The Consumption of Tourism - Tourism and Development: Concepts and Issues - page 361

and objectives of the destination (Budowski, 1976). Such a relationship has
traditionally and commonly been conceptualised as a triangular interaction
between tourists/the tourism industry, the local community and the destina-
tion environment (Bramwell & Lane, 1993; ETB, 1991), although it has also
been referred to as the 'magic pentagon' of tourism development (Müller,
1994). According to the latter, the optimum satisfaction of tourists needs
should be balanced with the health of local culture, the local economy, the
local environment and, finally, the 'subjective well-being' of local communi-
ties (Müller, 1994). In both models, it is implied that tourists, in addition to
benefiting from the tourism experience, should make a positive contribution
to the developmental process.
It has long been argued, however, that this does not often occur and,
therefore, that tourism development and tourist behaviour should be con-
trolled or influenced to the benefit of the destination. For example, in the late
1960s Mishan (1967: 142) observed that:
as swarms of holiday-makers arrive by air, sea and land. . .as concrete is
poured over the earth, as hotels, caravans, casinos, night-clubs, chalets,
and blocks of sun-flats crowd into the area and retreat into the hinter-
land, local life and industry shrivel, hospitality vanishes, and indigenous
populations drift into a quasi-parasitic way of life catering with con-
temptuous servility to the unsophisticated multitude.
This somewhat extreme viewpoint was reflected in the proposed solution,
namely, to simply ban all international air travel! A more considered approach
became evident in the extensive literature on the host-guest relationship
that emerged from the 1970s onwards, although even as early as 1980, and
in opposition to the perceived consequences of mass tourism consumption,
there were calls for tourists to adopt a more responsible, 'good' approach to
being tourists (e.g. Figure 12.1).
The mass tourist-good tourist dichotomy was further strengthened by the
sustainable tourism debate during the 1990s. As concerns grew about the
negative consequences of tourism and, implicitly, its failure to contribute effec-
tively to development, it was argued that 'the crisis of the tourism industry is
a crisis of mass tourism; for it is mass tourism that has brought social, cultural,
economic and environmental havoc in its wake, and it is mass tourism prac-
tices that must be radically changed to bring in the new' (Poon, 1993: 3).
This view is echoed by others. For example, McLaren (1998: 6) suggests
that 'tourism remains a passive luxury for thousands of travellers. This must
change', while a debate hosted by the pressure group Tourism Concern in the
late 1990s concluded that all-inclusive holidays, arguably the epitome of
mass-packaged tourism consumption, should be banned (Farrington, 1999).
Many would probably agree that the call to transform the 'passive
luxury' nature of tourism or to ignore popular tourism markets is naïve and