ABSTRACT

The mantle of poverty alleviation has been taken up by developing country governments. Governments of most developing countries have prepared Poverty Reduction Strategies, many of which cite tourism as a sector with signifi cant growth potential. It is claimed that the World Bank’s renewed investment in tourism is ‘ . . . driven by strong country demand’ (Hawkins and Mann 2007: 348). Despite this the power of the state has not been adequately appreciated in research on tourism to date (Coles and Church 2007). Sofi eld laments that so often tourism literature ‘glosses over the role of government’ (2003: 23). He urges us to think beyond tourism as a private industry: ‘While tourism as an industry is generally regarded as a private sector activity where market forces predominate, in fact the embrace of the state is comprehensive’ (2003: 23-24). Mowforth and Munt agree, noting ‘It is governments that have a pivotal role and possess the potential power to control, plan and direct the growth and development of tourism’ (2009: 293). Friedmann, whose work on empowerment was considered in Chapter 2, argues that the state should play a key role in directing development:

an alternative development requires a strong state to implement its policies. A strong state, however, is not top heavy with an arrogant and cumbersome bureaucracy; it is, rather an agile and responsive state, accountable to its citizens. (Friedmann 1992: 35)

The state’s approach, therefore, is critical. As shown in Table 6.1, there have been major changes in the ways in which governments have approached tourism over time. There have been periods when the industry has been left to operate free of both support and regulations, and when it has been targeted as a tool for economic growth. In the past 30 years, however, growing concerns over the potential negative social, economic and environmental impacts of the industry have led to calls for greater government control over tourism. Such views regularly confl ict, however, with the growth ethos still espoused under the neoliberal rationale which is directing many governments.