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Tourists and refugees
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Annals of Tourism Research, Vol. 30, No. 4, pp. 833–846, 2003 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved Printed in Great Britain 0160-7383/$30.00
doi:10.1016/S0160-7383(03)00062-8
TOURISTS AND REFUGEES Coinciding Sociocultural Impacts Ruth V. Russell Indiana University, USA Abstract: The new millennium holds promise of being both the “Century of Tourism” and the “Century of the Refugee.” Never in history have there been so many refugees and tourists crossing international borders. This paper discusses the ironic similarities of both positive and negative impacts of tourism development and refugee relief on developing countries. Parallels in recommendations for both phenomena are also presented. Although not originally intended, the observations made in the paper are drawn from two different fieldwork projects: a study of refugee camp aid with Operation Lifeline Sudan in northern Kenya in 1994 and an investigation of tourism development in Malaysia in 1992. Keywords: tourism development, refugee relief, Malaysia, Sudan, fieldwork research. 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Re´sume´: Touristes et re´fugie´s: impacts socioculturels qui coı¨ncident. Le nouveau mille´naire promet d’eˆtre le « sie`cle du tourisme » et le « sie`cle du re´fugie´ ». On n’a jamais vu autant de touristes ni autant de re´fugie´s traverser des frontie`res internationales. Cet article discute des similarite´s ironiques des impacts positifs et ne´gatifs sur les pays en voie de de´veloppement associe´s au de´veloppement du tourisme et a` l’aide humanitaire aux re´fugie´s. On pre´sente aussi des recommandations paralle`les pour les deux phe´nome`nes. Sans que ce soit l’intention originelle, les observations qu’on fait dans l’article sont tire´es de deux projets diffe´rents de recherche sur le terrain : une e´tude de l’aide humanitaire au camp de re´fugie´s avec l’Ope´ration Sauvetage Soudan dans le nord du Kenya en 1994 et une investigation du de´veloppement du tourisme en Malaysia en 1992. Mots-cle´s: de´veloppement du tourisme, aide aux re´fugie´s, Malaysia, Soudan, recherche sur le terrain. 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
INTRODUCTION Travel is an ancient human activity. Early tourism in Asia, for example, perhaps better labeled the pilgrimage, witnessed hordes of the devout seeking spiritual reward from a trip to a shrine or holy place; the farther the distance, the greater the sanctity. Early Mediterraneans were also avid travelers. In ancient Greece people went to the Olympic Games, and ancient Romans built a magnificent network of roads, on which they could travel as much as 100 miles a day using
Ruth Russell is Professor of Recreation and Park Administration at Indiana University (Bloomington IN 47405, USA. Email). Author of six books and numerous articles, her research program for the past decade has focused on tourism’s impact in developing countries, tourism as anthropology, and leisure as a humanities discipline. The basis of her tourism work is study and residence on all but one continent, and plans are underway for a visit to Antarctica. 833
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relays of teams of horses. At the time of Alexander the Great, some 700,000 would crowd into Ephesus (now Turkey) in a single season to be entertained by acrobats, jugglers, and magicians who filled the streets (Russell 2002). The self-discovery journeys of Chaucer, Columbus, and Jules Verne; the organized group tour of the Crusaders; Mao’s long march; and the 19th century “grand tour” of Europe are longstanding and rich traditions (Callimanopulos 1982; MacCannell 1999). Yet, modern tourism is a new phenomenon, dating from the mid1960s, when industrial affluence, an expanding middle class, easily secured credit, and relatively cheap commercial jet travel combined to make possible what has today become a worldwide industry with an estimated 715 million tourists, spending about $464 billion (US) a year (WTO 2003). Distant places are idealized as travel offers an antidote (adventure, education, luxury, fun, relaxation) to contemporary civilization. Or, as MacCannell proclaimed in Empty Meeting Grounds, tourism is a modern “nomadic consciousness in which the ultimate goal of travel is to set up sedentary housekeeping in the entire world” (1992:5). Ancient and modern societies have spawned another reason to leave home and set up housekeeping in the entire world. Violence of war and terrorism, tension of political and religious ideological differences, poverty, ecological degradation, disregard for human rights—these other realities of past and contemporary worlds—have fueled unprecedented refugee flows. While there have always been refugees, largescale movements of them and other forced migrants have become a defining characteristic of the present-day world. At few times in history have such large numbers of people in so many parts of the globe been obliged to leave their own countries and communities to seek safety elsewhere. Today the UN High Commissioner for Refugees is concerned for more than 37 million people (triple that of a decade ago)— 13 million who have crossed an international border and been granted asylum in another country and 20–25 million who are internally displaced (Ogata 2000). No continent is immune to this mass displacement. Refugee populations in excess of 10,000 can now be found in 70 countries around the world (UNHCR 1995). Although no statistics are fully reliable, it is obvious that the numbers of tourists and refugees are a staggering mass larger than the population of most of the countries of the world. Tourists and refugees have become the fastest growing social and economic phenomena in the 21st century. All predictions maintain that the number of tourists, both those who travel internationally and domestically, will continue to grow. For example, forecasts call for some 1.6 billion international tourists by the year 2020 (WTO 1998). As to refugees, if past trends continue, the crises that erupted so quickly and on such a massive scale during the 1980s and 1990s will likely continue. For example, in Africa alone the number of people helped by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees has risen from 950,000 in the early 1960s to 3.7 million in 1980 to nearly 6.3 million today (Ogata 2000). While individual tourists come and go, their collective presence in
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the places they visit result in a permanent impact. Tourism in the developing world, typically, has been a double-edged sword. While it may provide a venue for people to augment their income, for communities to develop needed infrastructure and to enliven traditional art forms, the majority of benefits tend to flow out. According to its worst critics, tourism is an invasion that takes over the host culture and transforms it into a spectacle. The infusion of outside capital takes away local autonomy and places economic power in the hands of the developers and investors (MacCannell 1999). Likewise, refugee impact in countries and regions of asylum has become significant. In the past, refugees were a temporary phenomenon. They came and went, either returning home, settling where they were, or moving on to yet another country where they could resettle. Now, however, millions of refugees stay displaced much longer. They are persons who live out their lives in camps in foreign countries with little promise for a stable future, and their reliance on the resources there has resulted in changes to both cultures. This paper discusses parallels between tourist and refugee impact on host cultures. While not the original intention, in analyzing the data from two different fieldwork studies, strong similarities were noticed in the positive as well as negative effect tourists and refugees have. Appreciating the delicacy of juxtaposing pleasure tourists with victims of strife, pursuit of this comparison nonetheless seemed important because the lessons learned may help reveal possible solutions for both. The magnitude of the “shifting grounds” (MacCannell 1999) for both kinds of large masses of people on the move has created both the world’s largest industry and the world’s most complex problem. TOURIST AND REFUGEE IMPACTS The focus of one year’s fieldwork (September 1991 through August 1992) in the country of Malaysia was to describe tourism’s impact. Demographic and economic data were collected from government documents; more than 100 interviews with tourism officials, Malaysian citizens, and international tourists were conducted; and 38 vacation sites on Peninsular Malaysia were inspected (some multiple times). Additionally, through both official sanctions and unobtrusive visits, 89 hours of participant observation data from three vacation sites were collected, and a content analysis of tourism newspaper articles was conducted (Russell and Hilton 1995). Malaysia has been labeled the perfect tourism cure for the stresses of modern life. Brochures claim the country “has it all.” Picturesque fishing villages, cozy hill resorts, unexplored tropical forests, and miles of empty white sand beaches are mixed with an ethnically diverse people whose cultural differences are intriguingly expressed in traditional arts and crafts, religious festivals, and cuisine. Tourism is so perfect for Malaysia that it is now an important tool in its economic development plan, which has been paying off. From 1980 to 1995, world tourism receipts grew from $105 billion to $399 billion, representing a 9.3% annual growth rate. But for Malaysia and the other
