Discuss the extent to which tourism is a neo colonialist activity supported by cultural perceptions based on social Darwinism and colonialism.

The first 200 words of this essay...

Discuss the extent to which tourism is a neo colonialist activity supported by cultural perceptions based on social Darwinism and colonialism.

'...the deeply infused culture of relationships between settlers and the colonised, first created in those distant days of 'discovery', lingers and casts its stereotyped understandings on the contemporary world.' (Whittaker, Ed. Robinson and Boniface, 1999, p.33)

Mass tourism was introduced in around 1841 when Thomas Cook offered the first package tours including transport and accommodation (Lickorish and Jenkins, 1997 p. 17). Since then the World Tourism Organisation (www.unwto.org 11/05/07) states that

'the number of international arrivals shows an evolution from a mere 25 million international arrivals in 1950 to an estimated 806 million in 2005, corresponding to an average annual growth rate of 6.5%'

Further to this the WTO also states that the 'international tourism receipts represented in 2003... approximately 30 per cent of worldwide exports of services'. Azarya (2004 p.949) cites Wood (1997, p.2) when stating that;

'...international tourism symbolises globalisation not only in its massive movement of people to virtually every corner of the world but also in its linkage of economic, political and sociocultural elements.'

However this