Tourism and Development
Question 1: Elizabeth Garland’s article takes a critical look at so-called volunteer tourism, discussing potentials and, especially, drawbacks. Article will be attached.
Questions (Feel free to focus on 1 or 2.)
1. Have you participated in what is called volunteer tourism? Has the article challenged your views on this kind of tourism? How?
2. What do you think about Garland’s criticism and her recommendations of how to improve volunteer tourism? Which issues may challenge or hinder the implementation of her recommendations?
Question 2: Within the context of tourism, we encounter a paradox in regards to indigenous groups and other “exotic” or “traditional” groups in developing countries. On the one hand, tourists (and the tourism industry as well as governments) often consider these groups as “undeveloped,” “primitive,” and/or “remnants of the past.” They may argue that these groups need to develop or modernize. Alternatively, tourists may view them in a romanticized way as “living a simpler life” (unspoiled by Western/modern influences), as “being closer to nature,” or as “living in harmony with nature.” These two views are not mutually exclusive. Tourists may view “the exotic Other” as backward and undeveloped while simultaneously romanticizing them.
On the other hand, tourists frequently lament that these groups have “lost their tradition” or even “lost their culture,” that they are less authentic if they detect signs of “modernization” or “Westernization.” Such signs may include, for example, Western-style clothing, modern housing, technology such as TVs or cell phones, and changes in lifestyle associated with “modernity.”
Groups in developing countries that participate in cultural tourism in order to “develop”[1] or to improve their economic and social situation may be “trapped” between wanting to change while at the same time needing to remain “traditional,” “unchanged,” “primitive.” Stroma Cole summarizes this paradox in the following way: “To develop is to modernise: if a remote cultural destination modernises, it is no longer ‘primitive’ and loses its appeal” (Cole 2008, 22). She further argues:
On the one hand, tourism brings (or has the potential to bring) wealth and modernization while, on the other hand, for the product to remain attractive, the villages must remain ‘primitive, traditional and exotic’. These conflicts between modernising and remaining traditional I refer to as ‘conflicts of acculturation’ (Cole 2008, 211).
[1] Ideas about what “development” entails may vary between different actors (i.e., local people, governments, development agencies, tourists, etc.).
Questions
Can you provide examples that illustrate the above paradox, either from the class readings and/or your own travels? Do you think that this paradox can be resolved?
Reference Cited
Cole, Stoma. 2008. Tourism, Culture and Development: Hopes, Dreams and Realities in East Indonesia. Clevedon: Channel View Publications.
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