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countries of South East Asia, tourism receipts during the same time period jumped from $3 billion to $27 billion, representing an annual growth rate of 15.6%, higher than any other region in the world (Var, Toh and Khan 1999). By 2000, tourist arrivals in Malaysia exceeded 10 million, making this industry the second largest foreign exchange earner in the country (New Straits Times 2001). At the time of the fieldwork, Malaysian government and private enterprise efforts to promote an attractive image were primarily shaped by “visit year” promotions. Visit Malaysia Year 1990 and 1994, and Visit ASEAN Year 1992 focused on creating a reputation for the country as a destination for shopping, natural beauty, and sports. The goal was to ensure that the price of souvenirs was competitive, that Malaysia became identified as an ecotourism destination, and that sport tournament locations were selected for their touristic appeals (Russell and Hilton 1995). These efforts to promote a positive image have not been hollow. For example, between 1980 and 1990 the total capital investments approved for tourism by the Malaysia Industrial Development Authority amounted to $5.78 billion for 184 projects. At the time of the study in 1991 and 1992, this development was chiefly targeted on resorts, with secondary activity on attractions and transportation (Russell and Hilton 1995). For the second study, fieldwork was conducted in December 1994 in a refugee camp in Africa. The camp is located on the edge of the small village of Kakuma, Kenya (within 100 kilometers of the southern Sudanese border). There, an estimated 63,000 men, women, and children from primarily Sudan, but also Ethiopia, Rwanda, Somalia, Uganda and Zaire, are cared for by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Data collection methods for this study included interview, focus group, document study, and observation from both the Kakuma refugee camp (Russell and Stage 1996) and the United Nations’ Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS) relief compound that supports it, located in Lokichokio, Kenya. Victims of civil war, famine, tribal wars, and religious oppression, some of the Kakuma camp interviewees had been refugees for as long as six years; others for only a few days. Many were overcoming warinflicted injuries, and all were suffering the deaths and/or displacement of family members and had no sense of when their normal lives could be resumed. Unlike a common stereotype that these were destitute people from subsistence villages moving to a similar existence in another country, some of the refugees interviewed had formerly been college professors, lawyers, schoolteachers, and nurses. Kakuma is one of the more cared for refugee camps in East Africa with Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS) providing basic food, health, and education services. In spite of this, water was rationed and available at only certain times of the day, and food—while sufficient in quantity— consisted of only sorghum, oil, and UNIMIX (a combination of wheat flour, white sugar, and dry skim milk fortified with Vitamins A and D, which is mixed with water and oil before cooking). Communicable and other diseases were widespread because of malnutrition and unsanitary conditions. As for the education system at Kakuma, out of the approxi-
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mately 20,000 children in the camp, 1,515 were students in the primary school with a student/teacher ratio averaging 94 to 1. The classrooms were in long low mud buildings with thatched roofs. Soft stones were used on the brown mud walls for board work and rows of dirt humps served as pupil desks. Relief efforts extend beyond the Kakuma refugee camp. OLS was established in April 1989 with the objective of preventing a repetition of the experience of the previous year when some 250,000 people were believed killed in Sudan by the civil war and famine (Minear 1991). OLS resulted from an agreement negotiated by the United Nations with the warring factions—the government of Sudan and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement and Army—to allow humanitarian assistance to pass through the war zones to civilians on both sides of the conflict (Minear 1991). This is a massive effort of delivering food, health, and education relief throughout southern Sudan. At the time of the study in 1994 OLS was providing humanitarian aid from Lokichokio to 95 areas by air and at least 20 locales by river (OLS November 1994). The UNICEF arm of the United Nations coordinates OLS operations and works with more than 40 nongovernmental agencies to provide assistance in health, education, water, immunization, agriculture, and veterinary science. The World Food Program also works under the OLS umbrella, coordinating the airlift and airdrop operation of food as well as nonfood items. This involves the movement of about 3,700 metric tons of cargo each month from Lokichokio into southern Sudan. Lokichokio serves as a logistics, communications, supply, and transport base for OLS supporting over 200 UN and staff of nongovernmental agencies. Interview, field observation, and document data from both studies were originally analyzed using a constant comparative method (Corbin and Strauss 1998; Glaser and Strauss 1967;). Data from all sources within each study were fit into categories by identifying and coding. Then, categories and their properties were integrated by comparing them to one another and checking them against the data. Further, the categories were delimited and reduced to gain parsimony around the major emergent themes. For this paper constant comparative method was again employed by grouping the individual study themes into emergent understandings across studies. They were found to be quite similar. Parallel Impacts Observers of tourism tend to be divided into two camps (Smith 1989). From one camp is the view that the prize trophies caught in the tourist trap are the indigenous peoples and their lives that are the objects of the trip. According to this view, tourism ultimately dehumanizes and destroys the cultural integrity and environmental richness of an area. Tourism’s harmful alteration of the social customs of the Sherpa culture of Nepal is often cited as an example of this perspective (Fisher 1990). The opposite camp views tourism as a boon because of the economic benefits it brings to the people and government of an
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area. For example, currently world tourism supports about 200 million jobs and by 2010 they are expected to grow to 250 million worldwide (WTTC 2002). From the fieldwork in Malaysia evidence supporting both positive and negative perspectives was found. For example, as cited above, Malaysia benefits economically from tourism, particularly from an infusion of foreign exchange. This has not always been the case, however. In the 80s, the industry suffered continuous deficits (partially blamed on the Gulf War), averaging an annual loss of $1.15 billion in foreign exchange. Beginning in 1990, it began to enjoy major surpluses, but then between 1996 and 1999 economic problems in other South East Asian countries left Malaysian proceeds from international tourism in worrisome status. Recently, aggressive promotions to new markets (such as Central and South America) have met with success. However, as long as the foreign exchange promise is unstable, Malaysia will remain vulnerable through both economic booms and busts. Additionally, from interviews with local tourism employees there comes the belief that most of the foreign exchange gains actually leak back out to foreign investors. Proceeds from alcohol sales were a typical illustration of this. Since Malaysia is officially a Muslim country, a large portion of the alcohol sold at resorts and attractions is imported, and thus the proceeds return to the importer. Economic impact is experienced as a positive and negative debate in other realms as well. On one hand, tourism in Malaysia has created jobs for locals, yet ownership of and the higher-level manager positions in hotels and attractions were at the time of the study still more likely to go to foreigners. Sensitivity to this has played out in the establishment of government policies on tourism development investment quotas for foreigners and incentives for locals. Another instance of a simultaneous positive and negative impact exists in terms of culture. Tourism in Malaysia has brought about what has been labeled in other studies as “cultural involution” (McKean 1989): a sharpening of ethnic identity. This is most evident in the revival of established handicrafts such as the woodcarvings of the indigenous Orang Asli people, batiking, and kite making and flying. However, government officials worry about the negative cultural repercussions, such as maintaining the “goodness” of the Muslim social order. This has been particularly challenging in the face of the popularity of tourism-based prostitution in neighboring countries as well as tourist desires for alcohol while in Malaysia. A third dominant example of positive and negative impact found from the fieldwork data was the natural environment. While tourism has created an ethic for proper waste disposal and environmentally sensitive attractions, development has been so rapid that considerable damage has already been done to Malaysia’s jungles, wildlife, coral reefs, coastlines, and mangrove swamps. At the time of the study, private enterprise and government proposals to develop such pristine and isolated holiday destinations as Penang Hill, Genting Highlands, and Frazier’s Hill into a “paradise” connected by super highways touted promises of increased economic and infrastructure development
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vitality for the region. Others, however, warned that there would inevitably ensue an ultimate destruction of the very natural resources that attracted tourists there in the first place. Such are the positive and negative effects of tourism in Malaysia. What about the impact of the Sudanese refugees on their host country? Is it too both a boon and a burden? The Kakuma camp refugees were settled in the poorest area of northwest Kenya (about two difficult road travel days from Nairobi). This mostly desert region is inhabited by approximately 210,000 Turkana people. Their traditional lives are nomadic; milk and blood are the main diet, and cattle provide the hides for sleeping mats, to cover grass huts during the rainy season, and to make sandals. Goats and sheep, herded by small girls or boys, are killed for rituals and meat. While they are rightly famous as blacksmiths who manage to manually extract iron from rock to make spears and tools, there is no textile craft due to lack of animal and vegetable fibers. This desert environment lacks sufficient arable land, water, and work opportunities for both the Turkana and the refugees. An example of this is the issue of raising livestock. The refugees, in an attempt to supplement the UN food rations, began to raise goats, but before long “the Turkana came in the night and shot all the goats” (fieldnotes, December, 1994). The Turkana viewed such self-help efforts by the refugees as competition with their own local enterprises, which had begun to sell livestock and handicrafts to both refugees and relief workers. Thus, refugees with skills and means who want to better their existence make their way to Nairobi for employment. This has resulted in both a positive and negative impact as well, because the refugees in Nairobi supply cheap labor, made even cheaper by the absence of legal rights. It is not possible, therefore, to provide economic assistance for refugees without developing economic opportunities for locals. In fact, a hope of the Kenyan government in permitting the Kakuma camp is that Western sponsored aid and development for the refugee camp will also serve to aid their citizens. Ultimately, United-Nations-built relief facilities such as aircraft landing strips, roads, and hospitals will one day be turned over to Kenyan authorities. Yet before that time comes, there is another, troubling impact of the relief infrastructure development in the area. The foreign culture of the relief workers themselves (primarily from North America and Northern Europe) at the Lokichokio OLS base has altered the traditional culture of the local peoples. The contrast was brought sharply into focus the first two nights of the fieldwork. Sleep came the first night as we listened to the quiet singing and chanting of nearby Turkana gathered around a warming campfire. We were told later by an interviewee their songs were “about the rhythms of their nomadic lives”: the rainy season, their herds. The next night, a Friday, we had trouble going to sleep as we endured the electronic sounds of rock music blasting out of a “night club” set up for the young people of the area in a hut across the road.(fieldnotes, December 1994:81).
