Beyond Greening - Tourism Watch

Beyond Greening: Reflections on Tourism in the Rio-Process | PositioningpaperPart 2: The Challenge of Good Governance: InstitutionalFrameworks for Tourism and Sustainable DevelopmentRegulator or Facilitator? Redefining the Role of GovernmentsBy Sumesh MangalasseryIn the globalised world, tourism has come to represent a considerable attraction and auniversal remedy for many of the developmental problems. It has been widely promoted bothwithin the Third World and by First World "experts" as a means of economic development,poverty alleviation and to generate foreign exchange. These experts along with other interestshave almost made tourism an unquestionable development option especially for developingcountries.Many developing countries, under serious indebtedness and with their economies adverselyaffected by the world trade order, have also turned to tourism promotion. In the urge to getmarket share for tourism, many of the inherent negative impacts associated with it are givenno room in current discourse. A crucial and critical understanding of tourism and itscomplexities is yet to emerge. The relations between tourism, the world trade order, thepolitical economy, power imbalances and negative impacts are still widely ignored.Tourism governance and the roles of governmentsTourism is an activity shaped by differentforces and factors. Tourism is comprised ofindustries and activities that stretch notonly across nations and regions, but acrosstraditional lines of business and industry aswell. Thus, governance in tourism is alwaysvery complex and an important concern.But the intensive process of liberalisation,privatisation and globalisation witnessed inthe last few decades has redefined thegovernance system in tourism. The role ofindustry, corporations and supranationalinstitutions in tourism governance hasincreased considerably. A concept of "minimal state" has been widely promoted, arguing thatthe traditional state functions are ineffective and lack high level skills. This is mainly reflectedin the arena of policy making and public investment. Many basic services have been openedup for private companies.In such a political and economic environment, the functions of government and democraticgovernance in tourism have been transformed from their traditional role of implementinggovernment policy to a more corporate-driven model, catering to the interests of the industryrather than the interests of the public. A careful analysis of various governments’ tourismpolicies would reveal that the role of governments has changed from regulator to facilitator orcatalyst to bring in more tourists and investment. The role of tourism ministries urgently57