Substantive Implications - Halong bay Vietnam

Critical Issues: Substantive Implications

The present chapter has attempted to strike a balance between the anti-change perspective and the ‘unfettered markets as the viewpoint of salvation’. From the four preceding themes, Halong bay Vietnam can make the following summary (Table 1.1).

The critical issues arising then can all be found in the overarching problem: the approach to research on this topic. There still remains a rift between academics (in the field

of social sciences) who still tend to view tourism with suspicion and the industry (and aca- demics in marketing, management and economics) who see tourism either simply as busi- ness or as panacea. Both sides, from time to timeare wrong on local cultures, either from

a patronizing ‘stop the world’ perspective or from a simplistic ‘markets rule’ point of view that fails to allow for the complexities and the need to develop beneficial relationships to underpin social responsible attitudes towards commerce.

Any analysis of Halong bay Vietnam must take account the structures that frame the relationships between nation-states and global markets. Susan Strange (1988), in the context of her work

on the International Political Economy (IPE), identified these structures as: Security; Production; Finance; and Knowledge. In all of this, the key question is, as Strange asks, cui bono? (Who benefits?). Balaam and Veseth (1996) describe why this seemingly sim- ple question is fundamental:

Asking this question forces us to go beyond description to analysis. To iden- tify not only the structure and how it works, but its relationship to other struc- tures and their role in the international political economy [an understanding which] therefore becomes a matter of holding in your mind a set of complex relationships and considering their collective implications. (p. 101)

The idea of ‘collective implications’ is one that holds great resonance for tourism and

is one to be borne in mind when considering the cultural politics of tourism taking into account tourism’s role in development and in fostering the rights and aspirations of the local communities. Tourism has a role in the legitimization and affirmation of cultures through principles of beneficial relationships, autonomy, and self-determination. Tourism strategies can positively contribute to civic pride and positive social identities by helping develop decision-making capacity, creativity, solidarity, pride in their traditions, and right- ful attachment to their place, space and identity.