Tourism aggravating factor or solution to global inequality?
Powered by François Herrb
What is tourism? Born in the 17th century with the aristocratic Grand Tour, this phenomenon affects all societies today. It causes the largest migrations that humanity has ever known. 898 million people traveled outside their country in 2007 for tourism, according to the World Tourism Organization. And the arrival of Chinese tourists and emerging countries should further magnify these flows in the coming years. In France, the tourism sector generates 6.5% of gross domestic product (GDP).
Praised as an economic development tool, denounced as a new colonialism, it is at the heart of debates about the globalization of culture.
It is often criticized for tourists - this "modern pilgrim no faith animates " in the words of the sociologist Jean-Didier Urbain - its superficiality, its gregarious nature, his indifference to the sites visited, his denial of the art of travel. It now adds a critical environment (destruction of natural sites, emissions of greenhouse gas emissions related to transportation) and political (commodification of sites and landscapes, neocolonial practices vis-à-vis the local population).
In response, a comment from the other on a forum dedicated to travel:
" We read all ethical considerations on tourism, fair tourism, tourism humanitarian side of the rapacious tourists, colonizer that changes the local fabric with its dough . There is finally a big sense of guilt towards the traveler visited countries (third world). I'll make it short: bullshit! The West is inherently imperialist and colonizer, and I think it operates over the Third World home in France by eating (food subsidized by the EEC which generates the dumping food energy in large quantities, drugs) that traveling there. Traveling the Third World is finally redistribute a little of the money the system has forced us to steal for a very modest reward finally what they have to teach us or the natural wonders they let us watch. "
While nearly 40% of French people do not go on vacation, leisure mobility is also an indicator of social inequalities. The destinations are divided according to classes of society and the seasons, without drawing a social geography constantly reinvented. Tourist Destinations, elected by precursors in search of Distinction social, then spread by imitation in society and democratization, driving the elites of the time to constantly invent new practices to stay away from crowds. Latest illustration of the phenomenon: for 200 000 dollars per head, it is possible for this year to afford a trip into space ...
Sources:
- Sociology of Tourism, Saskia Cousin Reau and Bertrand, La Découverte, collection Landmarks No. 535 Praised as an economic development tool, denounced as a new colonialism, it is at the heart of debates about the globalization of culture.
It is often criticized for tourists - this "modern pilgrim no faith animates " in the words of the sociologist Jean-Didier Urbain - its superficiality, its gregarious nature, his indifference to the sites visited, his denial of the art of travel. It now adds a critical environment (destruction of natural sites, emissions of greenhouse gas emissions related to transportation) and political (commodification of sites and landscapes, neocolonial practices vis-à-vis the local population).
In response, a comment from the other on a forum dedicated to travel:
" We read all ethical considerations on tourism, fair tourism, tourism humanitarian side of the rapacious tourists, colonizer that changes the local fabric with its dough . There is finally a big sense of guilt towards the traveler visited countries (third world). I'll make it short: bullshit! The West is inherently imperialist and colonizer, and I think it operates over the Third World home in France by eating (food subsidized by the EEC which generates the dumping food energy in large quantities, drugs) that traveling there. Traveling the Third World is finally redistribute a little of the money the system has forced us to steal for a very modest reward finally what they have to teach us or the natural wonders they let us watch. "
While nearly 40% of French people do not go on vacation, leisure mobility is also an indicator of social inequalities. The destinations are divided according to classes of society and the seasons, without drawing a social geography constantly reinvented. Tourist Destinations, elected by precursors in search of Distinction social, then spread by imitation in society and democratization, driving the elites of the time to constantly invent new practices to stay away from crowds. Latest illustration of the phenomenon: for 200 000 dollars per head, it is possible for this year to afford a trip into space ...
In response to these excesses are developing alternative forms of tourism, less consumptive and more respectful Population and Environment (ecotourism, tourism or social solidarity).
Thus we can see tourism as both a developer inequalities at different scales (globally and within societies) and as an aggravating cause of these inequalities or as a means of reducing .
Thus we can see tourism as both a developer inequalities at different scales (globally and within societies) and as an aggravating cause of these inequalities or as a means of reducing .
Sources:
- A history of tourism. On the luxury of a rich mass leisure Stephane Lecler Alternatives Economiques No 271, July 2008
- The impossible journey. Tourism and its images , Marc Augé, Zone Books, Paris, 1997
- Planet disneylandisée Sylvie Brunel, editions Humanities, 2006 Francis
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