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Given that the refugees are located in a desert, non-agricultural zone, the impact of their sheer numbers on the natural resources is also significant. Even though supplies are flown into the area their presence has still meant an enormous growth of the population in a region where natural resources are already severely restricted. This, together with the process of sedentarization of Turkana nomads in the immediate vicinity of both the camp at Kakuma and the relief base in Lokichokio, is leading to a deterioration of the environment with inevitable impact on the productivity of Turkana animal husbandry. The process of sedentarization itself is also illustrative of both a positive and negative impact of the refugee relief operation. The settling of Turkana people around the Kakuma camp and Lokichokio base has made it easier for the Kenyan government to reach them with social and economic development services, but some also worry about the results of the eventual pull out of the relief operation. Will the creation of dependency leave the Turkana more destitute than before because of a loss of their nomadic skills of survival, and thus more greatly burden the Kenyan government in providing support? Theoretical and Practical Implications The major advantage to considering similarities in the impact of tourists and refugees is the possibility of learning common lessons for planning and development. The themes that emerged from both the Malaysian tourism and Kenyan refugee field studies were primarily about positive and negative economic, traditional culture, and natural resource impacts. In the context of the past decade, both tourist and refugee agencies have found it difficult to develop coherent and consistent policies in relation to such mass population displacements. Not surprisingly, therefore, recent years have witnessed a number of lively controversies within and among the governmental, private, and commercial institutions dealing with tourist and refugee problems. Nonetheless, several (in some senses contradictory) trends can be discerned in the international response to tourist and refugee impact. First, there is a growing recognition of the need to address the impact of tourist and refugee migrations before they begin, by planning proactively. This can best be illustrated through the greater efforts being made to avert refugee movements before they begin, to contain armed conflicts and the population movements which they provoke, and to create the conditions that will enable displaced people to return to their homes. In parallel, tourism organizations are becoming more aware of what might be labeled “tourist education,” teaching these short-term guests how to have more limited impact on host cultures and environments. Second, a wider range of “actors” have become involved in the search for solutions to tourist and refugee problems. The issues of impact have attracted the concern of political groups, security organizations, financial institutions, and regional agencies. The respective
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problems, the world has recognized, are too complex to be solved by refugee and tourist organizations alone. Third, there is a new awareness of the need to tackle the tourist and refugee impact issue in an integrated fashion. Somewhat belatedly, the international community associated with each has concluded that lasting solutions will only be found if a concerted effort is made to promote sustainable development midst the mass migrations. Obviously, these three solution trends are inextricably linked to and reinforce each other. Nonetheless, the remainder of this discussion isolates the third component to demonstrate the parallel implications of tourist and refugee impact. A guiding taxonomy applicable to deriving implications for the integration comparisons drawn here is that by psychologist Berry. He makes the distinction between “integration,” where a population group retains its own culture to a significant degree, yet maintains contact with the larger society; “separation,” where a group maintains its own culture without having contact with the dominant society; “assimilation,” where the original culture is submerged into the dominant one; and “marginalization,” where a group forfeits its own culture, yet does not become part of the dominant society (1984). Berry’s definitions are normative in that assimilation, marginalization, and separation are considered undesirable, the former two because they entail a loss of cultural diversity, the latter because it is harmful to the host country’s national unity. The impact of tourists and refugees are similar because both relate to host countries as “separate” cultures. Tourism services, particularly of the resort-enclave sort that typically exist in developing countries, and refugee relief services, similarly most typical in developing countries as an enclave-style camp, operate to ensure that tourists and refugees are kept separate. If the solution for refugees, when voluntary repatriation is not feasible, ideally means their integration into the country of asylum and while the benefits of tourism depend on genuine, integrative exchanges between guests and hosts, the systems that manage both mitigate against such. According to Smyser, the United Nations Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees from 1981 to 1986, the tradition in refugee care is two-fold: protection and assistance (1986). The operation of relief agencies focuses on protecting refugees from the harm they fled and providing the food and health assistance they lack. Because the masses of refugee flows are usually from countries with fragile situations into similarly fragile countries unable to handle large population increases, the provision of protection and assistance has been most efficiently accomplished by establishing camps. Protection and assistance may also be used to define the policies for managing tourists. While there are noteworthy exceptions, such as the farm and homestay holidays promoted in New Zealand (Pearce 1988), most other systems find it efficient to protect and assist tourists by establishing separate facilities and services. In fact, an entire and separate industry exists to care for them; resorts, attractions, and convention centers provide all that is needed thus making it unnecessary for a guest to leave and mix with the host community.
