The photo on the front page shows Juan Yupanki and his wife Élena weaving, as they do every day, to make textiles for tourists. They pride themselves on using ancient Quechua techniques of coloring, pattern-making and weaving.
Rural tourism:
Catalyzing change in the
everyday-life
A case study in the Andean
communities of Huilloc and
Patacancha
Maaike Idema
Student number: 4181158
Contact: m.idema@live.com
Radboud University Nijmegen
Nijmegen School of Management
Geography and Spatial Planning dept.
Specialization: Globalization, Migration and Development
23
rdof July 2018
Thesis supervision: Dr. ir. Lothar Smith (RU)
Dr. Annelou Ypeij (CEDLA)
Preface
Looking back on an incredible adventure in the highlands of Peru, I can say that my life has been enriched by this experience of sharing stories with my friends in Huilloc and Patacancha, Ollantaytambo and Cusco. The Peruvian Andes and its beautiful people and rich culture have made a deep impression on me. First and foremost, I would like to thank the community members of Huilloc and Patachancha for their openness and trust towards me. I am very grateful for the time and energy they have put in welcoming me in their lifeworld and answering the many questions I had. I was welcomed with much kindness and friendliness. A very special word of thanks goes to Juan, Helena and Rojer, who have introduced me into the communities, showing me the way around and translating whenever this was necessary. Solpayki. This thank you also extends to all the other interviewees who have helped me gain insight in the development of rural tourism in the Peruvian Andes from many different perspectives. I would also like to thank my thesis supervisor dr. Lothar Smith for his patience and insights, which have helped me shape my thesis into its current form. His words of encouragement have given me the confidence to keep on going. Furthermore, I would like to express my gratitude to dr. Annelou Ypeij, who has introduced me into the world of tourism in Latin America and encouraged me to study tourism in Huilloc and Patacancha in particular. Daring me to enter into this adventure has been the best thing! Thank you. Last but not least, I have great appreciation for my family, who have been supportive throughout this adventure in great lengths. Many thanks to Huub, my husband, who has followed me to Peru and back and has shared in this experience and has given me great advice on how to tackle certain challenges in the field as well as during the writing process. Maaike Idema February, 2018
Executive summary
Tourism in Latin America has been diversifying and expanding to increasingly include rural areas in the tourism environment. Over the past five years this has particularly been visible in the Sacred Valley Region, where the popular tourist attractions of Machu Picchu and Cusco city are located. The increasing tourism activity in remote rural communities has an impact on the everyday-lives of the local people. The aim of this research is to analyze how local realities have changed at the hand of rural tourism expansion, particularly focusing on the social, cultural and economic aspects of the everyday-life. Through researching the everyday geography of the community members of Huilloc and Patacancha a deeper insight in the global-local nexus will be gained from a local perspective. An everyday geography focuses on lived experiences, livelihood strategies and local spaces and it recognizes the value of agency of the local and the individual. The interlinkage of the concepts of ‘tourism industry’, ‘tourism development’ and ‘everyday geography’ gives an interscalar analysis, zooming in from an international tourism industry to tourism development in a particular destination to the analysis of a geography of the everyday life of community members of this particular destination. Furthermore, the addition of experiential and ethnic components to the classic conception of rural tourism seeks to extend on general theory regarding rural tourism.
Theoretically, this research sets the scene by first addressing processes and concepts that help explain the local reality of the rural dwellers in relation to tourism development on their grounds.
• Alternative and sustainable forms of tourism gain in salience and underline the importance of local agency and appreciate local and cultural distinction. These forms of tourism are positioned as part of a countermovement to the mass-produced and packaged tours and the ethnocentric bias in tourism. This positioning is also used strategically in advertising, blurring the line between mass-tourism and alternative tourism.
• In the Peruvian Andes, rural tourism is inextricable linked to ethnicity and ‘authentic’ Quechua culture. Tourists are increasingly in search of an ‘authentic’ cultural experience and these are particularly found in rural areas, as the idea exists that rural dwellers are somehow less impacted by ‘modernity’ and remain ‘unspoiled’.
• Because of this notion, culture becomes a commodity in various ways and many tourism-based livelihoods in the rural Sacred Valley are inextricable linked to culture and indigeneity. The second part of the theoretical framework puts these local processes into a global context, explaining the correlation and interaction between global and local forces. Globalization has stimulated and infiltrated the tourism sector, enabling transnational and intercultural interactions and
transactions and creating interconnectedness between different places on a global scale. The local can no longer be seen as disconnected from the global. In this light, neoliberalism and the global tourism industry are often seen as a catalyst for modernization and development and development strategies are therefore regularly based on a neoliberal system, also in Peru. However, more often than not, socio-economic and spatial inequality are the results of uneven global competition. The sought after local empowerment through rural tourism in a global theater of global competition causes friction, which is particularly noticeable in Huilloc and Patacancha where much emphasis is put on local distinctiveness as an attractive value to tourists. The gathering of data is guided by the framework of creating an everyday-geography: analyzing the habits, rituals, chores of the locals and discovering the meaning behind these actions. Thus, because of the local emphasis, much time was spent with community members of Huilloc and Patacancha, with the aim to formulate a local impression of the global phenomenon that is called tourism. Even though the communities are remotely located and small, one can instantly distinguish the importance of tourism in local livelihoods; most women make local crafts and typical textiles for the tourism market, there are multiple associations formed by community members to host tourists in their homes and English signs point to archeological sites, hiking trails and local tourist spots. Community members cleverly know how to capitalize their cultural assets, by using them in touristic activities such as teaching tourists how to weave, cook according to traditional recipes or how to work the field. But the community members are not the only stakeholders in the tourism enterprise of their own communities. Tour agencies and NGO’s, particularly the NGO Awamaki, have large stakes and great influence on the course of events related to tourism. As these actors mainly conduct business in accordance with Western structures and values, this occidental bias also influences the livelihood strategies of the rural community members. Multiple contradictory processes of change have been set in motion relating to empowerment versus disempowerment, commodification of culture versus authenticity and economic growth versus growing inequality.
• Cultural tourism has a particular empowering impact on these Quechua communities because the very thing that is otherwise seen as inferior – their heritage – is appraised by tourists because of the uniqueness and rich history. On the other hand, this interest in culture can also create the demand for a ‘museumized’ image of Quechua culture, prohibiting rural communities to develop outside of certain set boundaries.
