“Alternative Tourism”—A Critique

Abstract

The idea of "alternative tourism" popular among critics of conventional tourism is itself submitted to a critical examination. Two principal conceptions of "alternative tourism" are distinguished: as a reaction to mass consumerism (counter-cultural "alternative tourism") and as a reaction to the exploitation of the Third World (concerned "alternative tourism"). The former inverts the values and attitudes of conventional tourism, engendering a quest for "elective centres," found in the "pristine" and "unspoiled" parts of the world; but with its "Vermassung" it engenders environmental and social problems of its own. The latter seeks to reverse the trend towards impersonal mass tourism, and to establish personal relations between (paying) guests and local hosts; but it is necessarily restricted in scale and hence not a viable alternative to mass tourism. "Alternative tourism" in any form, cannot resolve the problems engendered by conventional miss tourism a mort realistic strategy is to concentrate directly on the reform of the latter.