Irresponsible Ecotourism
Author(s): Andrew Russell and Gillian Wallace
Source: Anthropology Today, Vol. 20, No. 3 (Jun., 2004), pp. 1-2
Published by: Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland
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June 2004-
vol 20- no 3
at
every two months
ISSN 0268-540X
ecotourism
Irresponsible
Guest editorial AndrewRussell and Gillian Wallace,
by
Universityof Durham
anthropology
today
Frontcovercaption(see page 29)
COMMENT
ANDREW
AND
RUSSELL
GILLIAN
WALLACE
1
ecotourism
Irresponsible
James F. Weiner 24
Australian
andthe
anthropology
Hindmarsh
IslandBridgecase
DAVID
TURTON3
and'thepeoplewhotake
Lip-plates
photographs':
Uneasyencounters
betweenMursiandtouristsinsouthern
Ethiopia
MaryonMcDonald24
Debatingthe EU
MICHAEL
9
HITCHCOCK
Mead
and
tourism:
Margaret
Anthropological
heritageinthe
aftermath
of the Balibombings
STEVENL. RUBENSTEIN
15
Shuarmigrantsandshrunkenheads
face to face ina NewYorkmuseum
KNUTCHRISTIAN
MYHRE19
Thebooksellerof Kabulandthe
of Norway
anthropologists
Rebecca Marsland,James Staples,
lan Harper24
Declining
Anthropology?
Stephen0. Murray25
PseudonymsandMaoists
CONFERENCES
Susan BrinHyatt 25
peace
Keepingthe bureaucratic
MarySearle-Chatterjee27
caste andthe participant
Identity,
academic
30
28 NEWS
29 CLASSIFIED
CALENDAR
HART23
KEITH
LetterfromEurope,June2004
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Ecotourism is widely championed as a means of
addressingsome of the problemscreatedby the degradation of resources and destructionof landscapes in the
past half centurythroughthe untrammelleddevelopment
of mass tourism. Yet in its rise to prominencethe term
'ecotourism' itself has become so despoiled by
unscrupulousoperators and a gullible public, that its
validity as a concept should be questioned.
Tourismis, at the best of times, a murkybeast. It is an
amalgamof transport,accommodation,food, entertainment and other industries.It is also the only major economic phenomenonthat is defined by the consumer or
visitor. The World Tourism Organization(WTO) estimates that in 1950 there were 25.3 million international
arrivalsworldwide, in 1997 there were 610 million, and
in 2002, despite the 11 September2001 hiatus,numbers
passed the 700 million mark. Another doubling is predicted over the next twenty years. These statistics
include business travel, which may or may not have
touristic elements, but exclude domestic tourism. The
WTO suggests in-countrytravelis betweenthreeandten
times the internationalarrivalsfigure, generatingup to
seven times the revenues.
In the face of this onslaughtby visitors, local populations have sought protection for their naturalenvironments. The term 'ecotourism' has been aired
increasinglyfrequentlyover the past thirtyyears, both as
an alternative to mass tourism and as a means of
addressingsome of the less favourableecological and (to
a lesser extent) social consequencesof unbridledtourism
development.This has undoubtedlydone some good in
highlighting importantissues in tourism development
thatwere simply not being addressedin the halcyon days
of low touristnumbers.However, like many buzzwords
or fads in business andthe economy, the concept of ecotourism has now outgrown its use and is riddled with
ambiguities.
One source of ambiguity is that some institutionsat
the forefront of conservation and tourism have, over
time, changed their philosophicalremit and, as a result,
redefined ecotourism. For example, WWF's founding
name in 1961 was the WorldWildlife Fund.In 1986 this
changed to the World Wide Fund for Nature in orderto
emphasizethe broadnatureof conservationwork. Since
July 2000, WWFhas been known simply by its initialsto
representits place as 'the global environmentnetwork'.
As the institution'smission changed, so too did WWF's
definitionsof ecotourism.In the early 1990s, ecotourism
was 'travelto protectednaturalareasas a means of economic gain through natural resource preservation. A
merger of recreationand responsibility'. In their 2001
tourism position statement, however, WWF's stance
changed: 'ecotourism should be seen as a subset of
responsibletourism' and can be describedas 'tourismto
naturalareas that is determinedby, and benefits, local
communitiesandthe environment'.This latterdefinition
is in keeping with that of the EcotourismSociety (now
renamedthe InternationalEcotourismSociety (IES)), of
'responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the
environment and improves the well-being of local
people'.
