An optimist’s view of tourism’s future

One does not have to be an optimist to believe that international tourism will grow substantially over the next century. Apparently, however, one does have to be an optimist to regard this as a good thing. As tourism has burgeoned in the latter half of the twentieth century it has been accused of many things: despoiler of environments, destroyer of cultures and exploiter of poor nations. Tourism, it is claimed, ultimately destroys the attractive features of a place and thus can neither sustain its resource base nor itself as an industry in the long term. If these charges are valid then tourism either should be severely restrained or will eventually burn itself out, but not before causing much damage. When looking to the end of this century this scenario gives little cause for optimism.