Tourist attitudes towards water use in the developing world: A comparative analysis

This paper examines tourists' attitudes towards water use based on comparative data from interviews with tourists in Zanzibar, The Gambia and Dominican Republic. Unsustainable water use, accentuated by climate change, threatens access to water which potentially forms a source of conflict between tourists, tourism businesses, residents and the environment. Additionally it raises issues about rights of access to water. The results emphasise the actual nature and scale of tourist use of water and their lack of awareness of the impacts of this use on the local environment and community. This lack of awareness becomes an added indicator of the growing unsustainability of tourism in certain destinations and needs to be considered alongside the longer-term scenarios of climate change. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd

The contradictory politics of the right to travel: mobilities, borders & tourism

The freedom of movement and right to travel are intrinsic to the growth of international tourism. Notwithstanding the inchoate nature of the right to tourism, the entitlement to travel and to pursue tourism without hindrance is firmly established in advanced capitalist societies. Moreover, the right to tourism has been recently enshrined in the 2017 United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) Framework Convention on Tourism Ethics. Tourists’ ease of mobility contrasts starkly with the movements of less privileged forms of mobility that may be variously constrained by racism, xenophobia and restrictive border controls. This paper contends that rather than a mere reflection of accumulated political rights (citizenship), such unequal and differentiated mobilities are conditioned by a complex assemblage of discursive frameworks and structural forces that are played out in specific historical-geographic contexts. Accordingly, we argue that the rights associated with global tourism must be analysed in the context of the contradictory politics of global mobility, or indeed in terms of the ‘mobility crisis’. This ‘crisis’ is one that is rooted in and shaped by the cumulative legacy of past colonial orders, global capitalism and geopolitical realignments, in addition to multi-scalar systems of governance through which borders are constituted, managed and policed

Opening the box? Tourism planning and development in Myanmar: Capitalism, communities and change

Myanmar (formerly Burma) is emerging from almost six decades of international isolation into a period of rapid economic growth. Following moves towards increasing democratisation since 2011, Myanmar's tourism industry has been propelled from ‘tourism pariah’ to rising ‘tourism star’ and is experiencing an extraordinary growth in tourism arrivals with associated revenues and investment. The unique rapidity of Myanmar's recent transition enables an examination of how contemporary forces of globalisation and neoliberalism determine the direction and mode of tourism development from its beginnings. We show how tourism is perceived by the national government as an engine for rural development, conservation and livelihood creation for poor and rural communities. We then demonstrate how this is re‐shaped by a globalised tourism industry into a socially and economically exclusive model which capitalises upon weak governance and disempowered local stakeholders. We conclude with observations which may point towards a more sustainable and responsible tourism industry