Dear colleagues: According to Janne Jorgensen's recent
statement to this group: (Slave Route Cultural Tourism Programme Outline):
"Cultural tourism is the fastest growing segment of the tourism industry, which
is the world's largest employer." I have seen similar similar growth claims for
ecotourism and cruises. Where are the data to back these claims up? Given the
diversity of definitions around, is it even possible to collect data to back up
such claims? Do these claims apply to the whole world or jusy some parts of it?
Is it appropriate to apply global claims to local places and vice versa? - I
think not! Is tourism really the fastest growing
industry in the world? What about information technology? Over what period?
Is it really the largest industry in the world? What
about agriculture? Between about one quarter and one fifth of the world's
population live in China. In spite of rapid urban growth and the presence of
huge cities there, most live in rural areas and are involved in agriculture.
Although farmers are in a minority in much of the western world, this is not the
case in much of the so-called developing world. I suspect that globally, more
people are currently involved in agriculture than in tourism.
My point is that the proliferation of superficial,
unsubstantiated claims undermines the credibility of academic tourism research
and is little more than boosterism.
Janne is not alone in making such claims (and I have
probably been at fault too). However, I think we need to look carefully at the
availability and quality of our data, and the development of definitions that
permit us to count systematically, before embarking on self-serving, sweeping
pronouncements. I believe that an important role of academics is to be critical
of the conventional wisdom and to have high standards with respect to the need
for and nature of evidence.
Geoff Wall
--
Dr. Geoffrey Wall
Associate Dean, Graduate Studies and Research
Faculty of Environmental Studies
University of Waterloo
Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1, Canada.
http://www.fes.uwaterloo.ca/geography/Faculty/homepages/gwall/drwallhomepage.htm
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