What is the thruth behind the paradise beaches in travel brocures? What can a developing country do when one exotic holiday seems much like another, when political instability or environmental disaster can deter tourist for years, when the tourism industry slips into foreign control? Tourism and Development in the Third World assess the diverse social, economic, and environmental factors which impact on the Third World. Illustrating the analysis with cases which range across tourism in game parks, sex tours and the after-efects of political turmoil, the book explores ways of managing tourism as a resource and evaluates its long-term contribution towards national development.

What is the thruth behind the paradise beaches in travel brocures? What can a developing country do when one exotic holiday seems much like another, when political instability or environmental disaster can deter tourist for years, when the tourism industry slips into foreign control? Tourism and Development in the Third World assess the diverse social, economic, and environmental factors which impact on the Third World. Illustrating the analysis with cases which range across tourism in game parks, sex tours and the after-efects of political turmoil, the book explores ways of managing tourism as a resource and evaluates its long-term contribution towards national development.

What is the thruth behind the paradise beaches in travel brocures? What can a developing country do when one exotic holiday seems much like another, when political instability or environmental disaster can deter tourist for years, when the tourism industry slips into foreign control? Tourism and Development in the Third World assess the diverse social, economic, and environmental factors which impact on the Third World. Illustrating the analysis with cases which range across tourism in game parks, sex tours and the after-efects of political turmoil, the book explores ways of managing tourism as a resource and evaluates its long-term contribution towards national development.

First published in 2003. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Tourism is widely considered to be an important factor in socio-economic development, particularly in less developed countries. However, despite almost universal recognition of tourism’s development potential, the extent to which economic and social progress is linked to the growth of a country’s tourism sector remains the subject of intense debate. Tourism and Development in the Developing World offers a thorough overview of the tourism-development relationship. Focusing specifically on the less developed world and drawing on contemporary case studies, this updated second edition questions widely-held assumptions on the role of tourism in development and seeks to highlight the challenges faced by destinations seeking to achieve development through tourism. The introductory chapter establishes the foundation for the book, exploring the meaning and objectives of development, reviewing theoretical perspectives on the developmental process, and assessing the reasons why less developed countries are attracted to tourism as a development option. The concept of sustainable development, as the most widely adopted contemporary model of development, is then introduced and its links with tourism critically assessed. Subsequent chapters explore the key issues associated with tourism and development, including the rise of globalization; the tourism planning and development process; the relationship between tourism and communities within which it is developed; the management implications of trends in the demand for and uptake of tourism; and an analysis of the consequences of tourism development for destination environments, economies and societies. A new chapter considers the challenges of climate change, sustainability of resource supply (oil, water and food), global economic instability, political instability and changing demographics. Finally, the issues raised throughout the book are drawn together in a concluding chapter that assesses the tourism and development ‘dilemma’. Combining an overview of essential concepts, theories and knowledge with an analysis of contemporary issues and debates in tourism and development, this new edition will be an invaluable resource for those investigating tourism issues in developing countries. The book will be of interest to students of tourism, development, geography and area studies, international relations and politics, and sociology.

This text explores the role of tourism as a potential contibutor to socio-economic development in destination areas. Establishing a link between tourism studies and development studies, it considers what is meant by development, the processes through which development may be achieved and, in particular, a number of fundamental issues related to the use of tourism as a development agent. In so doing, it challenges conventional thinking about the relationship between tourism and development.

Over the past 20 years, the perception of tourism as an effective contributor to socio-economic development in the developing world has propagated, with many viewing tourism as a provider for poverty alleviation and towards other UN Millennium Development Goals. Over the same period, readers have become familiar with the paradoxes, complexities and inequalities of tourism in relation to development, wealth creation, growth, redistribution, governance and ‘hosts-guests’ relationships. This volume further extends this critical debate with a much-needed cohesive publication on Sub-Sahara Africa (SSA). In an era of fluctuating tourist arrivals at global level, the growth of tourism in SSA requires deeper consideration in terms of its inconsistent and questionable implications at local level. Taking as a central theme the debate on whether tourism should be used in development efforts, this book examines the way in which tourism has controversially become the way forward to development in several SSA locations and assesses bottlenecks to sustainable development as well as dilemmas and challenges faced by those SSA destinations seeking to achieve development through tourism. It offers an explicit set of chapters adopting a multi-disciplinary approach, drawing upon tourism studies, human geography, sociology, anthropology, political economy, development and environmental studies, and integrates case studies authored by local African practitioners and academics to produce a book that gave voice to local experts on local realities. Combining an overview of key theories, concepts, contemporary issues and debates as well as practical insights from a wide range of regions in SSA, this book will be a valuable resource for those investigating the role of tourism in development.