ABSTRACT
Tourism, the 'largest peacetime movement of people' (Greenwood 1972), presents itself as a challenging sociocultural phenomenon. Since the Second World War, the growth of the tourism industry and its promotion by international financial organ izations as an agent of quick economic development and change have been un precedented. Is tourism 'blessing or blight', 'trick or treat', 'boom or doom', 'panacea or a new slave trade', 'mirage or strategy for the future' (Lanfant and Graburn 1992)? Is tourism a passport to the socioeconomic development of developing nations (de Kadt 1979)? Is tourism the means for resolving all the developmental problems of an ill-planned economy or is it a well-planned and organized economy that makes tourism a profitable enterprise (Apostolopoulos 1996)? Do the development and implementation oand investment in, tourism have trickle-down effects for the lower strata and the disadvantaged parts of host societies? Is tourism another form of imperialism or neocolonialism, perpetuating inequalities in the capitalist world system, accelerating the ecological degradation of the planet, and destroying the most fragile and marginal cultures (van den Berghe 1992)? Does dependence on tourism lead to a social, economic, political, and cultural dependency (Apostolopou los 1995b; Britton 1982)? Are tourists 'barbarians' and 'suntanned destroyers of cul ture' who seek only 'sun, sea, sand, and sex' (Crick 1989; Turner and Ash 1976)? Who is the tourist; are there different types of tourists who adopt different roles seeking different optimal experiences (Cohen 1979b; Leivadi and Apostolopoulos 1996; Ylannakis et al. 1991)? Can tourism be understood without viewing it as a 'megasystem' that generates and receives simultaneously in the context of inter dependent structures and forces Jafari 1989)? Or, can contemporary tourism be comprehensively studied without stressing the transformation of the industry to a transnational industry having established ascendancy in the developing world through the internationalization of capital, international trade, and international politico military systems (Apostolopoulos 1995b; Dunning 1989; Enloe 1990; Vandermerwe and Chadwick 1989)? Is the emergence and implementation of 'alternative' or 'appropriate' forms of tourism (Cohen 1979b; Smith and Earlington 1992) the only saviour of host societies from the adverse consequences of mass tourism influx?
