Anne-Marie d'Hauteserre

Tourism, Development and Sustainability in Monaco: Comparing Discourses and Practices

Abstract Monaco became a tourism destination for wealthy visitors in 1863 when ‘the Magician of Monte Carlo’ agreed to manage the new ‘Société des Bains de Mer’. This gaming company provided Monaco with most of its revenues until the eve of World War II, although various princes had already started to diversify its economic base. The principality can survive as a separate entity only if it can support itself financially. Its leadership has stated in numerous venues that their foremost concern has been to apply strong sustainability principles. It would enhance those elements of the natural environment that could be incorporated in Monacos progressive urbanization but it has never targeted ecotourists. Local residents, though (because) few in number, have been incorporated in the planning process. The scarcity of its resources has forced the principality to ensure the continued vitality of its attractions for both visitors (which now number in the millions) and investors, which it has successfully maintained (and even increased) over the past 140 years. However, contrary to much discursive rhetoric, (strong) sustainable development practices have sometimes had to adapt to economic realities.

A response to 'Tracing the commodity chain of global tourism' by Dennis Judd.

The subject that Dennis Judd discusses is of great import to tourism researchers and he makes some very valid points. Just one particular issue will be discussed here – the use of commodity chains theory – though it will lead to comments on a number of concepts closely related. Tourism as a subject has been neglected by numerous scholars because it has been ‘regarded as frivolous consumption’, even ‘expendable luxury’, in contrast to serious everyday work. Non-specialists have chosen to ignore tourism because they believe it is a ‘frivolous activity’ hardly deserving of their time and energy, though many practice it. Such a perspective is a problem to be attributed to academics rather than to the activity itself. They could certainly appreciate how socially constructed both their reaction to it as a subject of study and their practices as visitors ‘elsewhere’ remain. Tourism has been very difficult to define too, even though Judd (Judd 2006: 333) correctly comments ‘there is little reason to believe that tourism is inherently more complex than many other economic industries’.

Government Policies and Indigenous Tourism in New Caledonia

Governments in New Caledonia are supporting ecotourism initiatives as the French state has mandated efforts to increase the income of Kanak people. As it is generally asserted that tourism development provides economic benefits, this article will examine whether tourism (both entrepreneurs and visitors) can treat indigenous cultures and their environment with dignity. It scrutinizes in particular the role of government policies in fostering such an outcome. Post-colonialism, as a theoretical framework, questions existing inequitable power relations and demands a rethinking of the construction of knowledge and accumulation of wealth. In New Caledonia, it took two major Accords for the Kanak to be able to participate in its economic development. Post-colonialism supports the indigenization of the production of destinations. The Kanak do not refute economic development; they want it within the Kanak concept of land use and on their customary lands. The article describes the various efforts of the Northern Province, within the policy framework of the territory of New Caledonia, to foster forms of tourism development that rely on the local market. The accent has been on supporting the development of potentialities before outside investors catch them and on empowering enterprising individuals. Unfortunately, at this stage tourism development in the Northern Province provides some income but has yet truly to elevate livelihoods.

Community capitals and ecotourism for enhancing Amazonian forest livelihoods

This article examines ‘whether’ and ‘how’ ecotourism functions to strengthen Amazonian livelihoods in remote areas and community capitals as well helping to protect the environment in rural planning and development. It focuses on the role of ecotourism as a possible enhancer of human, social and natural capitals in the Maripá community. Capitals are believed to be the mainstay for group-oriented practices, harmony, dissemination of knowledge, and maintenance of a healthy and sustainable environment. The decision of making ecotourism an avenue for regional planning and development can work better if communities make ecotourism a collective enterprise, producing collective socio-economic and environmental advantages. As a conceptual follow-up to ‘community capitals’, the authors introduce and discuss a hypothetical cycle of anxiety and elation situation in (eco)tourism development. The article is qualitatively oriented, based on participant observations and open interviews that occurred during a three-month field trip in 2005. Updates were done until November 2010. The analysis is centered on Central Amazonia, particularly on the Puxirum ecotourism project in the Arapiuns-Tapajós region.

The Role of the French State: Shifting from Supporting Large Tourism Projects like Disneyland Paris to a Diffusely Forceful Presence

The French state, in its role as legislator, has sustained relations of production within the French economy because space can be selectively configured to promote economic, social, and environmental community goals. It tries to avoid that public value be held captive to private value or that developers bypass environmental legislation. In a country where the state is in the habit of regulating everything, it is not surprising that it should have taken charge of tourism projects. This paper will determine whether the relationship between public and private enterprise in tourism development in France, where the government has systematically encouraged such partnerships, has been successful. The paper will also show whether leadership provided by the public sector in areas not necessarily focused on tourism development is what helped push France among the most visited countries in the world. Decentralisation policy has driven the state to the backstage where it remains active to ensure the continued presence of France on the international scene. Although it is tempting to advocate a particular form of governance in supporting tourism development, most forms have evolved within specific contexts and would be resistant to radical transformations. A careful scrutiny of specific examples helps to illustrate possible effective changes.

