent concerning so-called “overtourism.” Despite decades of concerted global effort to achieve sustainable development, meanwhile, socioecological conflicts and inequality have rarely reversed, but in fact increased in many places. Degrowth, understood as both social theory and social movement, has emerged within the context of this global crisis. Yet thus far the vibrant degrowth discussion has yet to engage systematically with the tourism industry in particular, while by the same token tourism research has largely neglected explicit discussion of degrowth. We bring the two discussions together here to interrogate their complementarity. Identifying a growth imperative in the basic structure of the capitalist economy, we contend that mounting critique of overtourism can be understood as a structural response to the ravages of capitalist development more broadly. Debate concerning overtourism thus offers a valuable opportunity to re-politicize discussion of tourism development generally. We contribute to this discussion by exploring of the potential for degrowth to facilitate a truly sustainable tourism.     

Evidence of a low-carbon tourism paradigm?

The global tourism industry has benefited from exceptional growth; however, a number of challenges have the potential to seriously undermine the industry's future aspirations. This research uses social representation theory to understand how the social group of tourism experts makes sense of the phenomena of “tourism growth”, “low-carbon tourism”, “peak oil” and “risks for tourism”, and whether representations are indicative of different underlying paradigms. A total of 101 experts from various tourism professions and key demographics were interviewed using the free associations method. The findings reveal distinct representations of the four phenomena, but also significant linkages between them, in particular in relation to the global economy, transportation, energy supply and sustainability. Further, whilst experts appear grounded in the Dominant Social Paradigm of consumerism and neoliberal capitalism, there is evidence of alternative views that question some of the fundamental assumptions of the growth paradigm. In particular, when asked about low-carbon tourism and peak oil, experts advanced associations that indicated an Alternative Paradigm. A broader paradigm shift originating from within tourism, however, alone is unlikely.     

Community-owned tourism and degrowth: a case study in the Kichwa Añangu community

Abstract

Tourism is a booming global industry, seemingly at odds with a degrowth movement seeking to challenge the profit-maximizing model embedded in capitalist expansion. However, the tourism industry is not a homogenous entity, but is instead characterized by diverse forms of distinct tourisms. In Ecuador, the Kichwa Añangu Community has chosen to dedicate their livelihood to community-owned tourism. Añangu owns and operates two lodges, whose management and oversight are administered through communal governance. As a result, tourism is locally embraced as a vehicle for livelihood wellbeing, cultural reclamation, and environmental stewardship. Community-owned tourism will not provide a cure-all answer to the critiques levied against tourism or to the vulnerabilities inherent in the practice of tourism. However, Añangu’s project offers a compelling case study for considering how certain tourisms could become a vehicle for developing a localized degrowth society. The Añangu have decentralized the value placed upon profit in the practice of tourism, replacing it with Kichwa forms of communal organizing guided by their goal for Sumak Kawsay, or the “good life.” For the Añangu, the sustainability of their project cannot be separated from its economic viability, however, success is also measured by how tourism contributes to a number of community-defined goals.     

Urban bicycle tourism: path dependencies and innovation in Greater Copenhagen

Abstract

During the latest decade, a renaissance of bicycling in urban transportation has occurred in many Western European cities. This opens up for a development of bicycle tourism as a form of urban sustainable tourism, taking advantage of improved infrastructure and facilities for cycling tourists. The aim of this study is to conceptualise the dynamics behind the development of urban bicycle tourism. This development may be viewed as an innovative process based on incremental changes in local socio-technological mobility systems. An analytical framework is proposed, based on the following categories: urban planning, bicycle tourism services, communication, and place making. In the analysis, evidence from the Greater Copenhagen region is used to contextualise particularly these perspectives of the development of urban bicycle tourism. In each of the four categories, evidence of innovative services or procedures supporting bicycle tourism was found. However, the most important source of incremental innovation is likely to be found on a systemic level, between the actors in the destination. It is also argued that the development of urban bicycle tourism is highly path dependent, related to the local bicycle culture. Bicycle tourism should not be viewed as isolated from the locals’ everyday cycling.     

