Sustainable Ecotourism Development in Central America and the Caribbean: Review of Debates and Conceptual Reformulation

Tourism is one of the world’s largest economic sectors. Ecotourism is its fastest growing component (United Nations World Tourism Organization 2007), and a promising strategy for sustainable development. Rural Central America and the Caribbean are in need of sustainable development and contain promising ecotourism sites. Despite their empirical importance and potential, tourism and ecotourism as research topics present several difficulties. This article surveys recent tourism and ecotourism scholarship and pays special attention to other recent literature reviews that contribute to that scholarship. It offers a threedimensional view of sustainable ecotourism development based on ecological integrity, economic viability, and social justice. Our common conception of ecotourism needs to broaden. It is typically presented as one of many distinct alternatives to mass tourism such as cultural, historical, and agro-tourism. It is more fruitful to view alternative tourisms as synergistic components of a sustainable tourism ensemble. The article explores consequences of neglecting any of the three sustainability dimensions. It concludes by summarizing the article’s contributions to the practice and analysis of sustainable ecotourism development. Introduction: A Challenging and Nascent Research Topic It is worth beginning with four general observations on the topic of tourism, and more specifically ecotourism in the Central American and Caribbean region. The topic presents several challenges to quality research progress. First, there are comments from colleagues such as ‘You study tourism? In the Caribbean?!’ Although tourism is one of the world’s largest economic sectors (United Nations World Tourism Organization 2007), social scientists often perceive it as ‘shallow and frivolous’, and have been slow to accept it as a legitimate component of development alongside such things as industry, agriculture, and professional services (Stronza 2001, 277). Tourism’s illegitimacy as a scholarly inquiry is related to the common view of tourism itself as pleasure and escapism, the dualistic opposite of the day-to-day real world of hard work (Hughes 1995). 1038 Sustainable ecotourism development in Central America and the Caribbean © 2007 The Author Geography Compass 1/5 (2007): 1037–1057, 10.1111/j.1749-8198.2007.00055.x Journal Compilation © 2007 Blackwell Publishing Ltd Caribbean tourism in particular suffers this fate, despite that fact that it is more important there than virtually anywhere (Kingsbury and Klak 2005; Central America is less stigmatized because it is less associated with beaches). Given the economic importance of tourism for dozens of countries and millions of people, it is imperative to take tourism seriously and analyze it no less critically and theoretically than what are considered more legitimate topics and places. I suggest that vestiges of tourism’s perceived illegitimacy have hampered critical research and analysis. Second, most of the key concepts, such as sustainable development, ecotourism, alternative tourism, and community participation, are chaotic (Lake and Hanson 2000). That is, their uses imply or signify a great range of things, to the point where nearly anything can be deemed sustainable ecotourism (Fennell 2003). Chaotic concepts can be like motherhood and apple pie in that they face no opposition: in current debates no one advocates unsustainable tourism or development. This conceptual fluidity contrasts with the analytical precision to which social science aspires. Third, the literature is vast but eclectic, as are the evaluations of ecotourism on the ground. For example, the case studies included in World Tourism Organization’s two volumes on good practices in sustainable tourism (United Nations World Tourism Organization 2000, 2001) were selected by their governments. How they compare across national contexts is difficult to ascertain. Furthermore, the case study descriptions are sketchy and of variable length. The volumes lead the reader to appreciate the importance of community involvement in all aspects of sustainable ecotourism development, a theme that this article later emphasizes. The reader comes away understanding much less about the constraints, challenges, and potential for replication. Even the authors of one of the more thorough and critical books on alternatives to mass tourism admit that ‘the study of the forms of new tourism is still in its infancy’ (Mowforth and Munt 2003, 94). Fourth, most providers of tourism opportunities themselves strive to differentiate their products from the negative images of conventional, mass, or unsustainable tourism. A good portion of this differentiation is pure marketing with little basis in sustainable practices on the ground (Butcher 2003; Mowforth and Munt 2003). Additionally, information disseminated about tourism, more than most other industries, tends to blur the line between advertisement and analysis. Because tourism is more likely to be directly experienced than, say, manufacturing or mining, personal and evaluative comments may be indistinguishable. It is not always possible to know whether or not someone writing about a particular ecolodge has a vested interest in that operation. Furthermore, socalled sustainable tourism may in reality make a larger ecological footprint and provide fewer local benefits than conventional mass tourism. For example, tourism that is purportedly sustainable, if it involves long flights