Towards a New Political Economy of Global Tourism Revisited - Tourism and Development: Concepts and Issues - page 300

developing state economies (Sindiga, 1999: 23-31), there are signs that pat-
terns of ownership in tourism have become increasingly differentiated at a
regional level. Meyer's (2011) research on FDI in tourism in Zanzibar dem-
onstrates that although the authorities began to remove obstacles to inward
investment in 1985, attracting US$440 million of foreign investment
between 1986 and 2002, much of this capital came from outside the 'tradi-
tional' generating regions of Britain, Germany and Italy. Rather, it originated
in Bahrain, Mauritius and the United Arab Emirates, as well as from within
Africa itself (e.g. Kenya and South Africa), thus also confirming emerging
patterns of South-South trade and economies linkages on a wider scale (see
UNCTAD, 2011: 4). Meyer (2011: 163) does nevertheless point out that
African-owned properties nevertheless still have a tendency to be commer-
cially tied (but not owned) to European-based tour operators, thus confirm-
ing the argument that any analysis of the configuration of ownership in
tourism must take into consideration its inherently diverse supply chain (see
Leiper, 2008). This then also begs the question, notwithstanding the ability
of 'South-South' FDI to potentially offset a decline in FDI flows from the
'North', as to the extent to which the increased geographical diversification
of trade and FDI constitutes a sign of a more equitable tourism order that will
enable LDCs to overcome the structural constraints on economic develop-
ment through tourism.
The first signs that the Western-inspired model of tourism development
in the non-industrialised countries concealed a number of underlying antago-
nisms occurred as a result of the combined effects of the 1970s oil crises,
extensive over-borrowing from both multilateral and private institutions, 5
and declining commodity prices in key export sectors. The principal and
most devastating outcome for poorer countries in Africa and Latin America
was to hasten the 'debt crisis' which was to precipitate a dramatic shift in
the balance of power between state and market. The subsequent imposition
of structural adjustment programmes by the IMF/ World Bank (see Dasgupta,
1998: 66-136), ostensibly in order to ease their balance of payment deficits
and alleviate their debt-burdens through export-led economic growth,
reflected an ideological shift to the right amongst creditors, who hoped to
return these states to a '“proper” economic development path' (Dieke, 1995:
81). This involved an aggressive mix of reforms designed to dismantle state
intervention in the economy and promote export-led growth and competi-
tiveness. However, by the end of 1999, regional gross national product (GNP)
per capita in sub-Saharan Africa had fallen from 17.6% of world GNP per
capita in 1975, to 10.5% (Arrighi, 2002: 3).
During the 1980s, the architects of the neoliberal capitalist hegemony
(the IMF/World Bank, private banks, transnational corporations, globalising
politicians, state bureaucrats, various professional actors and journalists)
stressed the imperatives of economic growth, deregulation and privatisa-
tion. In order to reduce public deficits, IMF/World Bank-sponsored SAPS