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The desirable solution for refugees, of course, is voluntary repatriation. However, there have been only limited possibilities for returning home because most crises that have generated refugees have not yet ended and do not seem likely to end soon. The southern Sudanese at the Kakuma camp, for example, have endured the strife of civil war since 1983. Therefore, integration into the asylum country remains one of the best solutions. This means refugees should be integrated into the national environment and offered opportunity to earn and contribute. Relief projects closely tied to refugee settlement, self-sufficiency, and income generation will benefit both these “guests” and the local population. Tourism, as well, does not have to be damaging. Many want to forsake the “tourist bubble” (Smith 1989) and seek opportunities to meet and become acquainted with local people. Guests and their hosts can become a bridge to an appreciation of cultural relativity and international understanding. This can be accomplished by promoting alternative formats that feature one-to-one interaction, including overnight stays in private homes. Also small-scale, dispersed, locally owned, and low-density developments organized by villages or communities themselves could be encouraged. An example of this is derived from the Malaysian field study. A number of bungalow-type and family-run accommodations on the beach of the holiday island of Tiaman offer an alternative to the resort enclave developments there. This discussion has focused on refugees and tourists themselves as the sources of integration. To achieve this goal, another sort of integration is also necessary. Tourism and refugee relief development should also be integrated with the development of local populations and communities. As more and more flee into developing rather than developed countries, and as more and more tourists likewise flock into developing countries, questions must be addressed about how best to take account of refugees and tourism in the presence of the ongoing development plans of the host countries. During the fieldwork at Kakuma and Lokichokio, this question was discussed frequently. Interviewees supported the principle that refugee assistance should be better coordinated with general development actions. They believed that their successful integration into a new society requires coordination of refugee and local development aid. Agreement with this principle of integration of development is plentiful in the literature of the past ten years. For example, the convening of the second International Conference on Assistance to Refugees in Africa in 1984 attempted to merge economic development assistance of asylum countries with the needs caused by the presence of refugees. Progress was inhibited because these two efforts were handled by different and sometimes even competing bureaucracies at every level of asylum. Later, Smyser (1986) advocated giving the concept of the above conference another opportunity to be carried forward via greater budget, staff and programmatic cooperation among governmental and voluntary relief agencies. Van Arsdale (1993) maintained cooperation among relief agencies was not enough. He argued instead that the development mandate is
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to seek solutions through long-term and holistic planning for integration at specific sites. This means there is empowerment of indigenous refugee and local leaders to help in developing the socioeconomic possibilities of the sites. Too often refugees and local people are objectified by external agencies and do not have the opportunity to play a role in designing their own future. Several strategies have emerged for accomplishing this. One example is zonal development whereby the whole zone where the refugees are to be settled becomes the focus of developmental aid (Skari 1990). This promotes integration between the refugees and the local populace because the focus of attention is systemic, emphasizing the sociopolitical and economic environment within which both interact. A disadvantage of zonal development, however, is the question of whether unequal development on the national scale emerges (the country’s overall economic development can become skewed). Literature promoting integration may also be identified in tourism development. Brohman, for example, similarly advocated that grass roots involvement and planning be applied to tourism. Accordingly, a community-based approach to this development would consider the needs and interests of the local populace by strengthening institutions designed to enhance local participation. Likely this involvement could focus on determining “the compatibility of various forms of tourism with other components of the local economy; the quality of the development, both culturally and environmentally; and the divergent needs, interests, and potentials of the community and its inhabitants” (1996:60). In most developing countries, increased local participation in tourism planning would require institutional reform to provide possibilities for local groups to organize, represent themselves, and exert influence over decision-making. This may be too difficult in many of the major tourism growth regions of the world, but its pursuit remains a necessary goal. As Levitt remarked, “development [simply] cannot be imposed from without”, because it fundamentally “concerns the capacity of a society to tap the root of popular creativity, to free up and empower people to exercise their intelligence and collective wisdom” (1990:1592). CONCLUSION This paper discussed parallels between tourist and refugee impact on host countries and regions. In analyzing the data from two different fieldwork studies, strong similarities were noticed in the positive and negative effect they both have on their hosts. That is, in a study of tourism development in Malaysia in 1991–92 and one of refugee relief in northern Kenya in 1994 the impact is simultaneously helpful and harmful in terms of economic development, cultural sanctity, and natural resource stewardship. Extrapolating from these findings, this paper further discussed possible solutions for each in management and development. In summary, on paper at least, integration strategies for reducing the negative and enhancing the positive impacts of tourists
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and refugees on hosts, based on participatory community planning, have a great deal of merit. This means that planning the location in local communities of tourism attractions and support facilities, and the location of refugee relief centers, can be made an integral part of other aspects of community planning. The principle of the arbitrariness of the authentic attraction, and the safety and protection of the refugee services, assures that the ultimate health of the host can be formed precisely according to the will of the people. The ultimate integration of both groups into the local community occurs when the local people discover the convenience and desirability of using facilities designed originally for these populations. In planning for tourism management in an Andean community in Peru, Mitchell and Reid (2000) developed and assessed a community integration framework. This may be applicable here. The main objectives of developing their framework were to explore and describe power relationships, public unity, and collective awareness of tourism (refugee) opportunities and management in a given community; to examine how public participation and associated internal/external factors may determine or influence planning processes for a given tourism (refugee) project; and to provide indicators for a rapid assessment of actual or probable outcomes of a tourism (refugee) project by economic and sociocultural indicators related to community integration and planning. Accordingly, it seems that any integration-based community planning must take into account social, economic, and natural environment benefits and issues. Local residents must also be willing and able to cooperate with each other to make integration possible, and this process must allow for a relatively equitable distribution of local benefits. Finally, integration must lead to a relatively high degree of control by local residents for administering tourism and refugee services. It must be admitted, however, that actual successes to date have been limited because integration takes extensive planning and long-term commitments by all parties involved. Yet, if new directions are not taken, the developing world tourism industry and refugee relief effort will continue to foster excessive foreign dependency that contributes to a relinquishing of local control over economic resources, environA mental integrity, and cultural identity and social control to outsiders.왎
REFERENCES Berry, J. 1984 Multicultural Policy in Canada: A Social Psychological Analysis. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Sciences 16:353–370. Brohman, J. 1996 New Directions in Tourism for Third World Development. Annals of Tourism Research 23:48–70. Callimanopulos, D. 1982 Introduction to “The Tourist Trap: Who’s Getting Caught?”. Cultural Survival Quarterly 6:3.
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Corbin, J., and A. Strauss 1998 Basics of Qualitative Research: Techniques and Procedures for Developing Grounded Theory. San Francisco, CA: Sage. Fisher, J. 1990 Sherpas: Reflections on Change in Himalayan Nepal. Berkeley CA: University of California Press. Glaser, B., and A. Strauss 1967 The Discovery of Grounded Theory: Strategies for Qualitative Research. Chicago IL: Aldine Publishing. Levitt, K. 1990 Debt, Adjustment and Development: Looking to the 1990s. Economic and Political Weekly 25:1584–1585. MacCannell, D. 1992 Empty Meeting Grounds. New York: Routledge. 1999 The Tourist: A New Theory of the Leisure Class. Berkeley CA: University of California Press. McKean, P. 1989 Towards a Theoretical Analysis of Tourism: Economic Dualism and Cultural Involution in Bali. In Hosts and Guests: The Anthropology of Tourism, V. Smith, ed., pp. 119–138. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Minear, L. 1991 Humanitarianism Under Siege: A Critical Review of Operation Lifeline Sudan. Trenton NJ: The Red Sea Press. Mitchell, R., and D. Reid 2001 Community Integration: Island tourism in Peru. Annals of Tourism Research 28:113–139. New Straits Times 2001 Record feat for tourism industry. Ogata, S. 2000 Protecting People on the Move. Address given to the Center for the Study of International Organization, New York, 18 July. OLS 1994 Operation Lifeline Sudan. Monthly Report. Nairobi: United Nations. Pearce, P. 1988 The Ulysses Factor: Evaluating Visitors in Tourist Settings. New York: Springer-Verlag. Russell, R. 2002 Pastimes: The Context of Contemporary Leisure. Champaign IL: Sagamore. Russell, R., and F. Stage 1996 Leisure as Burden: Sudanese Women in Refugee Camps. Journal of Leisure Research 28:108–121. Russell, R., and K. Hilton 1995 Sustaining Tourism Growth: A Developing Country Case Study. In Linking Tourism, the Environment, and Sustainability, S. McCool and A. Watson, eds., pp. 1–4. Proceedings of a special session of the annual meeting of the National Recreation and Park Association. Ogden UT: US Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Intermountain Research Station. Skari, T. 1990 Djibouti: A Reluctant Haven. Refugees 72:24. Smith, V., ed. 1989 Hosts and Guests: The Anthropology of Tourism Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Smyser, W. 1986 Refugees: Extended Exile. Washington DC: The Center for Strategic and International Studies. United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees 1995 The State of the World’s Refugees: In Search of Solutions. New York: Oxford University Press.
