Ecotourism

Question 1

The nature of spectacle

Ecotourism enables desired encounters with nature, a specific spectacle that presents certain times/spaces as wholly representational of the larger landscape.
These mass-produced disseminated images become reality itself.
Tourism and conservation are a form of commodification of nature that pre-date recent PES, MBI etc

Answer 1

Igoe (2017)

Question 1

Tourism and sustainability

In recent decades, tourism has become sold as part of sustainability with its strong promotion by a range of actors as a form of economic development.
There is a new tourist class who is willing to pay more for ‘low impact’ tourism

Answer 1

Mowfurth & Munt (2015)

Question 2

Ecoutourism critique

Ecotourism has been backed as a credible and green alternative to industrial development.
It is another example of capitalism identifying, opening and colonising new spaces in nature

Answer 2

Duffy & Moore (2011)

Question 3

Case study: High-end tourism in Mexico

Costa Alegre in Mexico, known for beautiful landscapes and diversity, has become a hotspot for high-end tourism.
Although the private appropriation of resources is not new in Mexico, the speed and intensify of privatisaiton has increased as the state promoted free market policies during the 1990s, making it possible for private investors to buy communal land.
Corporations have acquired huge tracts of land, removing local residents through eviction orders or setting houses on fire.
High-end tourism then offers access to ‘pristine’ and exclusive places…

Answer 3

Avila-Garcia et al (2012)

Question 4

Neoliberal environmentality in Bhutan

Ecotourism has been theorised as a form of neoliberal environmentality, however this does not always happen in a wholeseay manner.
Bhutanese policy context reveals opposing rationalities that complicate the production of neoliberal environmental subjects.
The neoliberal rational is mediated by the Buddhist theocratic governance model dating back to the C17, so activities are moderated to meet cultural priorities.
Certain holy sites are closed to all foreign visitors and tour guides are trained to educate tourists on proper conduct.

Answer 4

Montes (2020)

Question 5

An intersectional approach to ecotourism

• Corbett Tiger Reserve, Uttarakhand, India. Ecotourism here is sold as a triple win: public awareness, local inocme and conservation
• Neoliberal environmentality: argued to enrol local stakeholders in favour of conservation.
• However, this process is complicated and mediated by identity since women’s engagement with ecotourism is shaped by caste and class.
• For example, lower-caste women understood their participation as limited by a lack of alternative options and their engagement was limited to working in admin
• Whereas higher-case women expressed a desire to work as a matter of choice

Therefore, we need to question a dominant approach that emphasises infuluence of monetary incentives in producing environmental subjects. There is a plurality and oppression.

Answer 5

Pandya (2022)

Question 6

Ecotourism and leakages in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda

• Access to benefits is constrained in active and passive ways
• Major reward is cash income either from formal employment or informal activities such as selling souvenirs
• Engagement most likely for people who were male, educated and welathy
• So the issue is often governance: where does the money go?
• 76% of total revenue is leakage, going to external actors
• HOWEVER, the retained revenue still dominates the local economy and outstrips the value of other external sources of income

Careful not to negate the potential of tourism as a development tool in poor areas.

Answer 6

Sandbrook (2008); Sandbrook & Adams (2012)