Control Over Tourism?

If we take a closer look at what traditional tourism is doing to our country, we will see that the effects of travel and tourism development are many and that they cover different sectors, especially the economic and environmental ones. These negative effects definitely outweigh the so called benefits of the industry. For instance, since developing countries like ours rely on its economy and environment to enhance its development, I consider the current tourism system needs to be restructured.

The World Tourism Organization (WTO) claims that tourism is one of the largest industries in the world and considers it is growing faster every day. If fact, its annual income almost reaches $ 3 trillion provoking an important economic impact second only to that of the weapon industry (Mclaren, 2003). Those who encourage and work for this economic sector declare that in developing countries tourism itself increases incomes, generates employment and spurs the country’s development. Based on these “benefits” Costa Rica (just like many other countries) has sustained a traditional tourism growth in the last years. However, this traditional tourism basically follows a consumption oriented Western model and it is not a secret that the overwhelming growth of this type of tourism has been destructive to both ecology and local communities that rely on it.

When speaking about economy, investors claim that locals receive many economic benefits from the jobs they get and the land they sell when large scale private enterprises build big hotels in their communities. However, the new jobs locals can dream of are low wage jobs that do not allow any upward mobility. In other words, the new vacant positions are positions to work as maids, guides, bartenders and so on. Besides, once tourism takes hold, the price of commercial land rises to international levels, pricing local buyers out of the market. This easily displaces people and leaves the so called “street vendor” sector as the only way for commercial growth. Finally, the leakage effect is another consequence of large scale tourism. Since developing countries most times do not have the money needed to build tourist accommodations, they turn to private international investment. As a result, most profits leak out and do not stay in the host country.

In terms of ecology, most touristic facilities in our country declare themselves green; nevertheless, in host communities pollution and resource exploitation are visible effects. In general, tourist businesses profit from beaches, mountains, and other natural sites they not own but still sell to large amounts of tourists. Consequently, the natural balance in places where tourism builds its accommodations is weakened. When more people share the same place, more resources are needed and more pollution is produced. For example, it is known that in some places in Guanacaste locals do not have water supply during certain hours because the hotels use the local water supply to water their gardens and golf courses. If water exploitation keeps growing probably there will be no available water in the future. Tortuguero is an example of pollution and destruction. People need boats to reach the different canals and he boats used not only to pollute the water with their gas and oil, but also hurt animals, like sea cows, with their propellers. Perhaps there are more cases similar to these that we have no idea of.

I am not denouncing the industry, I am just questioning if tourism is controlling our country and if our country has no control over tourism. Regularly the effects of travel and tourism development are studied in bits and pieces; but current turns required a more integrated approach if we want to keep something left to future generations.

Yana Alfaro