Tourism Topic Assignment #2

Question 1a: Given our discussions in class about different forms of tourism and the role of the aviation

industry In these, how important do you think airline travel is for the success and sustainability of

tourism?

I believe that airline travel plays a crucial role in the success and sustainability of tourism. Some

places around the world are only easily accessible through airline travel and are fully dependent on it.

Airline travel has also played a tremendous role in the growth of the industry and it's important that these

companies can provide services for a manageable price. In our lectures, we talked about how it's

important that transport services can have competitive prices which can be impacted dramatically if they

are taxed (McClinchey, 2023). It was added that for the tourism industry to grow, these companies must

be able to provide fair prices to increase the demand for the service. With the globalisation of the

marketplace, many people who travel, are travelling to business events and are reliant on scheduled

services being provided for a reasonable cost (McClinchey, 2023). The success of the tourism industry is

largely dependent on the demand that was created through airline travel, which gave people access to

travel fast and visit a larger variety of places around the world. The businesses that are created through

tourism would not be sustainable without the demand from those who use airline travel.

Question 1b: What are your perspectives on whether the anti-flying movement, national flight policies,

or Sustainable aviation fuels suitable responses to climate change impacts of tourism?

I believe the most suitable approach to solving the issues relating to climate change that arise

through tourism is investing in sustainable aviation fuels. It's important to understand the economic

dependency that exists in many places due to tourism, so it would cause many underlying issues by

looking to ban flights. As mentioned in the article, it's unlikely for the government to ban private jets due
to their economic value (Limb, 2022). The airline industry plays too large of a role in the tourism industry

and all businesses relating to it, to impose heavy restrictions that would destroy economies. It is much

more effective for companies to look to invest in more sustainable fuel sources like both Boeing and

Airbus have done (Baldanza, 2023).

Question 1c: What other responses should the industry do? What other roles and responsibilities should

other stakeholders (including consumers) have?

The Airline industry should make direct investments into the production of new technology and

aviation fuels that are more environmentally sustainable. This would be positive for the company in the

long term because it would attract consumers who admire low emission travelling. The government could

impose a policy that forces airlines to dedicate a portion of their profits to the investment into sustainable

travelling technology. It is also important that the government invests in the creation of other types of

transportation such as rail travel, to make it faster and higher quality (McClinchey, 2023). Consumers

have the responsibility to be responsible to determine the most environmentally conscious transport typer

available to them. According to our lecture, rail transport is often the most effective and airline is not

always the worst choice (McClinchey, 2023). All stakeholders in the industry must push for investments

into more sustainable practices and choose the best form of transportation available to them.

Question 2a: What are your perspectives on overtourism, how it is caused and the attention it has

received in mainstream media?

Overtourism is an issue that needs to be solved and can be resolved through various ways. First,

overtourism can be defined as a situation in which a destination receives an excessive amount of visitors

that negatively impacts both residents and the environment. Over tourism can be caused by various

factors such as sudden mainstream growth and revenge travelling. In lectures we addressed the issue of

revenge travelling post-pandemic, which is the dramatic increase in those looking to travel due to being
locked down for years (McClinchey, 2023). This caused over tourism in many places with businesses and

infrastructure not being able to keep up with the influx of visitors. I believe that the negative tone that the

media portrays towards tourists is not a reasonable thing to do because after almost two years of saving,

it’s normal for people to want to travel. Consumers also may take some responsibility to research and

travel responsibly to avoid causing further damage to destinations struggling due to overtourism.

Question 2b: How do you think destinations (governments, parks, businesses, hotels, etc) should manage

for Overtourism?

There are many ways that governments and businesses can mitigate the effects of over tourism.

As mentioned in the article titled, Phenomenon Of OverTourism, it states that all levels of government

must work together(Dobbs, 2019). The government must effectively plan tourist hotspots to have the

infrastructure to effectively manage the influx. The government should also continue to plan major

attractions to be more widely spread out to avoid overuse of infrastructure. The article also states one easy

way to reduce tourist visitation is to “de-promote” (Dobbs, 2019). This means holding back on

advertisements of major destinations that are already at their capacity limits. Businesses also should look

to set capacity limits and force tourists to pre-order their service to avoid overcrowding.