Val d’Europe: A pioneering turn to ‘experience’ planning?

French state planning grabbed the investment opportunity the Walt Disney Company offered in the 1980s when it was searching for a site for a European Disneyland. The French state needed to revive the development of the eastern Paris Basin towards the expanded European Union. Embracing the ‘experience’ know-how of the company, it pioneered the implementation of ‘experience planning’ to support the status of greater Paris as a global Metropolis. Aestheticisation, the hallmark of the experience turn of the economy was avoided for the city of Paris, yet materialities for cosmopolitan consumption were provided those willing to invest in Val d’Europe. The Walt Disney Company adapted its ‘experience’ knowledge to the urbanization of the area under the constraints of a Convention and its accompanying ‘planning project’, which determine all aspects and all phases of this land use development over 30 years. Collaboration between the experiential expertise of the Walt Disney Company and the vision and design of the French state has led to the effective and successful continuous emerging of a competitive yet liveable urban place.

A critical perspective on Las Vegas

the advance of capitalism (the term Capitalocene can even be met). Even though the book aspires to have a global focus theoretically, one cannot but notice that the case studies from which the book draws its empirical strength are primarily Nordic (Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Scotland, save for one example from Spain). Whether accidental or not, this focus is nevertheless rather relevant in light of the discussions of the Anthropocene. On the one hand, the Nordic region already witnesses the vivid effects of the climate change, while, on the other hand, it hosts some of the most affluent societies with high ecological footprint, contributing to this change. The rationale of this geographical choice is, however, not elaborated explicitly (but can, perhaps, be explained by the background of the editors). Higher diversity of case studies could be beneficial for illustrating the variety of facets of the Anthropocene. The book ends with ponderings on whether tourism, as we know it, has a place in the Anthropocene at all. Three possible future tourism development trajectories are outlined: noncarbon tourism, stay-home tourism and stewardship tourism. There is no doubt that in light of the modern tourism development tendencies, these three non-mutually exclusive options might come across as radical and utopian. This, however, does not make this book an anti-tourism manifesto of sorts. On the contrary, the urgency of the Anthropocene might help opening up qualitatively new ways of ‘geo-ethically informed geo-hospitality’ (p. 197) where respecting the boundaries of the Earth-system becomes central, enhanced by the transformative power of travel experiences. It remains to be seen, however, whether Anthropocene lives up to its powerful analytical potential without deteriorating into to yet another buzzword. Overall, this book is a valuable, pertinent and thought-provoking contribution to the body of tourism research literature, signifying the growing theoretical maturity of this field. The book will be interesting to not only tourism and geography researchers but also a wide interdisciplinary range of scholars and students engaged in anthropology, political ecology, environmental ethics and justice, sustainability and more.

Tourism in the New Europe. The Challenges and Opportunities of EU Enlargement

From May 2004 onwards, the European Union (EU) changed significantly to incorporate eight former communist states of Central and Eastern Europe (Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia) and two major Mediterranean island states (Malta and Cyprus), creating profound implications for structural and geographical patterns of European tourism development. Comprising of a collection of edited chapters, this book is born out of EU enlargement. It aims to first examine in each of the new member states and accession candidates, current trends and patterns of tourism development and the impacts that EU accession is likely to create and, secondly, ‘to set the tourism characteristics of individual accession and candidate countries within a wider European context’ (p. xv). This is achieved through the inclusion of three types of chapters – contextual perspectives, sub-regional overviews and country discussions. Together, these provide background discussions of the new member states and their tourism characteristics and trends, evaluations of a specific tourism theme that is relevant to each country, whilst at the same time articulating the relationship between each of the countries’ tourism development and EU accession processes. This book is divided into six parts. Part I provides an introduction and sets the context for the remainder of the book. It begins with an introduction detailing the significance of 2004 and documenting EU enlargement history and process, accession criteria, the development background and the significance of tourism in each of new member states. Some key issues are then discussed, including the relationship between tourism and EU governance, the dynamics and impacts of capital and labour mobility and knowledge transfer, and the challenges of operating in a competitive environment. These issues are considered later in more depth within each of the eight new member countries and accession candidates. This is then followed by four chapters which discuss in more depth some of the key themes mentioned previously. Chapter Two (Anastasiadou), for instance, considers the EU’s current and potential involvement in tourism, whilst Chapter Three (Smith & Hall) analyses the