The typical images of paradise shown in travel brochures and on television are of lush green foliage, wild animals, smiling natives, and exotic food. These promises of unforgettable experiences lure people to the developing world. Pristine natural environments, abundant wildlife, and rich traditions in the least developed countries (LDCs) are irresistible attractions to tourists of the developed world. However, the creation of these paradises does not come without hidden costs to host populations.

David Harrison and the 16 contributors in Tourism and the Less Developed World: Issues and Case Studies examine the issues associated with the creation of tourist paradises in LDCs. Tourism claims to be the fastest-growing industry in the world; LDCs, rich in natural resources but short of capital, expertise, and trained personnel, tend to choose tourism as a development tool. Although the definition of a LDC is a matter of debate, Harrison and the contributors use the term based on the countries’ classification by the World Tourism Organization as “developing” or as economies “in transition.”

Harrison discusses the issues of international tourism using a wide range of development paradigms. International tourism has historically been a movement of affluent tourists from “developed societies” to “less developed societies.” Alongside multinational corporations that are involved in developing tourism in LDCs, international tourists today are knowingly or unknowingly creating a new form of colonialism. Yet under the development paradigm of “modernization,” international tourism can also contribute to the transfer of capital, technology, and human resources to LDCs and the development of a free market in these countries.

Inadequate infrastructure is one major obstacle in developing international tourism in LDCs. In Tourism and the Less Developed World, one contributor notes the inadequate telecommunication and transport facilities in the South American Common Market, while others observe similar problems in India and China. In his contribution “Tourism and Development in Communist and Post-Communist Societies,” Derek Hall identifies the disadvantages such countries face when introducing international tourism as poor infrastructure and the inability to transport and cater to large numbers of people. However, the construction and improvement of infrastructure in LDCs can be a double-edged sword; one contributor suggests that infrastructure-building for tourism purposes may consume resources that could be used to meet more fundamental needs.

International tourism also raises the issues of pleasure migration and labor migration. Pleasure migration is the ownership of second homes, time-share properties, or the retirement of people in areas they previously visited as tourists. Pleasure migration potentially introduces a variety of issues relevant to development, including land ownership, conflicts between migrants and local laws, and the enclosure and segregation of pleasure migrants (tourist ghetto). On the other hand, tourism development tends to have an impact on labor markets, attracting mainly unskilled laborers in direct and induced jobs. The migration of laborers causes not only a shift in human resources in the primary and secondary industries, but also the relocation of the population. Peter Dieke, in “Human Resources in Tourism Development: African Perspectives,” examines the serious shortage of human resources in African tourism and describes current attempts to provide more training and education to local people.

The shortage of educated personnel is a problem for the tourism industry as well as for government agencies. Bureaucrats’ lack of experience, expertise, and training means that the implementation of tourism as a means of socio-economic development is not always successful. Michael Hall notes that the Japanese government emphasizes outbound tourism as a means of balancing trade and improving diplomatic relations. However, Harrison explains that LDC governments are usually uninterested or unable to support outbound tourism. Inherent problems in many LDCs, such as intragovernmental conflict, lack of horizontal and vertical cooperation within organizations, corruption, decentralization, and issues of privatization obstruct the development of tourism as an industry. LDC governments determine the effectiveness of tourism development through their intervention in and ownership of infrastructure and tourism facilities, along with their response to the involvement of multinational enterprises and foreign investors. The historical background of the country is another key factor in successful tourism development. A government’s attempt to promote political stability and to maintain sustainable tourism development is not always understood or well received by locals.

Sustainability is a buzzword in the contemporary development discussion and the use of the term in the tourism industry is no exception. As national resources, including culture and heritage, are the main assets in tourism, it has been argued that economic well-being should not precede social and environmental well-being. Officials have debated whether alternative forms of tourism rather than mass tourism, which has been the mainstream product for quite some time, are more sustainable. Ecotourism, particularly community-based ecotourism, is becoming the mainstay of alternative tourism development in LDCs. In Tourism and the Less Developed World, four out of six case studies illustrate examples of community-based ecotourism in the Caribbean, South Africa, Indonesia, and Fiji. In spite of the popularity of ecotourism, the exponential growth in the number of small-scale ecotourism operators and products is criticized as transforming ecotourism into another form of mass tourism. Particularly in LDCs, the concept and goals of ecotourism may not be fully understood, but they could be interpreted in ways to suit public agencies and private entrepreneurs. Some claim that cruise ships and enclave resorts, which restrict tourists’ activities to within the resort premises, may be less detrimental in terms of environmental degradation and cultural contamination.

Harrison and the contributors provide an outline of the issues involving tourism as a development tool in LDCs. Harrison admits that the review is broad in scope and often brief in description, but it provides an important picture of international tourism and identifies the specific issues of the regions of the world reviewed. The case study section identifies several significant side-effects of tourism development, such as child prostitution. The case studies discuss at length the key issues of international tourism development in LDCs, namely infrastructure, human resources, state involvement, sustainability, and socio-cultural changes. Unfortunately, Harrison’s attempt to write about these issues in terms of development theories merely scratches the surface. In the essays, he and the contributors frequently allude to but do not directly address issues of tourism in terms of the political economy of international tourism. This book can be read as a sequel to Harrison’s earlier book Tourism and the Less Developed Countries (John Wiley & Sons, 1992), with each theme in the 1992 book more deeply probed. Still, Tourism and the Less Developed World: Issues and Case Studies successfully offers a thought-provoking piece of work on the often unseen dilemmas and conflicts that arise “in pursuit of paradise.”