• Empowerment is also manifested by way of the enhancement of skills, knowledge and opportunities provided by agencies and NGO’s. However, through working in tourism, community members are introduced to new structures and rules that are dictated by their
‘employers’ or their ‘teachers, namely tour agencies, NGO’s and/or the government, according to which their work must be executed. • The central role of women in particular in tourism development in these rural communities and the empowerment of these women through tourism leads to changing gender relations within the community, thereby changing the everyday-life. • The Andean look and typical values and practices are becoming increasingly important, not solely as part of the lifeworld of the community members of Huilloc and Patacancha, but also as an economic asset that can be monetized through tourism. This process creates a clear tension between preservation and commodification, raising the question of what is and is not ‘authentic’. • Andean society is built on reciprocity as one of the most important values of life. However, reciprocal relationships and communal support systems have been decreasing over the past decade and this process is reinforced by tourism and its accompanying capitalist based values. • Tourism has led to economic growth in the area, making better healthcare and education
possible. However, the increasing importance of money concurrently leads to competition within communities that is accompanies by an increase in socio-economic inequality, exclusion and individualism. When analyzing socio-economic processes of change due to tourism expansion, there is a distinctive ambiguousness noticeable between the Andean society that is built on reciprocity and great respect for Mother Earth and the Western society that is built on capitalist values and rooted in a neoliberalist market system. The community members have noticed the increasing complexity that they are confronted with in their daily reality and in their livelihood strategies. However, it seems as if the community members are not fully aware of the complexity that tourism brings. Although the world around the communities – the government, NGO’s, academia, the tourism industry – knows full well the consequences tourism can have on the reality of rural Quechua communities such as Huilloc and Patacancha, the people themselves remain ignorant to some extent.
Table of content
Chapter 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Localization: Tourism in the Ollantaytambo district 2 1.2 Research objective 6 1.3 Research questions 8 1.4 Relevance 9 1.5 Thesis structure 10 Chapter 2 The glocalization of a tourism industry 13 2.1 Alternative tourism: Empowering the ‘local’ 14 2.2 Rural tourism: The role of ethnicity 16 2.3 Livelihoods and ethnicity 18 2.4 Globalization and tourism 20 2.5 Tourism as a means for modernization 22 2.6 Tourism and development in Peru 26 2.7 The tourism bubble: ‘glocal’ places of tourism 28 2.8 Conceptual model 30 Chapter 3 Methods 33 3.1 Towards a methodology 33 3.2 Executing a casestudy 35 3.3 An everyday geography 38 3.4 Data sampling 40 3.5 Data analysis 41 3.6 Methodological considerations 42 Chapter 4 Expansion of the tourism industry to the rural domain 44 4.1 Introducing Huilloc and Patacancha 44 4.2 Stakeholder analysis 50 4.3 Livelihoods analysis 59 4.4 Conclusion 66Chapter 5 Modernizing an ‘authentic’ community through tourism? 67 5.1 Empowerment vs. disempowerment 67 5.2 Commodification of culture and authenticity 71 5.3 Socio-economic change and inequality 74 Chapter 6 Conclusion 77 6.1 Conclusions 77 6.2 Reflections & recommendations 79 References 81 Appendices 87
List of figures and tables
Front Page Juan Yupanki and his wife Helena. The picture is made by Huub van der Zwaluw Figures 1. Rostow’s Stages of Economic Growth. 23 2. Conceptual Model, part A. 31 3. Conceptual Model, part B. 32 4. Classes of Stakeholders. 56 Maps 1. Cusco and the Sacred Valley. 4 2. Ollantaytambo District. Huilloc and Patacancha highlighted. 4 Tables 1. Methods specified per sub-question. 37 Pictures 1. General impression of the community of Huilloc 45 2. General impression of the community of Patacancha 46
1.
Introduction
During fieldwork in the Cusco region, Peru, two tourists were talking amongst each other: “It was so cool to be doing something completely different than the average tourist! You really get to experience the local culture, you know?” They were sharing their stories about tours to local communities or guided walking treks in the Sacred Valley navigated along a multitude of small ‘traditional’ rural villages – how they were deeply touched by the friendliness of the Quechua people, how they could never make those beautiful colorful textiles themselves and how they were shocked by the poverty of the people. This situation shows a recent trend in tourism where people want to experience unfamiliarity ‘off the beaten track’. Experiential has become a buzz-word in tourism marketing (Condevaux, Djament-Tran & Gravari-Barbas, 2016), especially in ethnic tourism, where the indigenous themselves are the significant attraction. More and more tourists want to learn about the local culture by interacting with the locals, by participating in ‘traditional’ activities. In almost every form of tourism there is contact with local inhabitants, but with the increasingly popular small-scale alternative forms of tourism this interaction between host and tourist is even more intensified (Graham, 2018). It is therefore hardly surprising to find out that this interaction between host and tourist does not only create economic opportunities, but also has far-reaching social and cultural effects (Cohen, 1979). Once a community becomes a tourist destination, the everyday-lives of the community members can change significantly. The economic benefits tend to improve the standard of living for the local inhabitants, which shows through the improvement of the street view and the quality of housing (Kim, Uysal & Sirgy, 2013). However, despite the complexity and varying dependent factors, there are theories claiming that tourism can cause deterioration of ‘traditional’ values and culture, social conflict and secularization. On the other hand, the enhanced interest in typical cultures can also lead to a revived pride in heritage and ethnic identity and renewed appreciation of traditional arts and crafts production (Yang, Ryan & Zhang, 2013) Van Den Berghe (1980, p.375) states that “tourism […] serves no purpose other than recreational and […] is impelled by mere idle curiosity and boredom”. However, this notion is rather one-sided, focusing merely on tourism from the perspective of the tourist. There are many more actors that are part of tourism to whom tourism means much more than recreational travel, as it is the business of tourism that has become a strategy towards development over the past two decades (World Bank, 2017). Thus, the purpose of tourism stretches beyond recreation, providing jobs, internationalization of the national and local economy and spatial development through the creation of tourism infrastructure. The World Tourism Organization claims that tourism can significantly contribute to the realization of
the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly when done inclusively. It even ascribed 2017 to be the ‘international year of sustainable tourism for development’ (UNWTO, 2016). It is this side of tourism that is the subject in this thesis; tourism as a catalyst of change for the host population.
However, the impacts of tourism are not always experienced as positive. Because of the international character of tourism and the business of tourism becoming increasingly globalized, there is a growing number of cases where tourism endeavors result in a struggle for control for local stakeholders and inhabitants. They have to represent their local interest in the same playing field where the powerful international players represent their global interest (Holden, 2006). Furthermore, international tourism tends to produce a spatial ‘bubble’ of segregation, where the world of the tourist is clearly separated from the daily reality of the local inhabitants. The evolvement of this tourist bubble is often paired with uneven development and social inequality (Torres & Momsen, 2005).