Question 2c: What role should visitors have to prevent it?

Visitors can help play a role in solving the issue of overtourism by becoming more informed as

travelers and build an organic image of the destination. An organic image is defined in our lectures as a

perceived image of a destination from non-tourist sources that address more local topics (McClinchey,

2023). Many travel to these destinations because they have an ideal image that was put into their head

through tourism media sources. These images show only the best features and conditions of the
destination. Overtourism occurs because many believe these places to be utopias, but aren’t informed

about the current issues. Becoming a more informed traveller will help solve the issue of overtourism by

displaying the negative effects and conditions it creates.

Question 3a: Describe some of the experiences of the Recap, Wendy Husbands especially when she

describes the differences among the tourists and their tipping behaviour and Trevor Mapp, the taxi driver

in his experiences with visitors in his taxi. What connections, if any, can you make to the descriptions

made by Kincaid in A Small Place about ‘the tourist’ coming to Antigua?

Both Wendy and Trevor have had various negative experiences with tourists. One main issue is

that tourists often don’t understand the struggles of their jobs and don’t display any level of care. Wendy

described that her job fully relied on tips and often tourists would tip less than a dollar using foreign coins

that served no purpose (Gmelch, 2003). Wendy also described the tourists tipping behaviour to vary

depending on where they were from and the length of flight. Trevor described his struggles with the

dependance of tourism that his job has, with many seasons offering different amounts of work. He

described tourists as “ignorant” because they were unaware of what the struggles truly were (Gmelch,

2003). One thing that I found clear while reading through their experiences, is that both Trevor and

Wendy loved making connections with visitors. I believe that their experiences can be directly related to

Jamaica Kinkaid’s novel about struggles with tourists in Antigua. In Antigua, tourists were also described

as ignorant and often supported companies that weren’t really helping the community (Kincaid, 1988).

This is similar to the experience of Trevor, who dealt with many people who were fully unaware about

the area. He also spoke about how those who went to all-inclusive resorts didn’t allow the economic

benefits to be seen by the community. I can relate this to the struggle described by Kincaid with the

economic benefits not impacting the communities they were exploring. After reading these experiences, I

believe that the struggles of Wendy, Trevor, and the people of Antigua are all very similar in that they

could be solved by tourists becoming more educated.

the experiences serving certain kinds of food, the daily routine, and how the kitchen staff are treated. How

Do these narratives connect back to our discussions on the social and economic impacts of tourism?

Malcolm addresses many issues that he faces as a chef relating to the variety of kinds of food

needed to be served, the changing routine, and a lack of care for employees. He describes the issues with

the dependency on tourism when he mentions how most of the food they create isn't even Caribbean food.

Most of the ingredients must be important and it holds back local chefs from creating food from their

culture. While reading this, I can establish a connection to social and economic issues created by tourism

we discussed in lecture. We mentioned how tourism can negatively impact an economy if it displaces

businesses and can also cause social relation issues if their culture is left unseen (McClinchey, 2023). I

believe that the fact that they were rarely serving Carribean food, negatively impacts local chefs looking

to succeed. He mentions the continuous changes in routine also pose many issues within the kitchen due

to a lack of communication and tourists who are particular about their food. Since the hotel continuously

brings in chefs from other countries and imports ingredients from overseas, this could be related to the

topic of export leakage discussed in lecture. Export leakage is when the locals aren’t seeing the economic

benefits but rather the foreign investors are (McClinchey, 2023). I believe this topic is connected to this

scenario because the hotel is owned by foreign investors who don’t hire local chefs or support local

suppliers.

Question 3c:Reading through Sheralyn O’Neale’s stories about being a room attendant, can you make

any connections with the examples she gives about her work? Which particularly resonate with you either

as someone who has stayed in a hotel or resort or perhaps worked in a similar kind of job?
 While reading through her stories, I found it very interesting to hear the perspective of someone

working in a variety of rooms on how guests treat them. I can make a personal connection to the lack of

tips the cleaners receive to when I visited a resort in Mexico (Gmelch, 2003). While I was visiting with

my family, my Dad gave the room cleaner a $40 tip and you could visually see that it was unexpected.

