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Tourism is no longer an innocent pleasure. It has been interpreted and reinterpreted as an activity which is ultimately damaging to receiving cultures and the environment. 'New' forms of tourism, such as ecotourism, alternative tourism, community tourism and ethical tourism, have been presented as morally superior alternatives to the package holiday, yet ironically, even advocates of these new, ethical tourism brands are increasingly subject to criticisms, not dissimilar to those they themselves level against package holidays.
Using a host of international examples from the industry, the media and non-governmental organisations, this intriguing book examines what the advocates of 'new tourism' see as being wrong with mass tourism, looks critically at the claims made for the new alternatives and makes a case for guilt-free holidays.
The only book on the market to provide a sustained critique of conventional mass tourism's own critics, Butcher offers a counterpoint to the moral rhetoric steadily turning travellers into guilty tourists.
List of contents
Introduction Chapter 1. Mass Tourism Chapter 2. What's new? - Traveller, tourist and the moral debate Chapter 3. The hosts: fragile places, fragile people? Chapter 4. The tourists: too much freedom? Chapter 5. The cultural sensibilities of the New Moral Tourist Chapter 6. Travelling for a change: global culture and the ethical tourist Chapter 7. The moralisation of tourism, the Third World and development, Postscript: Re-presenting tourism
About the author
Jim Butcher
Summary
Using a host of international examples Butcher examines what the advocates of 'new tourism' see as being wrong with mass tourism, looks critically at the claims made for the new alternatives and makes a case for guilt-free holidays.
Additional text
'A welcome and thorough critique of the contemporary debate about tourism.' - Tourism'A swashbuckling defence of modern mass tourism ... by taking as committed and lively a stance in favour of mass tourism as its critics, Butcher has helped balance the debate.' - Tourism Review International
