Tourism as a cultural industry
Tourism as a cultural industry
Toward a new strategy of tourist development
in Latin America and the Caribbean
Document for the Forum of Ministers of Culture
and Officials in Charge of Cultural Policies
of Latin America and the Caribbean
November 6-8, 2002, Cuenca, Ecuador
UNESCO Regional Office for Culture
in Latin America and the Caribbean
Havana, 2002
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Introduction.
2. Tourism in Latin America and the Caribbean: Balance of the regional experience.
3. Tourism, culture and cultural industries.
3.1. Tourism and culture: Approach to a multidimensional connection.
3.2. Tourism as a cultural industry: The monumental marketing of leisure.
3.3. Tourism and the marketing of space: reinventing the cultural landscape.
4. The productive system of tourism: the networks of the structure and the structure of the networks.
4.1 Premises for the design and implementation of strategies and policies.
4.2. Challenges.
4.3. Crucial areas that should be addressed
4.4. Action-oriented proposals.
5. Culture and the design of tourist strategies and policies.
1. Introduction
The swift expansion of tourism during the second half of the 20th century was undoubtedly one of the most remarkable and complex economic, social and cultural processes within the larger phenomenon recently known as globalisation. In fact, tourism represents, as well as international finances, one of the areas that are closer to the ideal model of globalisation, in which globalisation is clearly seen.
Tourism is frequently considered as the major contemporary "industry" and its planetary extension has changed world economic geography. It has stimulated huge cultural interaction processes and has transformed the development strategies and the foundations of the economic growth policies of a considerable number of countries and regions. It is, in brief, one of the few activities that, due to its immense scale, relative dynamism and multiple connections, have enough potential to influence decisively the development course of many peoples of the world, especially the developing countries.
The growing impact of tourism has been felt in a remarkable way in Latin America and the Caribbean, in particular in the Caribbean islands, considered by many experts as the most dependent area on international tourism. However, the complexity and the inherent contradictions of tourism expansion in Latin America and the Caribbean are of such a magnitude that do not allow consensus on the role of development “engine” attributed to tourism. In fact, the available evidence is quite diverse and contradictory and for each case of a positive effect of tourism we can find a parallel example of negative impact on development.
Hence, together with tourism's unquestionable advantage of offering the possibility of rapidly incorporating, at a relatively low cost, a series of available assets whose advantages are generally under-exploited (geographical location, natural landscapes, climate, cultural heritage, etc.) to economic processes that generate employment and short term revenues, it also happens that frequently the unequal distribution of wealth is highlighted, new relationships of inequality settle down regarding foreign capital, the environment and the cultural heritage deteriorate, the identity of the population of the receiving country is diluted, popular creativity is affected and conflicts and resentments are generated between tourists and the local population, which are not conducive to a genuine and enriching cross cultural dialogue. In most of the cases, a vibrant tourist sector coexists with --and promotes-- an unfavourable environment for progress towards human development in Latin American and the Caribbean countries.
Thus, the equation that establishes an identity between tourist expansion and development, increasingly accepted as a premise of the development strategies of many countries of the region, seems to be highly questionable. Are we witnessing a new cycle of development strategies, condemned to failure in advance despite being drawn about one of the larger scale and most dynamic sectors of the world economy?
Is it that tourism –as is also frequently attributed to globalisation-- bears an inherent "dualism", based on structural factors and that, therefore, the exploitation of its advantages should always suppose the acceptance of certain costs, or is it, on the contrary, an avoidable duality, mainly resulting from policy errors?
The possibility of using tourism as a key element of effective development strategies for the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean will depend, to a certain extent, on the answers given to those questions. If it were only a matter of policy errors, which happens frequently enough, the question would be relatively less complex, but even a perfunctory revision of the problems associated to the tourism-development relationship would clearly reveal that those problems transcend the scope of policy design and implementation and that, indeed, there are factors of “structural” nature derived from its own logic, organisation, type of economic agents, and regulation mechanisms (governance) of tourism that tend to condition the coexistence of the high economic dynamism of the sector with negative aspects for human development.
However, this does not mean having to accept a pessimistic perspective starting from which a "diluted" or “sub-optimal” human development should be tolerated as an unavoidable cost of the economic advantages that are taken for granted as a result of tourist expansion. Although seldom explicitly accepted, it is however a vision implemented in many of the development strategies articulated around tourism. Following this logic, employment, incomes, investment and improvements of the balance of payments cease to be instruments for development and become goals in themselves, considered as the “advantages” of tourism. On the other hand, human development that strictly speaking should be understood as the genuine goal of taking advantage of the possibilities offered by the expansion of the tourist sector becomes an “adjustment variable" that, more or less, could be sacrificed – and assumed as an "acceptable cost"--for the sake of obtaining the advantages of tourism.
This is so despite the advances made for years, in the conceptual and regulatory fields, regarding human development to a great extent due to the efforts of many institutions among which the different agencies of the United Nations system have played an outstanding role. Then, can we explain the gap between the increasingly accepted paradigms of development and the practice of development strategies of the region articulated around the expansion of the tourist sector?
Clarification of such an incongruity could be a complex task and would surely demand the consideration of the matter in multiple analysis levels. However, in any case, it seems important to attempt to clarify some conceptual questions.
First, within the framework of development strategies in which tourism is a leading sector, the pre-eminence that as a rule is given to the economic results ("advantages") is a direct consequence of the currently prevailing reductionist approach, on the conception of tourist activity as fundamentally restricted to the economy, that is to say, tourism as a business, a sector of the economy, or as an "industry". From that perspective, the other dimensions of tourism, including culture, are subsidiary.
However, there is a very wide range of specialised literature that has established, beyond any doubt, that the economy is only one of the multiple dimensions of tourism, which is fundamentally a social and cultural event. In that sense, culture represents a much more appropriate conceptual framework to understand tourism than the more limited context offered by Economy or the so-called Entrepreneurial Sciences.
Second, that the “structural” determinism ("advantages" in exchange for “acceptable costs") that seems to prevail in the design of the development strategies embedded in tourism expansion --partially derived from the above-mentioned reductionism economic approach-- is above all due to lack of knowledge of the complex nature of a very peculiar productive system, with specificity's derived from its social and cultural determinants. The well-defined hierarchical structure of this system is not fixed nor does it invalidate the existence of alternatives. Strictly speaking, the "costs" of tourism in so far as human development are never of a "technical" nature, neither are they unavoidable, but rather they reveal the adoption of certain policy options for which there may be alternatives in the same frameworks of the development strategies drawn up on the basis of tourist expansion.
Third, it is generally assumed that the main function of the strategies and of the associated policies is that of organising a “zero sum game", in which the most that can be hoped is to minimise the costs of tourism in human development, particularly when those costs may interfere in the short and middle term with the continuity of the "advantages". Hence, the need to preserve the environment and the cultural heritage is frequently considered as the utilitarian preservation of a market asset and not for its intrinsic value for human development.
One of the specific ways in which these conceptual premises are reflected is precisely the fact that the national or sectoral development strategies associated to the expansion of tourism are generally designed and applied starting from institutional frameworks that, on one hand, do not grant a central role to the cultural institutions (including administrative or of any other type), and on the other hand, they hardly ever involve the local level, where culture takes shape. In fact, except for a few exceptions, the participation of cultural or local institutions is at best an accessory function, generally to satisfy a “politically correct” requirement or to improve the attractiveness of tourist destinations, that is to say, that accompany strategies and policies but that they are not essential for their definition.
The main problem of the continuing prevalence of these conceptions is the risk that development strategies based on tourism would become irrelevant to development, or more exactly, that they could become irrelevant regarding human development. It could be then that the strategies geared to insert a country or regions in the international globalised economy, that would promote remarkable changes in the economic structure of a country and in the consolidation of a new and highly dynamic economic sector, that promote new jobs and higher wages, which contribute incomes to the national accounts and resources to the budget, but that nevertheless are accompanied by significant "costs" in vital aspects for human development.
Thus, in a context of environmental degradation, loss of identity, deterioration and even looting of the cultural heritage, distortion of artistic creativity, emergence of attitudes of mimetic assimilation or of intolerance to what is foreign, loss of control over the national resources, increase of social inequalities, abrupt erosion of values and customs, and homogenisation imposed from abroad in many aspects of life, it is rather difficult to admit that the strategies rooted on such concepts and accepting such "costs" can be successful regarding human development.
Overcoming the instrumental burden inherent in the strategies based on those concepts would entail, in terms of achieving the goals of human development, the adoption as a starting point of two basic notions that still are not a part of the conventional thought on development strategies based on tourism: first, considering tourism as a complex and multidimensional social and cultural phenomenon –going beyond the limits of the economic sector; and second, even if tourism is considered in its economic dimension, it is a “cultural industry” whose particularities, mainly those associated to its social and cultural aspects, demand an specific understanding of the peculiar productive system in which its reproduction is sustained.
In other words, the design of development strategies associated to the expansion of tourism requires -if they seek to be effective in human development--the adoption of a wide analytic framework, defined from the perspective of culture, and allowing for the multiplicity of levels and the general complexity of the phenomenon, as well as of its specificity’s as a productive system.
The corollary of this consideration would be that the diverse cultural institutions --and also the local ones-- should not only aspire to become fundamental actors in the design and implementation of development strategies based on tourist expansion, but that above all they should assert their presence in that process, which will surely depend on different factors in each country, but that even so would be favoured by the capacity of these institutions to make an appropriate interpretation of the phenomenon and to make coherent and acceptable proposals.
UNESCO, as the sole institution specialised in culture of the United Nations system, is in a very advantageous position to act as competent partner in the task of assisting Member States --and all the institutions actively involved in tourism--in the drafting of strategies and policies promoting human development.
In fact the topic of the culture-tourism relationships is part of the broader issue of the culture-development interaction, a matter on which UNESCO has traditionally encouraged reflection, particularly starting from the designation by United Nations of the period 1988-1997 as World Cultural Development Decade which lead --among others results-- to the presentation in 1995 of what is considered today an important landmark in the conceptualisation of this topic, the Report Our Creative Diversity of the World Commission on Culture and Development. 1 The reflections and the recommendations in that document were materialised later in numerous activities, documents and policy instruments that have transformed these last years into one of most fruitful periods regarding initiatives and a general awareness on this vital topic.
The adoption of the 2001-2010 decade as International Decade for the Culture of Peace and Non Violence for the Children of the World and in particular the designation by the United Nations of the year 2002 as Cultural Heritage Year, acted as a favourable framework for UNESCO's aims of reaffirming the link between the mandate of the organisation and the need of humanising globalisation, hence favouring "the contribution of UNESCO to peace and human development in a globalisation era through education, science, culture and communication." 2
The topic tourism-culture relationships is, in fact, one of the most favourable to encourage reflections and initiatives that are adjusted to the strategic objectives and the work priorities defined by UNESCO in its Medium Term Plan for the period 2001 - 2007.
UNESCO upholds the principle that culture, in all its diversity, should exercise an essential function as global development and coexistence actor and, therefore, it promotes the idea that culture should play a crucial role in the framework of the national and international development strategies, mainly in a context in which globalisation gives rise to new forms of inequality which threaten diversity, pluralism, the access to knowledge and creativity, and may lead to a cultural conflict instead of leading to a dialogue.
The challenge that it entails is colossal due to other two important challenges: the increasing decrease of the capacity of the States to control the flows of ideas and images, which undoubtedly may have a negative impact on cultural development; and the widening of gaps in access to knowledge, with its consequent negative effects on the transmission and renovation of capacities allowing to assure human development.
The present document is in line with the purposes of UNESCO of contributing as the “house of cultures” to promote the indispensable reflection and the exchange of ideas regarding a topic, that like the expansion of tourism, is of growing importance for the development of Latin America and the Caribbean. The reflections that are presented to the reader's consideration here have attempted to incorporate the concepts that UNESCO has been advocating for a long time regarding the culture-development relationship in general, and the culture-tourism relationship in particular, as well as other analysis perspectives contributing to reflection on this topic and may serve as a matrix for the drafting of recommendations in this area.
The document has been organised in four parts. The first one, a brief evaluation of the experience of tourism in Latin America and the Caribbean which allows to identify its scales and modalities and the particularities of different sub-regions. Likewise, a comparison is made between the idealised model of tourist activity which has been used to validate the expansion of the sector, and the real way in which such an expansion has taken place generating numerous and complex economic, social and cultural problems. The second part includes a series of important concepts to understand the current tourism-culture-human development relationship. In particular, tourism questions such as its status as cultural industry and the role of tourism in the marketing of the cultural environment are addressed.
The third part of the study summarises the functional logic and the structure of tourism’s productive system, undoubtedly one of the largest and more complex global productive networks, characterised by the presence of factors with a strong social and cultural determination, endowing very peculiar characteristics to the operation and regulation of such a huge productive system.
