The Limits of Ecotourism as a Sustainable Development Strategy

Abstract

Ecotourism, along with other sustainable tourism initiatives, has been put forward as a solution to the ecological and social problems associated with mass tourism. While it remains a small segment of the global tourism market, ecotourism presents an important case study in neoliberal environmentalism and the production of nature in capitalism. This thesis proposes an analysis of ecotourism from the perspectives of socialist ecology and critical geography. The application of the ideas of James O’Connor and Neil Smith in particular can reveal and account for the contradictory dynamics of ecotourism at various spatial and temporal scales. Ecotourism has led to the dispossession of people from the places where they live and labour through processes of state-led territorialisation, justified by the rhetoric of sustainable development and biodiversity conservation. In addition, the relationship between ecotourism and climate change is obscured by an overemphasis on destination-based and nationally focused climate adaptation policies. These contradictions reproduce global class inequalities in mobility and access to land and resources. A global justice frame is offered as a way to understand conflicts over ecotourism and provide a way forward for those who are “refusing to be toured” (Craven, 2016).