Towards sustainable tourism planning in New Zealand: Monitoring local government planning under the Resource Management Act

In the light of the increasing pace and scale of tourism activity in New Zealand, the concept of sustainable tourism has become a key ingredient in the nation's tourism strategy. This paper explores sustainable tourism planning in New Zealand at the level of local government, and in particular, focuses on the implementation of the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA) as a mechanism for achieving sustainable tourism. Using the findings of a survey of Regional Councils and Territorial Local Authorities, the paper explores public sector planning responses to tourism impacts and sustainability concerns in New Zealand. The paper extends the earlier work of Page and Thorn (1997. Towards sustainable tourism planning in New Zealand: public sector planning responses. Journal of Sustainable Tourism 5(1): 59-77; 2002. Towards sustainable tourism development and planning in New Zealand: the public sector response revisited. Journal of Sustainable Tourism 10(3): 222-238), which identified major issues of concern at local council level with regard to tourism impacts and argued the need for a national vision for tourism to ensure that the RMA achieved its original goals. Since then, a national tourism strategy has been published and changes in legislation have further empowered local authorities to further progress the sustainability agenda. This paper examines these developments and the ensuing implications, concluding that significant progress has been made in developing tourism policies at the local level, but that a number of constraints and issues limit the development of New Zealand as a sustainable destination.     

Economic and social yield of investing in hiking tourism: the case of Berguedà, Spain

ABSTRACT

Nature-based tourism is on the rise around the world. This article employs a cost–benefit analysis methodology to contribute to knowledge in this area by estimating both the economic impacts and the social costs and benefits of investing in hiking tourism. It includes tangible and non-tangible impacts, such as health benefits and CO₂ emissions. Using data collected between March 15 2014 and March 14 2015, results show a positive return from every Euro invested in hiking tourism. A single figure of net returns to society enables policymakers to assess the social value of the investment itself and can help citizens’ rational choice regarding whether to encourage or resist additional tourism development.     

Establishing academic leadership praxis in sustainable tourism: lessons from the past and bridges to the future

Abstract

This paper examines the potential contribution of academics working in the sustainable tourism arena from a relational, practice-based leadership perspective. It argues that these leadership perspectives require a shift in thinking from narrowly defined, instrumental measures of academic impact imposed by performance management and the somewhat heroic ideals of leadership. Instead it outlines how everyday practice that directly influences collaborative agency among multiple tourism stakeholders is able to provide a more useful direction. To illustrate this perspective, it engages in retrospective reflection, drawing on a number of pioneers in tourism scholarship. It specifically examines their praxis of dialogue, stewardship, and critical reflexivity and the ways in which these may serve to inspire future sustainable tourism education and scholarship.     

Active engagement with nature: outdoor adventure tourism,sustainability and wellbeing

Abstract

This article draws on the conflicting arguments surrounding outdoor adventure tourism activities to determine if such activities might usefully be considered beneficial for humans and nature, and how they might offer avenues for sustainable tourism practice. Research in the field has often examined outdoor adventure activities through a lens that either highlights their negative environmental impacts or has sought to conceptualise motivations and/or experiences. In this article, we argue that through practices that are often seen as destructive, there is the possibility to think differently about human-nature relationships and pro-environmentalism. To explore these issues, we draw on data collected from a series of semi-structured interviews with outdoor adventure tourists. Our analysis highlights how outdoor adventure tourism facilitates reconnections to nature, offering potential wellbeing impacts and pro-environmental attitudes and behaviours. We conclude that outdoor adventure activities as a form of sustainable tourism have potential implications for our understanding of, and engagement with, sustainability, mental health and wellbeing.     

Cultural sustainability – a framework for Aboriginal tourism in British Columbia

ABSTRACT

This paper presents a framework to assess the cultural sustainability of Aboriginal tourism in British Columbia, which meets must take into account the protection of human rights, good self-governance, identity, control of land, the tourism product’s authenticity, and a market-ready tourism product. These criteria are specified by two indicators each. The cultural sustainability framework was generated by triangulating qualitative research methods like experts’ interviews, secondary research, and participant and non-participant observations. This paper is thus conceptual in nature and inductive in its approach. It partly leverages a collaborative approach, as it includes interviewees in an iterative research loop. Furthermore, the paper shows why cultural sustainability is a determinant of the success of Aboriginal tourism.     

Destination social capital and innovation in SMEs tourism firms: an empirical analysis in an adverse socio-economic context

Abstract

This study examines the structural relationships between internal and external resources that explain the innovation of small tourism firms in adverse socio-economic contexts. Specifically, it analyzes two internal resources, human and organizational-technological capital, and the valuable intangible resources derived from social interactions between the agents in the destination (other companies, institutions, and community). The research hypotheses are tested by means of structural equation analysis applied to an empirical study of 180 tourism firms located in Isla Margarita (Venezuela). The findings confirm the importance of external resources derived from relationships with destination agents in the innovation behavior of tourism small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). While business social capital affects innovative behavior directly, other types of internal intellectual capital mediate the relationship between innovative behavior and institutional and community social capital. It is the first to address the local community’s role in the innovation of tourism SMEs. The importance of integrating firm and destination resources should inform SMEs’ innovation policies in adverse contexts where the scarcity of resources make vulnerable the economic, social and environmental sustainability.