Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Rather than precipitate a flourishing of independent networked enter-
prises, the evidence suggest that deregulation and economic globalisation has
in fact strengthened the asymmetrical structures of corporate control in tour-
ism in key destinations and tourism sub-sectors, albeit through diverse con-
tractual and proprietary relations. Moreover, the adoption and monopolisation
of (costly) distributional technologies by mega-corporations has reinforced
the growth of industrial concentration and transnational corporate power,
while at the same time enabling these same globalised firms to provide indi-
vidually tailored products for their clients (Milne & Gill, 1998). In some
respects, such globally-oriented mega-corporations often preside over mini-
fiefdoms with regard to their relationship with certain destinations as, for
example, demonstrated in Cyprus where at one time 20-30% of its tourism
industry was controlled by Preussag-Thomson (now TUI) alone (O'Connor
2000: 4). Unsurprisingly, Mander (1999: 171) has referred to such competitive
technologies as the 'central nervous system' through which increasingly cen-
tralised corporate power operates. Together with the fluidity of capital move-
ments, they constitute the foundations upon which an increasingly globalised
and transnational tourism political economy has emerged.
Nevertheless, as Williams and Shaw (2011) argues, we would be wrong
to associate globalisation exclusively with large, vertically-integrated trans-
national firms or indeed to assume that small- to medium-sized tourism
enterprises (SMTEs) will necessarily be subsumed by transnational capital or
forced out of business altogether. Indeed, in many low-income developing
countries, it is usually small, informal sector enterprises that comprise the
majority of tourism businesses, although the lion's share of receipts will often
accrue to large commercial operators, foreign and domestic (see Edensor,
2004). It is, however, beyond the remit of this chapter to analyse the full
scope of business involvement and the industrial organisation of the tourism
industries in a globalised economy. It is, nevertheless, clear that despite the
precipitous expansion and growth of the tourism industries over the past
three decades, much of the day-to-day business of providing services to tour-
ists, is still rooted in distinctly localised business environments and cultures.
Thus, the answer to the question as to the degree to which TTCs have both
extended their global reach and control over geographically dispersed com-
modity chains lies in further detailed research into the interplay between the
logics of globalisation and the historical geography of regional and local capi-
talist development, as well as the nature of labour relations that emerges from
the interactions of various enterprises involved in the provision of tourism.
Patterns of work and labour relations in global tourism
The realignments of corporate power associated with globalisation and
the changing configurations of the economic power of states, has had mani-
fold implications for the organisation of work and labour relations across the
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