Finally, in fourth part the premises of the conceptual framework for designing tourism strategies and policies compatible with human development are established. Then current challenges are identified, and later on some crucial areas that should be taken into consideration, especially in the framework of the tourist strategies and policies of the region, are set out. It ends with a preliminary list of proposals for specific actions, both at national and international levels, in particular those consistent with UNESCO’s initiatives in the framework of the strategic alliances that this organisation promotes with the Member States, different economic, cultural and social institutions and actors.
2. Tourism in Latin America and the Caribbean: Balance of the regional experience.
In Latin America and the Caribbean international tourism has a relatively high presence, due to the swift growth of the sector during the last decades, but it is a very heterogeneous scene in so far as geographical distribution, the incentives motivating tourism and its modalities. Thus, in the area, there is a “par excellence” tourist region, the Caribbean Basin, combining traditional destinations with new tourist areas, where a considerable increase of tourist and income flows has taken place, in which the mass beach tourism prevails, mainly organised through “holiday packages", and where in many countries (mainly in the island Caribbean) tourism is unquestionably the main economic activity.
On the other hand, in the area there are also huge receiving countries such as Mexico, Brazil and Argentina, with a more diverse supply of "tourist products" in a combination of different “assets” (climate, geography, history, culture, and nature) and where tourism is a sector within the framework of a relatively diversified economic structure.
Although the scale and dynamism of tourism in the Caribbean (where beach and nature tourism prevail) has contributed to create the image that Latin America and the Caribbean is fundamentally a place for holidays based almost exclusively in the exploitation of natural resources, in fact there are countries of Latin America that have been characterised traditionally, or more recently have begun to be identified as cultural tourist destinations, being representative cases those of Peru and Honduras, or Mexico which has diversified tourist offers (including beach tourism) and is characterised by a remarkable use of the cultural heritage for tourist purposes.
The disparity of tourism in the area seems to have conditioned a pattern of analysis of the activity with a tendency to support the study of two types of cases: to) individual countries, mainly the large receivers as Mexico or countries with a very strong tourist identity (Peru, a case of traditional (heritage) tourism, or Costa Rica as a destination of nature tourism); and b) sub-regions characterised by a relatively homogeneous tourist activity, mainly in the case of the Caribbean (in its different modalities: Caribbean islands, Caribbean Basin or the Greater Caribbean.
Generally the evaluation of the expansion of tourism in Latin America and the Caribbean is made by analysing the status and of the dynamics of the sector, taking as reference the level of the country or sub-regions –and to a lesser extent the region as a whole--but without taking into account some characteristics and global trends in tourism that are sufficiently relevant, above all when trying to assess the complex relationship between the social and cultural processes, tourism and development. For that reason, an appropriate valuation of tourism in the area should stem from an analytic perspective that places the profile of the sector in the world context. 3
Most of the analyses carried out on the rapid expansion of international tourism in the last three decades, and its transformation into an activity of true global scope, have highlighted the appearance and consolidation of some developing countries and regions as important tourist destinations. Thus, in the developing countries and traditionally tourist destinations areas --particularly those located in the so-called “basins" or “ holiday lake resorts", i.e., the Mediterranean, the Caribbean and the area of the Asian Pacific— a leap took place in the scale and dynamism of tourism starting from the decade of the ´60s in the 20th century. On the other hand, toward the turn of the century new tourist important destinations emerged in countries so diverse as Jordan, Burma, China, Guatemala or Cuba. If in 1960 the developing areas received only one of every twelve tourists and one of every six in 1970, toward the mid-´90s the proportion was of one of every three “tourist arrivals", showing much higher tourist growth rates in the developing areas than for the rest of the world. 4
However, this fact --undoubtedly significant for these countries-- should be valued in the more general context of the distribution of global tourist activity, which continues to be predominantly located in the more developed countries and regions. The situation of international tourism resembles what is taking place with the international flows of trade, finances and technology. Thus, in spite of the spectacular increase in the number of international tourists during the last four decades (the number of " arrivals " increased twenty-fold, from 25 million in 1950 up to 567 million in 1995, reaching the record figure of 692.7 million in 2001) 5 most of the tourists travelled to destinations in the developed countries. The case of Europe is significant because the so-called "intra–European" tourism represented 88% of the international tourism of that continent, while only 12% of European tourists travelled to other destinations. 6
These two tendencies condition a phenomenon that must be taken into consideration when making a prospective analysis of tourism expansion in a region like Latin America and the Caribbean: tourism is characterised by a high geographical concentration in developed countries (the main tourist providers and recipients) but a group of developing countries seem to have the capacity to compete successfully in the field of the redistribution of world tourism, covering a small, but growing quota of the receiving markets.
Therefore, what seems to be more important in terms of the tourist perspectives of the region, of sub-regions, or of individual countries, is to be able to identify if they can be part or not of the group of developing territorial entities that are able to compete successfully in the redistribution of tourism, also keeping in mind that it is not a competition exclusively vis a vis the developed countries, but rather it is also a very strong competition among the underdeveloped countries themselves.
A first interesting observation would be that, with the exception of groups of small islands located in “holiday lakes” such as the Caribbean and the Pacific, South-going tourism concentrates on a very small group of tourist destinations, generally corresponding to developing countries with relatively large economies (China, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Thailand, Indonesia, Egypt, Turkey, Morocco, Tunisia, etc.). Another important confirmation would be that the developing countries with smaller incomes receive a very low amount of tourists and tourist revenues while the developing countries with relative higher income (“emerging economies") receive 15% of the world "arrivals” and 54% of the tourists who travel to developing countries. 7
The specialised literature has tried to explain these disparities in the success of the least developed countries regarding tourist competition through an analytic outline based on the analysis of three factors:
a. - Accessibility to the tourist destination, mainly as a result of a natural factor (geographical proximity to the issuing markets) and also due to the existence of an appropriate transportation and communications infrastructure;
b. - The interest that the big companies of the international tourism productive system (tour operators, travel agents, hotel chains, airlines, and other associated services) have in participating or not in programs for tourism development in the different countries. Those companies are real “holiday manufacturers” and control the flows of international tourists. Therefore, they play a decisive role in the expansion or contraction of the tourist sector of developing countries;
c. - The will of developing tourism in a given country, both at governmental level and in the entrepreneurial system, as well as the possibility of designing and implementing specific strategies and policies to promote tourism.
Compared to other regions of the world, in general these factors play a positive role in the expansion of tourism in Latin America and the Caribbean. The geographical proximity to the largest tourist issuing market of the world (United States), the availability of a relatively developed communications infrastructure, mainly in the largest countries or in traditional tourist destinations (like the Caribbean), the presence for years in the region of big companies (American and European) active in the tourist sector, as well as the existence in a great number of countries of tourist development policies that include aggressive promotion campaigns, have transformed Latin America and the Caribbean into the main developing area receiving tourism, surpassing Southeast Asia, Africa and the Middle East. 8
However, those same factors also condition remarkable differences within the region. Mexico is --far apart from the rest of the countries-- the main tourist destination of the region, and is one of the only three developing countries (the other ones are China and Turkey) among the main 15 tourist destinations of the world. As the only country with borders with United States, the presence of a great community of Mexican origin in that country, the existence of a relatively large economy integrated to North America, a good transportation and hotel infrastructure, a wealth of diverse tourist assets, a high presence of tourist transnational companies, as well as tourist development policies with institutional tradition and flexibility, explain “the Mexican phenomenon” in the field of tourism at regional level.
On the other hand, there are some large countries of South America or with relatively high levels of per capita income that are in a second place: Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Colombia and Chile, with tourists' figures ranging between one million and the six million annual tourists in 2001. 9
However, the other important tourist phenomenon of the region, besides Mexico, is not at country but at sub-regional level: the Caribbean islands which in 2001, with 16.9 million tourists, received almost as many tourists as Mexico, more than all those received by South America, and approximately four times those received by Central America. 10 Besides the relative advantage that the sub-region may have being one of the traditional “tourist lakes” of the world, this has been possible due to the rapid expansion of the tourist infrastructure in the area, the almost general adoption of tourism as the leading sector in development strategies, the emergence of new destinations, the establishment of very active promotion policies which have been able to attract a considerable number of European tourists, and the high presence of large transnational tourism investment and operator companies in the area.
The cases of the Caribbean islands and of Central America that, in general, have made tourism the “leading sector” of their “new” development strategies are surely the most extreme variants of a general trend observed in the entire region since the ´80s when tourist expansion was considered a regenerating economic option. Thus, in the context of the so-called “Lost Decade” of the eighties, amid the unfeasible traditional strategies of economic development of the region, widespread economic opening to global markets, foreign debt crisis, massive unemployment and underemployment, contraction of incomes and the weakening of the national budgets, tourism was considered a quick and easy option to transform the economic structures of Latin America and the Caribbean capable of endowing them with a dynamic sector, with high growth potential and a considerable multiplier effect, mainly because the multiplier effects of tourism on a range of activities --directly or indirectly linked to it-- are well known: transportation, communications, hotels, restaurants, and many other services, besides the necessary industrial and agricultural inputs for their operation and outfitting.
Tourism has been considered, above all, an activity for which there were considerable assets available --not sufficiently exploited (natural resources and cultural heritage)-- that gave a competitive edge to the countries of the region, and that would allow the economic expansion to an “export” sector lacking the market protectionism of other products and services. On the other hand, it was assumed that tourist expansion would bring about positive economic results at a very short term, with minimum investment recovery periods, and that would also favour a substantial creation of jobs and the development of small and medium size companies.
In the specific case of the small island economies of the Caribbean –and to a lesser degree of Central America-- tourism was not only considered an economic activity that could contribute to economic growth, employment and generation of foreign exchange, but also it became the key component of new development strategies. In fact, in a considerable number of Caribbean islands tourism became the predominant or almost single economic activity.
Finally, another additional consideration that also deserved attention in the large economic role given to tourism in the region was perceiving tourism as an activity that could favour sub-regional and regional economic integration. 11
However, it should be clear that although economic arguments received more attention and played the most relevant role in the general process of a growing revaluation of tourism in Latin America and the Caribbean, cultural approaches were also part of the rationality and of the discourse that accompanied the expansion of tourism in the region.
In the first place, it seemed that it was clearly understood that the massive tourism being imposed on the region was a part of a contact among different cultures, which due to its scale and heterogeneity was a novelty, and that somehow could represent the possibility of making a contribution that would stimulate the cultural energy of the visitors and their own peoples. It was thought that tourism would also help to make available to the rest of the world the cultural heritage of the region, and that this would contribute to enjoying tourism in a creative manner. Likewise, it was understood that tourism could be a valuable educational tool, particularly for youth, not only contributing to the spiritual enrichment brought about by the contact between different cultures, but also by learning the values of dialogue and tolerance. In other words, tourism was perceived as a privileged vector for intercultural exchange and as a school of tolerance. 12
Tourism was also valued as an opportunity for the region's peoples --due to the demand and the injection of resources that the tourists represented --to encourage artistic creativity, to recover traditions, to preserve the heritage and to maintain diversity. To the extent that tourism is a complex "package" that, contrary to other exportable goods and services, is to be consumed in situ by the tourist, it was assumed that the social and cultural factors making up the tourist offer would have a very significant local effect that could be used to renovate, and in some cases re-establish, towns and communities that had lost cultural vitality as consequence of the prolonged depression of the local economies.
However, the general context resulting from the expansion of tourism in the region ---without denying the existence of positive effects in specific cases— actually differs from the above-mentioned ideal model which served as a premise for the tourist development policies of most of the countries of the region.
The problems and the negative consequences of tourism in Latin America and the Caribbean have been broadly documented, although unfortunately those studies have not received the attention they deserve and have been largely outnumbered by the dissemination of texts and images postulating the notion of the region as a tourist paradise. 13
It is not possible to reproduce here in full the findings of the different studies that have been carried out on the negative impact of tourist expansion in the region, but it is convenient to briefly identify the specific problems that --both in the economic and in the social and cultural areas-- have resulted from tourist development in Latin America and the Caribbean.
From an economic perspective, the main identified problems are the following ones:
- A high proportion of the revenue derived from tourism in the region is not retained by the local actors (governments, companies, or individuals) but rather benefits extra-regional entities, mainly large tour operators, travel agencies, airlines, hotel companies, and the suppliers of products and services, as part of a process known by the specialists as the two rounds of leakage.14 First, a part of the payments made by the tourist is retained directly at the source (country of origin of the tourist) as payments made to travel agencies, tour operators, airlines, and hotel chains, but this does not only represent the value added by those companies in the country of origin, but it also contains part of the value added by the entities of the receiving country that offer the tourist services but that they must yield –vis a vis the bargaining power of large transnational companies --as part of the value redistribution process that takes place at the productive chain of tourism. Later on a second “round of leakage” takes place as a consequence of which a part –at times significant --of the revenues obtained by the agencies in the receiving country “leak” abroad as payment for imports of goods and service, payment of credits, and profit remittances.