A communitarian approach is often seen as a socio-economic sustainable solution for these problems. Communitarian tourism projects are defined as locally developed and dependent on community participation with equal distribution of the benefits (Okazaki, 2008). Rural and ethnic tourism activities are often developed with a communitarian approach. Still, also communitarian approaches to tourism have unintentionally led to “individualism, consumerism and globalization” (Zorn & Farthing, 2007, p.684). Small-scale destinations and rural areas can also show characteristics of a classic tourism bubble. Also in these cases the increase of tourism may favor some and disrupt others socio-economically and spatially (Carrier & McLeod, 2005). This research aims to study the impact of tourism expansion to rural areas in the Peruvian Sacred Valley, focusing on socio-economic and cultural development manifested in the everyday lives of the community members of these rural areas. This will be done through a case-study of the communities Huilloc and Patacancha, located in the Ollantaytambo district, nearby the popular Inca-town of Ollantaytambo. To more fully comprehend the value of the research, an impression of the research location is drawn before explaining the research objective, questions and relevance.
1.1
Localization: Tourism in the Ollantaytambo district
Nowadays, Peru is one of the most popular holiday destination in Latin-America (data.worldbank.org). The country has many attractive sites, interesting culture and beautiful nature to admire. The most popular tourist attraction is, without a doubt, Machu Picchu, the lost city of the Inca’s. The site was granted the status of cultural heritage by UNESCO. However, aside from Machu Picchu, Peru has an astounding diverse ecology, counting over 1600 bird species and a large number of mammals. Thescenery of the country is colored by beaches, mountains, deserts and rainforests. The culture is just as diverse as its landscapes, with a wide variety of cultural practices and indigenous communities all across the country (Mitchell & Eagles, 2010). Ollantaytambo is a reasonably small town in the Peruvian Andes, located approximately one and a half hours driving from the tourist hub of the country, the city of Cusco. Even though the town is small, it is very popular amongst tourists, because of its cultural heritage and its location (Van Den Berghe, 1980). Ollantaytambo is located along the river the Urubamba and as such, is part of what is called ‘the Sacred Valley of the Inca’s’. The Sacred Valley is known for the Inca ruins and culturally attractive towns located along the Urubamba river (ref. figure 1.1). From Cusco, there is an abundance of tours of ‘the Sacred Valley in one day’ organized, shortly visiting the towns and the remains of their Inca forts. Ollantaytambo is particularly popular because of the traditional character of the town and the beautiful Inca ruins. Besides the old Inca citadel, the town itself is still built out of the remains of Inca walls, preserving the town structure as originally intended (Van Den Berghe, 1980). Ollantaytambo also serves as the starting point of the railway as well as the Inca trail towards the most famous attraction of Peru, namely the UNESCO cultural heritage site of Machu Picchu, hitting a new visitor record of over 1.4 million in 2016 (Coldwell, 2017). The rural communities of Huilloc and Patacancha (ref. figure 1.2; red circles) are two of the nine administrative divisions/communities within the Ollantaytambo district and are located 13 and 16 kilometers from the town in the valley of the Patacancha river, a tributary of the Urubamba river. These communities are receiving a growing number of tourists that are specifically interested in their indigenous Quechua culture, containing ancient weaving traditions and spiritual ceremonies.
In spite of Ollantaytambo being part of the popular Sacred Valley, the Ollantaytambo district is a destination in itself and has a lot to offer for different types of tourists. In the academic literature, one can find many typologies of tourists that aim to give an overview of the different types of tourists and in which different types of tourism they partake. These typologies are based on the location of a certain type of tourism on various spectrums, such as mass tourism versus small-scale alternative tourism or recreational tourism experiences versus existential experiences (Cohen, 1979; Elands & Lengkeek, 2000). Virtually all these types of tourists and tourism experiences come together in the Ollantaytambo district, shaping a diversified tourism infrastructure. When a typology is made to specifically describe the tourism sector in Ollantaytambo, there are four types that are prominently present, namely the culturalists, the adventurers, the spiritualists and the ‘voluntourists’. It is important to note that these types are not mutually exclusive - one tourist can fit into multiple categories.
Figure 1.1. Map of Cusco and Sacred Valley. The towns of Pisac, Calca, Urubamba and Ollantaytambo are located along the Urubamba river and are part of the Sacred Valley. However, Chinchero is often included in tours of the sacred valley. Source: Smith & Hurt, 2011. Figure 1.2. Map of Ollantaytambo district, highlighting the communities of Huilloc and Patacancha. Source: Ishizawa, 2017.
Cultural tourism is a very broad term, which generally entails activities such as the visiting of monuments or places of historical and cultural significance. The frequently used definition of Richards (2002, 2007) clarifies cultural tourism as “the movement of people towards cultural attractions, somewhere other than their habitual place of residence, in order to obtain information and knowledge to fulfil their own cultural demands” (Jovicic, 2016, p.605). When applied to the Ollantaytambo district, this means that cultural tourists are drawn to the archeological sites in the area, historical tours through the town, cultural festivals and cultural tours to indigenous communities such as Huilloc and Patacancha. However, there is a large difference in activities and spatial setting between large-scale mass cultural tourism and small-scale cultural tourism. Adventure tourism can be conceptualized as the participation in outdoor activities, where the natural environment and physical activity of some sort are key characteristics (Rantala, Rokenes & Valkonen, 2016). In the Ollantaytambo area are many tour agencies that offer options to participate in rafting, zip-lining and horseback riding. Most popular however are the hiking trails that go through the Ollantaytambo district. There are multiple one-day hikes, but especially the multiple-day hikes (Lares trek, Inca trail, Inca Jungle trek, Riverside trail to Machu Picchu) are in demand. One variety of the Lares trek also crosses the towns of Huilloc and Patacancha.
Over the past decades there has been a shift from orthodox religious practice to a rising interest in a universal spiritual dimension and this process has also impacted the tourism market. Spiritual tourists travel to sacred sites, observe sacred rituals and increasingly join in spiritual experiences (Haq & Jackson, 2006). The Sacred Valley has manifested itself as a place of spiritual awakening through ceremonies with Indigenous Inca Shamans, performing Ayahuasca rituals - cleansing through guided collective ingestion of a hallucinating Amazonian plant - and Pachamanca rituals - a specific way of preparing food while offering respects to ‘mother Earth’. (Goméz-Barris, 2012). Thereto, there has also been a rising supply in yoga retreats to complement the spiritual journey (Hill, 2010).
Lastly, particularly in developing countries in the global south tourism is more and more combined with volunteer work or ‘goodwill’, explained by the concept of ‘voluntourism’. Theoretically, volunteer tourism can be placed within the paradigms of sustainable tourism and alternative tourism enterprises. Though heavily criticized, the objective is to improve the outcome of tourism as compared to the troubles mass-tourism can cause and bring about positive changes for the receiving environment and/or the ‘voluntourists’ themselves (Sin, 2009). In Urubamba and Ollantaytambo there are multiple organizations that are actively recruiting volunteers from the United States and Europe to come and help the local communities through for example building projects, English tutoring, giving out practical information on entrepreneurship, etc. Almost all of these organizations are active in
Huilloc and Patacancha, as these communities are considered to be ‘underdeveloped’ and are relatively accessible compared to other rural communities.
