Conclusion: Tourism and Development - Tourism and Development: Concepts and Issues - page 467

tourism developments in order to meet the demands of the tourists. The
tourism industry must not be viewed in isolation but needs to be integrated
into wider development plans.
Tourists themselves also have a role to play in the development process.
As Urry (1995) suggests, central to the idea of modernity is that of move-
ment. It is argued in Chapter 12 that in travelling, tourists are more inter-
ested in satisfying their own needs and desires and therefore they contribute
very little in terms of development except in the case of financial gains. In
the context of climate change, the increase in consumer demand for airplane
and cruise travel is having a negative impact on the destinations tourists are
travelling to. Tourists are also coming under scrutiny for consuming tourism
products that may involve human rights violations, whether they are aware
of this or not. Inexpensive holidays, for example, often mean that wages are
low. It is important to consider what the aim of development is and how it
is defined. Financial gain may be all a destination or a region seeks. On the
other hand, are there alternative types of tourists with different demands ?
Can we expect tourists to become green consumers and adopt the philoso-
phies of sustainable tourism ? Are tourists engaged in volunteer tourism or
undertaking activities that fall within pro-poor tourism doing this to help
those in need or are they engaged in ego-tourism where their motivations for
the trip are centred on themselves ? In Chapter 7, the positive socio-cultural
impacts of tourism development are considered and it is suggested that tour-
ism can promote cultural exchange and understanding between hosts and
guests. One of the requirements for successful tourism is political and eco-
nomic stability and this suggests that tourists may help contribute to other
areas of development besides economic contributions.
It is in the destination that the interaction between hosts and guests
occurs and where many of the physical manifestations of the industry are
constructed. Policies are formed and plans are initiated. In the context of
government selecting certain tourism development policies, the government
is also choosing between different sets of values and these decisions are made
within a complex policy arena (Hall, 1994c). The appropriateness of tourism
development must, however, be considered within the parameters of socio-
economic, geographic and political considerations in the destination and the
destination must be able to choose the type of tourism development that it
wants to pursue. It is important to stress that no one sector such as tourism
can be viewed in isolation in terms of development, but needs to be placed
within the wider context of the local economy. How different levels of gov-
ernment in the destination formulate tourism policy may illustrate decen-
tralisation of power or the formulation of a wider regional development plan.
Community-based tourism can help to empower the residents of a destina-
tion and help enhance self-determination, yet even it is fraught with con-
flicting results as often it is only the local elite that benefit. With tourism
creating income and jobs, it has been suggested that tourism can promote a