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van Arsdale, P. 1993 Refugee Empowerment and Organizational Change: A Systems Perspective. Arlington VA: American Anthropological Association. Var, T., R. Toh, and H. Khan 1999 Tourism and ASEAN Economic Development. Annals of Tourism Research 26:195–196. WTO 1998 Global Tourism (2nd ed.), W. Theobald, ed., p. i. Oxford: Butterworth Heinemann. 2003 War in Iraq May Postpone Tourism Growth But Will Not Cause Collapse. WTTC 2002 Malaysia Joins Leading APEC Countries With Tourism Satellite Account. World Travel & Tourism Council
Submitted 24 June 1996. Resubmitted 15 November 2000. Accepted 5 February 2003. Final version 10 March 2003. Refereed anonymously. Coordinating Editor: Valene L. Smith
Annals of Tourism Research, Vol. 30, No. 4, pp. 833–846, 2003 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved Printed in Great Britain 0160-7383/$30.00
doi:10.1016/S0160-7383(03)00062-8
TOURISTS AND REFUGEES Coinciding Sociocultural Impacts Ruth V. Russell Indiana University, USA Abstract: The new millennium holds promise of being both the “Century of Tourism” and the “Century of the Refugee.” Never in history have there been so many refugees and tourists crossing international borders. This paper discusses the ironic similarities of both positive and negative impacts of tourism development and refugee relief on developing countries. Parallels in recommendations for both phenomena are also presented. Although not originally intended, the observations made in the paper are drawn from two different fieldwork projects: a study of refugee camp aid with Operation Lifeline Sudan in northern Kenya in 1994 and an investigation of tourism development in Malaysia in 1992. Keywords: tourism development, refugee relief, Malaysia, Sudan, fieldwork research. 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Re´sume´: Touristes et re´fugie´s: impacts socioculturels qui coı¨ncident. Le nouveau mille´naire promet d’eˆtre le « sie`cle du tourisme » et le « sie`cle du re´fugie´ ». On n’a jamais vu autant de touristes ni autant de re´fugie´s traverser des frontie`res internationales. Cet article discute des similarite´s ironiques des impacts positifs et ne´gatifs sur les pays en voie de de´veloppement associe´s au de´veloppement du tourisme et a` l’aide humanitaire aux re´fugie´s. On pre´sente aussi des recommandations paralle`les pour les deux phe´nome`nes. Sans que ce soit l’intention originelle, les observations qu’on fait dans l’article sont tire´es de deux projets diffe´rents de recherche sur le terrain : une e´tude de l’aide humanitaire au camp de re´fugie´s avec l’Ope´ration Sauvetage Soudan dans le nord du Kenya en 1994 et une investigation du de´veloppement du tourisme en Malaysia en 1992. Mots-cle´s: de´veloppement du tourisme, aide aux re´fugie´s, Malaysia, Soudan, recherche sur le terrain. 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
INTRODUCTION Travel is an ancient human activity. Early tourism in Asia, for example, perhaps better labeled the pilgrimage, witnessed hordes of the devout seeking spiritual reward from a trip to a shrine or holy place; the farther the distance, the greater the sanctity. Early Mediterraneans were also avid travelers. In ancient Greece people went to the Olympic Games, and ancient Romans built a magnificent network of roads, on which they could travel as much as 100 miles a day using
Ruth Russell is Professor of Recreation and Park Administration at Indiana University (Bloomington IN 47405, USA. Email
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relays of teams of horses. At the time of Alexander the Great, some 700,000 would crowd into Ephesus (now Turkey) in a single season to be entertained by acrobats, jugglers, and magicians who filled the streets (Russell 2002). The self-discovery journeys of Chaucer, Columbus, and Jules Verne; the organized group tour of the Crusaders; Mao’s long march; and the 19th century “grand tour” of Europe are longstanding and rich traditions (Callimanopulos 1982; MacCannell 1999). Yet, modern tourism is a new phenomenon, dating from the mid1960s, when industrial affluence, an expanding middle class, easily secured credit, and relatively cheap commercial jet travel combined to make possible what has today become a worldwide industry with an estimated 715 million tourists, spending about $464 billion (US) a year (WTO 2003). Distant places are idealized as travel offers an antidote (adventure, education, luxury, fun, relaxation) to contemporary civilization. Or, as MacCannell proclaimed in Empty Meeting Grounds, tourism is a modern “nomadic consciousness in which the ultimate goal of travel is to set up sedentary housekeeping in the entire world” (1992:5). Ancient and modern societies have spawned another reason to leave home and set up housekeeping in the entire world. Violence of war and terrorism, tension of political and religious ideological differences, poverty, ecological degradation, disregard for human rights—these other realities of past and contemporary worlds—have fueled unprecedented refugee flows. While there have always been refugees, largescale movements of them and other forced migrants have become a defining characteristic of the present-day world. At few times in history have such large numbers of people in so many parts of the globe been obliged to leave their own countries and communities to seek safety elsewhere. Today the UN High Commissioner for Refugees is concerned for more than 37 million people (triple that of a decade ago)— 13 million who have crossed an international border and been granted asylum in another country and 20–25 million who are internally displaced (Ogata 2000). No continent is immune to this mass displacement. Refugee populations in excess of 10,000 can now be found in 70 countries around the world (UNHCR 1995). Although no statistics are fully reliable, it is obvious that the numbers of tourists and refugees are a staggering mass larger than the population of most of the countries of the world. Tourists and refugees have become the fastest growing social and economic phenomena in the 21st century. All predictions maintain that the number of tourists, both those who travel internationally and domestically, will continue to grow. For example, forecasts call for some 1.6 billion international tourists by the year 2020 (WTO 1998). As to refugees, if past trends continue, the crises that erupted so quickly and on such a massive scale during the 1980s and 1990s will likely continue. For example, in Africa alone the number of people helped by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees has risen from 950,000 in the early 1960s to 3.7 million in 1980 to nearly 6.3 million today (Ogata 2000). While individual tourists come and go, their collective presence in
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the places they visit result in a permanent impact. Tourism in the developing world, typically, has been a double-edged sword. While it may provide a venue for people to augment their income, for communities to develop needed infrastructure and to enliven traditional art forms, the majority of benefits tend to flow out. According to its worst critics, tourism is an invasion that takes over the host culture and transforms it into a spectacle. The infusion of outside capital takes away local autonomy and places economic power in the hands of the developers and investors (MacCannell 1999). Likewise, refugee impact in countries and regions of asylum has become significant. In the past, refugees were a temporary phenomenon. They came and went, either returning home, settling where they were, or moving on to yet another country where they could resettle. Now, however, millions of refugees stay displaced much longer. They are persons who live out their lives in camps in foreign countries with little promise for a stable future, and their reliance on the resources there has resulted in changes to both cultures. This paper discusses parallels between tourist and refugee impact on host cultures. While not the original intention, in analyzing the data from two different fieldwork studies, strong similarities were noticed in the positive as well as negative effect tourists and refugees have. Appreciating the delicacy of juxtaposing pleasure tourists with victims of strife, pursuit of this comparison nonetheless seemed important because the lessons learned may help reveal possible solutions for both. The magnitude of the “shifting grounds” (MacCannell 1999) for both kinds of large masses of people on the move has created both the world’s largest industry and the world’s most complex problem. TOURIST AND REFUGEE IMPACTS The focus of one year’s fieldwork (September 1991 through August 1992) in the country of Malaysia was to describe tourism’s impact. Demographic and economic data were collected from government documents; more than 100 interviews with tourism officials, Malaysian citizens, and international tourists were conducted; and 38 vacation sites on Peninsular Malaysia were inspected (some multiple times). Additionally, through both official sanctions and unobtrusive visits, 89 hours of participant observation data from three vacation sites were collected, and a content analysis of tourism newspaper articles was conducted (Russell and Hilton 1995). Malaysia has been labeled the perfect tourism cure for the stresses of modern life. Brochures claim the country “has it all.” Picturesque fishing villages, cozy hill resorts, unexplored tropical forests, and miles of empty white sand beaches are mixed with an ethnically diverse people whose cultural differences are intriguingly expressed in traditional arts and crafts, religious festivals, and cuisine. Tourism is so perfect for Malaysia that it is now an important tool in its economic development plan, which has been paying off. From 1980 to 1995, world tourism receipts grew from $105 billion to $399 billion, representing a 9.3% annual growth rate. But for Malaysia and the other
