LT3007N Tourism & Economic Development Policy

Module Leader: I- Ling Kuo Semester B- 2011/2012

Module Assessment 2 Essay

Analyse the socio economic impacts of the enclave tourism model of tourism development and discuss how the impacts may be mediated through planning

Dora Domosi- 09054089

Introduction This paper investigates the concept of enclave tourism and will look into the positive aspects and negative socio economical issues concerning this type of tourism, focusing on less developed countries of the world. With the help of a number of case studies where enclave tourism has taken its effect the issues will be highlighted, with recommendations as to how the problems may be solved through tourism development planning. Tourism enclaves are mainly all-inclusive tourist resorts that are excluded from the local community regarding both place and price. One would think that their presence in a less developed country is supposed to be advantageous for the local economy - by contributing to the GDP and thus promising development - as well as for the local community by creating jobs for them and therefore provide better social standards. However, this essay will show that in several nations it is not actually the case, and will explore less developed countries in the world where tourism enclaves are rather unsustainable and unfair in terms of social and economic rights, and further investigation will prove whether there were any attempts of mediation in the matters addressed.

The two sides to enclave tourism: Positive and Negative Aspects Enclave style tourism was originally seen as a tourism developmental tool to enhance tourism activity in certain countries and therefore contribute to better economic and social standards. It was also used as a tool to lower environmental damages and social damages. Enclave resorts can be cruise holidays, beach resort holidays, safari holidays etc, and the very similar characteristics they share is the fact that they are segregated from local community, and offer international tourists accommodation, travel experience, food and drinks and entertainment, therefore everything that a tourist needs is their aim to provide. The concern, however, is exactly that only tourists needs are usually fulfilled, not the local communities. Sharper and Telfer also argue that There seems to be no systematic reports providing information as to what degree of social benefits result directly from tourism development in an area (p 226). They also claim that tourism development processes had different outcomes on less developed countries than developed ones. Consequently, it is possible that when planning the enclave-style development, there was not much thought given to how the social standards can be protected from the enclaves.

As for the economy, most of the tourist enclaves are in international hands, and it results in high levels of backward linkages for economies (Sharper, E. and Telfer, J., p.19) meaning that, for instance, the tourists demand such foods and drinks that the host country cannot supply, therefore they have to be imported, and most of the tourism earnings go on importing those goods, thus there is little that is left for the local government. A further argument that Sharper and Telfer mentions is that it is unclear whether it is indeed the certain tourism developmental tool that has contributed to an economys GDP, and this can be connected to enclave tourism as a tool for development- Is enclave tourism really a beneficial strategy for governments, especially in terms of economic and social standards? Enclave Tourism in LDC Countries There are various places in the world where international tourist resorts have caused more trouble than good, particularly for the host community in LDC countries. In one of its campaigns, Tourism Concern has addressed issues regarding a number of social and economic problems that two famous tour operators TUI and Thomas Cook caused by extending their all- inclusive holidays. For instance, in Majorca, India and the Dominican Republic, all- inclusive resorts are blamed for job losses as well as local business failures. In addition, on a socio economic level, tourist resorts cannot be beneficial for neither the economy nor the local people in Kenya, since more than half the population has to live on 1 or less (Tourism Concern Online). In addition, in Turkey, and in Kenya, statistics said that the economic contribution of all inclusive holidays to the GDP were disappointing, according to Tourism Concern Online (2011), while in Jamaica it obstructed the development of other tourism types, which possibly could have meant that it brought with itself leakages to the economy since hotels and resorts import the food and other goods. All these examples and the ones that are following are all a sign to show how powerful multinational companies are, and how destructive the effects of their processes can be. In this section, a number of detailed case studies will be demonstrated about LDC countries, where enclave tourism has been dominant bringing socio economic issues for local communities and governments. Alleppey- South India

This case study clearly shows how multinational companies would willingly operate not considering not only social but environmental issues. It is a story of three local communities in South India, whose life had been disturbed by the planning and operation of an all-inclusive hotel resort. First, it limited access from their churches and even water wells, afterwards a wall was built around the establishment which absolutely prevented 2

locals going to their churches, not to mention that in times of flood the wall drove the water away flooding locals homes (Veronique, 2011). These are serious detrimental doings that needed to be addressed, in my opinion, mainly by the government, since it is their people that can hardly get hold of daily food because the regularly operating conference boats scare the fish away. Rightly, Veronique and Tourism Concern encourage the tourists themselves to look out for certain problems when holidaying and do something about it and report it. Mombasa, Kenya

Kenya shares quite similar issues in terms of socio economic sustainability. Tourism plays an important role for the country and it is indeed full of tourism resources, although it remained questionable whether the industry operated efficiently or not (Akama,J. and Kieti, D., 2007). For a nation to improve its economic state, it also has to improve social standards, for example, in order to prevent leakages the governments have to improve local tourism businesses that do not import the goods. On the contrary, the Kenyan government focused on large-scale projects that required multinational investments. According to Akama and Kieti (2007: 743), Kenya is a leading country with the highest income inconsistency in the world, and the fact that half the locals earn less than 1 a day as mentioned before, is a strong example of why this statement is a fact. Now, there have been several jobs created due to tourism developments for local people, although they are unskilled job positions where wages are kept to a minimum whilst control and management are exercised by foreign professionals. Furthermore, the kinds of jobs locals do are seasonal, leaving them without jobs for longer periods. According to the results of a survey carried out by the Department of Tourism Management at Mol University of Eldoret, Kenya (Akama, J. and Kieti, D., 2007), which was taken by international tourists, there is no trace of a local tour or a cultural study tour available for tourists in a package holiday (Table 2). This piece of
Table 2 Source:Tourism and Socio-economic development in developing countries: A Case Study of Mombasa, Kenya

