Tourism, economic development and the global-local nexus: Theory embracing complexity

Abstract

In this paper we review the complex links that exist between the tourism industry and processes of economic development. A brief overview of the industry's economic role at the international and national scale leads us into a discussion of local and regional involvement in the tourism industry. We emphasize the need to develop a more rigorous understanding of the evolving tourism industry and how it in uences processes of local economic development. Following a review of the major theoretical frameworks that have been applied to help us understand these processes, we highlight the ways in which current attempts to understand the links between tourism and economic development are embracing the complexity of the industry and its in uence on everyday lives. We advocate 'new' ways of seeing and studying the economics of tourism geography, ways that re ect the cultural turn in the 'new' economic geography, and the increasing signi cance of networks and new information and communication technologies. We argue that a willingness to embrace complexity is essential if we are to unpack the 'glocal' nature of tourism development processes.

From National to Regional Tourism Development Focus in Kenya: Examining the Challenges and Opportunities

“…According to Smith (1995), regions can be categorised into three: (1) a-priori regions, in which boundaries have already been created and assigned names, for example a named province or district, (2) homogeneous regions defined by objective sets of internal similarities, and (3) functional regions-areas with a high degree of internal interaction, for example an area with high intra-business transactions. A region may further be viewed as extending beyond national boundaries to incorporate other nations (Milne and Ateljevic, 2001), for example the European Union or the East African Community. Of importance when defining such a region is the selection of relevant characteristics and the specification of the degree of similarity that would cause an area to be included in the region.…”

“…The authors later noted that the suitability of tourism to play this role stems from its core aspects that (1) tourism is a product which must be consumed at the production point; (2) most forms of tourism are highly temporal; and (3) tourism is an industry subject to restructuring (Williams and Shaw, 1995). Milne and Ateljevic (2001) contend that tourism developments have been constructed to act as growth poles to help stimulate regional development.…”

“…According to the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development (UNCSD), sustainable tourism can be a vehicle to empower local communities through the development of new employment opportunities, the enhancement of local economies, preservation of indigenous knowledge and practices, public awareness and education (UNCSD, 1999). While national governments should take a leading role in establishing tourism policy that reflects the overall development goal of the country, including coordinating the tourism marketing campaigns and broad-based product development that play such an important role in shaping tourism demand and behaviour (WTO, 1994;Milne and Ateljevic, 2001), local or regional authorities still have a role to play in developing tourism in their respective areas. As noted by Tosun and Jenkins (1996), unless there is a mechanism to manage and control tourism development at sub-national level, tourism growth may not be sustainable enough to contribute to national development, although it may continue to contribute to the balance of payments.…”

Tourism Development: A Geographical Perspective

“…Meanwhile, a chain of global events, including the oil crisis and economic depression that occurred from the mid 1970s to the mid 1980s, has led to an increase in neo-liberalism in tourism development in many developing countries (Desforges, 2000;Milne and Ateljevic, 2001). Desforges (2000) contends that the national government in Peru 'rolled back' its active role when President Alberto Fujimori imposed a drastic cut in state spending on the tourism industry.…”

“…Such deregulation, privatisation and liberalisation acts, which were partly inspired by the World Bank and IMF through SALPs, have reduced state influence (Milne and Ateljevic, 2001) and at the same time the acts permitted the increased role and importance of the private sector in the tourism industry. Brenner and Theodore (2002) contend that neo-liberalisation has entailed a reorganisation of institutional, political and geographical settings.…”