Bursting the Bubble: The Socio‐cultural Context of Ecotourism

Abstract

Ecotourism is a form of tourism that is highly visible and growing rapidly. It is commonly presented and understood as very different from conventional mass tourism because it is especially responsible, and even beneficial, environmentally and socio‐culturally. However, such a view may be inaccurate. The favourable image of ecotourism is a consequence of viewing it in an ecotourist bubble, analogous to the idea of the tourist bubble. Within this ecotourist bubble, the destinations and experiences sold to tourists are abstracted from their contexts, thus inducing a distorted image of them and of ecotourism itself. Aspects of what the bubble excludes are illustrated through a consideration of two destinations in the Caribbean.

Destructive creation: capital accumulation and the structural violence of tourism

“…This is a play on Agamben's (1998) idea of the "state of exception" in which the sovereign decides on the exception to the rule. In tourism, spaces of exception are referred to as the "tourism bubble" (Carrier & Macleod, 2005) and it is this bubble that shields people from the two preceding forms of structural violence, hence why we argue that this is a form of structural violence in its own right. The most important function of the bubble is that within it the normal rules do not apply anymore: the point for most tourists is to become "liminal" (or at least "liminoid") (Graburn, 2004), to get away from "normal" and to hence not be disturbed with mundane or political issues.…”

“…A large literature now exists that critiques ecotourism for not being very "eco", instead often having very negative environmental impacts, one of the most significant of which concerns the GHG emissions from air travel discussed earlier (Carrier & Macleod, 2005;Duffy, 2002;Mowforth & Mount, 2003). Moreover, as Meletis and Campbell (2007, p. 850) argue, the very common practice of "categorizing ecotourism as 'non-consumptive' is not only inaccurate, but also has consequences for both environments and people".…”

“…making up the tourism process are concealed by what is commonly termed a "tourism bubble" insulating clients from the behind-thescenes reality of the products they consume (Carrier & Macleod, 2005). In this way, as Harvey (1989, p. 351) asserts, tourism perpetrates "a free-wheeling denial of the complexity of the world, and a penchant for the representation of it in terms of highly simplified rhetorical proposition…Travel, even imaginary and vicarious, is supposed to broaden the mind, but it just as frequently ends up confirming prejudices".…”

Analysing governance in tourism value chains to reshape the tourist bubble in developing countries: the case of cultural tourism in Uganda

“…In this structure, dominant international tour operators assemble individual components of the tourism product into a package product (Mosedale, 2006). This package turns into a travel experience in which tourists are led from the airport to the main attractions and back to the airport, creating a so-called tourist bubble (Carrier & Macleod, 2005;Cohen, 1972). The concept of the tourist bubble is built upon the 'environmental bubble' of Cohen (1972), used to express the touristic Eigenwelt that a tourist experiences during holidays (Cohen, 1972;Jaakson, 2004).…”

Discerning Coastal Ecotourism in Bira Island

“…In particular, environmental economic activities carried out through an integration program-acceptance and internalization of conservation principles in coastal areas. This activity contributes to the crystallization of nature conservation space and marine life (Carrier and Macleod, 2005;Doyon and Sabinot, 2014).…”