These changes should come as no surprise.As Simon
(1996: 192) points out, defining ecotourism 'has proven
a challenge', since this concept 'attemptsto describe an
Andrew Russell is Senior
Lecturer at Durham University.
His email is:
aj.Irussell@durham ac. uk.
Gillian Wallace is Senior
Research Associate in
Environmental Anthropology at
Durham University. Her email
us: g. e. wallace@durham, ac. uk.
1. This study is partof the
'IntegratedManagementof
EuropeanWetlands'(IMEW)
Project,fundedby the
EuropeanUnion's Fifth
FrameworkResearch
Programme(ContractEVK2CT2000-22001). Its purposeis
to investigatethe conflicts
between local livelihoods and
biodiversitymaintenance
(http://www.dur.ac.uk/imew.ec
project/).
Ananthaswamy,A. 2004.
Beware the ecotourist.New
Scientist, 6 March(No.
2437): 6-7.
Giblett, R. 1996. Postmodern
wetlands: Culture,history,
ecology. Edinburgh:
EdinburghUniversity Press.
Jafari,J. and Aaser, D., 1988.
Tourismas the subjectof
doctoraldissertations,
Annals of tourismresearch,
15(3): 407-429.
Simon, F. 1996. Regulating
ecotourism:Legal
frameworksand market
guidelines. In E. MalekZadeh (ed.) The ecotourism
equation:measuringthe
impacts. YaleSchool of
Forestry and Environmental
Science Bulletin, 99: 192-7.
Stronza,A. 2001.
Anthropologyof tourism:
Forgingnew groundfor
ecotourismand other
alternatives.AnnualReview
ofAnthropology,30: 261283.
Urry, J. 1990. The touristgaze.
London:Sage Publications.
Wall, Geoffrey 1994.
Ecotourism:Old wine in
new bottles. Trends31(2):
4-9.
Wallace, G. 2002. The
contributionof cultural
tourismto the development
of sustainabletourism.In
Kakouros,P (ed.) Tourism
in protected areas in
Greece. Symposium
proceedings, Sitia, Crete,
October 15 & 16, 2002.
GreekBiotope/Wetland
Centre.Thermi,Greece:
225-234.
2
activity, set fortha philosophy,andreferto a model of economic
Ecotourism is often just a trendy,
development'.
catch-all word applied to almost any activity that links
tourism and Nature: adventureholidays in wild places;
tours that involve looking at trees of animals; holidays
with a huntingor fishing element;staying in hotels thatare
based on ecologically conservative principles; visits to
ruralareas or farms. In other words, the practice of ecotourismmay well bearno relationto the environmentaland
social theories promotedby worthy organizationssuch as
the WWF or IES.
As long as a decade ago Geoffrey Wall, a geographer,
criticized ecotourism in his paper 'Ecotourism:Old wine
in new bottles'. Since then, others too have questioned
ecotourism'shigh-mindedvalidity. Whatis the point of an
eco-friendly Costa Rican hotel, that could be removed to
leave no trace of itself in the surroundingrainforest,if the
internationaltouristsvisiting it have all come on ten-hour
journeysby ozone-depleting,carbondioxide-producingjet
aircraft?Whatif the hotel in questionis owned by an internationalchainthatimportsall its food andotherdisposable
items, even if it recycles and/orexportsthem againwithout
spoiling the local environment?What if virtually none of
the revenuesupportslocal people (the concept of 'leakage'
in tourismeconomics)? Touristsvisiting the game parksof
Kenya in a GrayLine bus to see wildlife may be engaging
in ecotourismas an activity - but with a more considered
definition,are they?
More recently, questions have been asked about the
effects of 'ecotourists' on the stress (and hence reproductive) levels of animals and birds in ecologically sensitive
areas. There is a call for baseline studies of animalphysiology priorto the initiationof any form of touristactivity
to such areas (Ananthaswamy2004). Reports of harmto
Mayanruinsby 'eco-tours', and of the relocationof whole
communities in Bangladesh to develop 'eco-tourism'
attractions,are similarlyworryingexamples of destruction
and injusticein the name of ecotourism.
Withthe despoilingof the term 'ecotourism'the concept
of 'responsibletourism'has become the term of choice for
Tourism Concern and other organizations.We ourselves
applied this latterconcept to our study of tourism in four
protectedwetland sites in Finland, Greece, Lithuaniaand
Romania'.If ecotourismrefers merely to a relationshipof
sorts between tourists and the environment, responsible
tourism is concerned with the development of positive
interactionsbetween tourists, the environment,and local
people. However, in all of our sites, few local people or
tourists(the latterof whom comprisemostly domestic visitors) are familiarwith the term, and translationproblems
abound.