- The effective control of the tourist sector of the region's countries is exercised by big transnational companies that control the productive system of tourism. Therefore, there are still many economic sectors highly dependent from abroad. In the specific case of some countries, mainly the small islands, tourist expansion has reinforced the vulnerability of those economies.
- In a considerable number of countries and territories, especially in the Caribbean and Central America, tourism has replaced – or is on the verge of replacing - the traditional dominant sectors (sugar, bananas, coffee, etc.) with a new type of monoculture, promoting a current of opinion that equates tourism with a new plantation system. 15
- Tourist expansion has introduced a substantial demand of limited resources in many countries which are almost always solved to the detriment of the basic and legitimate satisfaction of the needs of the local populations. Access to drinkable water, arable land, transportation infrastructure, and to their own beaches, has become increasingly difficult and more expensive for the peoples of the region as a consequence of the allocation those resources for tourism.
- The so-called "saturation point" in tourist activity has been reached or is about to be reached in many places of the region, a situation in which a high density of tourists begins to create insoluble problems in the frameworks of the receiving economies, not only due to the consequences derived from the competition for the above mentioned resources but also because of the irreversible damages that the saturation of tourists can cause to the environment, particularly in the context of fragile coastal ecological systems.
- The expansion of tourism is far from reaching the goals that an idealised tourism was supposed to accomplish in so far as obtaining of economic advantages for all the sectors of the population. In fact, the development of tourism has been accompanied in many cases by an increasing gap in the income distribution, the social marginalisation of wide sectors of the population (including entire communities), an increase of the levels of resentment and violence associated to these processes, and the establishment of patterns of non-skilled employment with scant possibility for upward mobility.
Nor have the tangible results of the tourist expansion in Latin America and the Caribbean been adjusted to the idealised model, when the sector is valued from a cultural perspective. Among the main outstanding problems are the following:
-Tourism has had the tendency to commercialise and to adapt the culture of the receiving country, mainly following business criteria, as a consumer good for tourists. This is not an acceptable process for a large part of the population of the receiving countries and neither for a part of the tourists, in particular those that have a higher education level and cultural sensitivity.
-The commercialisation of the past and of the present of the peoples which seems to have generalised with the expansion of tourism in the region has demonstrated to be most of the times an artificial and not very ethical process that leads to what some specialists have denominated “staged authenticity”. In fact, a current of opinion believes that a “Disneyfication” of the past and of the present of the people’s culture has taken place as a part of the process of adaptation of the cultures of the receiving countries to the necessities of the tourist business.
- The potential spiritual enrichment to be derived from the contact and the possible cross cultural dialogue between the tourists and the local population frequently is disturbed because it is an encounter between rich visitors and poor local populations, and this situation tends to place the receiving society in a situation of inferiority in which their members tend to see the visitors as a superior culture, with the paradoxical effect that on one hand they tend to copy their external forms, but that likewise may be conducive to reactions of hostility and of rejection to everything foreign thing on the part of the receiving populations.
- Tourism has also created problems in the local population's daily life when priority has been given to the setting up and operation of infrastructures and to social and cultural activities that serve the tourists to the detriment of the population's businesses, schools, markets and places of worship. In the case of cities, this problem is manifested as a very sharp competition between tourist and urban functions. The invasion of public spaces, including in some cases legal or de facto privatisation, has taken place as part of this phenomenon.
- Many times the dissemination of idealised cultural images (also called tourism “brands”) of tourist destinations promoted to fuel their demand, are not positively correlated with local cultural values and national identity. It must be taken into consideration that such a distortion is not only a result of manipulation by foreign companies but, in many cases, it has been observed that the tourist institutions of the receiving country (including state agencies) are the source of those distorted images, or replicate them. Tourist promotion is a complex manipulation process of images transmitted simultaneously to the potential visitors and to the receiving population so that so that those idealised images may be "internalised", whether or not they are adjusted to the authentic local culture. This process has demonstrated to increase tourist incomes, but it has also led to cultural dissonance, and even to the development of a “tourist cultural identity” in the local population.
- With the expansion of tourism, it is logical to expect the existence of a process of cultural interaction that ideally should consist of mutual adjustment. On one hand, the tourists should adapt themselves to the new cultural experiences--probably reconsidering the idealised cultural models that they had before arriving to their destination--, while at the same time the receiving society should adapt itself to the presence of imported cultural models introduced by the tourists. However, in many tourist destinations of the region, generally there is a situation in which an acculturation effect takes place, evidenced in the imitation, by a part of the local population, of foreign styles, which may entail other negative consequences and actions that the population of the receiving country could undertake, in order to maintain the standard of living that has been copied as, for example, the import of consumer goods and deviations in social behaviour (crime, drugs, prostitution, etc). Although it is clear that tourism is not the only source of these negative effects, because the phenomenon of acculturation and of appropriation --above all by the youths-- of the characteristics and lifestyles of the visitors, is also influenced by the cultural industries in general. Undoubtedly, it is a clear symptom of the contact between the tourists and the local population.
3. Tourism, culture and cultural industries.
Tourism as a world trend of massive human travel and as a form of consumption becomes an element of necessary interaction among countries, communities and individuals. Its trends and movements respond to the expectations of economic variables, however, it is also a consumption in which social and cultural processes are organised to prepare appropriation forms and uses of their products. Destinations, services, natural environments, patrimonial wealth, popular cultural creativity, forms of coexistence are not only objects of tourist consumption but the particular contributions with which the peoples have identified throughout the course of their history. 16
In general, international tourism could be understood as the system of relationships, processes, practices and action networks involving people and institutions of different countries and cultures with the purpose of organising international travel, the stay, and the recreation of the tourists in the countries of destination. 17
As of the second half of the 20th century, tourism ceased to be an activity fundamentally carried out by the social sectors of higher revenue and became a massive activity that has turned tourism into a social rule, although this has not been a uniform process within societies nor at the international level. However, in general tourism has become a cultural institution by itself, in a rite that generates growing expectations up to the extent of being considered as a social necessity, at least for broad sectors of the population of the more developed countries.
3.1. Tourism and culture: Approach to a multidimensional connection.
Tourist travel, which up to the first half of the 20th century was associated fundamentally with a process of cultural appropriation and education practised by just a few, became – based on cost reduction derived from the technological breakthroughs in communication and transportation –a kind of a liberating process for the vast masses which began to use travel as a way of escaping from the routine of daily life.
For some specialists, tourism typically has a very specific cultural dimension: it is the sale of dreams. Thus, tourism is conceived as a process of marketing of "escapism", as the commercial response to the human aspiration of plunging into a different reality to that of their daily experience. [1]
The sudden emergence of a social activity practised by millions had a profound impact on contemporary culture, to the extent that we wonder whether contemporary culture may function without tourism. [2]
International tourism takes place in the backdrop of a system of social relationships, defined by a complex process of interaction that takes place in multiple areas: inter-societal, inter-cultural and inter-sectoral. In fact, in the context of tourism the distinction between cultural and social factors is so difficult that some specialists prefer to unify them under the term of social and cultural interaction. [3]
The relationship between culture and tourism is not exhausted, however, with the condition of culture as the general context in which tourism unravels nor with the consideration of tourism as an specific cultural expression but rather there are other dimensions in that relationship, as is the case of what has begun to be called “tourist culture."
The concept tries to highlight an exclusively contemporary social process of recent appearance which consists of the fact that tourism functions according to its “own” culture, that is to say, it functions based on a series of cultural norms which are applied with astounding uniformity by the tourists in the entire world and that have established a group of “floating” and "de-structured" practices by the tourists which almost always are in contrast with the cultural norms of the receiving country, and even with those of the tourist’s country of origin. Such “tourist culture” is in fact a lifestyle in its own right and there are specialists that argue that, such as it happens with other cultures, it can also be observed and studied as a specific event. [4]
The relationship between culture and tourism has been a topic approached by a considerable number of studies and, in fact, it has also been part of the rhetoric – at times of the real content--of the policies adopted for the development of tourism. Even in a region like Latin America and the Caribbean, in which tourist modalities based on natural assets have tended to prevail, culture has been gaining spaces –as yet insufficient - in the conceptions on tourism.
That growing weight of the cultural dimension of tourism could be explained, among other reasons, by the belief - now much more extended than before --that economic and social development, understood both as a process and as a goal, and at times both at the same time, involves an indispensable cultural dimension which cannot be ignored because for some time the principle has been recognised according to which “culture is at the very core of the development processes." [5]
To the extent that tourism is perceived as a means to access development, it has become evident that the consideration of the cultural aspects of tourism should occupy a central place in the plans for the expansion of the activity.
Another important reason explaining the growing recognition of culture in the development of tourism consists in the remarkable capacity of cultural activities as a source of adding value to the so-called tourist products.
From the perspective of the studies on development, the cultural dimension of tourism can be assessed in five big areas:
a) Culture as a foundational element of development, which attempts to promote itself through tourism,
b) Culture as an element that allows increasing the value of the tourist product,
c) Culture as a factor of social dissemination and of spatial distribution of the revenues of tourist activity,
d) Tourism in its condition of “cultural industry”, and
e) Culture as an important asset which may favour the growth of companies, areas, countries and regions through technological and organisational learning in the context of the global tourist networks, i.e., in the frameworks of one of the largest scale and most dynamic economic complexes of the contemporary economy.
The first three areas have received a relatively greater interest in the last years. In the first place, the consideration of culture as a foundational element of development is a conception that has increasingly influenced the importance attached to the cultural aspects of tourism, above all in those societies that are trying to use tourism as a vector of development. Culture in tourism is seen as something that may reinforce the role of culture as the central element of the more general process of development.
On the other hand, it is also recognised extensively that culture can be very important to increase the value of the tourist product. In a global economy that tends to reward relatively better the activities that generate “differentiated” products and services, cultural tourism can be used as the foundation of a strategy of more revenue-yielding market "niches" than the “products” of massive sun and beach tourism.
Finally, in the last years, the belief that cultural activity in the context of tourism may have an important role in the social and spatial distribution of the tourist revenues has won recognition. Crafts is perhaps the most evident case, but certainly not the only one, of a cultural activity encouraging the social and spatial distribution of the revenues of tourism. Productive networks associated to the manufacture of crafts are not technologically complex and the fact that they are relatively labour intensive favours the access by relatively wide, low-income social sectors – through tourist sales – to a part of the revenues of tourism. Each dollar spent by the tourist in crafts contributes to a direct distribution of the income which is socially more equitable that each dollar spent in the more concentrated segments in tourism, as the lodging in hotels or air transport. On the other hand, today it is also clearly perceived that the cultural activity - crafts is again a very evident case-- can act in the sense of a spatial dispersion of the revenues of tourism to the benefit of localities that are not properly tourist sites. In fact, the crafts and the cultural heritage have transformed certain localities, which were not initially conceived as areas of tourist activity into tourist attractions.[6]
However, the last two areas of the cultural dimension of tourism that were mentioned above have been relatively less studied and are quite less understood, despite the great importance that they have for the design of development policies based on tourism. To say it more clearly, understanding tourism as a “cultural industry” and considering culture as one of the most important assets on which a country may depend to obtain a type of progress through organised learning turn tourism into an effective development engine are as important for the design of a development strategy as the first three areas mentioned previously.
For development strategies including tourist expansion in an outstanding way it is very important to be able to locate accurately the nature of tourism, involving the fact that tourism is to be considered as a “cultural industry", that is to say, one of the broadest and most dynamic fields of capital accumulation in contemporary capitalism, with very specific social and cultural features that differentiate it from other sectors of the economy. Any development strategy that tries to be supported in tourism should have the premise that the receiving country will become inserted in one of the more important global networks of production, services and cultural interaction of current society and not in any other economic, social and cultural context.
On the other hand, it is crucial that development strategies based on tourism are not only limited to finding the social and cultural nature accurately and the place of tourism in contemporary civilisation but also the possibilities that tourism can offer to advance toward development. From an economic viewpoint, this implies knowing which are the structures determining the distribution of revenues within the global tourist networks, while from the cultural viewpoint, a precise knowledge is required on the tourist processes that make progress towards more complex economic forms compatible with the improvement of the social conditions encouraging creativity and the preservation of identity.
Such knowledge is indispensable to design policies allowing the maximisation of the benefits that could be derived from the insertion of a receiving country (or areas within) into the global networks of tourism. In developmental terms, the important thing is not so much to become inserted at any rate into the global networks of production and services but doing so in a very specific way that allows to profit effectively from the possibilities that they may offer to a country of making progress through technological and organisational learning. The importance of the cultural dimension of tourism actually consists in that it can be considered as one of the most valuable assets to facilitate the advance of a country inside the global networks of tourism.
