Sistema Regional de Información
en línea para Revistas Científicas de América Latina,
el Caribe, España y Portugal

The cultural reality of a region is an argument more than sufficient to distinguish a tourist offer, although because of several circumstances some practices have eventually distorted the initial potential for the sake of a tourist benefit much closer to popular standardization. This fact is related to the questionable ethical practice of the leisure industry and its promoters.The experiences in this sense are not limited to a specific country, but have been carried out in many consolidated tourist destinations. At present, their consequences can be unsuspected, since the tourist has more and more information about the destination’s context and tends to value authenticity and singularity more.Between the tourist attractions and the travelers are the intermediaries and the promoters, the companies that act as real channels for proposals and highlight many of the potential aspects of the region to dynamize the destination. It is the context of the tourist mediators, who act in three different areas: the administration, the agencies and the establishments offering accommodation. The third of these typologies defines tourist entertainers. This profile has not been analyzed in depth, even though it is a key element within the tourism industry.Analyzing this profile in depth, the essential functions –relationship, production and organization- can be determined. Such functions must lead to proper, suitable, real proposals so that the exerted mediation is authentic and accurate according to the cultural context of the establishment. This should enable optimal dynamization, which has positive effects on the traveler, the region and the mercantilist intentions of the companies that exert their mediation.

There is no shortage of literature on the need for sustainable tourism, yet relatively few authors have examined how this is being achieved in practice and its implications for specific regions of the world. This study aims to identify and assess tourism corporate social responsibility practices and codes of conduct, whether put out by international or non-government organizations or selfimposed by corporations. The study also set out to determine demand for sustainable tourism. By identifying the current status of sustainability within the tourism industry, it is possible to determine what actions are needed to further this agenda, especially in areas such as the Caribbean. The question first arose as part of a larger study, conducted for the World Bank/International Finance Corporation (Dodds & Joppe, 2005), however, this study provided a larger scope regarding access to tourism markets by lesser developed countries.

In the tourism literature a lot of attention is paid to different approaches towards tourism development, especially when it comes to developing countries. Often it is argued that it is necessary to come to a sustainable approach, whereby it is stressed that attention should be paid to the way tourism organizations influence (and are influenced by) the natural environment as well as the cultural, and economical context in which they are situated. Although the debates on sustainable forms of tourism development are a positive direction for the tourism field, we will argue in this paper that these debates will not really contribute to the progress of the field as long as there is a lack of local accounts of actors in such tourism destinations. By presenting empirical data from Belize and the Dominican Republic, the aim is to move beyond the dominant ‘sustainability discourse’ in the field of tourism in which mass-tourism is per definition ‘bad’ and small-scale tourism is ‘good’, and gain an insight into what is actually going on at the micro level.

In the experience economy, suppliers are in search of new ways to distinguish themselves and to fight for the customer’s attention. Society’s system of social ruling is making way for communicative self steering. Dialogues between equal partners replace the traditional top down approach. Customers are therefore gaining more power and control. Product and company centric led innovations are now being taken over by the co-creation experience as a basis for value and as the future of innovation. Glimpses of the co-creation experience are observed in a variety of realms but tourism is not yet mentioned as one of them. This is remarkable as for many countries tourism is the number one income generator and for many in the developed world an essential part of their quality of life. Especially during free time people express their quest for ever more unique experiences reflecting their own personal stories. This article provides an innovative perspective on tourism in the experience economy based on the principle of co-creation. A tourism network approach facilitates the inclusion of anyone and anything eventually involved in the (co-) creation of tourism experiences with a central role for the human being.

Over many years international tourism has become a specialisation of the Caribbean region. The question as to whether the contribution from International Tourism Earnings has impacted on the incomes of the people of the Caribbean has evolved into both a theoretical and practical area of study. By structuring the concept of contribution around the notions of causality and elasticity, this article presents various summarised data which are applicable to the whole of the Caribbean and hence looks beyond the diversity that characterises the region. Econometrics of panel data supplies the framework for the observations that follow and the regressions that can be estimated therefrom provide information on the dynamic contribution of international tourism to the revenue of the region.

