Recent comments on crit-goog have drawn attention to the problems
posed by touriwm and whether it is a good idea for developing
countries to use it as a revenue source. The problems caused by
"tourism" are in fact caused by the tour operators. These problems,
and possible solutions, include:-
1) Poor wages paid to hotel workers, and forcing them to rely on tips
or gratuities for their basic income. A possibler solution is the
imposition of a mimimum wage on such worker's employers. The jobs
involved would not migrate to another country as they might if, say,
a mimimum wage were introduced at a car assembly plant, as tourists
to a country require hotel workers there, not elsewhere. The holiday
price would rise - this requires the host country to differentiate
its holiday "experience", based on that country's
cultural/biological/landscape inheritance, so that jobs migration
does not take place indirectly by holiday makers going elsewhere.
2) Visually ugly developments such as the concreting over by large
hotels and roads of large parts of the Mediterranean coast. In places
where we already have this infrastructure, it will only cause more
poverty to pull it down, but no more should be allowed. Strictly
enforced planning controls to stop other areas suffering this -
difficult I admit in areas of endemic corruption by local officials.
If effective, will raise holiday prices by restricting availability
of hotel beds, so perhaps raising worker's wages.
3) Unsustainable use of resources. eg hotel swimming pools, golf
courses, in arid areas. If holiday numbers are restricted and
planning controls are enfirced, thisd problem will also be limited.
One way of limiting holiday makre numbers may be a quota on the water
allocated per hotel, or per the hotel sector. Hotel operators will
not erect new hotels if they know they cannot supply decent plumbing,
baths per guest, etc.
4) Damage to wildlife, eg sea turtle nesting disrupted on turkish
beaches. Again, controls on devpt, either direct throiugh planning
permission, or indirect through qoutas. Zone certain areas off limits
for building, AND ENFORCE THIS!
5)Transport pollution, through long haul flights to the holiday, then
excessive coach travel once there. Air travel polln is an international
problem, tackled through extra flight taxes on long flights. Perhaps
use these taxes to subsidise more sustainable transport in developing
countries, eg to their rail, not road , systems.Once there encourage
walking/cycling holidays. Encourage tourists to view the local area
more closely, not undertake a quick coach trip of the whole region.
Such "whistle stop" tours are likely less meaningful to the tourist
than a really close look at the small area within a few miles or tens
of miles of the hotel. Host country could impose a milaege tax on
holiday bus milage, monitored by the coach tachograph. Costs of
tachograph insytallation and monitoring covered by this tax.
6) Finally, for those who want no cultural content, just "two weeks
sun, sea, and sand", encourage "Centre Parcs" type centres, which can
be anywhere, so put these anywhere, in least sensitive areas. They can still be
cheap, so higher holiday prices as described above will not exclude
the poor from holidays. Cenbtre parcs and its like is essentially
"location - free", they could even go in areas of industrial
dereliction, with a bit of prior landscaping, tree planting, etc.
Hillary Shaw
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