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Discussion: Tourism, Inequality and Social Justice - What do you think?
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Tourism, Inequality and Social Justice - What do you think?
Aug 4 2009, 4:35 AM EDT
For many people, travelling is one of life’s great pleasures. As the travel writer Bill Bryson puts it: “The greatest reward and luxury of travel is to be able to experience everyday things as if for the first time, to be in a position in which almost nothing is so familiar it is taken for granted.”This helps explain why, by 2020, three times as many people will travel as they do today; that’s 1.6 billion people. At the same time, air prices are plummeting. As one respondent commented on the ESRC project Promoting Sustainable Travel: “All of a sudden, flights are so cheap. It’s actually cheaper for me to get that flight, go to Poland and spend a week there than to go to Cornwall or visit friends in Edinburgh.” But is our love affair with travel and with tourism going to cost us the earth? It is widely recognised that the way we travel has implications for the environment and its sustainability. What we take from our travels might be just that – taking as opposed to giving back, a selfish one-way relationship that benefits only the traveller. Tricia Barnett of the charity Tourism Concern summed up the impact of tourism, conservation and human livelihoods in the Independent. “The slogan for the most environmentally friendly travelling used to be: ‘Take nothing but photographs, leave nothing but footprints’. How times have changed. The footprint we now talk about is a human rights footprint. It includes the environment, the economy and the social and cultural impacts of tourism.” So how can we prevent our trips turning into guilt trips? A series of ESRC-funded seminars hosted by three universities and other ESRC-funded research projects are looking at the key issues of tourism and sustainability in a bid to inform current thinking. Read the rest of this article at http://www.esrcsocietytoday.ac.uk/ESRCInfoCentre/Images/societynow4_tcm6-32764.pdf and let me know what you think? 1 out of 1 found this valuable. Do you?
Keyword tags:
inequality
social justice
tourism
travel
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Kanaweira |
1. RE: Tourism, Inequality and Social Justice - What do you think?
Aug 6 2009, 11:29 AM EDT
In my modest opinion the problem resides on how tourism managers see the future of tourism. It seems clear to me that the "gain the most today and we'll see about the future later" policy must end. I think that we have all come to the conclusion that mass tourism is bad both to tourists as to touristic regions so the challenge is how to balance the will to travel with the development of touristic regions.To me it's clear that the money earned must be invested in the formation and preservation of the populations and regions instead of being used to create and promote another touristic destination elsewhere... 2 out of 2 found this valuable. Do you? |
beyondtouring |
2. RE: Tourism, Inequality and Social Justice - What do you think?
Aug 27 2009, 1:17 PM EDT
The fact this issue is out there and we are starting the conversation really will help to see some action and projects in sustainable tourism for the environment, the communities near tourist destinations, and the tourist themselves. Also web sites and discussions forums like this will further this cause. I am very happy to be a part of this movement.
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