To be fair, our definitionof responsibletourismaccords
with that of both the IES andthe WWF. Yet it is one thing
to have idealistic organizationssuch as these workingwith
such definitionsandquite anotherto see the realityof'ecotourism' in differentpartsof the world.
landalso aim to educatetourists,but by a close connection
of the concepts of family, home and the environment
through 'filoxenia' ('hospitality'). Thus the expectations
of hosts at these two wetlands vary greatly despite their
parallelsas conservationareas.
Social anthropology provides a holistic approach for
representing environment, local people and tourists as
interlinkedcomponents of responsible tourism in policymakingand planning.Responsibletourismchallenges the
powerof whatUrry(1990) calls the 'touristgaze' in favour
of tourists developing relationshipswith local people and
theirenvironmentsthat are more respectfuland less objectifying. In her recent seminal review of the literatureon
anthropologyand ecotourism,Stronza(2001) criticizesthe
commonassumptionsthatthe originsof tourismlie always
with the touristsandthatthe impactsof tourismare always
on local people and their environments.Such approaches,
she suggests, underestimatethe potential agency of local
people in tourist destinationsand the potential impact of
the touristexperienceon touriststhemselves.
As long ago as 1988, Jafar Jafari, anthropologistand
founderof the Annals of tourismresearch, discoveredthat
the numberof anthropologyPhDs in tourism studies was
second only to economics. Today anthropologists,
togetherwith geographers,make significantcontributions
not only to the editorialboardsof authoritativejournals in
this field, but also in planning and executing numerous
heritage and tourism-related activities worldwide.
Anthropologistsare thus already in a position to engage
with the interestsof local people and policy-makersin the
promotion of responsible tourism. In all four European
wetland sites in our study local people have made it clear
that they are quite aware of the advantagesof combining
conservationand tourism. They simply lack the funds or
power to initiate,plan and controlresponsiblepractices.It
is thustime for us to step in andmediatethe transitionfrom
externalto internalcontrol of tourismdevelopment.
Ecotourismmay be in vogue as a marketingtool, but we
recommendthe term 'eco-culturaltourism' instead. This
permitsfocus on more thanthe environment(i.e. the 'eco'
alone) to the exclusion of local people, and incorporation
of the richness and diversity of local lives into the equation. Many wetlandcommunities,like the environmentsin
which they are situated,lack the 'pulling power' of destinationsmore attractiveto tourists.This is partlybecause of
the ambiguous natureof wetlands, which are for tourists
'betwixt and between' locales (Giblett 1996). Eco-cultural
tourism, with its dual focus on environmentand culture,
provideslocal people andpolicy makerswith a conceptual
framework for developing marginal areas (cf Wallace
2002). It incorporatesthe concepts behind responsible
tourism and, since the popular 'eco' is part of its name,
eco-culturaltourismcould be easily marketed.Marketing
would not be limited just to vulnerable communities
whose culturaland naturalresourcesare not enough individually to attract sufficient visitors for economic viability: any communities with outstanding natural and
It is time to move away from the touristtypologies that culturalresourcescould benefit frommarketingandimpleturnthe elite touristinto some kind of archetypalexplorer mentingthis brandof responsibletourism.
('champagnewith your piranhasteaks, sir?') in favour of
tourist typologies developed by local people. In our
Ecotourismis clearly not all it is crackedup to be. Often
European wetland studies, for example, we have found used as a gimmicky marketingtool, it hides irresponsible,
markeddifferences in terms of hosts' perceptionsof day- unethical and unsustainable practices. What is really
trippers and longer-stay tourists, foreign and domestic needed is a form of 'responsibletourism'. We anthropolotourists,and the kinds of relationshipsthey aspireto have gists should where possible encouragethe maintenanceof
with them. We need to respecttheir interestin the types of biodiversity, enhance the livelihoods of local people and
visitorsthey wish to host andhow they would like the rela- also enable tourists themselves to learn from and be
tionships to develop. In the Finnish wetland, local people changed by their experiences. However, unlike the marwish to maintain a professional distance and teach 'cus- keting appeal currently enjoyed by ecotourism, respontomers' (tourists) to appreciate nature and 'know the sible tourismhas a 'worthy-but-dull'image problem.Why
meaning of silence'. Touristproviders in the Greek wet- not plump for 'eco-culturaltourism' instead? *
ANTHROPOLOGY TODAY VOL 20 NO 3, JUNE 2004