Travel Reference
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In this regard, entrepreneurial agency also needs to be examined in the
context of diverse systems of social obligation and relations of trust which
are mediated by culturally defined loyalties to kinship and ethnic groups,
rather than impersonal market forces alone (Dahles & Bras, 1997). This pat-
tern can be seen, for example, in the historical presence of an overseas
Chinese commercial diaspora in many South-East Asian economies (Arrighi,
1998). Although they comprise distinctive clan groups, the strong presence
of ethnic Chinese tourism businesses in Malaysia (particularly in urban areas
and along the west coast) and southern Thailand (Phuket) has been identi-
fied by Din (1982) and Cohen (1982). The deepening penetration of capitalist
accumulation into local, indeed, household handicraft production processes
in for example the small-scale workshops of rural China is heavily mediated
by both Chinese state discourses of modernisation, as well as the ethnic and
gender differences that cut across the capital/labour antagonisms one typi-
cally associates with the logics of capital accumulation (see Ateljevic &
Doorne, 2003).
The manifold non-class ties which characterise much local tourism
enterprise must not be seen as mere epi-phenomena, but rather, highlight the
need to distinguish between different forms of ownership and control from
the point of production to the point of exchange if we are to accurately assess
the social relations of power embedded within tourism economic develop-
ment processes (see Narotzky, 1997: 196-197). Where there is a high degree
of entrepreneurial independence within the family enterprise, particularly
with regard to control over the labour process, this power may diminish
with regard to the production process as a whole. However, at a wider level,
small-scale entrepreneurs are little able to effect change in the overall rela-
tions of production once they enter into market transactions in order to sell
their services to tourists (see Bianchi, 1999: 251-257), a situation which is
exacerbated where intermediary agencies (tour operators) are involved (see
Buhalis, 2000).
The 1997 Asian financial crisis served to highlight the fragile founda-
tions of the apparently impregnable East Asian 'Tiger' economies which
impacted severely upon small businesses in particular (see Wade & Veneroso,
1998). As the value of Asian currencies collapsed against the US dollar,
unemployment soared as 13 million people lost their jobs, real wages fell (by
up to 40-60% in Indonesia) and many small businesses went bankrupt due
to the escalating value of their debt (UNDP, 1999: 4, 40). Although most
East Asian economies and their tourism industries are on their way to recov-
ery (Prideaux, 1999), this has been achieved at the cost of greater foreign
involvement (principally Japanese and US firms and banks) in their econo-
mies (although it is not clear to what extent tourism assets are implicated)
underwritten by IMF-sponsored restructuring initiatives (Wade & Veneroso,
1998: 14-15). Moreover, the rapid growth in tourism and associated infra-
structural developments has also been achieved at the expense of
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