For over two decades, the island economy literature has been dominated by the MIRAB model (Bertram & Watters, 1985) which argues that small islands subsist on remittances from off-island workers and aid from metropolitan patron countries. This study presents a MIRAB alternative, the small island tourist-driven economy or SITE, and teases out its characteristics employing three empirical analyses: (1) a means difference comparison between the more developed Caribbean and the less penetrated Pacific and Indian Ocean islands; (2) a Tourist Penetration Index analysis of 39 small islands less than three million in population; and (3) a regression analysis that identifies the contours of successful SITEs: political dependence, uncrowded ambience, ample tourism infrastructure, favorable geography, and relative affluence.

The paper deals with the delicate balance between the economic benefits and the environmental damage of tourism, with special reference to small island jurisdictions. Most economic activities have a negative impact on the environment and very often such environmental damage has undesirable repercussions on the economy. This is especially so in the case of the tourist industry which depends heavily on environmental services. The paper discusses the dependence on tourism of small island jurisdictions and assesses the economic and environmental impacts of tourism in Malta. The paper also suggests pre-emptive and corrective measures for the promotion of sustainable tourism. The paper ends on the optimistic note that tourism itself is sharpening our awareness of the evils of environmental degradation, and that this could be conducive towards the adoption of sustainable tourism policies and measures.

ARA Journal of Tourism Research / Revista de Investigación en Turismo which you are now holding is the result of the fruitful  cooperation  between  the  Fundación Global Democracia y Desarrollo (FUNGLODE) and the Escuela Universitaria de Hotelería y Turismo CETT attached to the University of Barcelona

La asignación incorrecta e injusta de recursos presupuestarios al sector turístico ha sido históricamente la causa del déficit acumulado por el desarrollo de las infraestructuras en esta área tan vital para el progreso de la sociedad dominicana. Este déficit llegó a poner en peligro la sostenibilidad de la industria turística dominicana, un sector que si en ese momento generaba más del 51% de las divisas y proporcionaba al Estado una recaudación de más de 3.600 millones de pesos, sólo recibía en promedio un 2.8% de los ingresos fiscales relacionados con el turismo. Sin embargo, el examen exhaustivo e histórico de la evaluación tanto de la demanda como de la oferta turística dominicana, permite llegar a la conclusión de que el “déficit”, en realidad, fue producto del modelo de desarrollo turístico adoptado hace 35 años: el enclave, el cual no contempló en ningún momento el desarrollo integral de los destinos, ni la integración de las comunidades al mismo. No obstante, el modelo era ideal para un estado pobre, pues las inversiones en infraestructuras en zonas turísticas se limitaban a las imprescindibles: aeropuertos y carreteras que los conectaran con los enclaves, y en algunos casos agua potable. El modelo probó ser exitoso a lo largo de casi 30 años, hasta que la evolución misma de la demanda y el tamaño alcanzado por el sector hizo necesario delinear un nuevo modelo. A partir del año 1999 la SECTUR formuló el Plan Estratégico de Desarrollo Turístico, incorporando el concepto de “desarrollo sostenible”, cuyos resultados son hoy día ostensibles.

From a geographic perspective, hybridity exposes the ways in which different components of  nature and culture are entangled,  effectively creating a new variant, which blurs artificial distinctions. In this paper, the concept of hybridity is applied to the case study of Grenada. While the principal attraction on this Caribbean island is sun, sea and sand, Grenada's tourists also have a range of secondary interests away from the beach. Tourists who might be classified as conventional mass "sun-and-sand," often want to experience more of the island, and many do so through guided tours. Such tours have developed to reflect these varied interests and are therefore difficult to classify within tourism's typically narrow product labels. This research employs content and semiotic analysis of tourism promotional literature, as well as participant observation on guided tours to illustrate the hybrid variants that have emerged in Grenadian tour products, in which elements of agriculture, culture, nature, and others are blended together almost seamlessly. Moving from dualistic classifications of destinations and tourists, towards more complex and nuanced conceptualizations through hybridity, opens new opportunities for meeting the diverse interests of both conventional tourists as well as more niche market visitors.