Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
superficially convenient. Difficulties also arise in measuring and quantify-
ing environmental impacts. Graf (1992: 553) argues that the WCED reas-
serts the 'Northern global ideological hegemony'. There has also been a shift
in focus, which has raised criticism. In the 1980s, environmentalists were
usually concerned with the local or national space and with ideas such as
eco-development or self-reliance that aimed to increase political and eco-
nomic independence of a place by reconnecting ecological resource flows.
However, in more recent years, environmentalists have taken on a global
view, in part an outcome of space travel, whereby the planet has become a
visible object from space. This shift to global environmental management,
however, can also be seen to be in conflict with the aspirations of cultural
rights, democracy, self-determination and present a threat to local commu-
nities and their lifestyles (Sachs, 1996).
Alternative Development and Tourism
Following similar trends in development theory with the dissatisfaction
of existing development philosophies, many tourism analysts became disil-
lusioned with mass tourism in favour of alternative tourism (Brohman,
1996b). Alternative tourism has been defined as tourism that is consistent
with natural, social and community values, which allows hosts and guests to
enjoy worthwhile interaction and shared experiences (Eadington & Smith,
1992). Writing in 1996, Brohman (1996b) suggested that alternative tourism
had emerged as one of the most widely used (and abused) phrases in the tour-
ism literature over the previous decade. He suggested there are a number of
recurring themes which can be utilised to define the concept. Alternative
tourism strategies stress the following: 'small scale, locally-owned develop-
ments, community participation, and cultural and environmental sustain-
ability' (Brohman, 1995: 65). Within the alternative development paradigm,
tourism authors have written on a range of issues such as community-based
tourism, ecotourism, empowerment of local communities, the role of women
in tourism, indigenous tourism development and sustainable tourism develop-
ment. There are, however, debates over the definition; indeed, Butler (1992)
likens alternative tourism to sustainable development in that it sounds attrac-
tive and suggests a new approach and philosophy to an old problem, but the
phrase can mean almost anything to anyone. One of the challenges with
focusing on the scale dimension of alternative tourism is that it sets up a false
dichotomy whereby small-scale tourism is assumed to be sustainable while
large-scale tourism is unsustainable. The debate on the issue of scale has,
however, largely moved on to making all forms of tourism more sustainable.
This shift towards sustainability in tourism was evident with the
launching of the
Journal of Sustainable Tourism
in 1993. Telfer (2013) provides
a detailed analysis of the 1987 Brundtland Report and the resulting
Search WWH ::
Custom Search