All these different forms of tourism encourage a change of the local reality. This is manifested widely in the everyday-life of the local inhabitants; in their spatial, social, cultural, economic, political and their environmental reality (Kim, Uysal & Sirgy, 2013). In the Ollantaytambo district tourism is very tangible. When walking through the streets of the town, one can find multiple hotels, hostels and restaurant in every street. The alleys are colorfully marked by the many souvenir shops and stands. Tourists get hauled by the many taxi drivers offering their services to tour them to the many touristic sites in the area. Rathbone (2007, p.94) strikingly describes the town as “an amalgam of people of different class status; a town rich with enduring Quechua traditions and culture influenced by globalized markets, modernization, and tourism”. To target more tourists, the attractive elements of Quechua culture are subtly highlighted. All shops, restaurants and hotels have a colorful and natural look and feel, where textiles and wood play a central role in decoration. Indigeneity and traditional Inca culture are actively utilized as a tool to entertain the tourists through the outfits of street vendors and the decoration and music in hotels and restaurants (McGrath, 2004). However, this traditional character of Ollantaytambo is visibly influenced and combined with modern/Western culture, due to the specific demand for modern comfortability of tourists and an increased purchasing power of local tourism workers to modernize their own environment. A decade ago, the communities of Huilloc and Patacancha were rarely visited by tourists, which is why community members frequently travelled to Ollantaytambo to claim a share of the profit that tourism generated, through porter-jobs on hiking trails or the selling of textiles (Rathbone, 2007; Abarca, 2005). Over time, tourism has gradually expanded to these rural communities, which set up processes of change in these places. At present, tourism is a very important source of income for these communities. Particularly experiential tourism is salient, where the tourists are hosted by community members in their own houses, joining in family life, eating traditional food and experiencing local culture (Casafranca & Chavéz, 2013).
1.2
Research objective
In recent years, the tourism activities in the Sacred Valley have been expanding, increasingly including rural areas and indigenous communities. From tourist hubs in the area, such as the city of Cuzco and the ‘living Inca town’ Ollantaytambo, many tours and trails are offered to visit these communities.
Most of these tours can be categorized as cultural tourism or ethnic tourism, as the purpose of these activities is to learn about indigenous Inca culture. Participants of such tours often visit these ‘traditional’ Quechua communities only briefly to witness a ceremony of some sort, attend a weaving demonstration and/or eat a local dish. In addition, volunteer tourism based in larger hubs such as Ollantaytambo and Urubamba increasingly send ‘voluntourists’ to rural communities on a longer basis. Furthermore, experiential tourism is growing in salience in rural Quechua communities, particularly drawing cultural tourists who want to experience ‘traditional’ culture ‘off the beaten track’.
This thesis aims to analyse how the expansion of tourism activities is including the rural communities of Huilloc and Patacancha and how these tourism activities impact and change the everyday life of the local people. The communities of Huilloc and Patachancha in the Andean highlands are promoted as ‘authentic’ Inca, where the people still speak Quechua Inca language and live in accordance with old Inca tradition. However, as mentioned, tourism is theorized to have a transforming effect on local realities, increasing the interaction with ‘modern society’. These processes lead to an interesting dichotomy in which the very thing that is attractive to tourists – typical Quechua culture – seems to be under pressure because of tourism functioning as an agent of change. Therefore, the research objective is as follows:
The objective is to gain insight in tourism development as an agent of change in rural Andean communities that are becoming part of the bigger tourism industry in the Sacred Valley, particularly focussing on how increasing tourism activities and accompanying socio-cultural and economic processes have impacted the everyday life of these community members, by conducting ethnographic research in the Quechua communities of Huilloc and Patacancha. The formulation of the research objective can be classified into three parts. First is described to what general knowledge will be added in this research (expansion of tourism activities in the Sacred Valley to rural domains), where after a particular focus is added through which the research will construct knowledge (impact of tourism in this rural domain), concluding with an answer as to how this knowledge will be constructed (ethnographic research in the communities of Huilloc and Patacancha).
1.3 Research questions
In order to reach the stated research objective, the following central question will function as the directory on which the composition of the research results is based. How is the tourism sector in the Sacred Valley expanding to include and impact the ‘typical’ way of life in the rural communities of Huilloc and Patacancha?This main question consists of three elements also found in the research objective: the tourism industry, tourism development and impacts of tourism. These concepts will be elaborately discussed in the theoretical framework that follows. To answer this question, the following sub-questions have been established. These sub-questions are clarified through the addition of practical questions that help to answer and understand the general sub-questions. The explaining of results in this thesis will not be elaborated and arranged in strict accordance with these questions. Answers to these questions will be logically structured in main themes that can address multiple (parts of) questions at once. 1) How can tourism development be described and categorized with regards to the communities of Huilloc and Patacancha? - What defines tourism in Huilloc and Patacancha? - Who are the key actors in the local tourism industry and what is their role in rural tourism planning? - How can the interrelations between stakeholders be characterized? - What part does tourism play in the livelihoods strategies of community members in general? 2) What are the (expected) impacts of tourism in Huilloc and Patacancha? - In what way have - livelihood strategies - cultural beliefs and practices - social relations changed over the past decade due to increasing tourism? - How is the expansion of tourism in the area perceived by the local inhabitants of
Huilloc and Patacancha?
- How do the local inhabitants foresee their future with regards to tourism development?
1.4 Relevance
The tourism industry has grown immensely over the past decades. Tourism has played a vital role in many economic, social and cultural changes and thus, it has become omnipresent in the contemporary globalized world. As Baud & Ypeij (2009. p.1) state, “it can be seen as an integrated element of globalization in which international travel and cultural discovery have become part of global consumption patterns.” The tourism sector accounts for 10% of global GDP and is still one of the fastest growing industries worldwide, with a growth percentage of 3.1% in 2016 while the global economy has grown 2.5% (World Bank, 2017). Even though participation in tourism activities has remained exclusive - for the most part only including rich Western countries – tourism has touched many livelihoods and localities as a destination and it is continuously expanding its scope (Holden, 2006), making tourism development and impact a highly relevant topic. Tourism in many forms is known to enhance socio-economic disparities. Mainly established and wealthy investors and entrepreneurs are claiming the bigger share of the profits in the tourism industry, whereas local entrepreneurs and tourism workers are more vulnerable and are generally dependant on these established actors (Dahles & Keune, 2002). According to Ypeij (2012) and Steel (2009) these issues are also applicable to the tourism industry in the Cusco-region and the Sacred Valley (Ypeij, 2012).
