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destination management. DMOs have become
the principal organisations responsible for
leading, co-ordinating, stimulating and monitoring
tourism development and marketing for a
destination area. A destination management
company is different from a DMO.
DONALD ANDERSON, CANADA
destination marketing see marketing,
destination
developing country
Perspectives on development continue to be
polarised. Whereas modernisation theorists generally
refer to `developing' societies, and neo-Marxists
to `underdeveloped' societies, the term `less
developed' carries no implication of movement
from a less to a more desirable state. Less
developed countries �LDCs) have relatively low
gross national products, a limited resource base,
high levels of unemployment and underemployment,
a reliance on the export of one or two
primary products, and a structurally dependent
position in the international economy. Many are
former colonies with extremes of inequality, often
with substantial ethnic heterogeneity and culturally
distinct social segments. Some of these features are
now considered tourism attractions and LDCs,
which currently receive about 25 per cent of all
international tourist arrivals, are increasingly
promoted as destination areas.
Debates on the costs and benefits of tourism are
ideologically charged. Advocates of tourism claim it
is labour-intensive and a major contributor of
foreign exchange. It thus reduces reliance on
primary export crops and, through tourism employment
and income multiplier effects,
provides much-needed employment and increases
national income directly, indirectly and by improving
overall economic buoyancy. Tourism may also
attract foreign investment and help inculcate new
skills in the labour force, making optimum use of
such natural resources as sun, sea and sand, and
promoting `exotic' indigenous cultures as attractions,
thus gaining comparative advantage from
developing country 147
otherwise profitless aspects of nature and culture.
Such development is allegedly environmentally
sustainable because tourism is an industry without
chimneys. Further, by exposing LDC hosts to guests
from more developed societies, tourism helps
incorporate the former into the global economy.
Critics of tourism as a development strategy
assert that the economic benefits are less than
claimed and that social and cultural impact are
overwhelmingly negative. They point to leakages
from the economy arising from imports of products
used in the tourism industry and to the dominant
role of the multinational firm in the provision
of hospitality and tour operations, and argue that
the employment provided is relatively unskilled,
with better-paid managerial jobs filled by expatriates.
In addition, the values diffused to members of
the host population, especially the young, are
considered examples of undesirable demonstration
effects which pollute local cultures. Critics also note
numerous forms of environmental pollution resulting
from mass tourism. Some even claim that
tourism is another form of colonisation or
imperialism. In so far as they support any kind
of tourism, they advocate alternative forms of
tourism based on small-scale, participatory ventures
that are socially, culturally and environmentally
sustainable.
Many LDCs, especially islands and small states,
have become reliant on international tourism
but, apart from oil-producing states, it is the
wealthier ones among them, along with newlyindustrialising
countries, that attract most international
arrivals. This is partly because they had
already achieved stability and a basic standard of
infrastructure before tourism started ± holiday
makers are not normally attracted by civil disorder,
abject poverty, poor hygiene and major health risks
± and partly because tourism does bring economic
benefits. Even where income multipliers are
relatively low, the foreign currency and jobs
obtained from high-spending tourists generally
exceed what is obtained from backpackers or
home-stay tourists, where leakages are less and
income multipliers higher. Economic benefits may
be unequally distributed, but this reflects state
policy and is not an inherent disadvantage of
international tourism. In many LDCs, tourism has
certainly led to growth in the informal economy,