29 “Rather than assuming that host communities must serve the industry, expecta- tions should be adjusted so that tourism genuinely aligns with those communi- ties’ own priorities.” Tourism and Its Discontents in the Global South JOSEPH CHEER T ourism has become a massive global busi- ness sector. Travelers criss-crossing the globe took a record number of more than 1.4 billion international trips in 2018, spending huge amounts of money and generating $1.7 tril- lion in revenue, according to the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO). The vol- ume and extent of these global sojourns is unprec- edented in human history. International travel, whether for leisure, adventure, education, busi- ness, or religious purposes, is now embedded in contemporary lifestyles. And more people and places have been drawn into the tourism industry than ever before. Ac- cording to current estimates, over one in ten jobs around the world can be attributed to tourism. The sector accounts for around 7 percent of total inter- national exports and 30 percent of services exports. Underpinning the growth of international trav- el are the changing tastes of the globe’s mobile and affluent classes. Many among them have shifted their attention from the acquisition of material goods toward the accumulation of extraordinary life experiences—the kinds of experiences that can only be achieved through travel. Tony Wheeler, the cofounder of travel guidebook publisher Lone- ly Planet, and arguably the father of today’s global- ized tourism, has opined that the more one travels, the more extraordinary the world becomes. This notion of travel as the antithesis of the ev- eryday routine is now commonplace. And travel has become more widely accessible thanks to an array of factors, including a prolonged period of global economic growth, the proliferation of low- cost airlines, and the lowering of visa entry re- quirements. The ubiquity of social media and per- sonal brand building now entices more and more people to pursue and share such experiences. The implications of booming international trav- el have become intertwined with pressing global concerns, notably climate change and other envi- ronmental issues, such as the exploitation of na- ture. Tourism also can determine the economic development prospects of destination areas. And there is a growing trend of tourists participating in volunteer projects to do good while traveling. My particular focus here is on the impact of international tourism on what is usually referred to (at least in scholarly and international develop- ment circles) as the global South—those countries and areas that belong to the less developed or de- veloping world. This encompasses the majority of countries in Africa, Southeast Asia, Latin America, Central Asia, the Pacific Islands, and others in contexts more difficult to define. The idea of the global South often also includes First Nation Peoples and other indigenous groups in developed countries such as Australia, Canada, and the United States, whose standards of living are comparable with those in the less developed and developing world. Some indigenous peoples have sought to leverage their cultural and natural inheritances for tourism development, trying to capitalize on the marketability of indigeneity as a draw for global travelers. Tourism today still mainly involves the global movement of travelers from the developed coun- tries (or the global North) of Western Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand, Japan, and South Korea. They are increasingly joined by the rapidly growing affluent classes of China. Yet most international travel for tourism is still with- JOSEPH CHEER is a professor at the Center for Tourism Research at Wakayama University in Japan and an adjunct research fellow at Monash University, Australia. Downloaded from http://online.ucpress.edu/currenthistory/article-pdf/119/813/29/385897/curh_119_813_029.pdf by guest on 10 September 2020