Tourism and Socio-cultural Development Issues - Tourism and Development: Concepts and Issues - page 233

complexes in a destination, such as in a resort enclave, the extent to which
these benefits extend from tourism to the host population's daily life is
debatable. There seem to be no systematic reports providing information as
to the degree to which social benefits result directly from tourism develop-
ment in an area. For the most part, supranational agencies' statistics do not
distinguish tourism development from other forms of economic development
in nations. For example, many nations strive to attain higher literacy rates
among their populations, as it is an important indicator of social welfare.
Information as to whether or not more educational opportunities were added
due to tourism development, however, is not available. Sharing a scarce water
supply, especially in island nations, always represents a controversy between
the tourism industry and local populations. In 1988, Lea argued that it is
unreasonable to expect skilled medical professionals in a small developing
nation to cater to tourists' needs. However, now the emergence of medical
tourism in developing nations is creating a rift between first class medical
care for tourists and insufficient professional care for locals. Even in tourist
destinations in developed nations, social benefits from tourism development
are often perceived as non-existent (Telfer & Hashimoto, 1999).
Although the principles of tourism development can be debated from a
variety of perspectives, sociologists and psychologists tend to debate the
values of indigenous culture and traditions. Tourism development ought to
contribute to the protection and maintenance of the cultures, traditions and
value systems of host communities. Tourism development should be a cata-
lyst for strengthening the cultural identities and dignity of host populations.
Exotic host cultures and traditions are invaluable commodities as part of the
tourism product. However, this argument is a double-edged sword. In some
extreme cases, a village is designated an historical site, or a museum village,
where no alteration or modernisation is allowed. This is done in order to
maintain historical accuracy. In this case, villagers are not even consulted in
the process of designation (McCarthy, 1994). Tourists demand to see 'the
past' and the 'heritage' of a locale in an authentic setting, but they are unaware
of the consequences of their demands. Their expectations of seeing host
communities as they were in yesteryear deprive the host populations of their
rights to progress and improvement. The tourism industry also creates
images of host communities as being populated by the exotic, the unspoiled,
the romantic savage, the backward, and the underdeveloped. Such labelling
often forces host communities to retain old-fashioned ways of living in order
to attract tourists. This clearly goes against the principles of modernisation
and socio-economic development. Host communities should have a choice as
to whether or not to comply with such labelling, and they should be able to
choose to become modernised. However, power imbalances in tourism devel-
opment inarguably exist, and when, without strong leadership, a host com-
munity is the vulnerable one in this power game, it has little choice but to
choose to survive through playing the game.