ARTICLE REVIEW : TOURISM CHALLENGE IN DEVELOPING NATIONS : CONTINUITY AND CHANGE AT THE MILLENNIUM

THE NEED FOR REDISTRIBUTION

ISSUES
Progressive policies may be subject to manipulation or bribery, for example, but government of developing nations too often lack the power to implement policies of any type In extreme cases, central government have little power beyond the capital city and its environs Poor government may also lack the capacity to adapt or the flexibility to find appropriate alternative approaches or resist political pressures that may cripple development While per capita income may be the lowest common denominator for categorizing nations, it masks the cruel and often accelerating gap between rich and poor and the redistribution challenge that comforts developed and developing nations The tourism sector is best understood as a broad pyramid, the base of which consists of low skilled , poorly paid employee, usually organized along racial or gender lines, and often denied basic benefits or the right to organized collectively The challenge of redistribution , then is likely to persist , especially for poor nations.

Opportunity
Tourism policies that foster more equitable impacts generally will succeed only if they are designed to reduce disparities and are specifically monitored to ensure competent implementation It is important that nations use tourism receipts to reduce rather than widen income disparities , and some organizations and mechanisms encourage this possibility. Tourist industry should promote the spread of more enlighten policies towards the labour force, but many developing countries are in no position to bargain aggressively with foreign investors. Long-range risk analysis is needed to assess the extent to which threats are external , and how far they can be affected by internal policy decisions Government regulation will succeed only if government can muster the political will and capacity to foster equity.

THE CULTURAL CHALLENGES OF TOURISM

The second major challenge for policymakers is managing the cultural clashes over tourism in the face of growing hostility to tourism per se i. Cultural cost incurred by societies embracing mass international tourism ( the mix of traditional citizens and non-traditional travelers can often be a recipe for disaster) ii. The cultural crisis reflects the highly unequal distribution of power and influence iii. The trivialization of culture is often self conflicted iv. Increased numbers of culturally oblivious and incentives tourists have hardened opposition to tourism, particularly among fundamental religious groups in such countries (Example : Middle East). Government responses have generally fallen into two policy camps, advocating either control or segregation v.

THE CONSUMPTION GAP

Workers in the tourist sector in developing nations are unlikely ever to be tourist themselves In developing nations, infectious disease and gastrointestinal parasites, a direct result of unclean water, kill millions. In other areas, local people are denied are access to now private beaches, or reefs are dynamited to make beaches larger and more sandy. The fishing industry industry of villages is sacrificed to jet skies and scuba adventures for tourist Cost and the location of medical facilities may effectively restrict their use to tourist

TERRORISM
Over the 20 years tourist have increasingly targeted by terrorists and used to call attention to the abuse of dictator regimes ( Ritcher, 1989a: 9-10, 1992, 1999a) Terrorism is also seen as way of opposing the perceived cultural costs of tourism , and as a means of sabotaging an industry often presumed to be dominated by outsiders) Tourist are easily isolated targets for attacks designed to protest against tourism or to destabilize fragile regimes dependent on tourism receipts A recently introduced element in terrorism against tourists is the way in which they are sometimes targeted because of their nationality.

SUSTAINABILITY
Political pressures are particularly hard to resist in developing countries, where seizing the elements to make badly needed profits is more attractive than abstract notions of interogational equity Ecotourism can make a virtue of small number of tourist , but unfortunately pressures to expand the scale and type of tourism grow with the industrys importance the economy In general, most discussion on sustainability focus on natural attractions , but it also related to growth , pace and type of tourist and the accompanying infrastructure Even in developing countries with highly sophisticated tourism industries, the issues of sustainability is becoming salient, especially as religious conservatives become more influential.

Solution
A nation must decide how to allocate scarce resources to nurture and sustain the natural and man-made heritage for its own citizens The allocation of resources to protecting sites , restoring habitats and promoting domestic and international tourism is a political rather than a technical decision. The degree to which national culture is exhibited, modified , or influenced by visitors should not be a function of the advertising budgets of tour operation, the venture capital of investors , or the incapacity of government to know its own needs and those of its citizens.

OPPORTUNITIES AND OBSTACLES IN CURRENT TRENDS

Government must draft and implement active policies training, employment , leisure , and social integration , which take into account the exponential growth in the number of older people ( Senior Tourism Boucher, UN , 1999) In addition , a series of conference on senior tourism focused on this demographic category of people who have money, time and an increasing proclivity for travel-but who also have special requirement in matters of comfort, health and safety . (Ritcher, 1999c) Earthwatch, which pairs all ages of tourists with scientists on hundreds of projects, rates its trips by their difficulty rather than by any stereotypical notions about what age and gender The Elder Hostel offer low-frills trips in LDCs & DC ( cultural learning & basic accommodation)

TRAVEL AND DISABILITIES

Their needs are only belatedly receiving attention in developed countries, and are all but ignored in most developing societies If demographic are not enough to encourage such accessible development, legal initiatives by the disabled, including handicapped students, are likely to affect tour operations , so that their own operations may require accessibility at the destination. Among the groups focused on improving travel opportunities are : i. Mobility International ii. Disabled People International and the Society for Advancement of Travelers with Handicaps

EDUCATIONAL TRAVEL
Hosting short-term educational visits allow universities to make use of university facilities during otherwise slow time, e.g vacations. Elder Hostel , described earlier , was able to keep its costs down while helping educational institutes make use of facilities during slow times Service learning is one of the fastest growing forms of educational travel Some universities require a period of internship or service, but in recent years that interest has expended to overseas service in developing nations. (Example of universities : Kansas State University) The US Peace Corps has also adopted an internship programs that allows students to explore while working in developing nations, without obliging them to extend their duty abroad Student themselves are utilizing university years for travel vacations, overseas study

THE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY REVOLUTION

The Internet allows entrepreneurs opportunities to bypass foreign-owned tour companies and to advertise and take reservations directly from groups and individuals. This can be a tremendous advantage for business in a poor nation. However, tourist may be disappointed to find that developing nations lack the computers, fax machines , satellite dishes and cell phone connections required to maintain contact with home and business Even among developing regions, great in equalities exist . In all Africa, for example, there are fewer cell phone than in Thailand (UNDP, 1999 : 135) The insecurity that accompanies the globalization of technology was much in evidence in fears that there would be massive computer malfunctions, glitches and power failures when the year 2000 arrived.

POLITICAL TRENDS
Deregulation, privatization, democratization, and decentralization, for example , have had a profound impact and have served to highlight the uneven global distribution of resources Global health policies, for example , are threatened by the deregulation of transport, lax sanitation requirement, and the overall reduction in health requirement for travellers Negative publicity inevitability leads to reduced tourism receipts, especially if accompanied by the realization that many developing countries are ill-equipped to remedy such problems. Also, the World Health Organization ( WHO) has been criticized by the Lancet and other medical journals for not doing more to prevent the spread of disease

POLITICAL TRENDS
Privatization is mixed blessing. Although it may favor small enterprise , which in order circumstances might have to compete with state-owned facilities, it does nothing to counter the influence of large multinational facilities, which under deregulation and privatization may come to dominate the tourism industry and attract local capital, which could have been invested in smaller, indigenous enterprises ( Smith, 1998) Nevertheless, government or non-government organization (NGOs) may offer encouragement , loans, management, health and safety training to families, cooperatives and communities , thus allowing them to share the booming tourist industry