This research is aiming to discover the structures behind tourism planning. This is societally relevant, because these structures will give insight in the stakeholders and their motives and perspectives, power relations and outcomes. Through our understanding of why processes, developments and events occur, we can control and influence these events (Babbie, 2013). This means that insight in the structures behind negative consequences of tourism could function as a warning for other tourism projects or developments. Highlighting the good practices as examples has the capacity of enhancing equitable and sustainable practices in general. Furthermore, through mapping tourism development and its (possible) impacts in such an early phase of growth and transition in the rural domain of the Ollantaytambo district, this research can inform influential actors on a local scale of certain risks and red flags and give recommendations for mitigation of negative consequences and unforeseen circumstances.
Furthermore, this research is scientifically relevant in adding to the knowledge of tourism studies, because it interlinks the concepts of the tourism bubble, tourism development and everyday geography. Individually, much has been written about these concepts, but not much is known about the relations between these concepts. By linking these concepts, an interscalar analysis is given, zooming in from an international area-wide tourism bubble to tourism development in a particular destination to the analysis of a geography of the everyday life of community members of this particular
destination. This interlinkage of theoretical concepts has the potential to construct new knowledge that can bridge the gap between these spheres of activity in practice, creating recommendations to tackle problems and enhance positive results from a holistic point of view. In addition, tourism diversification has led to the upcoming popularity of rural tourism. This form of tourism, its emergence and particularly its potential as a means for local development is theoretically well-documented (Sharpley, 2002; Briedenhann & Wickens, 2004; Garrod, Wornell & Youell, 2016). However, this thesis investigates the addition of experiential and ethnic components to the classic conception of rural tourism. In the Sacred Valley, ethnicity or Quechua indigeneity and cultural experiences, such as joining community members with traditional cooking or weaving, are vital principles increasing the allurement of rural tourism. By means of this particular focus, this research seeks to extend on general theory regarding rural tourism. Lastly, this thesis takes an alternative route to analysing socio-economic and cultural change. Instead of limiting methods to classical development and modernization theory, this research aims to extend methodological discourses by focusing on lived experiences, livelihood strategies, local spaces.
1.5
Thesis structure
This thesis aims to describe and analyze the modus operandi of the tourism industry in the Sacred Valley and in what way rural tourism in remote Andean communities are increasingly becoming part of this industry. Subsequently the impacts of this tourism development on a local scale can be examined. In order to accomplish these intentions, a theoretical framework and methodology are comprehensively set out before outlining and analyzing the results. After this first chapter the theoretical framework will follow, giving a comprehensive overview of theory that connects the concepts of globalization, development and tourism. This overview serves as a global context in which general local processes and outcomes will be placed, as tourism is a global phenomenon in itself - connecting different parts of the world through travel and interaction - but also with great local impacts for destinations and host societies. This global – local nexus is of significant importance in seeking to understand tourism development and impact. In the third chapter the methodology is constructed, outlining the different phases of this research from fieldwork to qualitative data analysis. Here is explained how the research is executed and why these particular methods were chosen. Subsequently the first results are presented in the fourth chapter, where the tourism industry in the Sacred Valley is explained, analyzing prominent actors, their roles, interests and power relations, followed by the local response from the communities to a power struggle between global and local forces. In the fifth chapter the impacts of tourism in Huilloc and Patacanchaare illustrated by means of reporting and storytelling. These impacts will be analyzed and linked back to the theoretical context given in chapter 2. Finally, conclusions, recommendations and reflections will be outlined in the last chapter of the thesis.
2.
The glocalization of a tourism industry
“We appear to live in a world in which the expectation of uniqueness has become increasingly institutionalized and globally widespread.” - Robertson, 1995, p.28 - This chapter intends to give a comprehensive overview of theoretical concepts and processes that are of significant importance in constructing the main arguments of this thesis. The focus of this research is to determine how tourism expansion takes form in rural Huilloc and Patacancha and in what way an increasing volume and heterogeneity of cultural tourism activities have an impact on the local reality of the members of these communities. This local reality is inextricably linked to global processes through the international character of tourism and globalization in the tourism sector (Torres & Momsen, 2005). The quote from Robertson as described above successfully attempts to grasp the complexity of the reciprocal relationship between global and local forces. Particularly in tourism, unique local culture and character of place are important qualities to interest and attract tourists. However, through tourism, these unique and ‘authentic’ places are increasingly confronted with the global norm of comfort and modernity (Dahles & Keune, 2002).
Therefore, the theoretical framework is twofold. Firstly, concepts and processes will be addressed that are of particular importance to explain community tourism in Huilloc and Patacancha. This entails an analysis of the emerging popularity of the alternative, or sustainable tourism sector, of which rural tourism is considered to be a part of (Sharpley, 2002). Also, the role of ethnicity in tourism will be explored, specifically focusing on the role of Quechua indigeneity in the tourism industry in the Peruvian Andes. The second part of the theoretical framework will put these local processes into a global context, explaining the correlation and interaction between global and local forces. First, the links between tourism and globalization processes will be studied. But to fully comprehend the interlinkages and impacts of tourism and globalization, it is necessary to explain other related processes, namely market liberalization and modernization. Thus, we gain insight in the consequences of opening up the local tourism market for global investors and entrepreneurs, encouraging the discourse among multiple governments and institutions appointing tourism as a strategy towards modernization. Then these global processes will be coupled to local realities through examining the concept of the tourism bubble as a hybrid space of global-local relations. The chapter will conclude with a short summary of the evolvement of tourism in Peru.
2.1
Alternative Tourism: Empowering the ‘local’
The conceptualization of ‘alternative tourism’ already reveals its very meaning; to offer the tourists an alternative to the customary tourism options. But what is customary? In his article, renown tourism scholar Erik Cohen (1979) was among the first to establish different categories within tourism, positioning mass-tourism on one side of a spectrum as being institutionalized and exploring tourism ‘off the beaten track’ on the other side of the spectrum as being non-institutionalized. In mass-tourism, experiences come in packaged deals, standardized and mass-produced often by large international companies that arrange everything from transportation to accommodation. They guide their guests in hordes to the standard attractions of a country. Hence, alternative forms of tourism want to diverge from the undesired circumstances of mass tourism and mostly stipulate small-scale, low-key activities with a high degree of local participation and control (Pearce, 1992). Alternative tourism is often mentioned in relation to sustainable development, combining protection of the environment and economic benefits with a community vision (Hardy, Beeton & Pearson, 2002).
