By: Jess Johnson
The Chamber’s text has several chapters, each with their own case study to bring the content of the chapter into a more realistic view. Chapter one’s case study is on the American Southwest; Chapter two’s is on rural tourism; and Chapter three’s is on ecotourism. Out of the three case studies, I’m torn picking a favorite between the one on rural tourism and the one on ecotourism because the first one was too much history for me. It started talking about Lewis and Clark and I lost interest. The other two, though, were very interesting to me. If I had to pick one, I would say the one on rural tourism was the most interesting.
The case study on rural tourism talked mainly about Tirol, which borders Austria, Germany, and Italy. Tirol is a hot spot for rural tourism. In 1993, there were 64 tourists for every Tirolean. Over the years that number has grown, but Tiroleans have figured out how to “incorporate tourism into existing social and political structures” (Chambers, 2010, p. 66). Foreigners are prohibited from owning land in Tirol, so there hasn’t been any foreign development either. Tiroleans have taken control of the situation to the best of their ability, but they still struggle with the environmental impacts of tourism. Some locals love tourists because of the economic benefits, while others dislike tourists because of the environmental and social impacts. Tourism, no matter how well you handle it, affects the day-to-day of society. There is no arguing that.
In Tirol, for example, forests are affected by exhaust from cars. Since the number of tourists is rising, transportation of those tourists rises, and thus exhaust emissions rise.
It’s a fascinating destination and case, making it the most interesting of the three to me.
Jess's Tourism Around the World 