Linking Culture and the Environment

D. Ioannides 69
further development to protect their existing investments. Nevertheless, they
remain reluctant to endorse measures for limiting mass tourism outright
because of their concern for declining occupancy rates. Concurrently, the
community at large is likely to begin displaying increasing hostility towards
tourists and their activities, because of overcrowding, rising crime and the
perceived dismantling of traditions. However, based on their study of the
Balearic Islands, Bestard and Nadal (2006) argue that not all perceptions
regarding tourism are necessarily negative. For instance, despite the negative
impacts of tourism, most residents continue to acknowledge the job-creation
and investment potential that tourism offers to a destination. They also
appreciate the cultural attractions associated with the sector. They are, of
course, less likely to be positive regarding problems like congestion and they
are extremely worried about the sector’s environmental impacts. Interestingly,
in the Balearics, the majority of the population now supports a ‘polluter pays
principle’ (p. 692) forcing developers to be accountable for the side effects of
their actions. One somewhat unexpected finding of Bestard’s and Nadal’s
study is that residents of highly developed resort communities (those with a
high density of bed spaces per inhabitant) are less likely to blame environmental
impacts on the tourist sector. This can possibly be explained by the
fact that these areas have become highly urbanized and their residents are
less likely to object to various problems associated with city life compared to
those in a more remote setting.
Finally, during this stage of tourist development, as has been the case in
certain Mediterranean islands, environmental groups adopt a more active
stance within the community (‘strong’ or ‘ideal’ approach to sustainability)
and their deeds are likely to garner increasing local support (Holcomb and
Balm, 1996). Foreign tour operators start to exert pressure on local authorities
to adopt measures that will protect the quality of the destination but, more
importantly, the operators’ profits (a ‘treadmill’ approach to sustainable
development). These people know that if the situation does not improve,
they will have to search for alternative destinations.
Discussion
The conceptual framework presented in the preceding section demonstrates
(based on observations from Mediterranean island destinations) just one
possible scenario of stakeholders’ varying attitudes according to their respective
level of tourism development. The model highlights an extremely important
caveat. Even on a small island (e.g. Crete, Majorca, Minorca, Rhodes or
Sardinia), there are a number of communities, each of which currently exhibits
a different stage of the resort life cycle which ‘may not conform to that of
the parent destination’ (Cooper, 1997, p. 91; Papatheodorou, 2006). Thus, the
interior part of Mallorca has only recently witnessed the emergence of lowintensity
tourism, whereas the parent destination (i.e. the whole island),
including many coastal areas, has already progressed through all the stages
of its respective tourist life cycles (Bruce and Cantallops, 1996).