Tourism and Regional Development Issues - Tourism and Development: Concepts and Issues - page 174

community was built with heavy reliance on public funds used to develop
infrastructure and to ensure a viable economic environment to attract private
investment (Gill, 1998). However, in the construction of the Whistler resort,
Cubie (2000) argues that while local contractors were initially involved in
the construction of Whistler village, many local non-union companies were
squeezed out by union labour as the development proceeded. Larger compa-
nies controlled much of the remaining development and local companies
moved in a new direction, building unique high-end homes and showing off
their craftsmanship. Whistler was the site of the 2010 Winter Olympics and
Highway 99, or the Sea to Sky Highway, was improved to move additional
traffic between Vancouver and Whistler.
While there are both stories of success and failure in using tourism as a
regional development tool in remote peripheral areas, concerns have been
raised that the use of environmental resources for activities such as ecotour-
ism may, in terms of negative impacts of tourism, be more detrimental, as
ecotourism environments are often rich in biodiversity and highly suscepti-
ble to change (Holden, 2000).
International Regions
Tourism regions often are not confined by national borders and cross
international boundaries. The establishment of international trading blocks,
such as ASEAN, the EU and the NAFTA, illustrate the growing trend of
cross-border collaboration. Cross-border collaboration for tourism develop-
ment has been explored in a number of different contexts by Timothy (1995,
2000a). As noted above, the countries of the Caribbean work together to
promote the region, and the Southern Africa Development Community
(SADC) established a tourism sector in 1984 (Teye, 2000). In the Niagara
Region, along the border between Canada and the US, efforts are underway
to promote the Canadian and American side of Niagara Falls jointly as a
regional tourism destination as part of the Bi-national Tourism Alliance.
Within the EU the development of Euroregions and Eurometropolis have
facilitated cross-border collaboration and cross-border shopping tourism has
been a significant driving force behind cooperation between regions or cities
(Tömöri, 2011). One of the notable efforts for encouraging regional develop-
ment across borders within the ASEAN community is known as the growth
triangle . The concept originated in 1989 when Singapore invited the
Indonesian province of Riau and Malaysia's state of Johor to join forces in an
economic union (Timothy, 2000b). One of the goals of the growth triangle
was strengthening the economic and social links between Singapore,
Indonesia and Malaysia, including the joint promotion of the area as an
investment site for various multinational corporations including those
involved in tourism (Timothy, 2000b). A second goal was to decrease barriers