In many cases, emergent tourism destinations are characterized by a high level of local involvement, but as the number of visitors rise, the structures often become more and more dominated by the national elite and foreign companies and investors. Although there are also local elites competing in the playing field, generally, local control decreases with the rise of mass tourism. There is a strong discourse among geographical scholars that entitles the global as powerful, whereas local forces, such as households, communities and small networks, are seen as inferior and ultimately overpowered by the global capitalist system (Hardt & Negri, 2000; Harvey & Swyngedouw, 1993). Peck (2000. p.69) aligns with this argument by stating that “in this hyper- globalized world, transnational corporations call the shots, labor has to learn to be ‘realistic’ and (globally) competitive, and the nation state shrinks to insignificance, both as a unit of analysis and as a political agent”. In the tourism industry, this would mean that the global forces – the transnational corporations and foreign investors – ultimately have the power to create a tourism system according to their benefits, whereas the local – the tourist workers and local communities, even state-organized tourism – would have no choice but to comply with this system. Milne & Ateljevic (2001. p.371-372) confirm this assumption by stating that “tourism, in simple words, must be viewed as a transaction process which is at once driven by the global priorities of multi-national corporations, geo-political forces and broader forces of economic change”. However, Gibson-Graham (2002) challenges this binary, hereby posing the question whether the local is not underestimated as an influential agent of change, since it is the local that is the space of politics for most activists. The trend toward a ‘local first’ model of development has been a central motto in alternative tourism enterprises, which has also set foot in Peru. This mind-set is not only proposing local forces as capable of becoming influential, but is also advocating “the importance of
diverse local, vernacular and religious views of wellbeing (Copestake, 2009. p.5)”. Where other development strategies were critiqued because of the ethnocentric bias and universality of needs and rights, there is growing support of development that cherishes in cultural distinctiveness (Copestake, 2009). Alternative and sustainable forms of tourism, that aim to empower the ‘local’ as an influential agent of change and appreciate local and cultural distinction, have become increasingly popular among tourists, but also among development institutions and governments, as the new and improved tourism-related development strategy.
Alternative tourism knows many different forms and names and is by definition somewhat broad. As stated by Butler (1990, p.40), “it can mean almost anything by anyone”. However, as briefly mentioned earlier, one particularly popular label, namely that of ‘sustainability’, characterizes this growing industry. Although there are many critiques on the term sustainability, mainly it being multi-interpretive and vague as well (Adams & Thomas, 1993; Robinson, 2004), there seems to be a general agreement that the Brundtland Report represents an historical marker in the debate about sustainability, indicating it to be the most widely accepted starting point of the sustainability hype (Sneddon, Howarth & Norgaard, 2006; Leal Filho, 2000). The Brundtland Report conceptualized sustainability as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (WCED, 1987). In the majority of academic literature about sustainability, the concept is built upon the durability, or lastingness, of three main pillars, namely ‘people’, ‘profit’ and ‘planet’, or phrased more specifically, ‘equity’, ‘economy’ and ‘ecology’. However, there are many different perspectives on the importance of each of these pillars and how to balance the focus between these pillars in sustainable endeavors. Alternative tourism in the form of ecotourism in particular has gained increasing attention as a promising alternative to westernized mass tourism (Weaver, 2005). Although the conceptualization of eco-tourism is also very divergent and the term is inconsistently applied, the common factor in most definitions is its aim to protect and benefit the local environment and benefit, respect and help empower local communities. Benefits of eco-tourism are argued to enhance the likelihood of integration in the local economy, partly because of its small-scale character (Carrier & McLeod, 2005). However, with the increasing attention, there has also been an increase in advertising of eco-tourism by the tourism industry, steadily commodifying the ecological environment of ecotourism destinations and raising the interest of large-scale investors (Dorsey, Steeves & Porras, 2004). A question often asked is, if contemporary ‘popular’ ecotourism – slowly increasing its foreign owned management - would stand in the way of its value in preserving ecosystems and empowering local communities (Schellhorn, 2010). Tourism enterprises that have come about as a result of foreign direct investment,
mass tourism as well as ecotourism, have a tendency to create various development barriers because of the exclusion of the local economy and labor market (Schellhorn, 2010).
The factors leading to successful inclusive tourism seem to be economic integration of tourism facilities and a considerable amount of local power (Freitag, 1994; Ypeij & Zorn, 2007). This is why communitarian approaches to tourism generally have better results when it comes to inclusiveness, equality and shared growth. Zorn and Farthing (2007. p.674) explain communitarian tourism as a “locally developed, owned and managed enterprise with community wide distribution of benefits. Milne and Ateljevic (2001) align with this line of argumentation by pointing out that a communitarian approach to tourism can enhance the economic foothold of communities in regional and national economies. It is seen as a solution to economic damage done by neoliberal restructuring. Local control is very important in order for communitarian tourism to be successful. This local control can be achieved through three parameters; community awareness, community unity and power relationships (Mitchell & Eagles, 2001). Community awareness is defined by the extent of the community knowing the plans, schemes and details and understanding the potential impacts and complexities of a proposed development. Community unity can be explained as cohesiveness and collective support of the proposed development and the development of local tourism in general without there being coercion. Power relationships denotes there to be equitable sharing of decision-making power amongst all stakeholders, even if there are non-local interest groups included in the development. However, one parameter can be added, namely that of initiative. Local control is easier maintained when the initiative to tourism development is also local. Alternatively, when tourism is introduced in a community by external stakeholder, the threshold to take control is higher (Zorn & Ypeij, 2007). This research has a focus on tourism expansion to rural areas. Communitarian tourism has a strong rural bias, since community based tourism appears to be less achievable in urban areas because of weaker community ties (Wirth, 1938). Therefore, it is interesting to inquire if communitarian approaches to tourism are also applied in the communities of Huilloc and Patacancha and if yes, in what way local control has an influence on the perception of tourism among community members. Furthermore, the intensity of community ties will be related to the growth of tourism, learning how these dimensions interrelate.
