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>Date: Thu, 6 May 1999 09:15:57 +0100 (GMT Daylight Time)
>Priority: NORMAL
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>Subject: Re: : Blame tourism-or the tour operators?
>From: David Crouch <[log in to unmask]>
>To: Hillary Shaw <[log in to unmask]>
>Cc: [log in to unmask]
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>colleagues,
>
>
>Of course I agree with all the crits of tourism/developing countries
>destinations. But here seems a strong arena for creative
>critical georgaphical contribution.  And one that avoids other
>possibilities, even in much of the lousy contemporary tourism - that
>seems to get our colleagues places to oversee what`s happening!
>
>Tourism can be coupled with empowerment [some Indian sub-continent
>cases], and who are we to `judge` and proscribe `cultural content`?
>
>When georgaphers stop usign overseas visits, when they stop usign
>hugely polluting and wasteful environment-bashing [at global level]
>supermarkets then they/we deserve to be listened to!!!
>
>David Crouch, Anglia [and,yes] Karlstad- but I cant stand supermarkets!
>
>
>
>On Wed, 5 May 1999 12:28:59 GMT Hillary Shaw
><[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>> 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
>
>----------------------
>David Crouch
>Anglia Polytechnic University
>[log in to unmask]
>

Dr Neil Carr
Dept. of Business and Finance
University of Hertfordshire
Mangrove Road
Hertford
Hertfordshire
England
SG13 8QF
Tel. (01707) 285511
Fax. (01707) 285455
email: [log in to unmask]




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