3.2. Tourism as a cultural industry: The monumental marketing of leisure.
Leisure, and tourism as its marketing mechanism, should be clearly situated inside the general social context in which they take place. In that sense, it should be clear that in the so-called modern society leisure simply is not equal to free time. Leisure is “free time” with very well defined characteristics: it is subject to social rules; it is part of a system of social legitimisation (“illusion of freedom and of self-determination") and it is organised as a business. In brief, leisure has become “institutionalised” and plays an important role as space of accumulation, as a cultural pattern and as a means of social legitimisation.[7]
The institutionalisation of leisure has been based on marketing, that is to say, in the transformation of the leisure activities into commodities of a “consumer culture." The expansion of the markets of products has been accompanied by a transfer of the logic of the field of production to the consumer and cultural field. This has resulted in what some specialists have called “the cultural industries", associated to the transformation of cultural and recreational activities into experiences that are sold and bought as commodities.[8]
From such a perspective, tourism is, together with books, records, outdoor recreation, sports, art, television and more recently, Internet, a mechanism for the accumulation of capital and a source of revenues. In contemporary tourism, commercial logic is such an essential component of the process as it the so-called “leisure time” that allows the existence of tourism.
In the case of tourism, this means a process that on the one hand supplements and on the other subverts the trends toward the individualisation of leisure. Tourism has become a gigantic “cultural industry” characterised by massive production in which it is possible to sell "experiences" offering an illusion of individuality thanks to the use of commercial techniques of differentiation of products (niche markets), cosmetic changes in the design of the products and the impact of publicity.
One of the central characteristics of the “cultural industries” is that they offer entertainment, “escape” and the broadening of knowledge, but without implying a challenge to the existing social order. “Cultural industries” are regulated by a series of institutions and practices that facilitate the adjustment of individuals to the above-mentioned pattern. “Commercial entertainment", of which tourism is a part, requires interested but at the same time passive and a-critical participation which is regulated by certain rules and with the help of a “cultural pre-digestion". [9]
A cultural industry as tourism tends to reproduce a dominant interpretation of reality, but it should do so in a manner that is sufficiently interesting and diverse as to catch an "audience" (market). This is achieved by means of the classification and coding of the amenities of tourism and also achieving a predisposition on the part of the tourist on how to interpret the experience that is sold, through the use of diverse “cultural” channels (comments, brochures, magazines, etc.), which contribute to obtain from them a given response. [10]
The marketing of tourism encompasses a relatively wide area of action since it is associated to the production of tangible goods (constructions, infrastructure, transportation, consumer goods, and souvenirs, among others) as well as to the provision of services (reservations, lodging, and gastronomy, among others). That is to say, as area of accumulation, tourism widely exceeds the relatively narrow notion of services.
One of the most important characteristics of tourism as an area of accumulation is its condition of business that sells experiences associated to a consumer culture in which the achievement of a certain “lifestyle" acts as a powerful determinant of the demand. The dynamism of tourism and its vast scales are in fact precisely explained as a phenomenon of the consumer culture. The huge scale of tourism is a direct result of the massive character of the consumer culture that has incorporated to the social practice of large sectors of the population the notion that to travel and to know different places is not only possible but desirable and necessary to have access to a better lifestyle.
The high dynamism of tourism is also derived of its relationship with other areas of the consumer culture. The “cultural industries” not only encourage the necessity of “living the experience” that is sold but above all the necessity to experience it often. What is encouraged is the regularity of tourism as an aspect of the “lifestyle," something that is not only reinforced by those who are directly involved in the tourist business but also by a whole set of cultural mediators (magazines, cinema, videos, books) who create an image of the inexhaustible possibilities of tourism. The massiveness and dynamism of tourism that are derived from its condition of “cultural industry” operating in the context of a consumer culture have implied the organisation of the activity as a commercial effort. Little or nothing should be left to chance; neither the provision of the services and products, nor the construction of the experiences that must be sold.
As a consumer of a “cultural industry", the tourist is a client “aware of the value” of what has been sold, and tends to appraise the "package" of products and services that make up the acquired "experience" from the quantity and quality they represent in terms of the satisfaction and symbolisation of a lifestyle to which the tourist aspires. In that sense, the tourist of the consumer culture doesn't look so much for an authentic experience when making tourism but the confirmation -through the “acquired package"-- of the experience that was bought. What the mass tourist mainly looks for is a collection of “brands” that confirm the experience purchased and not necessarily the authentic experience that would be expected from the real environment in which tourism takes place.
This creates the possibility--crucial in the operation and control of all businesses—on one hand, that the experience relevant to the client be the one that is pre-digested - and not necessarily the real one - and on the other, to develop a set of mechanisms that tend to reinforce the impression in the client that his/her expectations are being satisfied. Therefore, it is really possible to convince the tourist that the "package" bought fulfils his/her expectations by means of mechanisms characteristic of “controlled” environments, such as tourist guides, the “environmental bubble” represented by hotels and “controlled” tourist areas, etc.
In sum, the marketing and social coding of leisure has promoted the establishment of “cultural industries” that such as tourism have become capital accumulation areas which are not only vast in scale but also very dynamic thanks to their condition of being components of the massive contemporary consumer culture.
3.3. Tourism and the marketing of space: reinventing the cultural landscape. [11]
The marketing of leisure has been associated to the marketing of the spaces (towns, countries, and regions) where it takes place. Not all the places are appropriate for tourist activity since a given place should have certain physical, social, cultural and commercial attributes so that it can be transformed into a tourist space, a process generally implying the – at least partial -- marketing of the place, through property transfers related to the site itself (purchase and sale of buildings, lands, beaches, etc.).
The marketing of the tourist spaces takes place even when the tourist attraction in itself is not the object of a commercial transaction but when it serves as a basis to such transactions. This would be the typical case of a site whose attributes favour the design of a tourist product (e.g.. certain favourable localities for the establishment of hotels and the development of tours). The important thing in those cases is the spatial proximity of the site to tourism providing a special atmosphere and authenticity to the product that is sold.
In both situations, the space offers possibilities for the generation of income on the basis of its special qualities and the feasibility of establishing mechanisms allowing for the appropriation of those revenues.
The marketing process of the sites where tourism takes place can be separated in two distinct mechanisms expressing such marketing a) the creation of leisure spaces, and b) the emergence of tourist attractions.
The creation of leisure spaces would be associated to the possibility of marketing a functional necessity of individuals in the context of the society in which they live. The rebuilding of human capital requires what some authors have termed “structured periods of recreation” taking place in specific sites: the leisure spaces.
These may include from the bench of a public park to a holiday in an exotic resort. There is an entire hierarchy of leisure spaces, which allow the restructuring of the human capital but doing so according to a given social structure and well defined cultural patterns. The marketing of leisure spaces adopts diverse forms from this analytical viewpoint: construction of amusement parks, establishment of hotels, specialised tours, and exclusive villas in tropical paradises, beaches or ski stations, among other possible forms.
One trend in these processes has been to increase the dimensions, particularly through investments in the creation of collective spaces in which to combine tourism with other non-tourist businesses. These large spaces are, in general, associated to a large-scale accumulation of capital favoured by the State. The growth in size and number of tourist resorts, theme parks, the renovation of old neighbourhoods in the cities, shopping malls and fair pavilions confirm this tendency.
On the other hand, the process of establishing tourist attractions would correspond to a different analytical viewpoint, related not so much to the marketing of the functional necessities of the individuals but with the marketing act in itself. Both concepts could overlap; that is to say, there are places that are simultaneously leisure space and tourist attraction (e.g. the Eiffel Tower, Rio de Janeiro, or the Vatican). For that reason, what should be clear is that the differences that both concepts establish are not based on a material approach; we are not referring to different types of places. Tourist attractions –as different from leisure spaces-- are basically the result of a process that transcends the use of a site for recreation. Tourist attractions are, fundamentally, a social and cultural “construct” associated to the process of the commercialisation of leisure. In the words of an outstanding researcher of the subject: they are “spaces for representation and imagination”. [12]
Tourist attractions define a social relationship built between the tourist, the site and something the experts term "brands", that is to say, information or representations that accurately identify a given site as a tourist space. In fact, the basic aspect of the process of creation of tourist attractions is the definition and dissemination of "brands". It is a process that includes typical marketing mechanisms (e.g. brochures, magazines, commercials, souvenirs, books, etc.) but which in many cases also takes advantage of certain aspects of universal culture.
The process of establishing cultural attractions for tourism is to a certain extent the result of the “consecration of sites” which generate a ritual attitude on the part of the tourists. The important thing to keep in mind is that it is a process that allows to attach a precise social and cultural significance to a given space and that allows a better use of the space as source of revenue in the framework of tourism.
In some cases, the tourist attraction is “built” around cultural attractions or wonders that already exist (e.g. the Louvre museum or the Great Canyon of the Colorado); in other cases tourist activities are organised around historical events and social processes (e.g. ethnic minorities or sport events); and they can also be created or “invented”, sometimes to the extreme of the so-called “disneyfication” of the sites (e.g. hotel resorts, cruises, and theme parks).
A tourist attraction is a space that has been “branded” for a better sale. Certainly, a visit to those sites may have a positive cultural impact on people but what should be understood is that this has not been the essential purpose for which the tourist industry “branded” those sites. Tourism sells those attractions as a means to generate multiple sales of products and services associated to the visit to such attractions. It has been said that tourism sells both the means (a hotel room, a seat in an airplane) as the goal (the tourist experience). In that sense, the creation of tourist attractions contribute to creating premature experiences (given the symbolic force of the attraction) that tend to reinforce the process of generating tourist revenues.
4. The productive system of tourism: the networks of the structure and the structure of the networks.
The so-called tourist industry has commoditized leisure and the places where this it takes place using commercial techniques, thus turning what is sold (the tourist experience) into a merchandise whose production is relatively predictable as is regulated. This has been possible thanks to the development of a complex productive system whose activities comprise from the logistics of the trips to the content of the tourist experience, and which includes both commercial entities and public institutions, transnational agents and local counterparts.
From that perspective, it is evident that the productive system of tourism is not limited to being a service nor is it a single “industry " but rather it is made up of a relatively wide and interconnected range of productive, social and cultural activities. The study of the system’s functioning has revealed the existence of several dimensions: it is a mechanism of capital accumulation, it allows the private appropriation of profit from the employment of labour force, and it facilitates the appropriation of revenues derived from cultural and physical factors (in general public property) of which there is a relative shortage. At the level of the system, different actors compete among themselves for the appropriation of the profits and incomes that are obtained through the "construction" and the marketing of the tourist experiences. [13]
As it happens with any productive system, tourism presents a division of labour into different functions (transportation, lodging, travel agents, tour operators, marketing, support services, operation and maintenance of attractions, etc.). Likewise, it also has its own differentiated markets (mass tourism, specialised tourism) as well as agencies and conventions that regulate the activity (associations, government agencies, and international organisations). The system works as a commercial organisation whose institutions, practices and structures have evolved through time. [14]
Tourism’s productive system includes a relatively wide number of economic branches that appear separated in official statistics, each one of them contributing different products and services that are incorporated to the tourist products.
The structure of tourism’s productive system presents some interesting characteristics:
a) As each branch supplies only a part of the final product demanded by the tourist, it is indispensable to have co-ordinators at level of the system capable of “assembling” all those different inputs into different combinations and selling them as “packages ". The role of strategic co-ordinators in tourism is carried out fundamentally by the so-called tour operators, that is to say, the wholesaler operators and in a lesser extent by the travel agents (retailer operators).
b) Many suppliers (also called “principals”) contribute to tourism’s productive system a number of services and products, which have not been specifically designed for tourism but rather satisfy a more extensive demand. The aeroplane seats, the hotel beds and the traveller’s checks are not only used by the tourists.
c) Some suppliers (“principals”) have economies of scope and enough competitiveness as to intrude in the area of conventional tourist companies. Such is the case of banks and supermarket chains that have a wide base of regular clients opening for them the possibility of functioning as tourism retail operators.
d) It is a productive system that because of its own fragmentation and the relative ambiguity of its organisation is characterised by a high competitive level. Thus, the end consumers may try, for example, to do without the intermediary, avoiding the purchase of a "package" and negotiating directly with the different suppliers of "components” (e.g. such is the case of the so-called individual tourists), while on the other hand, the suppliers can also try to do without the services of the middlemen and to sell their products and services directly to the consumers, particularly to those clients that repeat their purchases in big volumes.
The competition is not only intense among the different industries of the system (e.g. between travel agencies and banks) but also to the inside of the different “industries” (e.g. between hoteliers and the air carriers). This is also the result of the diverse possibilities of connection between “principals” and co-ordinators and is also the result of the permeable character of frontiers between suppliers and the overlapping of the necessary abilities to offer products and services. If on top of all of this we add the possibilities recently opened by the technologies of the information (e.g. Internet), the existence of numerous possible combinations of alliances and associations increasing both the possibility and the need of competition among the “principals” will be easily understood.
f) The specialisation of the “principals” (which offer only a part of the final product) establishes strong relationships of inter-industrial dependence among them, that is to say, the growth of their sales depends on their relationships both with clients and with suppliers. This creates a great pressure by the participants in the chain in the sense of trying to exert the largest degree of control possible on the transactions among them, using mechanisms such as long term contracts, vertical and horizontal integration, or assuring control at the level of the system by means of the use of licenses, franchises, commissions and the compatibility of technical standards. However, inside the system there are some segments that are in a better position to exercise such control. The two main actors in that sense are the tour operators (wholesalers) and the airlines.