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countries of South East Asia, tourism receipts during the same time period jumped from $3 billion to $27 billion, representing an annual growth rate of 15.6%, higher than any other region in the world (Var, Toh and Khan 1999). By 2000, tourist arrivals in Malaysia exceeded 10 million, making this industry the second largest foreign exchange earner in the country (New Straits Times 2001). At the time of the fieldwork, Malaysian government and private enterprise efforts to promote an attractive image were primarily shaped by “visit year” promotions. Visit Malaysia Year 1990 and 1994, and Visit ASEAN Year 1992 focused on creating a reputation for the country as a destination for shopping, natural beauty, and sports. The goal was to ensure that the price of souvenirs was competitive, that Malaysia became identified as an ecotourism destination, and that sport tournament locations were selected for their touristic appeals (Russell and Hilton 1995). These efforts to promote a positive image have not been hollow. For example, between 1980 and 1990 the total capital investments approved for tourism by the Malaysia Industrial Development Authority amounted to $5.78 billion for 184 projects. At the time of the study in 1991 and 1992, this development was chiefly targeted on resorts, with secondary activity on attractions and transportation (Russell and Hilton 1995). For the second study, fieldwork was conducted in December 1994 in a refugee camp in Africa. The camp is located on the edge of the small village of Kakuma, Kenya (within 100 kilometers of the southern Sudanese border). There, an estimated 63,000 men, women, and children from primarily Sudan, but also Ethiopia, Rwanda, Somalia, Uganda and Zaire, are cared for by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Data collection methods for this study included interview, focus group, document study, and observation from both the Kakuma refugee camp (Russell and Stage 1996) and the United Nations’ Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS) relief compound that supports it, located in Lokichokio, Kenya. Victims of civil war, famine, tribal wars, and religious oppression, some of the Kakuma camp interviewees had been refugees for as long as six years; others for only a few days. Many were overcoming warinflicted injuries, and all were suffering the deaths and/or displacement of family members and had no sense of when their normal lives could be resumed. Unlike a common stereotype that these were destitute people from subsistence villages moving to a similar existence in another country, some of the refugees interviewed had formerly been college professors, lawyers, schoolteachers, and nurses. Kakuma is one of the more cared for refugee camps in East Africa with Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS) providing basic food, health, and education services. In spite of this, water was rationed and available at only certain times of the day, and food—while sufficient in quantity— consisted of only sorghum, oil, and UNIMIX (a combination of wheat flour, white sugar, and dry skim milk fortified with Vitamins A and D, which is mixed with water and oil before cooking). Communicable and other diseases were widespread because of malnutrition and unsanitary conditions. As for the education system at Kakuma, out of the approxi-
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mately 20,000 children in the camp, 1,515 were students in the primary school with a student/teacher ratio averaging 94 to 1. The classrooms were in long low mud buildings with thatched roofs. Soft stones were used on the brown mud walls for board work and rows of dirt humps served as pupil desks. Relief efforts extend beyond the Kakuma refugee camp. OLS was established in April 1989 with the objective of preventing a repetition of the experience of the previous year when some 250,000 people were believed killed in Sudan by the civil war and famine (Minear 1991). OLS resulted from an agreement negotiated by the United Nations with the warring factions—the government of Sudan and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement and Army—to allow humanitarian assistance to pass through the war zones to civilians on both sides of the conflict (Minear 1991). This is a massive effort of delivering food, health, and education relief throughout southern Sudan. At the time of the study in 1994 OLS was providing humanitarian aid from Lokichokio to 95 areas by air and at least 20 locales by river (OLS November 1994). The UNICEF arm of the United Nations coordinates OLS operations and works with more than 40 nongovernmental agencies to provide assistance in health, education, water, immunization, agriculture, and veterinary science. The World Food Program also works under the OLS umbrella, coordinating the airlift and airdrop operation of food as well as nonfood items. This involves the movement of about 3,700 metric tons of cargo each month from Lokichokio into southern Sudan. Lokichokio serves as a logistics, communications, supply, and transport base for OLS supporting over 200 UN and staff of nongovernmental agencies. Interview, field observation, and document data from both studies were originally analyzed using a constant comparative method (Corbin and Strauss 1998; Glaser and Strauss 1967;). Data from all sources within each study were fit into categories by identifying and coding. Then, categories and their properties were integrated by comparing them to one another and checking them against the data. Further, the categories were delimited and reduced to gain parsimony around the major emergent themes. For this paper constant comparative method was again employed by grouping the individual study themes into emergent understandings across studies. They were found to be quite similar. Parallel Impacts Observers of tourism tend to be divided into two camps (Smith 1989). From one camp is the view that the prize trophies caught in the tourist trap are the indigenous peoples and their lives that are the objects of the trip. According to this view, tourism ultimately dehumanizes and destroys the cultural integrity and environmental richness of an area. Tourism’s harmful alteration of the social customs of the Sherpa culture of Nepal is often cited as an example of this perspective (Fisher 1990). The opposite camp views tourism as a boon because of the economic benefits it brings to the people and government of an
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area. For example, currently world tourism supports about 200 million jobs and by 2010 they are expected to grow to 250 million worldwide (WTTC 2002). From the fieldwork in Malaysia evidence supporting both positive and negative perspectives was found. For example, as cited above, Malaysia benefits economically from tourism, particularly from an infusion of foreign exchange. This has not always been the case, however. In the 80s, the industry suffered continuous deficits (partially blamed on the Gulf War), averaging an annual loss of $1.15 billion in foreign exchange. Beginning in 1990, it began to enjoy major surpluses, but then between 1996 and 1999 economic problems in other South East Asian countries left Malaysian proceeds from international tourism in worrisome status. Recently, aggressive promotions to new markets (such as Central and South America) have met with success. However, as long as the foreign exchange promise is unstable, Malaysia will remain vulnerable through both economic booms and busts. Additionally, from interviews with local tourism employees there comes the belief that most of the foreign exchange gains actually leak back out to foreign investors. Proceeds from alcohol sales were a typical illustration of this. Since Malaysia is officially a Muslim country, a large portion of the alcohol sold at resorts and attractions is imported, and thus the proceeds return to the importer. Economic impact is experienced as a positive and negative debate in other realms as well. On one hand, tourism in Malaysia has created jobs for locals, yet ownership of and the higher-level manager positions in hotels and attractions were at the time of the study still more likely to go to foreigners. Sensitivity to this has played out in the establishment of government policies on tourism development investment quotas for foreigners and incentives for locals. Another instance of a simultaneous positive and negative impact exists in terms of culture. Tourism in Malaysia has brought about what has been labeled in other studies as “cultural involution” (McKean 1989): a sharpening of ethnic identity. This is most evident in the revival of established handicrafts such as the woodcarvings of the indigenous Orang Asli people, batiking, and kite making and flying. However, government officials worry about the negative cultural repercussions, such as maintaining the “goodness” of the Muslim social order. This has been particularly challenging in the face of the popularity of tourism-based prostitution in neighboring countries as well as tourist desires for alcohol while in Malaysia. A third dominant example of positive and negative impact found from the fieldwork data was the natural environment. While tourism has created an ethic for proper waste disposal and environmentally sensitive attractions, development has been so rapid that considerable damage has already been done to Malaysia’s jungles, wildlife, coral reefs, coastlines, and mangrove swamps. At the time of the study, private enterprise and government proposals to develop such pristine and isolated holiday destinations as Penang Hill, Genting Highlands, and Frazier’s Hill into a “paradise” connected by super highways touted promises of increased economic and infrastructure development
