Oil Tourism: Disasters and Destinations in Ecuador and the Philippines*

Abstract

This article examines the links between the petroleum and tourism industries by analyzing how an oil disaster, whether actual or perceived, may attract nature‐based tourism interests. To better understand the role of communities, local governments and/or the media in establishing links between the petroleum and tourism industries, this article explores how the construction of an oil pipeline in Ecuador and an oil spill in the Philippines created opportunities for tourism. Each case contributes to our understanding of how an oil disaster supports nature‐based tourism and how both industries supply a resource or an experience to nonlocal consumers, while converging to alter local communities, economies, and ecosystems. Indeed, tourism investments following a disaster may become a sideshow to the disaster that shifts attention from the disaster to participation in new economic opportunities. In addition, tourism may represent ecological alterations, which are more subtle, yet as damaging, as an oil disaster. The proposed model is then applied to two additional cases, the Exxon Valdez oil spill and Hurricane Katrina, to test its use in understanding other postdisaster developments.

The ‘entrepreneurial spirit’:Exxon Valdezand nature tourism development in Seward, Alaska

“…Yet long-term consequences of the infusion of oil spill cleanup capital that allowed for investment in nature tourism in Seward are also relevant to other locations worldwide where environmental disasters and tourism efforts collide (Widener, 2009). While the effects of disasters such as oil spills on the tourism industry in various locations have been widely studied, most of these studies focus on the short-term, acute consequences of the disaster for the tourism industry, as well as the efforts of tourism management to prepare adequately for disasters.…”

Serendipitous conservation: Impacts of oil pipeline construction in rural northwestern Ecuador

“…Many argue that focusing conservation efforts on biodiversity 'hotspots' is failing (Myers, 1993;Terborgh, 1999). For instance, by 1988 only 8% of western Ecuador's prime forest remained (Dodson and Gentry, 1991), but conservation efforts still abound with some success (Rudel, 2000;Welford, 2000;Welford and DeFalco, 2003;Widener, 2007Widener, , 2009. Looking eastward to the Ecuadorian Amazon, conservation has been hit-and-miss.…”

“…Moreover, there exists a fundamental linkage between the oil and tourism industries. As Widener (2009) aptly notes, flow and mobility characterize both. She explains, "Both the oil and tourism industry extract and supply a resource (oil) or an experience (tourism) to nonlocal consumers, who enjoy the benefits of both industries, without the social, economic, and environmental burdens associated with residing alongside either one" (Widener 2009;270).…”

“…As Widener (2009) aptly notes, flow and mobility characterize both. She explains, "Both the oil and tourism industry extract and supply a resource (oil) or an experience (tourism) to nonlocal consumers, who enjoy the benefits of both industries, without the social, economic, and environmental burdens associated with residing alongside either one" (Widener 2009;270). A persistent sociospatial divide, therefore, exists between the benefits and burdens of both industries, given that the people and places that benefit are generally quite distinct from those who bear the negative impacts.…”

“…Nevertheless, dark and human misery tours, collectively known as 'dark tourism', are a growing economic sector (Lennon and Foley, 2000). Widener (2007Widener ( , 2009 argues that oil disasters (and implicitly all mining developments) that attract media attention can inspire community, national and transnational challenges to oil and mining developments such as Podocarpus NP (Noboa, 1997;Tello et al, 1998); stimulate tourism infrastructure growth (Widener, 2007(Widener, , 2009; and mobilize communities, for example Mindo, to seek alternatives to oil development such as expanding tourism (Widener, 2007(Widener, , 2009. This latter example speaks to the notion of nature-society hybrids (Zimmerer, 2000) where this example of conservation is part of a boom in conservation that illustrates a reworking of capitalist modernity.…”