The definition of new conceptual and instrumental advances that have taken place in the field of the Studies on Development in the last decade allows the evaluation of the productive system of tourism from a theoretical approach which identifies the operation of the global networks of tourism with the operational pattern of the chains ”driven by the consumer", which work as highly decentralised systems in which the strategic co-ordinators of the system play an important role. For that reason, it is convenient to specify some aspects relative to the co-ordinators and other important actors of the global networks of tourism.
The most important strategic co-ordinators in tourism are the tour operators (wholesaler operators), although it is convenient to clarify that there are two other actors of the system (the airlines and the travel agencies) that have increasingly exercised co-ordination functions, challenging the spaces of the tour operators. The main competitive advantage of the tour operators to carry out their co-ordination function at level of the tourist system lies in their double strategic position inside the chain: on one hand, they are positioned amid the suppliers of components (“principals”), that is to say, that the co-ordinators are the “assemblers” of the package in which an important proportion of the tourist products is offered. And on the other hand, the tour operators are strategically positioned between the suppliers and the clients.
The power of those wholesaler tourist companies is derived from the large volumes of demand they are able to manage, from the control they have regarding the operation of different segments of the market, and from the capacity they have to move in a flexible way the flows of tourists from one destination to another as well as to change suppliers. Those companies design and promote the so-called tour packages and through them, they control a critical phase of the entire process. When acting as middlemen between the tourist markets and the tourist destinations, tour-operators exercise a considerable influence on the transactions of the system and in the geography of tourism. [15]
The co-ordination functions are also exercised, to a lesser extent, by the travel agencies, which have as their main advantage the direct contact with the base of clients and are, therefore, an important factor in the feedback of the operation of the system and in this way they influence over the design of the products and tourist flow.
The airlines have begun to play a growing role in the co-ordination of the system, above all thanks to the great capacity of tourists' movement that they have, the availability of financial and technological assets, and the contact with a wide base of clients. The airlines are among the components of the tourist system that operate with big volumes and this gives them a considerable advantage when negotiating with other actors of the system. Additionally, they can use their own distribution channels to sell tourist products directly. Many airlines have had the necessary financial resources to purchase hotels, tour operators and other transportation companies, allowing them to complete processes of vertical integration at level of the productive system of tourism. Additionally, the airlines have forged alliances with other segments of the system through computer reservation systems integrating lodging, air travel and car rental, and this has meant a very convenient position of the airlines in inter-industry networks in the context of the tourist system.
The hotels, a very important component of the system, do not play a role of strategic co-ordination at level of the global networks of tourism. However, because they are one of the main segments of those networks it is convenient to keep in mind some of their main characteristics.
In the first place, hotels are one of the most internationalised segments in the system of tourism, with a high presence of transnational companies involved in their operation in many parts of the world using diverse modalities: ownership, franchises, and management contracts, among others.
The hotel is one of the key stages in the “manufacture” of the tourist product and their contribution to the productive system of tourism has three main characteristics:
a) They offer an in situ package of lodging services that define to a certain extent the quality of the tourist experience (ambience and lifestyle according to the quality of the hotel) and they also offer other in situ services (gastronomy, shopping malls, travel agencies, financial services, conferences and symposia, etc.)
b) They offer services outside the hotel, such as local tours, connections with airports, nautical recreation, and different types of cultural activities, etc.
c) They may offer (in certain cases) a “hallmark” that assures the ex-ante tourist a certain quality for a product (the tourist experience) which is typically acquired before experiencing it.
The hotel segment of the activity is structured, therefore, around the need of assuring the client a level of services according to the promise of a tourist experience of certain type that has been sold before the actual experience takes place. For that reason, the key of the operation of this segment of the tourist system is the “brand name”.
The “brand name” works as a source of income in tourism and as a powerful competition instrument to the extent is that it is identified with a mechanism that allows the tourist to obtain more "value" for the price that he/she has paid. What the hotel chains fundamentally contribute to the system of tourism is a specific type of intellectual property: know how about the operation of lodging activities according to a certain standard. This is a type of intellectual property that, from the competitive logic of hotel companies, is not “patentable”, that is to say, it doesn't make sense to transfer it to other entities because they could use it to compete against the original proprietors of the know how.
For that reason, the hotel companies need to extend their operations to the entire planet to make an effective use of the advantages that may be derived from their “brand name”. This explains the “geography” of the hotel chains which through horizontal expansion gain markets establishing hotels in many countries while at the same time keeping control over their specific intellectual property.
The intangible character of the intellectual property as key asset in hotel competition also explains the specific way in which the operations of the hotel chains take place in other places, particularly in the underdeveloped countries. Although the patterns of those operations may vary, according to the chains and the countries involved, in most operations there is a well-defined characteristic: generally the hotel is not the property of the chain.
The fundamental explanation is that the protection of the know-how (an intangible asset) does not require control over the property. The management and leasing contracts are effective manners of keeping control over the intellectual property of the hotel chain without having to take up the risk of the capital investment associated to a hotel property. The transnational companies purchase property only in very specific cases, generally when the real state market makes the purchase of property very profitable.
Having examined some of the main characteristics of the tourist networks and its most outstanding actors, it is convenient then to specify some punctual aspects of these networks, viewed from the perspective of the theory of the global chains of products:
1. - The global networks of tourism are economic systems with a relatively high degree of de-centralisation, similar in their operation logic to the global chains of products “driven by the consumer” (e.g. the textile and footwear manufactures). The most important difference regarding the latter is, however that they are not networks "driven" by the demand concentrated in some segments of the chain (as it happens in the case of the textile manufactures with the big store chains) but rather the tourist networks are “pushed” by the companies –which as the tour operators--- manipulate leisure expectations to create ex-ante a series of tourist products that are essential today within the contemporary consumer culture. The global networks of tourism are, in summary, a distinctive structure of the consumer culture.
2. - The growth of tourism to relatively very high rates in some underdeveloped regions of the world evidences an spatial displacement of the activity revealing a series of very complex relationships between centre and periphery, at the level of one of the largest scale and more dynamic economic activities. One of the most outstanding characteristics in those relationships is that in general they are not vertical but rather they are configured as networks, that is to say, that they are organised in such a way that companies and countries are interconnected but relatively independent.
3. - The global tourist networks do not have an amorphous structure. Within, there is a clear hierarchy and distinctive segments in which the so-called strategic network co-ordinators, particularly the tour operators, and to a lesser extent, the airlines and the travel agencies play a central role. These actors control a number of assets (information, specific abilities and material resources) which allow for the efficient functioning of the networks. The control of these important assets is translated into special sources of income that do not exist in the rest of the segments of the tourist system. The power of the strategic co-ordinators is expressed fundamentally in their capacity to design and to market the tourist products. In other words, the activity of the strategic co-ordinators doesn't take place at level of the in situ “manufacture” of the tourist product.
4. - Although the productive system of tourism involves the use of a relatively wide range of assets –including technology, know how and financial resources--the in situ offer of the tourist product is a segment based on intensive labour (service employees), on natural resources (climate and other natural conditions) and on cultural assets. The in situ offer of the tourist product is not, however, one of the most profitable segments in the global networks of tourism and in general it is a highly dependent segment and with little bargaining power vis-à-vis the strategic co-ordinators. The situation can be even less convenient for the “local” actors involved in the “manufacture” of the tourist product, to the extent that even some entities like hotel chains –which are not precisely strategic co-ordinators -- exercise a great control on the "manufacture" and obtain special incomes that in fact reduce the participation of the “local” actors in the benefits derived from “manufacture".
5. - The tourist networks are highly competitive systems, both between its different segments as within them, and are therefore relatively unstable networks that are susceptible to change and reconfiguration. This creates opportunities for the “upward mobility” (of companies and of countries) in the context of those networks. In other words, the relatively flowing structure of the networks of tourism establishes the possibility to advance toward the relatively concentrated segments of the system, where there are entrance barriers that establish higher rates of profitability. Generally, overcoming these entrance barriers involves a learning process, which is not only technological but also mainly organisational. Independently from the fact that there are other assets (e.g. of technological type) the limited resources under the control of the strategic co-ordinators are fundamentally of “relational” type, that is to say, the control of processes which allow for the establishment of "families" of inter-managerial relationships at level of a network. The possibility of advancing inside a tourist network implies, at least in theory, the successive approach of the company (or country) that is trying to advance to the central nodes of the networks that have been organised around the strategic co-ordinators. It should be clear that this is a very difficult process of “advancement” although probable under certain conditions.
Knowledge of the above mentioned aspects of the global networks of tourism allows to better understand the important role that culture can play in the progress of the underdeveloped countries within those networks, or to be more precise, it facilitates the analysis of culture’s potential as a vector toward development in the context of the strategies that try to use tourism to access development.
Tourism will not lead to development if the expansion strategies concentrate fundamentally on the aspects related to the “manufacture” of tourism (construction of hotels and infrastructure, provision of labour force and of other inputs, establishment of relationships with foreign companies, and provision of services, lodging and gastronomy). To the effects of development promoted through tourism, culture could be the factor that would in fact contribute to create a durable advantage for countries that although underdeveloped have a rich cultural asset -- as the Caribbean countries -- in the process of advancing, within the global networks of tourism, toward the most profitable modalities inside those networks.
In global networks such as tourism’s, the entities occupying the “centre” of those networks (the tour operators) are tourist companies that are not in charge of tourism “manufacture”; their fundamental role consists in acting as “strategic co-ordinators” of the activity, leaving other companies to “assemble” and offer in situ the diverse tourist products, a segment of the system that as we have said before, is not one of the most profitable. Nevertheless, the in situ "manufacture" of the tourist product demands a mastering the know-how. In the case of standardised tourist products of easy reproduction in other sites (as the “sun and beach" modality), the companies offering these services directly will have less control on the process and less possibilities of “upward mobility” than those that “assemble” tourist products. But because culture is a phenomenon with a strong local content, it is very difficult to reproduce (in a genuine way) and there are obstacles to the appropriation of the know how by the strategic co-ordinators of the tourist networks, Culture creates, therefore, extraordinary opportunities for those that “manufacture” tourist products to advance toward offering more comprehensive tourist products, and even to advance toward phases of tourism characterised by more possibilities of organisational learning, bigger relative autonomy, the displacement toward the areas of design, marketing and co-ordination, and the establishment of the so-called “forward chains” allowing to create a demand for cultural products in the sources of tourism.
The effective use of culture as an active facilitator of advancement in the context of the global networks of tourism can lead to a change in the relationships of the local entities that offer in situ services with the strategic co-ordinators of the networks. On one hand, it favours a larger relative autonomy of the former regarding the latter, which is crucial to have a broader margin of definition of the tourist strategies which are more in agreement with the specific necessities of development of the country and not only as a part of the global accumulation of the cultural industries, and on the other hand, it contributes to bringing the organisational structures, functions and capacities of the local entities closer to those of the strategic co-ordinators of the networks, that is to say, it tends to create bonds of a very different nature to those that exist between the typical “assemblers” of tourism and the strategic co-ordinators of the networks.
5. Culture and the design of tourist strategies and policies. Reflections and proposals.
Tourism is, in any of its modalities, a cultural industry but, in practice, in the design and implementation of the strategies of tourist expansion in Latin America and the Caribbean the prevailing narrow economic notion of the nature of the activity generates various types of problems. The conceptions that prevail currently limit the possibility of adopting policies to reinforce the positive effects of tourism while making it very difficult to counteract its negative consequences. Also, it imposes a distorted notion of the nature of tourism that erodes not only the balanced progress of that sector but rather has a devastating effect on the perspectives of setting up key components of human development.
The necessary progress toward the definition of coherent and effective strategies and policies is a complex process. It requires a conceptual review of the premises on which the policies are based, a re-definition of priorities that should be addressed, and the establishment of an approach allowing the co-ordinated action of a broad group of institutions, among which cultural and local institutions should play an important role. However, above all what is needed is the practical implementation of new policies.
It is interesting to observe how despite the fact that these conceptual considerations are shared widely at an intellectual level and even in public statements and that there are sufficient theoretical schemes and plans regarding the design of a type of tourism that is sustainable in its economic, social, cultural and environmental aspects, in fact very few serious efforts have been put forward to implement these schemes.
The final section of this work will try to summarise the central aspects that could contribute to a debate focused mainly on the definition of new strategies and policies of tourist expansion in Latin America and the Caribbean. This summary includes conceptual and normative issues –important for the success of middle to long term strategies --but it also considers a number of specific actions that even when not a part of comprehensive plans could contribute to solve specific problems and would help the future establishment of those plans. In this last case the premise has been adopted that what is really important is to try to advance from the beginning in the right direction, even when there are no strategies.
