The tourism industry and the tourists it serves can exert major
influences on host communities at a number of levels. On the one hand,
tourism can preserve cultures, resurrect forgotten traditions and
prevent cultural stagnation. On the other hand, tourism can challenge
existing values, social norms, traditions and behavior, and this can
lead to situations of conflict. In extreme cases, resistance or violence
can be the result. For the majority of the time, it would seem that as
long as tourism delivers the economic and social benefits it frequently
promises, problems are often tolerated and some measure of conflict is
accepted.
However, whenever tourism brings cultures together, whether freely or
forced, a range of complex issues are invoked such as the nature of
cultural identity, social and economic power relations, legal and moral
rights and management responsibilities. This book examines the changing
relationships between tourism and host cultures and explores the reasons
why and how conflicts emerge, in a series of detailed case studies from
many parts of the globe including the United Kingdom, the United States,
Australia, New Zealand, Nepal, Tunisia, Spain, Peru, and Greece.
Initiatives and good practices are highlighted whereby conflict can be
replaced by consensus and situations improved through effective
management.
This book is essential reading for tourism industry professionals and
students and researchers in anthropology, sociology and geography.