2.2
Rural tourism: the role of ethnicity
The rural-urban divide is often associated with regional inequalities and core-periphery patterns (Knox & Marston, 2013). Processes of globalization are believed to have ‘winners’ and ‘losers’, where thewinners are generally located in the urban sphere and the losers in the rural sphere (Bardhan, 2006). Estimates of the World Bank (2013) indicate that overall, poverty rates are significantly higher in rural areas as compared to urban areas. This notion of rural-urban disparity received significant emphasis in developmental discourses in the 1970’s, causing development organizations to adapt their strategies and focus on the neglected rural areas and their lagging socio-economic development (Lohnert & Steinbrink, 2012). Rural tourism is regularly categorized as an alternative form of tourism that has emerged as a tool for rural regeneration and development (Lane & Kastenholz, 2015; Carneiro, Lima & Silva, 2015). Through increasing international competition on the agrarian market, traditional agrarian industries have declined, leading to a quest to diversify economic activities in the rural domain with rural tourism development as a global development discourse (Sharpley, 2002). The importance and popularity of rural tourism has only increased over the past four decades, supported by the constructed notion of the idyllic countryside (Sharpley & Jepson, 2011;). The categorization of it being alternative and/or sustainable can be derived from its small-scale character with a reputation of the tourism enterprises being integrated and mostly locally controlled and owned (Carneiro, Lima & Silva, 2015) Rural tourism knows a vastly diverse content across the world, culture being the main variable. The most important features that are frequently mentioned by scholars are the rural location with activities based on rural features of open space, nature and cultural heritage of the countryside and the identifiable presence of rural customs, folklore, beliefs and family traditions (Nair, et al; 2015). A prominent explanation of the pull of the countryside is the cultural experience of rural ways of life, however variate in different areas and countries. Rural heritage plays an increasingly important role within cultural and heritage tourism. Personal contact with local people, physical activity and an appealing natural environment are key components of the rural experience (Lane & Kastenholz, 2015). Carneiro, Lima & Silva (2015, p.1219) positively observe that “research on the generic profile of tourists and trends of the tourism market point to a promising future for rural tourism, due to the usually high levels of education and travel experience of these tourists, and their growing interest in the “authentic”, in the natural and cultural heritage, their concern for the environment and for a healthy lifestyle, and their quest for new destinations, activities and experiences”. Thus, from this statement it can be derived that the combination of rurality and ‘tradition’ and/or ‘authenticity’ will continue to increase in relevance in the tourism sector. In the Peruvian Andes, rural tourism is inextricable linked to ethnicity and ‘authentic’ Quechua culture. In the Lineaments for Community Tourism in Peru, rural community tourism is defined as activities that are developed in a rural environment and executed in a sustainable way, based on the participation of the local communities and organized for the benefit of these communities, rural
culture being a key component of the product (Jurado, Domingo & Pastor, 2012). The Peruvian ministry of tourism and many tour agencies actively promotes ethnic stereotypes of ‘the Indian’ with nostalgic images of their typical clothing, foods and attributes. However, because ethnicity is such a blatant part of the tourism product, cleverly utilized by locals in their livelihood strategies, the ‘authenticity’ of such experiences is often questioned (Ypeij, 2012). Authenticity is perceived as a genuine and credible cultural construction and representation of cultural and heritages contexts, such as cultural and spiritual ceremonies or rituals (Zhu, 2012). According to Ypeij (2012, p.20) “ethnic categories are designators of class both practically and symbolically, and Indianness is associated with subsistence-oriented peasant communities and poverty”. Hence, in the quest of an ‘authentic Indian’ experience, rural tourism workers are more often perceived as truly ‘authentic’ as compared to urban tourism workers. Dahles and Keune (2002, p.147) expand on this notion by stating that “the idea exists that authenticity is somehow stronger in ‘primitive communities’ that have remained untouched by modernity, in an as yet ‘unspoiled’ natural environment. It is in ethnic tourism in particular that tourists seek contact with this exotic ‘other’, want to ‘take part’ in the real life of the ‘primitives’, or at least observe how ‘authentic’ life is experienced.”
2.3
Livelihoods and ethnicity
Because of the tourists’ interest in local culture and history, tourist spaces provide the tourists with a commodified cultural experience, accentuating particular ethnic/indigenous aspects. The business of western comfort and the business of the ‘exotic’ seem to merge in one tourist bubble (Torres & Momsen, 2005). Culture has become a commodity in various ways, most prominently in heritage tourism. A significant number of livelihoods of local residents have shifted to the tourism industry and are often connected to culture, authenticity and indigeneity (Steel, 2008). According to Taylor (2001), “authenticity is the respectable child of old-fashioned exoticism”. It is for this reason that tourist workers intentionally emphasize specific assets of their ethnicity to match the demands and expectations of tourists.In her article on gender and ethnic identities in the Cusco-Machu Picchu district, Ypeij (2012) gives three distinct examples of livelihoods that are tied to indigeneity and/or ‘authentic’ culture. Sácamefotos are women who pose for tourists’ camera’s wearing typical Inca clothing. Sácamefoto literally means ‘take my photo’. They receive a small tip for every picture taken. These sácamefotos are an obvious example of ‘staged authenticity’, as they literally present themselves in their most beautiful typical and colorful clothing with the very purpose of embodying ‘authentic culture’. Another livelihood tied to ethnicity is that of a tejedora. Tejidos are woven textiles and tejedoras are the
weavers of these (traditional) textiles. In Peru, weaving of Andean textiles has become increasingly popular over the past three decades. Especially since it appeared that tourists are good customers and are willing to pay a decent amount for these colorful handmade textiles, there has been a reemergence of older weaving techniques. Weaving has become popular to such a degree that multiple associations of women have been formed to come together in weaving centers and weave, demonstrate and sell collectively. When tourists visit these centers, they will see an intimate space filled with Quechua speaking women, dressed in their typical and colorful clothing that is distinguishing for their community (Ypeij, 2012). In Latin America, livelihoods in tourism that are tied to indigeneity are mostly filled by women, since women are generally seen as more ‘authentic’. This is derived from patriarchal structures where men provide for their families and women stay home to take care of the family. Through this division of roles, the men are more prone to becoming mestizos, Western-oriented modern men, and the women stay connected to their roots and traditional environment (Dahles & Keune, 2002).
However, ethnic performing for tourists is not limited to women. Tour guides take tourists on trips to see and experience traditional culture and Incan history. To affirm their position in a group of tourists and establish a level of authority, many guides claim to be Inca descendants. Guides give tourists an ‘authentic’ experience, posing themselves as the knowledgeable and exotic Andean in the hope of earning more money (Ypeij, 2012). Steel (2012) adds to this by analyzing another type of livelihoods that is partly tied to ‘authenticity’ and culture, namely that of the street vendor. The livelihood of street vendors in the province of Cusco is vulnerable due to the negative position of the government towards street vending. Informal commerce was considered problematic for the development of space, tourist space in particular. However, dressed in typical Incan clothing, street vendors fit in the image of a cultural and historical center and are an addition to the street scenery. Therefore, street vendors often present themselves in traditional clothing and stress the authenticity of the products they sell (Steel, 2012; Steel, 2009).
In rural areas such as Huilloc and Patacancha, traditional weaving is most prominent as income-generation through tourism. However, there has been a recent expansion of livelihoods in tourism in these and other rural areas in the Andes to communitarian tourism. The rural culture is the key-component of this form of tourism, in which the tourist participates in the traditions and the life-style of the local community (Casas, Soler & Pastor, 2012). Tourism associations have been constructed to manage and administrate locals that are eager to participate. There are many different jobs that community members can perform, such as cooking, hosting, instructing weaving lessons, story-telling, dancing and selling of artisanal crafts (Knight & Cottrell, 2016).
