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the points Cater raises are of direct relevance to sustainable tourism
development more generally. In particular, she cites the role and influence
of the UNWTO and WTTC, their 'blueprints' for sustainable or 'new'
tourism, and the funding of local ecotourism projects by organisations
such as the World Bank's Global Environmental Facility or Conservation
International based upon an explicitly Western development agenda.
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At the same time, the design of ecotourism (and, implicitly, sustainable
tourism) projects based upon the mainstream conservation-for-develop-
ment perspective and Western notions of nature, fails to account for
alternative natures or, more broadly, alternative environments and inter-
pretations of conservation and guardianship. In other words, different
natures and environments are, in essence, the product of socio-cultural,
political and economic processes and, thus, sustainable tourism/ecotour-
ism development constructed on Western-centric interpretations of
nature may not match local constructs of nature, with the result that
tourism may be seen as a form of eco-colonialism.
This final point reflects the more general criticism of sustainable tourism
development that its principles and objectives are typically manifested in
overarching sets of prescriptive guidelines, usually based upon managing the
limits (according to Western criteria) of acceptable environmental and social
change, that fail to account for the almost infinite diversity of tourism devel-
opment contexts and, importantly, the meaning, knowledge and under-
standing of those environments amongst local communities. As discussed
shortly, this suggests that an alternative, non-prescriptive approach to tour-
ism development that both recognises and responds to the characteristics
and needs of individual destinations may offer the opportunity for enhanc-
ing the developmental benefits of tourism.
Sustainability as a Barrier to Destinational
Development
Collectively, the above points reveal the way in which sustainability
may be considered a barrier to development. In other words, the lack of 'fit'
between tourism in general and the concept of sustainable development as
outlined in the preceding section and the consequential primary focus of
most sustainable tourism development policies on local, small-scale, 'appro-
priate' (from a Western-centric point of view) projects has resulted in sus-
tainable tourism becoming both a prescriptive and a restrictive perspective
on tourism development which limits the potential for development through
tourism. Certainly, the emphasis on locally-controlled, small-scale, appropri-
ate/traditional style operations, though most suitable and, as experience has
demonstrated, successful in particular circumstances and according to
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