Tourism, Culture, and Environment

I'm always very interested to see what people have to say about tourism. Yesterday I heard two stories on the BBC about tourism (Thank you, Sirius). The first was about a guy who visited as many of the world's major sites and cultures as he could in 5 months. He discussed the major threats to cultural sites and indigenous peoples, including how tourism changes people by giving them access to western culture and thereby threatening traditional values. The interviewer asked whether he was engaging in cultural imperialism through saying that these cultures shouldn't change (would you ever see an American ask this question). He readily answered yes. I think this exchange brings up some important points. First of all, it most definitely is cultural imperialism to romanticize and fetishize traditional cultures and deny them the right to change when they discover western technologies and values. Many westerners seem to believe that people develop a culture in a certain way because they like it that way. They like shooting game with poison darts instead of guns. They like making clay pots instead of buying prefabricated pots. They would rather wear traditional clothes that are difficult to make than wear western clothes.

There is no evidence to support any of these points. Of course many indigenous peoples have fought against incursions onto their land. But that's often what these fights are about--land. Culture plays a secondary role. Indigenous peoples might resent alcohol or disease that are introduced, but to the best of my knowledge there has never been a complete rejection by a people of western culture, though Tecumseh based much of his program around trying to do this. People like guns, horses, Disneyland, etc. And they have every right to like it.

Is it sad that traditional cultures change? Well, maybe. The loss of languages is extremely unfortunate as is the loss of traditional customs. I've seen this first hand in Indonesia and it's kind of a bummer and very weird to witness first hand. But if women gain more rights within societies, is it a bad thing? Would we deny women the right to control their own bodies in order to keep a romanticized view of culture intact? Perhaps many would, but I would not.

Much of the literature on tourism and culture change talks about a homogenizing world culture based on western, and particularly, American values. But it's not that simple. People will integrate the western cultural artifacts that they choose to adopt into their own cultures. Alcohol was quickly adapted in Native American ceremonies for example. Just because the world sees Mickey Mouse and Michael Jordan doesn't mean that they will interpret them in the same way that we in America do. Just because they see highlights of Jordan or Shaq doesn't mean that they will reject their culture. Perhaps basketball will become integrated into their traditional culture. Native Americans today live in a mix of traditional and western culture and there's little reason to believe that this will happen differently in other places.

I think the most important point here is that we shouldn't see cultural change as a bad thing. People choose to change and there is no way we can deny them that right. If, as has happened with an indigenous group in southern Mexico, people want to integrate Pepsi into their religious rituals, so be it so long as it is their choice. To deny them that choice is a form of imperialism on par with those actively advertising Coke and Disney in Guatemala.

One of the other threats to our cultural relics and indigenous peoples is environmental change and this often is exacerbated by tourism. There's no question this is true. How many beaches in Thailand or Mexico have been completely overrun by developments that serve to destroy what their guests came to love? All too many. The second story on the BBC was how the rampant building of golf courses in the Algarve of southern Portugal use an insane amount of water that is now not available to farmers who desperately need it as the area is suffering through a severe drought. Portuguese officials see tourism as the key to economic growth in the southern part of their country and their probably right. This brings up many difficult questions including if what farmers are growing in the Algarve is a unique product that could not be produced cheaper elsewhere, issues of local farming and local food products versus global food production, and whether a government should subsidize farming in a place where the resources are not there to sustain them through droughts. There is no easy answer to any of these questions. Tourism is used as a double-edged sword when it comes to the environment. While tourism is blamed for causing many environmental problems as in the example above, it is also blamed for keeping people from using the land through environmental protections that local people don't want.

How many national parks are established in developing nations to cater to ecotourism and then local people go in and invade them because they want the land? Hundreds. These are nations with serious problems, including too many people living off the land, government and global policies that help ensure poverty, poor agricultural practices, etc. While I often support the rights of local people over their governments and the forces that oppress them, in the case of tropical forests, there are greater global concerns. We need these trees to process the immense amount of carbon dioxide we have put into the atmosphere. With such weak and indifferent governments, ecotourism may be the only way to save a small percentage of this rain forest. One example that I know fairly well is Pico Bonito National Park on the Atlantic Coast of Honduras. People have made incursions in many parts of the park as they desperately search for land. But enough ecotourism is happening there that a great deal of the park will not be deforested anytime in the near future. This park is becoming the last refuge in the area for many animals, including the wild parrots and toucans that we saw. Take away the ecotourism and you take away the only incentive for the boundaries of these parks to be respected and for these forests to be saved.