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specific developmental objectives, has a number of 'anti-development' impli-
cations. For example:
•
Relatively few people benefit. Indeed, an inherent contradiction of sus-
tainable tourism is that it minimises, rather than optimises, the benefits
to local people and restricts opportunities for tourists to participate in
such forms of tourism. It also highlights the unresolved question as to
how to satisfy both the desire of greater numbers of local people to
become involved in and benefit from tourism development and to satisfy
the alleged increasing demands for 'sustainable' tourism experiences on
the part of tourists. Either tourism companies expand their operations or
more businesses are permitted to develop, both of which may result in
excessive pressure on natural and human resources. Ironically, the
response of ecotourism operators in Australia to increasing use of tourism
sites has been to relocate to previously untouched areas to maintain the
quality of tourist experiences (Burton, 1998)! Beyond the obvious envi-
ronmental implications, this also points to a second problem:
•
Small-scale, traditional, eco/nature tourism developments, as a specific
manifestation of sustainable tourism, are frequently justified on the basis
of increasing demand for 'authentic', natural traditional tourism experi-
ences. As a result, such tourism operations are designed to verify the expect-
ations of tourists seeking to escape to the 'Other', to environments and
cultures that are in opposition to the tourists' modern, developed home
environment. While indicative of 'cultural dependency' (Erisman, 1983),
it also limits the potential for the development (as in progress from tradi-
tional to modern) of destination areas and societies. As Silver (1993: 310)
states, 'it seems that. . .indigenous peoples can only continue to be attrac-
tive to tourists as long as they remain undeveloped and, hence, in some
way primitive'.
•
Business development opportunities are restricted. Many local communi-
ties lack the necessary expertise or financial/technological resources to
fully exploit tourism-related opportunities and so a necessary ingredient
(and fundamental objective) of tourism development is traditionally con-
sidered to be the re-distribution of Western wealth to poorer, less developed
destination areas through investment and ultimately, tourist spending.
While this is indicative of the inevitable dependency inherent in the global
tourism system, it is likely that, without financial, technological or busi-
ness/marketing support, many small-scale, locally-controlled tourism proj-
ects could not survive. For example, one of the earliest attempts to develop
sustainable village tourism was the Lower Casamance project in Senegal
(Gnigue, 1992; Saglio, 1979). Though successful, however, the project pri-
marily attracted, and was dependent upon, tourists leaving the confines of
their Club-Med all-inclusive holiday on the coast for a short, 'authentic'
experience in the Senegalese hinterland. Similarly, pro-poor tourism
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