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vitality for the region. Others, however, warned that there would inevitably ensue an ultimate destruction of the very natural resources that attracted tourists there in the first place. Such are the positive and negative effects of tourism in Malaysia. What about the impact of the Sudanese refugees on their host country? Is it too both a boon and a burden? The Kakuma camp refugees were settled in the poorest area of northwest Kenya (about two difficult road travel days from Nairobi). This mostly desert region is inhabited by approximately 210,000 Turkana people. Their traditional lives are nomadic; milk and blood are the main diet, and cattle provide the hides for sleeping mats, to cover grass huts during the rainy season, and to make sandals. Goats and sheep, herded by small girls or boys, are killed for rituals and meat. While they are rightly famous as blacksmiths who manage to manually extract iron from rock to make spears and tools, there is no textile craft due to lack of animal and vegetable fibers. This desert environment lacks sufficient arable land, water, and work opportunities for both the Turkana and the refugees. An example of this is the issue of raising livestock. The refugees, in an attempt to supplement the UN food rations, began to raise goats, but before long “the Turkana came in the night and shot all the goats” (fieldnotes, December, 1994). The Turkana viewed such self-help efforts by the refugees as competition with their own local enterprises, which had begun to sell livestock and handicrafts to both refugees and relief workers. Thus, refugees with skills and means who want to better their existence make their way to Nairobi for employment. This has resulted in both a positive and negative impact as well, because the refugees in Nairobi supply cheap labor, made even cheaper by the absence of legal rights. It is not possible, therefore, to provide economic assistance for refugees without developing economic opportunities for locals. In fact, a hope of the Kenyan government in permitting the Kakuma camp is that Western sponsored aid and development for the refugee camp will also serve to aid their citizens. Ultimately, United-Nations-built relief facilities such as aircraft landing strips, roads, and hospitals will one day be turned over to Kenyan authorities. Yet before that time comes, there is another, troubling impact of the relief infrastructure development in the area. The foreign culture of the relief workers themselves (primarily from North America and Northern Europe) at the Lokichokio OLS base has altered the traditional culture of the local peoples. The contrast was brought sharply into focus the first two nights of the fieldwork. Sleep came the first night as we listened to the quiet singing and chanting of nearby Turkana gathered around a warming campfire. We were told later by an interviewee their songs were “about the rhythms of their nomadic lives”: the rainy season, their herds. The next night, a Friday, we had trouble going to sleep as we endured the electronic sounds of rock music blasting out of a “night club” set up for the young people of the area in a hut across the road.(fieldnotes, December 1994:81).
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Given that the refugees are located in a desert, non-agricultural zone, the impact of their sheer numbers on the natural resources is also significant. Even though supplies are flown into the area their presence has still meant an enormous growth of the population in a region where natural resources are already severely restricted. This, together with the process of sedentarization of Turkana nomads in the immediate vicinity of both the camp at Kakuma and the relief base in Lokichokio, is leading to a deterioration of the environment with inevitable impact on the productivity of Turkana animal husbandry. The process of sedentarization itself is also illustrative of both a positive and negative impact of the refugee relief operation. The settling of Turkana people around the Kakuma camp and Lokichokio base has made it easier for the Kenyan government to reach them with social and economic development services, but some also worry about the results of the eventual pull out of the relief operation. Will the creation of dependency leave the Turkana more destitute than before because of a loss of their nomadic skills of survival, and thus more greatly burden the Kenyan government in providing support? Theoretical and Practical Implications The major advantage to considering similarities in the impact of tourists and refugees is the possibility of learning common lessons for planning and development. The themes that emerged from both the Malaysian tourism and Kenyan refugee field studies were primarily about positive and negative economic, traditional culture, and natural resource impacts. In the context of the past decade, both tourist and refugee agencies have found it difficult to develop coherent and consistent policies in relation to such mass population displacements. Not surprisingly, therefore, recent years have witnessed a number of lively controversies within and among the governmental, private, and commercial institutions dealing with tourist and refugee problems. Nonetheless, several (in some senses contradictory) trends can be discerned in the international response to tourist and refugee impact. First, there is a growing recognition of the need to address the impact of tourist and refugee migrations before they begin, by planning proactively. This can best be illustrated through the greater efforts being made to avert refugee movements before they begin, to contain armed conflicts and the population movements which they provoke, and to create the conditions that will enable displaced people to return to their homes. In parallel, tourism organizations are becoming more aware of what might be labeled “tourist education,” teaching these short-term guests how to have more limited impact on host cultures and environments. Second, a wider range of “actors” have become involved in the search for solutions to tourist and refugee problems. The issues of impact have attracted the concern of political groups, security organizations, financial institutions, and regional agencies. The respective
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problems, the world has recognized, are too complex to be solved by refugee and tourist organizations alone. Third, there is a new awareness of the need to tackle the tourist and refugee impact issue in an integrated fashion. Somewhat belatedly, the international community associated with each has concluded that lasting solutions will only be found if a concerted effort is made to promote sustainable development midst the mass migrations. Obviously, these three solution trends are inextricably linked to and reinforce each other. Nonetheless, the remainder of this discussion isolates the third component to demonstrate the parallel implications of tourist and refugee impact. A guiding taxonomy applicable to deriving implications for the integration comparisons drawn here is that by psychologist Berry. He makes the distinction between “integration,” where a population group retains its own culture to a significant degree, yet maintains contact with the larger society; “separation,” where a group maintains its own culture without having contact with the dominant society; “assimilation,” where the original culture is submerged into the dominant one; and “marginalization,” where a group forfeits its own culture, yet does not become part of the dominant society (1984). Berry’s definitions are normative in that assimilation, marginalization, and separation are considered undesirable, the former two because they entail a loss of cultural diversity, the latter because it is harmful to the host country’s national unity. The impact of tourists and refugees are similar because both relate to host countries as “separate” cultures. Tourism services, particularly of the resort-enclave sort that typically exist in developing countries, and refugee relief services, similarly most typical in developing countries as an enclave-style camp, operate to ensure that tourists and refugees are kept separate. If the solution for refugees, when voluntary repatriation is not feasible, ideally means their integration into the country of asylum and while the benefits of tourism depend on genuine, integrative exchanges between guests and hosts, the systems that manage both mitigate against such. According to Smyser, the United Nations Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees from 1981 to 1986, the tradition in refugee care is two-fold: protection and assistance (1986). The operation of relief agencies focuses on protecting refugees from the harm they fled and providing the food and health assistance they lack. Because the masses of refugee flows are usually from countries with fragile situations into similarly fragile countries unable to handle large population increases, the provision of protection and assistance has been most efficiently accomplished by establishing camps. Protection and assistance may also be used to define the policies for managing tourists. While there are noteworthy exceptions, such as the farm and homestay holidays promoted in New Zealand (Pearce 1988), most other systems find it efficient to protect and assist tourists by establishing separate facilities and services. In fact, an entire and separate industry exists to care for them; resorts, attractions, and convention centers provide all that is needed thus making it unnecessary for a guest to leave and mix with the host community.