From the perspective of the design and implementation of strategies and policies of tourist development in Latin America and the Caribbean it is important to take four aspects into consideration:
1. - Premises for the design and implementation of the strategies and policies
2. - Challenges
3. - Crucial areas that should be addressed
4. – Action-oriented proposals
4.1 Premises for the design and implementation of strategies and policies.
a. – Tourism’s nature, contents and fundamental relationships of the activity.
- Tourism is a cultural institution in itself, functioning as a social requirement of broad sectors of the world’s populations
- Tourism is one of the largest cultural industries
- Tourism is not a pure economic activity. Its essential determinations are of social and cultural type. Tourism and culture are interdependent and are mutually reinforced (or weakened). Cultural fragility negatively affects tourism in the long run. Tourism should not be perceived in itself as a universal remedy regarding the solution of the problems of underdevelopment nor as a destructive force that unfailingly ravages diversity and the identity of the peoples.
- The reinforcement of the cultural identity that under certain conditions is also favoured by tourism, may act as a powerful antidote vis a vis the homogenising effects of globalisation.
b. - Tourist scale and trends.
International tourism is recognised as one of the largest and more dynamic sectors in the global economy and it is also the biggest vehicle of inter- cultural relationships that has ever existed. In its condition of institutionalised social necessity it is an activity of a basically irreversible character, at least as to its scale. For that reason, the aspirations and efforts to remain isolated or excluded from tourism in the long run shall be unfruitful and may even be counterproductive. In terms of alternative strategies and policies the true problem is not to avoid or restrict tourism but rather trying to change the premises and codes of its operation to the benefit of human development.
c. – Key concepts for the design of comprehensive, coherent and effective strategies and policies.
- The design, implementation and control of tourist strategies and policies demand the adoption of an interdisciplinary approach
- The strategies and policies will not be coherent or effective if they are not based on the co-operation between the different actors. Given the complexity of the system of tourism, the individual actors, no matter how powerful they are, will not be able to implement on their own the type of comprehensive policies required to operate a type of tourism compatible with human development
- The social and cultural nature of tourism requires the renovation of heritage, the maintenance of cultural creativity, and the preservation of the environment as inevitable principles that should be kept in mind in the design of the tourist strategies and policies.
- The tourist policies should be articulated with the national systems of culture
d. - Characteristics of the necessary analysis regarding tourism.
In its double condition of universal process and of complex and multidimensional phenomenon, research of tourism requires the adoption of an interdisciplinary approach, supported in a broad academic exchange and sustained by an adequate contextualization of tourist processes.
e. – UNESCO’s contribution
An specific premise relative to the role of UNESCO as to the process of design, implementation and control of tourist strategies and policies consists of recognising that UNESCO’s contribution could take place in several areas: a) conceptual approach; b) technical support; c) facilitation of co-ordination among actors; d) establishment of international instruments and regulations; and, e) legitimating a wide group of values of human development: justice, equity, economic and ecological sustainability and cultural integrity in the context of the strategies and policies.
f. - Ethical considerations.
The diverse profiles of culture and of cultural heritage (physical and intangible) do not only belong to a social group or a certain nation. They are a wealth that belongs to the entire humanity and therefore it implies the existence of a universal right –facilitated by tourism--of knowing and enjoying them but at the same time involving the responsibility of preserving and enriching culture and dialogue, a responsibility that belongs to all the parties involved in tourism: tourists, companies, governments, and the receiving population.
The expansion of tourism should not lead to "de-structured" cultural patterns on the part of the tourists leading to a cultural conflict with the local population and it is not acceptable that the “institutionalised need” that tourism represents in developed countries should lead to the transformation of tourist destinations in developing countries into “recreational satellites"
The negative consequences for human dignity (of the tourists and of the local population) that may result from certain “needs” of the tourist business are not acceptable.
4.2. Challenges.
The main challenges of our times regarding tourist expansion and its impact on culture and human development can be expressed as questions regarding a number of topics that could be summarised in the following manner:
1. – General social and cultural context of tourism.
- Cross cultural dialogue and adaptation: How can the huge and unprecedented temporary migrations that contemporary tourism represent (approximately 700 million international tourists and a ten times higher figure of national tourists) be used to encourage cultural exchange, the spiritual enrichment that produces the appreciation of the diversity of cultures, and a constructive cross cultural dialogue?
- Access and preservation: How can a balance be reached among the largest possible number of visitors who access tourist destinations and the need of preserving the natural and cultural heritage for the future generations?
- Rights, duties and responsibilities involved in the practice of a responsible tourism: How to achieve - in a context of increasing ease for international travel, in particular for the youths-, the establishment of effective education and information systems that allow to supply the traveller with the necessary knowledge and cultural sensitivity? How to achieve that appreciation for one’s own culture becomes one of the pillars of respect for other cultures? How can we minimise the negative effects of the massive arrival of tourists, with destructive potential, while at the same time respecting their right to appreciate the local culture directly, their access to sites that are universal heritage? How to strongly establish the notion of duties and responsibilities that invariably should accompany the concept of the universal right to enjoy cultural heritage?
- Ethics: How to reach an ethical dimension of tourism in a commercialisation context in which many human beings are not respected but exploited as “attractions"? How can we avoid the prevalence of the approach that certain destinations should be “frozen” in time, people and culture for the recreation of the tourists?
- Balance between the economic content and the human dimension of tourism: How can the human and cultural dimension of tourism acquire relevance in the face of the predominant view of tourism fundamentally as an economic activity? How to promote an effective dialogue with the main economic agents of tourism (tour operators, airlines, investors and hotel chains) on the topic of tourism, culture and development that may lead to a change of the predominantly mercantile attitudes?
- The gender problem: How to achieve a more active participation of women in tourist activities (including decision-taking on these activities) and in particular how to encourage women to have access to higher income and raise their social condition through their participation in tourism?
- The question of public property: How to define what is clearly and should continue being a public asset in the context of tourism’s productive system (e.g. beaches, natural reservations, cultural heritage)? How to avoid the (de jure or de facto) appropriation of the public assets by commercial entities that use them to obtain special revenues in exchange for which they give little or nothing back to society?
2. - Specific cultural processes of tourism
- Artistic creation and intangible heritage: How can tourism contribute to the enrichment of the intangible cultural heritage, in particular by encouraging contemporary artistic creation?
- Cultural identity: How can tourism be used not only to avoid the erosion of the cultural identities but rather to encourage its preservation and enrichment, especially in a situation in which identity has gained relevance as a compensating factor of a number of negative effects of globalisation? What role should the cultural institutions play in that process and how could they be more effective?
- Aesthetics: How can an aesthetic dimension be introduced in the process of tourist development, adapted to each context, to be able to assure the preservation of the cultural landscape for the future generations?
- Tourist culture: How to deprive or at least reduce in a significant way the current tourist culture of its de-structured and floating condition? How to create new habits in the tourists?
- The image of receiving culture and the design of the tourist "brands": How to achieve that the "brands " (idealised cultural images) of the tourist destination correspond positively with the local cultural values and with the identity of the receiving population, in a framework in which the design of the images of the tourist destinations has an essentially commercial function and is performed by transnational companies or by local agencies with strong commercial incentives?
- Acculturation: How to prevent the receiving population from adopting in a critical way and in a mimetic manner cultural standards and patterns coming from the abroad by way of contact with the tourists?
- Recovery of the cultural heritage: How can tourism favour the recovery of the cultural heritage (monuments, edifices, historical sites, cultural practices, etc.) in such a way as to make the process compatible with genuine purposes of human development and not fundamentally for the enjoyment of the tourists? Who decides what should be recovered and how and what should not be recovered?
- Staged authenticity: How to change the current practice of adapting the local culture to tourist "brands" that impoverish it? How to assess if it is positive or negative that the current “staged authenticity” becomes the authentic local culture of the future? How to get the receiving population to transform their patterns in order to accommodate the requirements of tourism without eroding their cultural standards?
3. - The economic dimension of tourism
- Costs: How to make the private sector take up the responsibilities for the social, cultural and ecological costs of tourism and “incorporating” this in their accounting structures, so that they are reflected in the prices of the “tourist products” offered? How to turn the additional revenues corresponding to those costs (that almost always have a social impact) into activities of public benefit?
- Economic and cultural balance: How can a balance be reached between the narrow economic goals of tourism and the preservation of the cultural heritage and identity?
- Assignment of resources: How to achieve a distribution of resources that doesn't lead to the priority assignment of scarce goods to tourism to the detriment of the satisfaction of legitimate necessities of other sectors?
4. - The institutional context of tourism
- The local dimension: How can tourism effectively promote the sustainable development of the communities and of the local economies, particularly through the creation of small companies and the introduction of technologies?
- The State: How can the capacity of the State as regulatory entity and co-ordinator of the tourist policies be recovered in the general context of the erosion of the power and capacities of the State?
- The cultural institutions: How can cultural institutions of a different type and at different levels participate and assume a role of leadership in the definition of the strategies and of the policies of tourist development?
5. - Transformation mechanisms
- Education: How to establish training programs, in the countries of origin and the receiving countries that allow to educate and to alert on the complex nature of the contemporary tourist activity?
- Technology: How can contemporary technology obtain the maximum benefits possible from the relationship between tourism, culture and development?
- Research: How can we adequately study a number of latent cultural facets in people that do not become apparent until the moment in which these people become tourists? How do the social, demographic and cultural characteristics of the tourists and the type of tourist modality used influence over the quality of the cultural exchange that takes place with the receiving population?
- Participation: How to assure the effective participation of the local actors in the design of the tourist strategies and policies? How to achieve a participation that becomes a process of self-reflection allowing for continuing educational actions, ethics and principles in the process of tourist expansion? How can the local communities, particularly the indigenous populations, receive and regulate the flow of tourists in a way that allows them to control the rate of cultural interaction and avoid the social and cultural conflict?
4.3. Crucial areas that should be addressed.
1. - Needs and stress motivated by the marketing of leisure under conditions of a tourist expansion, which emphasises cultural features.
In general the incorporation of cultural processes to tourism doesn't have cultural development as a fundamental purpose but rather it is, above all, the production and reproduction of cultural goods and services from commercial approaches. Deep down the objective is to make the marketing of leisure - channelled through tourism - more complex and profitable, by using cultural assets that allow for additional income. On one hand, this creates an array of specific needs and on the other, it generates stress in the development process.
The commercialisation of cultural goods and services as a part of tourism demands a precise coding of culture that should be guided toward the consumer culture, which acts as a driving force of tourism. It should be left clear that without a precise code, culture cannot be incorporated into a product design that “attempts” to sell an experience that later on should be confirmed by the client. The process inevitably includes motivation, “pre–digestion” and “ratification" phases.
Culture always has a very distinct local content and precisely because of this nobody is in a better position that the local actors to understand, explain and design the cultural processes. However, the key actors in the design and creation of the tourist products are not in fact the local actors, but companies located in the issuing markets of tourism for which culture doesn't have to be authentic nor well understood, but rather it is used as a backdrop for sales and as a ploy to grant “authentic” and “differentiated” exotic character to the products of a relatively wide range of tourist offers that are designed and marketed.
When the local actors do not have the purpose, the possibility and capability to influence over the design of the product, there is a high risk of manipulation, exploitation and degradation of culture which may contribute to commercial success but not necessarily lead to the renovation of a collective identity supported in culture which should be an essential part of development.
Certainly, the coding process of culture in the framework of design, commercialisation and materialisation of the tourist product is being decided to a large extent by the institutions that are strategic co-ordinators of the global networks of tourism, which –virtually without exception—are not controlled by the local actors of the receiving countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. However, this hinders but doesn't preclude the influence of the local actors in the process.
The high local content of the cultural processes opens comparatively larger spaces to the local actors to influence over the code of culture that, being effective in the commercial field, may at the same time be compatible with social development. That is to say, compared with the management of other assets (e.g. beaches), the cultural assets demand a know-how that is difficult to reproduce outside of the locality. To the extent that the local actors are able of designing and of selling a "package" to the foreign companies that act as strategic co-ordinators of tourism for which they do not have a better alternative, these companies could adopt them as the basis for the design of the tourist products that they offer.
The important issue to understand is that the strategic co-ordinators of tourism will not have a better alternative than the one offered by the local actors if two conditions are met simultaneously: first, that the offer is of better intrinsic quality, something that the local actors can do better than the foreign companies, and second, that the commercial attractiveness of the offer is at least as profitable as the best alternative designed by the competition. This leads us to the challenge that we pointed out from the beginning as to the need of a specific code of culture, demanding knowledge and specific abilities as well as a certain level of organisational capacity.
2. - Specific requirements of the marketing of the space under the conditions of a tourist expansion which emphasises culture.
Tourism transforms the social significance of the places and changes the materiality of spaces, a process that should take specific forms when cultural heritage is taken advantage of as part of the process of tourist expansion.
