Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Mexico in 1982, indebted countries declared that they were unable to pay their debts.
International institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank
reacted by providing them with fresh loans on the condition that they adopted structural
adjustment policies. These included a series of measures inspired by neoliberalism, such as
trade liberalisation, privatisation, currency devaluation, state reduction and the opening to
foreign investment, and resulted in huge social costs for the more vulnerable sectors (Cupples,
2010). Since then neoliberalism has been hegemonic among development approaches, and its
assumption that the economy should dictate the norms of the society has 'become almost a
religion in itself ' (Power, 2003: 9). The World Bank and the IMF continue to play a crucial
role in the imposition of the Poverty Reduction Papers which replaced structural adjustment
policies after criticism, and in which tourism is promoted for the development of the private
sector (Harrison, 2008). Neoliberalism, then, sees in tourism an activity that can enhance
economic activity and foreign investment, and has favoured the expansion of multinational
tourism business (Telfer, 2009).
Neoliberal policies, including their infl uence in tourism, have been criticised by geogra-
phers and beyond because they are unjust, have had negative effects on the lives of marginal-
ised people, and have dramatically increased inequalities (Mullings, 2010), which has been
called 'accumulation by dispossession' by David Harvey (2003).
Alternative approaches
Alternative approaches to development started to gain momentum in the 1980s but became
more prominent during the 1990s. They include a range of different perspectives, but one of
their main common features is their concern to replace top-down development approaches,
centred just on economic growth, with more participatory, local-scale approaches, which
take into account particular contexts. They also call for acknowledgement of and give poten-
tial to the agency, abilities and empowerment of local people to improve their well-being, for
which non-governmental organisations are seen as key actors (Willis and Kumar, 2009).
They also include a concern for the environment and for sustainable development, an approach
that became widely accepted during the Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992.
Despite its 'alternative' origins, the language of participation, empowerment and sustaina-
bility has increasingly become adopted by international institutions like the World Bank and
the IMF, a fact that has raised scepticism (Elliot, 2009).
Alternative development perspectives have had a major impact on tourism in recent
decades. They have encouraged the emergence of 'alternative tourism', which intends to
differentiate itself from mainstream mass tourism with aims to be more responsible, ethical
and sustainable. It has adopted many different forms including ecotourism, community-based
tourism, indigenous tourism, sustainable tourism, pro-poor tourism and volunteer tourism
among many others. Despite their different emphases, alternative tourism generally tends to
promote the empowerment and control of local groups and 'supports forms of tourism which
are small scale, minimise environmental and cultural interference, and which prioritise
community needs, community involvement and community interests' (Scheyvens, 2002: 11).
Sustainable development has been criticised because in its more widespread version it fails
to address concerns over equity and to question the trust in economic growth, capitalist
economy and the Western development model (Schreuder, 2010). It tends to continue the
line of grand narratives, constructing an idealistic binary between alternative and mainstream
development, which have been extended in the contraposition of mass versus alternative
tourism (see Anton Clavé,
Chapter 28 i
n this volume; Mowforth and Munt, 1998). Both
