Healing Our World Commentary: The Myth of Ecotourism

By Jackie Alan Giuliano, Ph.D.

The Myth of Ecotourism

New Millennium
Old Millennium,
Time is timeless.
Grasping is futile
Rejecting is painful,
Care lightly and gently.
Like a mother holding a child.,
Not too loose, not too tight.
-- Martine Bachelor, Zen Buddhist teacher, Sharpham College, England

The United Nations has declared the year 2002 as the International Year of Ecotourism. The goals of this designation are lofty and the UN hopes to make environmental protection an integral part of tourism development. But the idea that tourism can be sustainable at all may be a myth. It may not be possible for struggling nations around the world to resist compromising their environment and their culture to lure affluent foreigners and their dollars.

The old town, Tallinn, Estonia

The International Ecotourism Society defines ecotourism as, "responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and sustains the well being of local people."

Some of the philosophies of ecotourism as outlined by the the Estonian association include understanding the social carrying capacity of the area, understanding the ecological carrying capacity of the area, benefiting the local people, appropriate pricing strategies, building environmental costs into the prices of goods and services, and responsible marketing of tourist opportunities.

Has experience shown that these goals are even remotely possible?

The Rethinking Tourism Project states, "The environmental, cultural, social and economic impacts of tourism development reverberate in communities around the world, but increasingly target Indigenous Peoples. The last pristine wilderness areas: national parks, biospheres and other protected areas, coastal areas, mountains, jungles and deserts are all Indigenous homelands. All are being targeted for increased tourism development, often without full participation, management and ownership of Indigenous Peoples."

Indigenous man of Papua New Guinea (Photo courtesy government of Papua New Guinea)

The tourist industry netted nearly $500 billion in 1999, but to whom did the money go? Certainly not to local craftspeople and merchants, who sell their wares, often hand crafted over many weeks, for a fraction of what their time would be worth in a tourist's home country. Certainly not to the thousands of native guides who have given up farming for their families to take a few paltry dollars from stingy tourists.

How often have you heard a friend or relative brag about how he got a beautiful piece of art for a couple of dollars? If a tourist was really interested in supporting the local culture, if the artisan asked for two dollars, the visitor would give $20 instead.

Lee Pera and Deborah McLaren, authors of the book "Rethinking Tourism and Ecotravel: The Paving of Paradise and What You Can Do to Stop It," report that "the tourism industry is encroaching on remote and biologically diverse areas, home to Indigenous Peoples, and threatens our environment and way of life."

The World Tourism Organization said that in 1998 there were 635 million tourist arrivals around the world. Pera and McLaren said that few of these tourists leave any benefit behind for poor, Indigenous Peoples.

In an article for their Rethinking Tourism website, Pera and McLaren wrote, "For the recipients [host countries] of international tourism, the tourism industry creates dependency upon a fickle and fluctuating global economy beyond their local control. Local economic activities and resources are used less for the benefit and development of communities and increasingly for export and the enjoyment of others."

"With so few international policies and guidelines restricting it," Pera and McLaren say, "tourism has been given free reign to develop throughout the world. In fact, it has led the globalization process in the areas of transportation, communications, and financial systems."

Dillon Andrews, a traditional Bunuba man, leads a tour to some of the oldest rocks on Earth in Western Australia. (Photo courtesy Aboriginal Australia)

Global tourism, while allowing some the opportunity to meet people, visit exotic environments, and understand cultures, provides billions of dollars to the corporations that are raping, polluting, and destroying the Earth, her people, and her animals. Of course there is ample corporate support for ecotourism efforts, and nations all over the world are getting help opening their doors to rampant consumerism and corporate takeover of every aspect of our world.

The vast majority of tourists are not folks with sustainability and community building on their minds who stay with local families and respect local customs. The vast majority of tourists sail in on huge cruise ships or fly in to stay in large hotels and take advantage of local people.

Pera and McLaren said, "Tourism introduces a consumer culture into communities whose societies and values may not be based on the economic power of the individual. Tourists' quest for 'authenticity' often leads to a prostitution of the local culture for the demand and enjoyment of the tourists."

It is important to note that the introduction of Western products and lifestyle into developing nations is actively promoted by the World Trade Organization.

Cruise ships are among the most obscene offenders. For example, each day, whether at sea or in port, a typical cruise ship passenger may generate one kilogram (2.2 pounds) of burnable waste, half a kilogram of food waste and one kilogram of glass and tin - five or six times as much as a person on shore. On a ship carrying 3,000 passengers, this could be as much as 7,500 kilograms a day (16,500 pounds) of waste, much of which is dumped at sea into fragile marine ecosystems.

In fact, most international treaties governing cruise ship pollution specifically allow ships to dump waste, including untreated human waste, at sea. Every month, 200 cruises take 400,000 visitors to Caribbean ports alone.

Sailing in the Yangtze River's Three Gorges, China (Photo courtesy Yangtze Cruise Lines)

I think there needs to be a serious reality check done by ecotourism proponents about this idea that tourism will generate world peace and environmental harmony. What it does generate is deadly pollution, toxic chemicals and waste, the destruction of ecosystems, and the erosion of communities, turning local people into agents of the world's corporations.

While I applaud the efforts of organizations around the world to change the damaging effects of tourism, encouraging more people to travel through ecotourism may just be contributing to the problem. And I support those compassionate individuals who travel to be with people, not to take advantage of them. But as long as we have leaders committed to a global economy bent on developing every inch of the globe, ecotourism efforts may be playing into the hands of global corporations.

Possibly the best recommendation toward healing the tourism issues is to begin a worldwide effort to restore damaged cultures and twisted economies - and to ask people to just stay home.

RESOURCES

1. I have written about the tragic issue of cruise ship pollution for the Environment News Service in a commentary called "Cruise Ship Pollution - A Holiday of Toxins.: You can see it at http://www.ens-news.com/ens/feb2000/2000L-02-05g.html.

2. Learn about a number of books challenging tourism at http://www.geocities.com/~nesst/tourismstudies.htm.

3. See some of the damage caused by tourists to fragile ocean environments at http://seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/OCEAN_PLANET/HTML/peril_tourism.html.

4. See a thorough article by Pera and McLaren about the problems with ecotourism at http://www.planeta.com/ecotravel/resources/rtp/globalization.html.

5. Read about the ecotourism experience of Estonia at http://www.ee/ecotourism/ar-rio-2.htm.

6. See the United Nations resolution declaring 2002 as the International Year of Ecotourism at http://www.un.org/documents/ecosoc/res/1998/eres1998-40.htm.

7. Read about globalization and tourism at http://www.twnside.org.sg/title/chavez-cn.htm.

8. Find ecotourism resources at http://www.planeta.com/ecotravel/tour/year.html and http://webhome.idirect.com/~tourism/resp.html.

{Jackie Alan Giuliano, Ph.D. is a writer and teacher in Seattle. He can be found visiting local parks and natural areas with his family. Please send your thoughts, comments, and visions to him at jackie@healingourworld.com and visit his web site at http://www.healingourworld.com}