Whose Home is it, Anyway?

Oct0ber-November 1995

This is an article from WaveLength Magazine, available in print in North America and globally on the web.

Green travel in developing countries

by Jean Keefe

Here's something to think about if you plan to go south this winter.

Hundreds of thousands of people in the Third World are facing malnutrition and starvation, not because of famine or warm but because they have lost access to the land and resources that could sustain them. It's happening because their governments are pursuing the tourist dollar, and need more land to develop the industry.

Tourism has often been regarded as The Answer to the economic ills suffered by developing countries in the decades since independence. Fluctuating prices for their exports coupled with rising interest rates on money borrowed from international agencies, have left many countries with crippling burdens of debt. These problems have been exacerbated by the rapid increase in population which has led to rising unemployment and destitution, and many governments have been forced to reassess their development strategies.

Diversification is seen as essential, but with a large unskilled workforce, few natural resources and small domestic markets for manufactured goods, the opportunities are extremely limited. Tourism is seen as a viable and attractive alternative to industrialization. It is believed that tourism will strengthen the economic base by stimulating activity in the agricultural, commercial, and service sectors. It is labour intensive, offering jobs in construction and service industries, as well as direct employment in the hotels themselves.

Many Third World countries are well endowed with the resources which attract visitors: tropical climate, sandy, palm-fringed beaches; warm, blue sea; beautiful, varies scenery and exotic wildlife. By exploiting these factors, and offering generous development incentives, Third World governments have successfully attracted foreign investment to the industry, and for many countries tourism is now the highest earner of foreign exchange.

The tourist industry is greedy for land. It is needed not just for the construction of hotels, but also for leisure complexes such as golf courses, and for the development of the infrastructure. Sometimes peoples' homes have been bulldozed simply to 'beautify' a route from the airport, such as in the Dominican Republics. For repressive regimes, image is all-important, and row upon row of dilapidated shacks constructed from scrap materials might give visitors the wrong impression. In the Pacific, particularly, ancient grave sites have been excavated to make room for hotels, leisure facilities and airport, and re-burials have had to be arranged, causing distress and acrimony.

In poverty-stricken countries, hotel development has tended to be concentrated in specific areas of natural beauty or places of special cultural or historical interest, resulting in the creation of tourist enclaves. There are sound economic reasons for this. Tourists have come to expect minimal standards of comfort in their accommodation, such as hot and cold running water, flush toilets and air conditioning. It is cheaper to supply water, sewage outlets and electricity to hotels if they are concentrated in one area rather than scattered throughout the country. It has meant, however, that in many cases, local people have been displaced.

Excerpted from Responsible Traveling, June 1995 (reprinted from Tourism in Focus, Spring 1995)

Responsible Traveling newsletter is published quarterly by the North American Coordinating Center for Responsible Tourism. PO Box 827 San Anselmo, CA 94979