Genealogy of Tourism Development: A Critical Marketing Approach

Marketing has predominantly seen tourism as a panacea, benefitting host communities. As such, the discipline largely overlooks the negative impacts of tourism development in the context of power imbalances, which bring about... [ view full abstract ]

Marketing has predominantly seen tourism as a panacea, benefitting host communities. As such, the discipline largely overlooks the negative impacts of tourism development in the context of power imbalances, which bring about dependency and exploitation. This paper explores the genealogy of tourism development, situating the analysis within the socio-economic and political structures that influenced development discourses in general, and tourism discourses in particular. In doing so, we claim that the development of social, human rights and environmental movements played a significant role in the birth of sustainable tourism and other related forms. These popular demands/grievances, however, were managed and repackaged in the shape of ethical, morally acceptable products without the structures of inequalities changing. Today, even this discourse has been pushed back as the salvation of economic growth dominates the development discourse. We argue for the return of the political, an analysis that incorporates power and hegemony in an attempt to develop a counter-hegemonic discourse, vital for a critical and progressive transformation.