Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
poverty alleviation than large numbers of upscale travellers (Gössling et al. ,
2004; Wunder, 2003). Upscale tourists, on the other hand, may make a
more substantial contribution to government revenue, but this depends on
government policies which may often grant tax exemptions to foreign
investors, thereby increasing leakage from the local economic system, as
well as government spending which may favour one public expenditure
over another.
There are also longstanding efforts to decarbonise tourism and the econ-
omy. For example, the 'cornerstone' of many contemporary accounts of sus-
tainability, the World Commission on Environment and Development
(WCED) (1987) report, Our Common Future (often referred to by the name of
its chairwoman, Mrs Brundtland) concluded that 'the international
economy must speed up world growth while respecting the environmental
constraints' (WCED, 1987: 89), primarily by encouraging qualitative eco-
nomic growth that was less material/resource/energy (MRE) intensive and
more equitable, decarbonised and dematerialised. However, the approach,
which lingers in contemporary promotion of 'green growth' and the 'green
economy' failed to recognise several significant implications. First, while
dematerialisation may occur at a per unit level, overall industrial expansion
continues. Second, becoming more efficient leads to an increase in through-
put (input plus output); that is, efficiency gains do not equal savings, what
is otherwise known as the 'Jevons' paradox' or 'rebound effect' (Polimeni
et al. , 2008). According to Santarius (2012: 4), 'in the long term and on aver-
age, combined rebound effects of at least 50% must be assumed. . .energy
efficiency improvements in an economic system will on average yield half
the theoretical savings potential of efficiency technologies and measures,
and in some cases the saving that is achieved will be even less than this'.
Third, being 'part of an interdependent world economy' (WCED, 1987: 51)
provided a rationale not only for further liberalisation of the global econ-
omy and the reduction of trade barriers by LDCs but also for already
wealthy countries to further pursue economic growth by increasing con-
sumption so as encourage economic growth in the LDCs. Indeed, this last
point has become one of the cornerstones of so-called 'pro-poor' tourism
development. 'The alternative that poor countries could create their own
markets' (Daly, 1991: 151), including with respect to tourism, is not one
that has been greatly encouraged. The myth of the capacity of decoupling
economic growth from natural resource use has also been revealed. Using
the material footprint (MF), a consumption-based indicator of resource
use, Wiedmann et al. (2013) found that achievements in decoupling in
advanced economies are smaller than reported or even non-existent. By
calculating raw material equivalents of international trade, they demon-
strate that countries' use of non-domestic resources is, on average, about
threefold larger than the physical quantity of traded goods. As wealth
grows, countries tend to reduce their domestic portion of materials
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