Tourism and Regional Development Issues - Tourism and Development: Concepts and Issues - page 177

the challenges and potential benefits associated with using tourism as a
regional development tool.
Tourism has the potential to generate growth and development but can
also exacerbate inequalities if only the local elite benefits. One of the central
themes of this topic has been to question who benefits from tourism develop-
ment. As Tosun and Jenkins (1996) suggest, the costs and benefits of tourism
are not shared equally. In pursuing tourism, a destination opens itself up to
the forces of the market and the forces of globalisation. If countries pursue
multinational enterprises to lead tourism development, they face issues of
dependency and high rates of leakages when local resources are not used in
the industry. Tourism is moving further than ever before into remote regions
and, along with the potential economic benefits which may arise from the
new industry, there are social and environmental costs that need to be con-
sidered. If a region has high levels of unemployment, the introduction of
tourism may cause more disruption when imported labour is used. Workers
migrate to areas of opportunity so the development or redevelopment of
tourism in a region can induce migrant workers. Careful examination of the
various policies is needed. Questions need to be asked as to who benefits
from these regional development policies. Do local people want tourism
development ? If a region is set up as a growth pole, does it really work and
who benefits ? How fast does the tourism development occur ? Is the develop-
ment part of the national agenda to generate foreign exchange or is it meant
to help out specific regions. What is the image of the destination and how
has it been created ? Throughout this topic, the concept of sustainable tour-
ism development is mentioned along with the importance of local involve-
ment in the decision-making process. If local participation is encouraged, it
may require a decentralisation of power, which national governments may
or may not want to undertake. Under the concepts of sustainability, trade-
offs may need to be made in order to protect the environment. If the policy
of regional development is to be successful, there needs to be strong back-
ward economic linkages and collaboration within the targeted region so that
as many people as possible will benefit from the industry.