Tourism, Change and the Global South. Jarkko Saarinen and Jayne M Rogerson

As a global activity and the fastest-growing sector, at least until the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic, tourism has certainly had economic, social, and environmental impacts on the destinations. Despite its inherent negative effects, it is viewed as an agent of development and modernization, especially for developing countries due to its purported economic benefits.

Tourism, Change and the Global South is a successful attempt at the analysis of tourism impacts and tourism as an agent for change in the Global South. This is a necessary and welcome book because the Global South faces challenges in managing this rapidly growing activity and its associated issues. Although the first chapter of the book contains a very useful overview of tourism and its effects in general and in the Global South and the general presentation of the book, it seems that the objectives and the scientific contribution of the book are not expressed directly, but can be deduced from the presentation of the relation between tourism and change: ‘Change in tourism does not only refer to the impacts and developmental aspects caused by the tourism industry. The notion that tourism is a dynamic phenomenon also involves those changes taking place in tourism itself’, because they are ‘based on the interplay between the (global) tourism industry and specific destinations and their socio-cultural, economic and ecological environments’ (p. 7). The editors conclude this paragraph with the statement ‘In this respect, place matters, which is well demonstrated in this book focusing on the connections between tourism and change in the Global South’ (p. 7). The book is therefore rather a compendium of case studies, which on the one hand can be seen as a weakness, due to the heterogeneity of the content, but on the other hand as strength, through the variety of examples provided, which can inspire readers from various domains and places.

There is research for specific destinations and issues in the Global South, for the Global South as a whole the research contains much fewer results. A relevant example is the summary of the criticism of tourism in the special issue Tourism and Development in the Global South, of the journal Third World Quarterly (Issue 5, 2008). There are also some books on sustainable tourism in the Global South as a whole or at a continental level, and topics such as tourism management in Africa and tourism crisis and disaster management in the Asia-Pacific. Other books are not precisely dedicated to the Global South, but they contain research on issues of interest to the Global South, such as aboriginal tourism, ethics in trophy hunting, and responsible wildlife tourism in Africa. Because no publication can be exhaustive, the observations below are not critical but only signal some possible future and desirable future research, which will continue the research in this book. Although the phrase ‘Global South’ appears also in the title of this book, it cannot cover all the problems and all the regions in this part of the world that is so complex and vast. New books could complete this research with chapters focusing on other parts of the African continent, South America, and Asia.

This edited book has 23 contributors with institutional affiliation from several countries, 15 from South African institutions (most of them have a double affiliation, with institutions from the Global North—USA, Germany, Australia, Netherlands, Scotland, Finland); the remaining authors have institutional affiliations in Africa (South Africa, Botswana), Asia (Japan), Europe (Germany), and Oceania (Australia and New Zealand). Although the presence of African authors is not negligible, this numerous affiliation with the Global North is nevertheless somehow contradictory to the idea that this book should present a different perspective in a context dominated by scholars from the Global North and described by the ‘highly Eurocentric nature of tourism research …, the persistent absence of Indigenous voices and imperatives … and the continuation of persistently colonial tourism knowledge production’ (p. 117).

Despite these remarks, the book does present a different perspective from that of the Global North. For example, Chapter 3 highlights the differences in vision of heritage tourism, one of the most prevalent types of tourism: ‘People of the Global South or in the traditional societies may have different views about small-scale, local and ordinary heritage and harbour different perspectives on authenticity, branding, special interest products and heritage conservation’ (p. 33). The author illustrates this statement with evidences from the literature (by discussing the difference of perception between societies of the UNESCO brand) and from his personal experience, with situations from the Global South where local people does not associate heritage with daily life and peasantry, but only with extraordinary things.

The book is organized into three parts and 15 chapters. The first part, Introduction and frameworks (chapters 1–4), contains introductory and theoretical chapters, that discuss the capacity of tourism to create positive change including through its links with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the meanings and values of heritage, and nostalgia in African tourism.

The second part, Change in tourism (chapters 5–10), is about the change (i.e. impact), as a constant feature of tourism; it highlights tourism impacts through case studies, mostly from Africa (Ghana, South Africa), but also from Oman, and Oceania: Ghana (local instruments and governance capacity in tourism development planning), small island developing states (SIDS) and the undesired environmental impacts on the region, the decolonization of tourism operations in Indigenous contexts, the history of slavery used in the development of roots tourism in Ghana, the issues of social capital and legacy in local tourism development in Oman, and an interesting study on the township tourism in South Africa.

The third part, Tourism for change (chapters 11–15), emphasizes the idea of tourism as ‘a process that needs to be managed for change by focusing on planning, organising, leading and controlling’ (p. 3) also through case studies from Southern Africa (Zimbabwe, South Africa, Namibia): livelihoods of women in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, nature conservation in the Global South, caravan parks as a municipal asset in the Province of the Western Cape, South Africa, the gig economy (very short term employment) in Southern Africa, and township tourism in Katutura, Windhoek, Namibia.

All chapters are useful and interesting, but listening to the voices of Indigenous communities (chapter 7) and discussing ethical issues related to township tourism in South Africa (chapter 10) are of particular interest, since, for example, ‘Indigenous people and their diverse experiences and relationships are largely absent within Indigenous tourism research and in tourism literature more broadly’ (p. 101), as a witness of the ‘deep-colonising legacies of the tourism industry and tourism research’ (p. 101).

There are some figures (photos, graphics, and conceptual figures) in this book, but the subject could allow many, especially photos of the results of tourism in the local economy and life of inhabitants. Most of the photos are concentrated only in chapter 7.

The content of the book has implications for African and Global South destinations and those which have some points in common, such as the otherness, the uniqueness, the authenticity, the fascination, and the difficulty of visiting these destinations, important features for tourists who are searching new destinations; Polar Regions and the interior of the continents (equatorial jungles, great plains, plateaus and deserts, and high mountains) were the last to be discovered and explored, and this ‘lateness’ is still applicable to tourism sector in these regions, both in North and South: it is not easy to visit them, due to special travel conditions (high costs, special equipment and services, great distances). Both regions are also concerned with the ‘last chance tourism’ phenomenon. As a consequence, lessons and expertise accumulated on these topics either in the North or in the South could be interchangeable (in similar contexts) and of interest to both regions.

The targeted public to whom this book addresses is not precisely specified: ‘The issues highlighted in the following chapters […] are fundamental to the tourism industry’ (p. xiii) but, given the debates around the topic of the tourism impacts, and the variety of the case studies included, this volume is a useful lecture for scholars in tourism geography and economics, and also for policymakers and planners.