For its diversity, cultural heritage can be spatially located in places in which tourism is already taking place or in areas where tourist affluence is marginal or simply does not exist. In general, the available cultural heritage is in areas of relative high demographic density (the main cities), although occasionally it is located in remote places (old plantations) and in abandoned settlements. This means that there is a relatively broad range of modalities and scales for the use of cultural heritage, which in a region such as Latin America and the Caribbean can be quite diverse.
However, the use of cultural heritage for tourist purposes implies in most of the countries of the region the transformation of spaces that have not been used for tourism up to now. That is to say, the activation of the cultural heritage in Latin America and the Caribbean would involve areas different to the beaches and other natural attractions in general and it would represent a reorientation of the tourist flow towards urban spaces and rural areas.
It should be clear that in fact the marketing of the cultural spaces for tourist purposes is reduced to the two above-mentioned modalities: a) leisure spaces, and b) tourist attractions, recalling that we are not saying that they are necessarily different places but in view of their function. The leisure space is the result of the marketing of the needs of “structured periods of recreation", while the tourist attractions are related with the commercialisation function as such. There may be places that are both leisure space and tourist attraction.
The commercialisation (for tourist purposes) of places where there is a (tangible or intangible) cultural asset could adopt in many cases the modality of taking tourism to leisure spaces that already exist and are used by the local population. The design and operation of those leisure spaces becomes a challenge to the extent in that they would be collective spaces in which the tourists interact with the local population. If the marketing of the leisure space leads to the local population's progressive exclusion this would not only result in the local population's cultural impoverishment but also in a possible attitude of resentment whose results would be difficult to predict. If on the contrary, the commercialisation of places that are already leisure spaces for the population leads to the restoration and improvement of the space and of the cultural heritage involved, this would result in the cultural and spiritual enhancement of both the tourists and the local population.
In other cases, the creation of leisure spaces could take place starting from the creation of completely new places (e.g. a theme park) or the restoration of towns and abandoned buildings or of those being used for other purposes. Here, as in the previous case, situations could arise in which the establishment or recovery of the leisure spaces could lead to the population's exclusion and the cultural impoverishment of the nation or on the contrary, they could favour cultural exchange and the spiritual enhancement of all the participants.
The creation of tourist attractions based on the cultural heritage represents a big challenge for any country of Latin America and the Caribbean. The tourist attraction is always a “social construction", a space of “representation and imagination” that implies –by definition --a relationship of certain type among the tourist, the site and the "brands". In that sense, the tourist attraction is the result of a very complex process that besides involving the material reconfiguration of a site (as in the case of a leisure space) also depends on the design, marketing and the phases of “ratification” of the experience that has been sold to the tourist.
So far, many of the tourist attractions of the region are based on natural resources (beaches, forests, mountains, rivers, etc.). In the imagination of the tourist, Latin America and the Caribbean are fundamentally a tropical paradise and the "experience" bought are sunny holidays, beach and nature. The “brands” that the tourists try to collect to ratify the “experience” that was bought include images of beautiful beaches, water sports, virgin and exuberant nature, relative nakedness, and sensual music.
It is not that the cultural heritage has been completely absent of the tourist attractions of Latin America and the Caribbean but rather that the tourist attractions with a cultural content have been relatively marginal, or perhaps concentrated on a few destinations. Nevertheless, some countries of the region have been quite successful in establishing among their main tourist attractions “social constructions” based in their cultural heritage. The case of Jamaica with reggae is extraordinary, mainly for the success it has had at a regional and at an international level in the use of the cultural wealth of the country – in this case music--to attract tourists. Other Caribbean countries have tried to reproduce the Jamaican success, and although there are some encouraging experiences, as yet the sub-region is far from having been able to establish tourist attractions to do justice to the astonishing cultural heritage of the Caribbean.
3. - Possibilities introduced by emphasising culture in the context of the territorial competition at the level of the process of global accumulation.
Tourism has played an important role in the competition taking place at a territorial level for capital attraction. The establishment of the so-called “world cities” and of other regional centres of co-ordination of the transnational activity has been based – among other factors- in tourism as an instrument of territorial competition, in an international context in which globalisation has increased the demand for localities that may serve as co-ordination centres of a transnational activity which is more disperse than ever before.
The co-ordination and services provided to transnational companies, because of their nature, should be carried out in cities, hence, the process of territorial competition in this field is the equivalent to a large extent of a process of appreciation of urban spaces. The possibilities of Latin America and the Caribbean are comparatively limited in this type of competition precisely because of a shortage of urban centres with the scale and sophistication required for the co-ordination of transnational activities. With the exception of the big cities of the region (Mexico City, Sao Paulo and Buenos Aires) the region does not have the type of city that could aspire to become one of the “world cities”.
Nevertheless, in the area there are some territories specialised in “niches” of transnational activity, such is the case of some Caribbean sites dedicated to offshore banking and transhipment ports, although the possibilities of expanding into additional centres of this type are very limited. Likewise, we should keep in mind that the territorial competition regarding conference and convention centres is relatively intense in the region.
The possibilities of the Latin American and Caribbean cities in the territorial competition as attraction spaces for the centres of co-ordination of the transnational capital are more in the so-called “second level nodes” i.e. fundamentally as conference and convention centres, an activity which may be quite profitable with an intensive use of technologies and knowledge.
Competitiveness for fulfilment of such a function would be closely linked to a type of tourism with high cultural content. The so called “symbolic capital” associated to the cultural industries is a decisive factor in the ”location” of the co-ordination centres (of the first and second levels) of the transnational capital. The establishment of these centres generates a rather exacting demand of cultural assets, corresponding to the living standards of the managerial elite of developed countries. Meaning, therefore, the establishment of an “environmental bubble” that is only possible with a high intensity of “symbolic capital." The demands include both the availability of the most modern systems of communications and multimedia up to a diverse gastronomic offer, including shows, museums, and cultural assets. Although the cultural assets demanded should be of first international quality, the presence of the local culture can add a bigger attraction, mainly because this is a segment of consumers of cultural goods that tends to appreciate authenticity.
Another important aspect to keep in mind is that the establishment of those nodes of transnational co-ordination has a remarkable impact in the value of the real state and therefore they tend to create better conditions for the operation of real state business. Said otherwise, the cultural "intensity" that that these centres demand tends to create a special income for the land that may be seized by the local actors.
The importance of this issue cannot be eluded. The “location” of the centres of transnational co-ordination –even in their less complex variants as those of conference centres -- establish a very particular nexus between tourism and culture that introduces opportunities and tensions in the development strategies. On one hand, it means the establishment in society of living standards that differ from the national standards. The population will perceive such considerable consumption from which they will be excluded. However, this situation should not necessarily lead to social resentments with noticeable effects as long as there are compensatory processes favoured by the same process of establishment of those centres.
Access to capital, improvement of the infrastructure, higher employment levels, the creation of higher qualified positions, the technological and organisational learning processes, and the emergence of national clusters of products and services are some of the positive effects for the development derived from the establishment of those centres. Additionally, the nature of the cultural demand furthered by those co-ordination centres not only allows a renovation of the cultural heritage in a larger scale (given the availability of more resources) but also a bigger authenticity in the cultural recovery and renovation process, mainly when compared to other tourist modalities.
4. - Importance of the cultural dimension of tourism in the functioning of survival and adaptation mechanisms of agricultural and industrial societies in transition.
A considerable number of the societies of Latin America and the island Caribbean have been agriculture-industrial societies in transition toward new development patterns in which tourism has played a very important role. Both in the cases in which that transition has already been completed, as in the cases in which the transformation has been more recent, the role that tourism can play as a mechanism of survival and adaptation has become evident. This has been particularly remarkable in the context of the cultural dimension of tourism.
On one hand, the empirical evidence verified in several studies on the Latin American and Caribbean islands societies underline the role that culture –in its most diverse forms—has played as mechanism of survival of relatively wide sectors of the population trapped in the interregnum of an agrarian society in open decline in which the traditional sources of subsistence were becoming extinguished and a modernisation process that did not include them. Activities as music, popular cuisine and the crafts served and continue serving as a form of sustenance to a considerable portion of population in many of these societies in transition. When they was hardly any prospect, the cultural wealth of the peoples literally saved them.
It is true that in the process, the authenticity of many cultural manifestations was degraded, an example of this is the so-called “airport art” and the “shows for tourists” but it should also be kept in mind that other expressions of the national culture were recovered. However, it seems that what is really important is the force that culture has demonstrated as an economic asset. Its force has been so great that even in the cases in which there have been misunderstandings, apathy or official rejection, and generally under conditions of informality and marginality, culture –associated to tourism-- has been a mechanism of “self- modernisation” much more effective than other processes of the formal economy.
Additionally, the rescue of the cultural heritage has also played an important role in the development of modalities of “rural tourism” that have been vital for the relatively successful transition of agrarian communities. The rescue, by tourism, of old plantations and of rural locations rich in cultural traditions such as music, dance, crafts and gastronomy is increasingly common. This has been particularly important in places in which the crisis of the agro-industrial economy could not be replaced by tourist modalities more broadly practised in the region, given the absence of beaches and of other coastal resources in some localities. Under those conditions, sometimes it has been the ecological heritage and other times the cultural heritage, the factor on which a new local tourist economy has been erected.
5. - The function of culture in the aggregation and multiplication of the value of tourism. (See Figure 1 at the end of the text)
One of the areas that should be addressed in a very careful way during the design and implementation of the tourist policies in Latin America and the Caribbean is the diverse ways in which culture may add and multiply value in the context of tourism.
Although many times this topic tends to be limited to the analysis of the diverse modalities of “cultural tourism", it should be clear that they are only a relatively smaller part within the general context of the processes that allows that culture to add and multiply value in the frameworks of tourism.
The importance of using other assets as ecological wealth and cultural heritage to develop alternative “tourist products” to the predominant modalities of tourism based on the use of natural resources prevailing in the region is self-evident. It would not only be a strategy of diversification of the risk of tourism but mainly of developing “tourist products” which are relatively more profitable because they contain more value added at local level that could be appropriate at that level. Thus, the problem is to design tourist products with a strong component of locally controlled assets, allowing for special income that may be seized at the local level.
In that sense, “cultural tourism” would work as “niche” tourism offered to a segment of the market that would be willing to make a pay relatively more for a leisure activity which it considers of a higher value as compared with other tourist modalities.
However, the aggregation of the cultural value also takes place on the “outside” of the “tourist product", to the extent that culture can also represent the tourist's expense in excess of what was paid for the “tourist product” as such.
This additional expense – which adds value not only to the "tourist product” but also to tourism in general—takes place in a number of areas, some directly related to culture like the gastronomy, "entertainment" services (music, dance, shows, museums, and cultural tours) and the purchase of cultural goods (crafts, books, records, and visual arts). In other cases, the tourist's additional expense takes place in areas that do not belong to the cultural sphere but that have been encouraged by a demand of cultural type. That is the case of transportation and other services used to access cultural facilities.
Finally, besides adding value to the tourist product and to tourism in general, culture may favour a multiplier effect of the tourist expense leading to the creation of value in other sectors of the economy.
This would take place fundamentally through two modalities: a) “ rearward" productive chains, and b) “forward” productive linkages. In the first case we would have, on one hand, the emergence of productive clusters directed to the production of cultural goods and services to be consumed directly by the tourist, i.e., consumer goods of a cultural nature. A typical example would be the sales of crafts that encourage production networks that go from the extraction and processing of the raw materials up to the production of the tools. Given the high local content and the intensive use of the labour force in many of the cultural goods offered the tourist, these productive clusters tend to generate employment and to have a relatively low content of imports, being productive processes in which the created value is fundamentally distributed at local level.
Another modality of “rearward” productive linkages is related with the emergence of productive and services clusters of a cultural content associated to the operation of companies in the tourist sector, that is to say, they would not be consumer goods but inputs for those companies. A typical example would be the design activities (of exterior and interiors) and of the “ambience” of the tourist facilities, as well as the furniture industry.
Finally, culture can have a multiplier effect of the tourist expense in the value created in other sectors from the “forward” productive linkages, consisting of the export of cultural goods toward the countries of origin of the tourists starting with the creation of a demand for those cultural goods during the tourist's stay. A classic example would be the export of music and crafts with a high added value.
In all the cases, the productive linkages would have contributed to give “depth " to the expansion of tourism by creating local productive networks that have a "bandwagon " effect on other sectors. Given the high local content of the value aggregation process of cultural production, as well as the existence of a distribution pattern that is also fundamentally local, the expansion of those productive clusters may have a considerable effect on the development process of those societies.
6. - Function of culture in the process of “economic upgrading." (See Figure 2 at the end of the text)
The concept of “economic upgrading" has been used increasingly in development studies. In fact, it is used most of the times as an alternative (operational) concept to the much more comprehensive concept of “development", particularly when the development process is approached without taking into account all its complexity and multiplicity but when trying to make emphasis in the growing complexity of the economic activities that should take place as a part of the development process.