2.4
Globalization and tourism
As mentioned in the introduction of this chapter, the local processes that are discussed above will now be put in a global context, through discussing the binary relations between the global and the local. First, globalization processes in the tourism sector will be discussed. Overall, the tourism sector has grown immensely over the past few decades and this expansion is closely related to processes of globalization. Without understanding globalization, it is impossible to comprehend the scope of the effects of tourism on daily life all around the world. The complexity of globalization as a concept is explicit through the many different definitions and operationalizations that are used. One definition by Anthony Giddens (1990, p.64) argues that globalization is “the intensification of worldwide social relations which link distant localities in such way that local happenings are shaped by events occurring many miles away and vice versa”. This definition coincides with McLuhan and Powers’ (1989) well-known conceptualization of the world as a global village. Because the internet, mass media and modern communication systems have abstracted barriers of time and space, the world has become more like a ‘global village’. Communication between people and places all over the world has been simplified and because of this, people get in touch with each other increasingly frequently. Places and people that were far away and difficult to reach before, are nowadays only a mouse click, a WhatsApp or a phone call away (McLuhan & Powers, 1989). A third definition is given by Held and colleagues (1999, p.483), which explains that globalization is “a process (or set of processes) that embodies a transformation in the spatial organization of social relations and transactions, generating transcontinental or interregional flows and networks of activity, interaction, and power”. The emphasis in this definition is on globalization as a process of transformation. Relations in various forms – power relations, family relations, business relations, even related activities – change, become broader in scale and larger volume. Everything is becoming increasingly connected on a global scale or as de Haan (2000, p.354) strikingly gathers, “each particular entity has to be understood within the framework of the world as a whole”. A more practical definition focuses mainly on economic aspects, such as an increasing integration of the global market, interdepency of financial stocks and the quickly growing number of multinational corporations. Globalization relates to the global span of control of capital, financial activities and information that surpass the authority of the nation state (Castells, 1999). But globalization also knows an equally important social and cultural aspect, namely the expansion of Western culture. Redundantly, Western civilization is believed to have been the cradle of some of the world’s most influential developments and advancements that have led to an increased living standard for large parts of the Western population. This has set the Western civilization as an example of development. This could be perceived as stimulating a continuance of Western imperialism or a stigmatization of the West as the benefactor that grants the world globalization. Whether this
status is earned or not, it has led to globalization often being affiliated with Westernization (Sen, 2002). There are many more definitions and perspectives that tackle the complexity of globalization, but all show an important pattern. They illustrate that the world is getting increasingly interconnected, that multiple processes are involved and that this causes economic, social, political and cultural transformations across all scales.
Tourism has increased progressively in the past few decades. The number of international arrivals has more than doubled in the period from 1995 to 2015 from approximately half a billion to 1.2 billion (UNWTO, 2017). Hjalager (2007) explains the link between globalization and the growing tourism industry through a positive feedback-loop. The tourist is a carrier of globalization and tourism is the instigator of globalization as well as its effect. Tourists bring forth globalization because they enable transnational and intercultural interactions, embodying their own culture while visiting other places with other cultures. Tourism enables the exchange of ideas, money and knowledge between different cultures and because of this increasing interconnectedness between different places, globalization, is further stimulated. Globalization on its turn, allows for flows of tourists to travel further and more frequently through the increasing access to mobility and information and for the tourism sector to grow by facilitating the right transnational investment climate, financial infrastructure and networks of stakeholders and specialists. Globalization of tourism and its consequences are contested, as there are negative as well as positive effects. One obvious outcome of increased tourism is the rise in economic importance of the industry. Increasing numbers of international tourists go hand in hand with increasing revenues. Transnational investments in tourism, such as establishments of international hotel chains and transport enterprises, result in a growing flow of tourists as well as direct cash flows to the economy of the destination country and an increase in employment opportunities. Because of this, particularly governments of developing countries opt for tourism as an effective strategy of modernization and development (Dahles & Keune, 2002). The next paragraph will dive deeper into the modernizing elements of tourism, but also look at the negative implications of modernization through tourism. Globalization is also inherently part of the tourism industry through outsourcing, transnational ownership structures and investments, cross-border marketing collaborations and free movement of labor. Globalization in tourism can be distinguished by its neoliberal ideology that trickles through all policy, strategy and practice of national governments and international institutions. Globalization has paved the way for a global free market, creating new and influential powers out of multinationals who have established a strong command in the tourism industry (Hjalager, 2007). Consequently, there is also another side to the coin. Globalization of the tourism sector can also lead to marginalization, inequality and dependency. While the concept of a liberal global market gives the hope of increased
inward capital flows, particularly for lesser-developed countries, it remains uncertain where the economic benefits will rest (Holden, 2006). Practice reveals that power, and therefore also the profit, is increasingly taken by large multinationals. The measure of benefits brought by tourism is thus often largely dependent on the dealings of these multinationals and the economic leakage as a result of their actions (Badger, et al., 1996). This relation between ‘dominant’ vs. ‘subordinate’, or global vs. local has more than once been viewed as a new form of imperialism (Dahles & Keune, 2002).
2.5
Tourism as a means for modernization
The term modernization is controversial and knows many interpretations. Great and well-known thinkers, from Walt Whitman Rostow to Max Weber and Seymour Martin Lipset, have contributed to modernization theory and have tackled the issue from multiple angles. These perspectives include, but are not limited to, economics, social sciences and politics. Theories on modernization were particularly salient in the 1950’s and the 1960’s, where after the criticism quenched its popularity only to resurface again in the 1990’s despite the controversy. Modernization theory remains influential today and still plays a big role in development strategies of governments and institutions, although the term modernization is mostly substituted by the general term ‘development’ in contemporary theoretical debates. Tourism is increasingly becoming an ingredient in this well-known recipe for development, as it is believed to instigate economic development and socio-cultural change (Holden, 2006). However, according to Peet and Hartwick (2015), the popularity of modernistic development perspectives show an unfounded uncritical faith in the free market. Modernization theory has further been criticized on the basis of its suggested unidirectional path of development, appearing to generate and justify socio-economic disparity between societies (Holden, 2006). One of the most influential modernization theories is Rostow’s ‘Stages of Economic Growth’, in which he phases the transition of traditional societies, mostly self-sufficient and dependent on agriculture, towards modern societies, characterized by high mass consumption (see figure 2.1). Rostow’s theory presumes there is a path towards development that follows a certain structure. This structure is one of industrialization and an increasingly growing manufacturing sector within the developing society. This path to development is heavily dependent on processes of globalization, as it describes a society that is gradually expanding its scope of economic affluence from local and regional to national and eventually international (Rostow, 1959; Inglehart & Baker, 2000). By following this path, traditional societies would mature into modern, developed societies with democratic values, technological
