290053 SE Seminar: Tourism and Development II (2006W)

Tourism is increasingly being promoted as a tool of regional and local development for structurally weak areas and an idealistic way of foreign aid for developing countries. But the economic benefits were often overstated, negative impacts (ecological, social, cultural) played down. Development through tourism must be more than the quantitative growth of the GNP.
Core Topics: The development debate (modernisation versus dependency approaches; fordism-postfordism, regulation theory); globalisation and the international political economy of tourism development (mechanism for economic development, employment generator, foreign exchange earnings, government revenues, the interventionist key role of states in shaping development outcomes); transnationalism (foreign capital flows and economic linkages; who owns and who controls?); development patterns in tourism; area life cycles of tourist destinations; sustainable development as a means to development.
The perspective adopted is global; case studies: Mediterranean Sea, third world countries, Austria.
Outcomes:
Multidisciplinary perspective on tourism to examine the connections between economic, social, cultural and environmental impacts, focusing on the forces driving tourism development. Critical insights into the interrelationships between tourism development and wider international development issues. The module is structured in three parts: Theories, policy and practical applications.