Centre for Tourism Policy Studies

Context

CENTOPS was founded in 2001 in response to the increasingly complex arena of tourism, society and culture.

Tourism is often described as the world’s biggest industry: this is simplistic at best and disingenuous at worst. No matter. Even if we doubt the science and the precise data, we can all agree that it is hugely significant. It does not take detailed empirical investigation to see the ways in which the regional and transnational flows of tourists and the various ‘scapes created by the sectors (airlines, hotels, e-businesses etc.) that make up the tourism ‘industry’ are influencing the world and how it works.

The intersections of people on the move, geographical space and compressed time as characterized in the globalization debates and illustrated by cheap airfares and opening up of new destinations are clearly framed by politics and ideologies resulting from economic imperative.

This potent but unstable mix of politics, ideology and economics becomes even fuzzier when culture and heritage are thrown into the pot as frequently happens with the development of tourism.

Where culture and heritage become politicised, as increased competition, accompanied by the intensification of market forces, exacerbates existing tensions and forms of cooperation between regions and nations, as well as creating new ones, the area of cultural politics is revealed.

Socially constructed consensus about the nature and shape of tourism at a destination, and perhaps more importantly, the consensus by which cultures acquire symbolic value, may reflect political imperatives and ideological currents, and thus can be directly linked to questions of democracy, power and citizenship.

Issues of politics, risk and security are illustrated by the events of 9/11 and more explicit attacks on tourists. These acts of terror offer a stark reminder that the ‘unhindered’ mobility upon which travel depends can be easily shattered. In a sense, tourism is predicated on freedom of mobility, the politics of security and the negotiation of risk, thus challenging the very idea that tourism can be separated from other areas of policy-making.

In the context of tourism and civil society, where politicians, academics, planners, communities, and managers seek solutions to the challenges of tourism especially in the context of transforming political economies and post-modern and postcolonial conditions. These efforts lie at the heart of CENTOPS and its work.