Tourism and Cultural Conflicts

The tourism industry and the tourists it serves can exert major influences on host communities at a number of levels. On the one hand, tourism can preserve cultures, resurrect forgotten traditions and prevent cultural stagnation. On the other hand, tourism can challenge existing values, social norms, traditions and behavior, and this can lead to situations of conflict. In extreme cases, resistance or violence can be the result. For the majority of the time, it would seem that as long as tourism delivers the economic and social benefits it frequently promises, problems are often tolerated and some measure of conflict is accepted.

However, whenever tourism brings cultures together, whether freely or forced, a range of complex issues are invoked such as the nature of cultural identity, social and economic power relations, legal and moral rights and management responsibilities. This book examines the changing relationships between tourism and host cultures and explores the reasons why and how conflicts emerge, in a series of detailed case studies from many parts of the globe including the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Nepal, Tunisia, Spain, Peru, and Greece. Initiatives and good practices are highlighted whereby conflict can be replaced by consensus and situations improved through effective management.

This book is essential reading for tourism industry professionals and students and researchers in anthropology, sociology and geography.