TOURISM AND ITS IMPACT

TRAVEL MONITOR

Social movements and tourism watchdog groups from around the world met in the Brazilian Amazon last week to discuss the damage done by predatory neoliberal capitalism and the proliferation of megaresorts and real estate developments along the coastlines of tropical poor countries.

Under the theme "Another Tourism is Possible", dozens of tourism non-governmental organisations and social activists convened at the World Social Forum (WSF 2009) between Jan 27 and Feb 1 to help the travel and tourism industry learn from its mistakes and seek alternative paths to sustainable tourism development.

A main theme of WSF 2009 was the impact on indigenous peoples whose mobilisation was said to be the largest in the WSF history, according an announcement by the organisers.

Around 27% of the Amazon territory across nine countries is composed of indigenous lands and 10% of the Latin American population (around 44 million people) is composed of 522 original peoples.

They argue they are being pushed out by the expansion of transnational corporations that mine, drill for oil, build hydroelectric plants and wood mils, conduct agribusiness and tourism, among other projects.

This and the world campaign in defence of Earth was on indigenous peoples' agenda during the WSF, according to a statement.

The venue of WSF 2009 was Belem, capital of the Brazilian state of Para, considered the most important gateway to northern Brazil. It is the biggest city in the Brazilian Amazon with about 1.5 million inhabitants.

Most of the tourism groups that took part in WSF 2009 came from Latin and South America. Among the Asian groups was the Bangalore-based Indian NGO Equations.

According to an announcement by Equations last week, although it is common to hear about the potential of tourism to generate employment, distribute income and improve the quality of life of local populations, in many instances, the opposite may happen: social and geographic segregation, concentration of income and other undesirable social and environmental impacts.

The WSF movement originated in Brazil in 2001 and tourism was first included in its programme at the 2004 WSF in Mumbai in order to contribute to a new orientation of tourism impacts in developing countries.

National and foreign networks have been working on sustainable tourism for several years, Equations said. Issues covered (at the WSF) include community involvement in decision-making in tourism; community control over resources and benefits; community-based tourism initiatives; corporate and social accountability; local self-governance and democratisation; international trade, globalisation and tourism; and fair trade in tourism.

In Mumbai in 2004, an alliance of global tourism NGOs and social movements was established, namely the Global Tourism Interventions Group. Publications of the workshop proceedings included reflections about inequalities, resistance struggles and alternatives in tourism development (http://www.fboms.org.br).

This year's WSF included some new features. As the forum was held in one of the most biodiverse regions in the world, the focus was on environmental and tourism issues. In order to update the contents of the debates on sustainable tourism, it identified new challenges posed by the international system.

One of these is the proliferation of megaresorts and real estate developments of second residences for rich people along the coasts in tropical poor countries. These are often the fruit of foreign investments with highly speculative capital, supported by national public funding subsidies (infrastructure and tax exemptions).

This is not a new phenomenon, but the dimension it is acquiring is frightening, the forum said. Some studies have already been made to assess the impact of this kind of enterprise on local and domestic economies, real estate speculation, social structures and natural resources.

The panel on tourism, territory and real estate speculation was entitled: "Who Really Benefits from Tourism?" It discussed case studies in Brazil, Spain, Peru and India.

Also on the agenda was the impact of climate change. Carbon emissions from developed countries are far higher per person than from the developing world.

The impact of climate change due to emissions from global trade and tourism is far more visible in the South. People there live in more vulnerable settings, and experience greater devastation from the effects of global warming through rising sea levels, drying rivers, more intense storms, droughts, floods, and extinction of biodiversity.

It is estimated that global tourism contributes 9% of greenhouse gas emissions, mainly from air travel.

More needs to be known about the linkages between consumption models of mass tourism and climate change, both from the point of view of its impact and various mitigation and adaptation strategies.

Imtiaz Muqbil is executive editor of Travel Impact Newswire, an e-mailed feature and analysis service focusing on the Asia-Pacific travel industry.