The use of the concept can sometimes cause confusion because of the inexact way the term is used, because a theoretical consensus has not been reached yet regarding the concept. However, the use of the concept can be particularly useful for the analysis of the increasing complexity of tourism, which takes place when the cultural content of the process of production of tourism rises.
In summary, the concept of economic upgrading is used as an analytic instrument for the study of the major complexity that culture introduces in tourism.
Any change of the composition of the tourist offer that tends to reduce the relative weight of the massive tourist products (sun and beach) in favour of specialised tourist products, as would be the case of “cultural tourism”, represents an important step forward in the framework of the development process to the extent that it would represent an “upward” displacement in the trajectories of technological and organisational learning. This transition would be related fundamentally with the passage to more technologically complex economic activities more demanding of knowledge and abilities. It would also create possibilities to look for more profitable modalities of re-insertion for the countries that offer tourism based on changes in the ways of relating with the strategic nodes that govern the global networks of tourism.
In the Figure 2 (at the end of the text) some of the main indicators that are usually used to measure the “industrial upgrading" are schematically identified: exporting modality, sectoral specialisation, type of process, learning requirements and “governance” of the process.
Although a detailed analysis of the process of economic upgrading at level of tourism would reveal a greater complexity that the one suggested in the Figure 2, nevertheless even a shallow analysis evidences that the modalities of cultural tourism express an "upgrading" in comparison with the traditional massive products of sun, beach and nature that have prevailed in the region until the present.
Two aspects seem to be of particular importance in this “upgrading”. First that is based in the use of an important asset (cultural heritage) which is quite abundant but has been little used in the context of development strategies based on tourism. And second is the change that the cultural factor would introduce in the bargaining power of the local actors vis a vis the strategic co-ordinators of the global networks of tourism.
Indeed, the passage to differentiated tourist products, based on the intensive use of specific knowledge and of difficult assimilation by non local actors, favours the insertion of the local actors in the design of the product and opens up the possibilities of contact and of learning with more sophisticated organisational structures while at the same time changing the correlation of forces in the relationship of the local actors with the strategic co-ordinators, to the extent that they are negotiating “original” products that are can not be reproduced by the competition. Thus, besides being able to take advantage of –at least partially--the so-called “relational” incomes that govern the global networks of tourism (a more favourable relative position of the local actors would have been achieved inside the networks) the local actors would also benefit from the income of “original brand” associated to the “differentiated” tourist products that are offered.
As may be observed, the increased relevance of culture in tourism doesn't introduce a radical change in the “governance” of the global networks of tourism that continue being dominated by the strategic co-ordinators (tour operators) and other important economic agents as the airlines and the hotel chains. However, the use of the cultural heritage in tourism may indeed introduce relatively important changes between the local actors and the strategic co-ordinators and other key agents of the tourist networks.
4.4. Action-oriented proposals.
The proposals indicated next do not constitute an exhaustive inventory of the possible suggestions but only a listing of preliminary character of the specific actions that should be adopted. A first group of proposals refers to actions that could be taken at a national or sub–national level, while the second group of suggestions refers to possible initiatives at an international level, particularly those in the context of the relationships between the UNESCO and the Member States.
Actions at the national or sub-national level:
1. - Promotion of domestic tourism as a mechanism of cultural training, education, recognition and reflection of identity. Priority would be granted to the programs specially directed at children and youths.
2. - In the cases of multicultural countries, establishment of tourist proposals of cultural exchange and mutual visits.
3. - Increase the cultural and historical content in the image disseminated of tourist destinations, accepting the competitive challenge with other “solid” cultural destinations and abandoning the self-limiting practice of privileging promotion geared at creating a demand for tourist offers based nearly exclusively in the use of natural resources. A regulation could be issued as to identify all publicity efforts with a cultural topic.
4. – Progress towards a better definition of the complex institutional web that should be in charge of tourist strategies and policies, granting the leadership role to the Ministries of Culture or equivalent institutions, as well as to representative entities al the local level.
5. - Introduce in the planning of tourist activities tools which have demonstrated their efficacy in other contexts for the identification of local strengths and effective competitive policies of territorial entities at the sub-national level, particularly encouraging the use of participatory techniques such as, for example, the Participatory Assessment of Competitive Advantage (PACA).
6. - Establishment of a Code of Ethics defining social and cultural responsibilities for the local population, the tourists and the tourist industry in general.
Initiatives at an international level
In the context of a topic in which because of its scale, complexity and dynamism, isolated actions were inefficient; the concept proposed by UNESCO of establishing strategic alliances with other institutions and actors of different type acquires particular relevance. Thus, apart from the Member States UNESCO has advanced in the participation of multiple institutions in international initiatives on the topic of tourism, culture and development.
Among the more immediate proposals for action that may be undertaken at an international level in the context of strategic alliances promoted by UNESCO the following could be included:
1. - Organisation of international conferences and seminar on tourism, culture and development.
2. - Organisation of regional seminars
3. - Establishment of links between the sub-regions following the thematic wake of cultural routes or itineraries (e.g. the Maya route or the Slave route, in such a way as to combine the study of history and cultural heritage with their promotion through tourism).
4. - Sponsor, jointly with other international institutions, a University Project (research and teaching) on “Cultural Landscape and Tourism in Latin America and the Caribbean”.
5. - Implement programs for the development of cultural tourism in places in which it could reactivate depressed communities whose reanimation could have a special relevance from the cultural point of view (e.g. indigenous communities).
6. - Programs for the adequate reception and management of tourists in sites registered as Heritage of Humanity.
7. - Encourage co-operation between universities in the framework of the UNESCO’s Academic Program for the study of tourism, particularly its relationship with culture and development. As a part of this co-operation training programs could take place – especially for community officials and leaders- in the area of tourist planning and management.
8. - Promotion of the idea of establishing a universal Code of Ethics for tourist operations.
9. - Gathering and dissemination of a catalogue of positive cases in which tourist policies have had a positive effect on culture and human development.
10. - Evaluation of the possibility of establishing an international quality standard of the tourist product which may be defined and granted by UNESCO, with international recognition. Its function would be similar to that of the present classification for hotels, and in the same way UNESCO would establish a commercial incentive to gain the tourist agency’s acceptance – and eventually for them to invest resources –in a number of principles postulated by UNESCO.
FIGURE 1
The function of culture in adding and multiplying value in tourism.
The tourist’s basic expense The tourist’s optional expense Multiplier effect of the tourist expense
Massive tourism Additional expense for any “Rearward chains”
(“sun and beach”) type of tourism (“mass” or “niche”) A) emergence of productive clusters
associated to the production of services
Gastronomy and goods of cultural content
“Niche” or “ Recreation music directly consumed by the tourist
“Boutique” tourism dance
(“cultural tourism”) shows B) emergence of productive clusters
museums associated to the production of services
cultural tours and goods of cultural content
Transportation & other services offered to tourist agencies
Retail sales (design, furniture, etc.)
(crafts, books, records, and
other cultural goods) “Forward chains”
Export of cultural goods towards
The countries of origin of the tourists
Culture: generating a demand of
Cultural goods during their stay.
“adds” value to Contributes an additional “value” “Multiplies” the value
the tourist product to the tourist product contributes to “deepen”
tourist expansion creating
local productive networks which
have a “bandwagon effect” on other sectors
Figure 2
The function of culture in the process of “economic progress”
-----------------------
1 UNESCO. Nuestra Diversidad Creativa. Informe de la Comisión Mundial de Cultura y Desarrollo. Ediciones UNESCO. México. 1997
2 UNESCO. Medium Term Strategy 2002-2007.31 c/4. Paris, 2002
3 Keller, Peter. “General trends in tourism today”. In UNESCO, Proceedings of a round table on Culture, tourism, development: crucial issues for the XXIst century. Paris, 26-27, June 1996. CLT/DEC/SEC-1997. Paris. p. 13
4 Cazes, George H. "The growth of tourism in the developing countries". In: UNESCO, Proceedings of a Round Table on Culture, Tourism, Development: Crucial Issues for the XXIst Century. Op. cit. p.24
5 Cazes, Op. Cit. and World Tourism Organisation. International Tourists Arrivals. June 2002, MACROBUTTON HtmlResAnchor world-
6 Keller, op. cit.
7 Cazes, op. cit. p.25
8 World Tourism Organization. International Tourists Arrivals. June 2002, MACROBUTTON HtmlResAnchor world-tourism. org.
9 World Tourism Organisation. Travel Latin America.2000. , MACROBUTTON HtmlResAnchor world-tourism. org.
10 World Tourism Organisation. International Tourists Arrivals. June 2002, MACROBUTTON HtmlResAnchor world-tourism. org.
11 Asociación de Estados del Caribe, Memorandum de entendimiento para el establecimiento de la zona de turismo sustentable del Caribe, Santo Domingo, República Dominicana, abril de 1999.
12 UNESCO, Turismo Cultural en América Latina y el Caribe, UNESCO, La Habana, 1996.
13 An interesting and well-documented critical case study of the Caribbean islands is the book by Polly Patullo, Last Resorts. The Cost of Tourism in the Caribbean, Cassell Wellington House, London, 1996.
14 Sinclair, M. Thea, "Tourism and Economic Development: A Survey", The Journal of Development Studies, Vol. 34, No.5, June 1998, Frank Cass, London
15 Naipaul, V. S. The Middle Passage, London, 1962: and Jamaica Kincaid, A Small Place, London, 1988.
16 Monreal, Pedro y Cristina Padilla, ¿Paraíso en construcción?: Turismo, cultura y desarrollo en el Caribe insular. Notas para el estudio de la cultura como factor de desarrollo en el contexto de las redes globales del turismo. Estudio preparado para la Oficina Regional de Cultura para América Latina y el Caribe de la UNESCO. ORCALC. La Habana, 1999.
17 Parris, Ronald G. "Tourism and cultural interaction: issues and prospects for sustainable development." In: UNESCO, Proceedings of a Round Table on Culture, Tourism, Development: crucial issues for the XXIst century. Op. cit. p.48
[1] Schouten, Frans. “Tourism and cultural change”. In UNESCO, Proceedings of a round table on Culture, tourism, development: crucial issues for the XXIst century. Op.cit. p.53
[2] Jaffari, Jafar. “Tourism and culture: an inquiry into paradoxes” In UNESCO, Proceedings of a round table on Culture, tourism, development: crucial issues for the XXIst century. Op.Cit. p. 43
[3] Parris, Op.Cit.
[4] Jafarri, Op.Cit.
[5] Mayor, Federico, “Prologo”, Turismo Cultural en América Latina y el Caribe, UNESCO, La Habana, 1996, p. 8
[6] Some representative cases in the Caribbean could be those of Seville Great House and Heritage Park (St. Ann´s Bay) in Jamaica, Vielle Case in Dominica or Jalousie Plantation in Saint Lucia. Cfr. Patullo, Polly, Last Resorts. The Cost of Tourism in the Caribbean, Casell, London, 1996.
[7] Rojek, C., Capitalism and Leisure Theory, Tavistock Publications, Andover, 1985; and Urry, J., “The “consumption” of tourism”, Sociology, Vol. 24, No.1 , pp. 23-25.
[8] One of the most known conceptualisations of the phenomenon is that of the so-called School of Frankfurt (Adorno and Horkheimer, among others). Cfr. Held, D., Introduction to Critical Theory; Horkheimer to Habermas, Hutchinson Education, London, 1980.
[9] Britton, S., “Tourism, capital and place: towards a critical geography of tourism”, Society & Space, Vol. 9, No. 4, 1991, Pion Ltd, London.
[10] Ibid
[11] In the concept of cultural landscape, used by UNESCO, nature is not only a backdrop in front of which human life takes place but is mainly an active factor in social processes. The concept expresses a comprehensive perspective of nature and culture as essential dimensions inseparable from human activity.
[12] Britton, Op.Cit.
[13] Britton, S., Op.Cit.
[14] Foster, D., Travel and Tourism Management, Macmillan, London, 195; Holloway, J., The Business of Tourism, Pitman, London, 1986; and Hodgeson, A. (compiler), The Travel and Tourist Industry: Strategies for the Future, Pergamon Press, Oxford, 1987.
[15] Britton, ., Op. Cit.
-----------------------
Higher bargaining power of the local actors vis a vis the strategic coordinators. Possibility of using “relational” income and making progress in organizational learning. Advantage is taken of the so-called “original brand” income.
Learning requirements
Standard abilities of the “industry of hospitality”
Specific knowledge difficult to learn by non local actors
Flexible production techniques
Mass production techniques
Type of process
Sectoral specialization
Differentiated tourist product
Homogeneous tourist product
Intensive use of natural resources
in situ manufacture of a tourist product designed by others
Intensive use of knowledge
in situ manufacture of an original product with an original design
Exporting
modality
Primary -assembling -Components -OEM
OBM ODM
Original Brand Original Design
CULTURAL TOURISM
MASS TOURISM (SUN AND BEACH)
ECONOMIC PROGRESS (UPGRADING)
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