Travel Reference
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'sacred journey' in the same text Nash noted its
neo-imperialistic nature (in Smith, 1977 as noted
by Crick, 2007, p. 68). Two key contradictory
perspectives impacting the image of tourism and
its study are the pro-tourism and the anti-tourism
rhetoric featured in the late 20th century.
Pro-tourism rhetoric has been around since
the development of the modern industrial tour-
ism system in the wake of the Second World
War. This pro-tourism stance has been labelled
'boosterism' because of its intended effect of
promoting and advancing the spread of tourism
development. Hall defi nes boosterism as a 'sim-
plistic attitude that tourism development is
inherently good and of automatic benefi t to the
host' (2000, p. 21). Proponents of boosterism
are typically economists within government
departments who are pro-growth and industry
professionals who stand to fi nancially gain from
the spread of tourism. In his analysis of the dif-
ferent paradigms operating in thinking on tour-
ism called the 'platform theory', Jafar Jafari
called this the 'advocacy platform' and sug-
gested its adherents promoted the 'contributions
of the “industry” to growth and development'
(2005, p. 1). As part of this effort, tourism busi-
nesses began to champion the notion of tourism
as an 'industry' in order to gain the respect and
support of economists, economic developers and
governments for tourism as a tool for economic
development (Davidson, 1994, pp. 20-21).
Leiper (1995, pp. 103-105) argues that the
'tourist industry' image was created to:
Secure broad public relations goals for or-
and the overdevelopment of destinations like
Waikiki. As a result, mass tourism was called into
question. Some of the negative impacts observed
included crowding, environmental degradation,
pollution, economic leakages, tourism-induced
infl ation, commodifi cation of culture, cultural
change induced by the demonstration effect,
population displacement and vulnerable, tour-
ism dependent economies. As a result of the pro-
liferation of such problems with the expansion of
tourism since the 1970s, a clear 'anti-tourism'
stance has developed. Key to this critique of
tourism were: tourism non-governmental orga-
nizations (NGOs) such as the Ecumenical Coali-
tion on Third World Tourism who in particular
advocated for the needs of 'host' communities;
local people's organizations in local places con-
fronting tourism's negative impacts in such
places as Goa, India; and key segments of aca-
demia investigating the social impacts of tourism
(Crick, 1989; Burns, 2005). Seaton states 'anti-
tourism factions include social scientists who
have often been caustic about the tourism indus-
try and its impacts, and who have advocated a
conservationist, protection-from-tourists attitude
to “traditional” cultures and environments
abroad' (2000, p. 27). Jafari noted that the
adherents of the 'cautionary platform' pointed to
these negative impacts of tourism and called for
caution in the use of tourism for development
and thereby challenging the rosy picture of tour-
ism painted by the advocates following the boos-
terism tradition (2005, p. 1).
Following these oppositionary perspec-
tives, tourism analysis expanded to include: the
more synthesizing approach of the 'adaptancy
platform', which explored alternatives forms of
tourism development that maximized the bene-
fi ts of tourism while minimizing the negative
impacts (Jafari, 2005, p. 2), and the more holis-
tic and systems-oriented analysis of tourism
under the 'knowledge-based platform', which,
according to Jafari, is leading to the 'scientifi ca-
tion of tourism' (Jafari, 2001, pp. 31-32). Jafari
(2001, p. 2) contends:
ganizations such as the Pacifi c Asia Travel
Association, the UN World Tourism Orga-
nization and the World Travel and Tourism
Council;
Create pride and professionalism among
employees;
Establish clout wieldable in politics.
Davidson and Leiper convincingly reveal that
the effort to gain widespread acceptance of the
notion of tourism as 'industry' was in part an
attempt to gain considerable political advantage,
which is pursued to obtain economic benefi ts.
Despite the predominance of the booster-
ism perspective in the tourism arena (Hall, 2000,
p. 21), the limitations and damages of tourism
became apparent as early as the 1970s with the
degradation of Mediterranean coastal resorts
While these four platforms, generalizing the
tendency of their eras, appeared in the foregoing
order, they did not replace one another. Indeed,
they are all present today, echoing the voices by
which they are characterized, with the last one
being responsible for enhancing the academic
position of tourism worldwide.
 
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