evidence shows the lack of 3

tourists getting to know the real culture of their destination area, except for wildlife. As shown on Table 2, most of the visitors are mainly interested in the wildlife, in other words, the safari tours when visiting Kenya, which is, again, a type of enclave establishment, where it is possible that the tourist can gain some inaccurate experience about the countrys culture and society, and where the locals do have some amount of interaction with a few locals, who work in the establishments for minimum wage. When talking about safaris, it is important to mention the Maasai tribe, a community that has been relocated from where they used to live for centuries, due to a project and received no governmental help at all, whats more, they were fined if their cattle wandered to the territory that is now in international hands (Tourism Concern Online, 2012). Tourism Concern has launched a campaign encouraging the involvement of the community to the tourism businesses for them to gain some social comfort. It is clear that tourism development so far carried out in Kenya has not led to either social or economical benefits, on the contrary, it caused backward linkages and exclusion of host communities from properly paid jobs and decision-making processes, making them unable to speak up in favour of their own land, for instance.

Zanzibar, Tanzania

Zanzibar is located in eastern Tanzania, a small island that is also in high international dependence. The contradiction is that the Tourism Commission of Zanzibar claim that any kind of tourism that does not conserve and improve the welfare of local people is not to be present, and still, government was keen to go into development plans requested by Britishbased companies, who wished to build enclave resorts along the east coast, deliberately not including the inhabitants into decision- making (Page, S. and Connell, J., 2006). Tourism Concern and Action Aid have both raised awareness of these problems, and rightly claim that the consideration of social issues should also be implemented into tourism planning. However, according to Briguglio et al, locals are unable to understand the needs of a tourist of another culture, they also lack professional reading and writing skills, which is why the management- related jobs are taken by foreign professionals, although it is emphasized that there is no governmental reaction to this matter, not any kind of training provided for them to able to learn those skills (p 41), and for investors training is possibly something that takes up too much time and perhaps more funds. The case study of Zanzibar also shows how few choices a small island has both socially and economically, and how transnational companies can make innocent peoples lives a misery. It also proves that there is need for a more sensible approach to tourism developments by TNCs, ones that solve the socio economic

problems that have arisen during failed tourism developments, in this case, enclave tourism strategy. Since the earlier mentioned organisations and other non-governmental organisations also raised awareness of all the issues going on in Zanzibar, some international plans have been successfully held back, however, the island is already a home to a lot of enclave establishments. As Briguglio et al claim, options are being investigated to make sure that resorts are not a disadvantage to the local community. For example, if there was an independent agency that is in possession of tourism funds could provide the education locals need to take part of the more serious tourism- related jobs. If this suggestion came true, it would benefit the island in terms of economic development as well, and would be a good sign of the beginning of responsible tourism. On the other hand, to encourage hoteliers to employ locals, it is suggested that they are obliged to accommodate and cater all their employees that come from the outskirts of where the resorts are situated (Briguglio et al, 1996). This could make hoteliers prefer to employ local people to those who need accommodation. How problems can be mediated through planning Top- down vs Bottom- up approach It is clear that in the case studies used in this essay, top-down approach of tourism developments have been used. This means that decision making started with governmental policies while the local community was left out of decision making, which resulted in serious social and economic problems that TNCs caused. Therefore, there has to be a new solution, bottom-up approach to tourism planning and development, which gives locals a lot more say and control in the processes. This is also called community- tourism. It makes it possible for locals to create committees and decide what to spend profits on, what and how should be developed, etc., in other words they take part in the development process. This kind of approach to tourism development is beneficial for the community in the first place, because it provides jobs for locals, even in management and marketing of tourism. It is also important to mention that they will also be able to educate their own people, who can then do management and marketing related jobs in tourism, which provides them safety and better social standards for the future. Once the situation of the locals is successfully resolved, it would mean lower forward and backward linkages to the economy, with tourism providing much more contribution to GDP than it does with enclave tourism strategy and the rule of TNCs. Community- based tourism also adds value to the tourists experience while travelling, and also a truer picture of the culture of a destination, since once the wall between locals and tourists is torn down, there is more intensive connection between them. 5

Furthermore, a destinations natural resources are also more protected once it is the local community that has a voice in decision-making processes, and their priority is to protect their environment. All these options are an example of sustainable tourism development.

Conclusion To sum up, enclave style tourism showed that it is beneficial, and it does contribute to the economys GDP in a less developed country, however, it does more harm than good, considering the economic leakages and detrimental social standards these kinds of developments brought with themselves. It is obvious that top-down approach to tourism developments has to come to halt and a bottom-up approach has to take its place, benefiting both economy and society by creating employment for local communities, preserving their environment, giving them decision- making power to somehow rule over the TNCs volition to gain above- average profits while destroying innocent peoples lives. (2528 words)

References

Akama, J.S. and Kieti, D.. (2007). Tourism and Socio Economic Development in Developing Countries: A Case Study of Kenya. Journal of Sustainable Tourism. 4 (1), p735-745.

Briguglio et al (1996). Sustainable Tourism in Islands and Small States: Case Studies. London: Pinter. p32-49. Page, J. and Connell, J. (2006). Tourism: aA Modern Synthesis. 2nd ed. London: Cengage Learning EMEA. p478. Sharpley, R. and Telfer, D.J. (2002). Tourism and Development: Concepts and Issues. Clevedon: Channel View Publications. p11-34. Tourism Concern. (2011). All-inclusive Holidays- Excluding Local People in Destinations. Available: http://www.tourismconcern.org.uk/all-inclusive-holidays--excluding-local-people.html. Last accessed 22/05/12.

Tourism Concern. (2012). Deisplacement: East Africa. Available: http://www.tourismconcern.org.uk/displacement-eastafrica.html. Last accessed 22/05/12.