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The desirable solution for refugees, of course, is voluntary repatriation. However, there have been only limited possibilities for returning home because most crises that have generated refugees have not yet ended and do not seem likely to end soon. The southern Sudanese at the Kakuma camp, for example, have endured the strife of civil war since 1983. Therefore, integration into the asylum country remains one of the best solutions. This means refugees should be integrated into the national environment and offered opportunity to earn and contribute. Relief projects closely tied to refugee settlement, self-sufficiency, and income generation will benefit both these “guests” and the local population. Tourism, as well, does not have to be damaging. Many want to forsake the “tourist bubble” (Smith 1989) and seek opportunities to meet and become acquainted with local people. Guests and their hosts can become a bridge to an appreciation of cultural relativity and international understanding. This can be accomplished by promoting alternative formats that feature one-to-one interaction, including overnight stays in private homes. Also small-scale, dispersed, locally owned, and low-density developments organized by villages or communities themselves could be encouraged. An example of this is derived from the Malaysian field study. A number of bungalow-type and family-run accommodations on the beach of the holiday island of Tiaman offer an alternative to the resort enclave developments there. This discussion has focused on refugees and tourists themselves as the sources of integration. To achieve this goal, another sort of integration is also necessary. Tourism and refugee relief development should also be integrated with the development of local populations and communities. As more and more flee into developing rather than developed countries, and as more and more tourists likewise flock into developing countries, questions must be addressed about how best to take account of refugees and tourism in the presence of the ongoing development plans of the host countries. During the fieldwork at Kakuma and Lokichokio, this question was discussed frequently. Interviewees supported the principle that refugee assistance should be better coordinated with general development actions. They believed that their successful integration into a new society requires coordination of refugee and local development aid. Agreement with this principle of integration of development is plentiful in the literature of the past ten years. For example, the convening of the second International Conference on Assistance to Refugees in Africa in 1984 attempted to merge economic development assistance of asylum countries with the needs caused by the presence of refugees. Progress was inhibited because these two efforts were handled by different and sometimes even competing bureaucracies at every level of asylum. Later, Smyser (1986) advocated giving the concept of the above conference another opportunity to be carried forward via greater budget, staff and programmatic cooperation among governmental and voluntary relief agencies. Van Arsdale (1993) maintained cooperation among relief agencies was not enough. He argued instead that the development mandate is
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to seek solutions through long-term and holistic planning for integration at specific sites. This means there is empowerment of indigenous refugee and local leaders to help in developing the socioeconomic possibilities of the sites. Too often refugees and local people are objectified by external agencies and do not have the opportunity to play a role in designing their own future. Several strategies have emerged for accomplishing this. One example is zonal development whereby the whole zone where the refugees are to be settled becomes the focus of developmental aid (Skari 1990). This promotes integration between the refugees and the local populace because the focus of attention is systemic, emphasizing the sociopolitical and economic environment within which both interact. A disadvantage of zonal development, however, is the question of whether unequal development on the national scale emerges (the country’s overall economic development can become skewed). Literature promoting integration may also be identified in tourism development. Brohman, for example, similarly advocated that grass roots involvement and planning be applied to tourism. Accordingly, a community-based approach to this development would consider the needs and interests of the local populace by strengthening institutions designed to enhance local participation. Likely this involvement could focus on determining “the compatibility of various forms of tourism with other components of the local economy; the quality of the development, both culturally and environmentally; and the divergent needs, interests, and potentials of the community and its inhabitants” (1996:60). In most developing countries, increased local participation in tourism planning would require institutional reform to provide possibilities for local groups to organize, represent themselves, and exert influence over decision-making. This may be too difficult in many of the major tourism growth regions of the world, but its pursuit remains a necessary goal. As Levitt remarked, “development [simply] cannot be imposed from without”, because it fundamentally “concerns the capacity of a society to tap the root of popular creativity, to free up and empower people to exercise their intelligence and collective wisdom” (1990:1592). CONCLUSION This paper discussed parallels between tourist and refugee impact on host countries and regions. In analyzing the data from two different fieldwork studies, strong similarities were noticed in the positive and negative effect they both have on their hosts. That is, in a study of tourism development in Malaysia in 1991–92 and one of refugee relief in northern Kenya in 1994 the impact is simultaneously helpful and harmful in terms of economic development, cultural sanctity, and natural resource stewardship. Extrapolating from these findings, this paper further discussed possible solutions for each in management and development. In summary, on paper at least, integration strategies for reducing the negative and enhancing the positive impacts of tourists
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and refugees on hosts, based on participatory community planning, have a great deal of merit. This means that planning the location in local communities of tourism attractions and support facilities, and the location of refugee relief centers, can be made an integral part of other aspects of community planning. The principle of the arbitrariness of the authentic attraction, and the safety and protection of the refugee services, assures that the ultimate health of the host can be formed precisely according to the will of the people. The ultimate integration of both groups into the local community occurs when the local people discover the convenience and desirability of using facilities designed originally for these populations. In planning for tourism management in an Andean community in Peru, Mitchell and Reid (2000) developed and assessed a community integration framework. This may be applicable here. The main objectives of developing their framework were to explore and describe power relationships, public unity, and collective awareness of tourism (refugee) opportunities and management in a given community; to examine how public participation and associated internal/external factors may determine or influence planning processes for a given tourism (refugee) project; and to provide indicators for a rapid assessment of actual or probable outcomes of a tourism (refugee) project by economic and sociocultural indicators related to community integration and planning. Accordingly, it seems that any integration-based community planning must take into account social, economic, and natural environment benefits and issues. Local residents must also be willing and able to cooperate with each other to make integration possible, and this process must allow for a relatively equitable distribution of local benefits. Finally, integration must lead to a relatively high degree of control by local residents for administering tourism and refugee services. It must be admitted, however, that actual successes to date have been limited because integration takes extensive planning and long-term commitments by all parties involved. Yet, if new directions are not taken, the developing world tourism industry and refugee relief effort will continue to foster excessive foreign dependency that contributes to a relinquishing of local control over economic resources, environA mental integrity, and cultural identity and social control to outsiders.왎
REFERENCES Berry, J. 1984 Multicultural Policy in Canada: A Social Psychological Analysis. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Sciences 16:353–370. Brohman, J. 1996 New Directions in Tourism for Third World Development. Annals of Tourism Research 23:48–70. Callimanopulos, D. 1982 Introduction to “The Tourist Trap: Who’s Getting Caught?”. Cultural Survival Quarterly 6:3.
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Corbin, J., and A. Strauss 1998 Basics of Qualitative Research: Techniques and Procedures for Developing Grounded Theory. San Francisco, CA: Sage. Fisher, J. 1990 Sherpas: Reflections on Change in Himalayan Nepal. Berkeley CA: University of California Press. Glaser, B., and A. Strauss 1967 The Discovery of Grounded Theory: Strategies for Qualitative Research. Chicago IL: Aldine Publishing. Levitt, K. 1990 Debt, Adjustment and Development: Looking to the 1990s. Economic and Political Weekly 25:1584–1585. MacCannell, D. 1992 Empty Meeting Grounds. New York: Routledge. 1999 The Tourist: A New Theory of the Leisure Class. Berkeley CA: University of California Press. McKean, P. 1989 Towards a Theoretical Analysis of Tourism: Economic Dualism and Cultural Involution in Bali. In Hosts and Guests: The Anthropology of Tourism, V. Smith, ed., pp. 119–138. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Minear, L. 1991 Humanitarianism Under Siege: A Critical Review of Operation Lifeline Sudan. Trenton NJ: The Red Sea Press. Mitchell, R., and D. Reid 2001 Community Integration: Island tourism in Peru. Annals of Tourism Research 28:113–139. New Straits Times 2001 Record feat for tourism industry.
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van Arsdale, P. 1993 Refugee Empowerment and Organizational Change: A Systems Perspective. Arlington VA: American Anthropological Association. Var, T., R. Toh, and H. Khan 1999 Tourism and ASEAN Economic Development. Annals of Tourism Research 26:195–196. WTO 1998 Global Tourism (2nd ed.), W. Theobald, ed., p. i. Oxford: Butterworth Heinemann. 2003 War in Iraq May Postpone Tourism Growth But Will Not Cause Collapse.
Submitted 24 June 1996. Resubmitted 15 November 2000. Accepted 5 February 2003. Final version 10 March 2003. Refereed anonymously. Coordinating Editor: Valene L. Smith