She showed a great amount of appreciation for a relatively small tip for a week's worth of work. I also

understood the annoyance she felt with those who left their rooms dirty, but didn’t want their things

touched. I worked at a local hotel for a brief amount of time helping service rooms and was astounded by

the mess many people left and expected to be cleaned up. Through this, I am able to understand the

frustration she must feel dealing with these types of people daily.

Question 3d:Tourism work in many of these countries is seen as a good job. Why? Why, generally

speaking, is the perspective on tourism work perhaps different in Canada?

Tourism work in many countries is seen as a good job because they are economically dependent

on tourism. This means that many of the jobs offered and current investment in the area, is into tourism

infrastructure. This is related to tourism as neo-colonialism as we discussed in lectures, where

destinations are dependent on foreign investment to grow (McClinchey, 2023). Tourism also offers many

residents of less developed countries to gain access to high value currency through tips. This is a major

factor in how working in the tourism industry can be a good thing. In Canada, the perspective of tourism

work is different than in less developed places. I believe this to be due to the lack of dependance Canada

has on tourism and the large variety of other employment options available. In Canada, residents have

access to many different streams of education that may not be available elsewhere; giving them a chance

to pursue skill-based jobs. For these reasons, Canadians may view those who work to provide service for

tourists as having a lower level job,

perceived as a form of neocolonialism based on some of these stories we’ve read about tourism work in

the Caribbean.

Tourism may be seen as a form of neocolonialism due to the dependance it creates on foreign

powers, economic leakage and the exploitation of local communities (McClinchey, 2023). Based on the

stories we have discussed, it is evident that many of these people's livelihoods are dependent on tourism.

The stories of both Trevor and Wendy describe how during seasons of low travel, there are struggles to

find work (Gmelch, 2003). This displays the dependency that their lives have on tourism to the area

because without it they would be left with minimal work. The stories also demonstrate how local

businesses aren’t seeing the economic benefits because of the all-inclusive resorts, often owned by

foreign investors, reducing the amount of people travelling into local communities and supporting their

businesses. Economic leakage is created in this scenario and the economic benefit is taken by foreign

investors. I believe that the fact that Wendy was completely reliant on tips as her source of income also

demonstrates how tourists exploit residents because of weak labour laws. In the same way, colonists took

over areas and exploited people for labour, foreign investors use destinations for their own economic

benefit.
 References

Baldanza, B. (2023, January 6). Flight shaming will return in 2023. Forbes.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/benbaldanza/2023/01/06/flight-shaming-will-return-in-2023/

Dodds, Rachel & Butler, Richard. (2019). The phenomena of overtourism: a review. International Journal

of Tourism Cities. ahead-of-print. 10.1108/IJTC-06-2019-0090.

Gmelch, G. (2003). Behind the smile: The working lives of caribbean tourism. Indiana University Press.

Kincaid, J. (1988). A small place. New York, Farrar, Straus, Giroux

Limb, L. (2022, December 2). It’s official: France bans short-haul domestic flights in favour of train

travel. euronews. https://www.euronews.com/green/2022/12/02/is-france-banning-private-jets-

everything-we-know-from-a-week-of-green-transport-proposals

McClinchey, K. (2023) Tourism Mobilities and Technology [Powerpoint Slides]. D2L

https://mylearningspace.wlu.ca/d2l/home

McClinchey, K. (2023) The Pandemic, It’s Impacts and Revenge Travel [Powerpoint Slides].

D2L https://mylearningspace.wlu.ca/d2l/home

McClinchey, K. (2023) Media Influences — Tourism Marketing and Destination Images

[Powerpoint Slides]. D2L https://mylearningspace.wlu.ca/d2l/home

McClinchey, K. (2023) The Economic Impacts of Tourism [Powerpoint Slides]. D2L

https://mylearningspace.wlu.ca/d2l/home

McClinchey, K. (2023) Paradise, Product and Place: Postcolonialism and Tourism

[Powerpoint Slides]. D2L https://mylearningspace.wlu.ca/d2l/home