Giuseppina Solinas
Tourism in Sardinia:
Contribution to Development or Exploitation of Resources?
1
Introduction
This study is an analysis of the tourism industry on the island of Sardinia in Italy. It is
set in a context of development and in particular, attempts to understand whether the
tourism industry creates any cause of dependency of the island to industrialised
countries, or cores, from where the tourist flows generates. In order to do so, a
research question has been set and then broken down into objectives. The research
question aims to investigate whether tourism helps the island development or merely
exploits its resources, the objectives aim to focus the research on two particular
elements of dependency: economic and social aspects of tourism on the island. The
reason behind the choice of this topic lays on the researcher’s knowledge of the island
and in particular the tourism industry in Sardinia. The chosen topic is going to be
addressed through a sequence of chapters presented in a logical order with the aim of
answering the research question.
Chapter 1 will deal with the literature review. All the relevant literature will be
reviewed and used to set a context where, later in the report, Sardinian tourism will be
analysed. This chapter will define concepts such as development, dependence, and
tourism. Also, it will examine the concept of Homo Ludens as presented by Huizinga,
where every person is a potential tourist, this being due to the ludic part present in
each of us. It is then believed that tourism acts as a strong capitalist machine which
system exploits underdeveloped regions of the world such as Sardinia for business
purposes aimed at enriching the already wealthy industrialised countries generating
tourism. The concept of core-periphery is therefore well illustrated according to one
Giuseppina Solinas
Tourism in Sardinia:
Contribution to Development or Exploitation of Resources?
2
of the most authoritative schools of thought in dependency of tourism, that is Latin
American dependencia theorists such as Francisco and dos Santos. Furthermore, the
broader context of development and dependency will then be broken down in
economic and social terms. Economic aspects of dependency in tourism e.g. direct,
indirect and induced effect, and social aspects e.g. demonstration effect and tendency
to create enclave resorts. This chapter will conclude highlighting alternative ways of
tackling problems raised by dependency in tourism, with particular stress on the
community approach.
Chapter 2 is an introduction to Sardinia. It will give general information on the island
geography, history, and present state of development. It will also put a particular
emphasis on the autonomous status of the island granted by Italy in 1948. As the
island is rich of many forms of heritage from linguistic to cultural-historical, this
chapter will highlight them all as potential sources to be exploited by the tourism
industry. A brief account of the island history of development will also be given,
which will then be brought up to the present days where economic and social aspects
of the island will be discussed. In this context, the tourism industry will be analysed
according to its importance and the place it occupies within the economy and society
of Sardinia. To support this, some technical reports will be presented especially those
dealing with information such as the island contribution to the regional Gross
Domestic Product and balance of payments, and others concerned with carrying
capacity and seasonality.
Chapter 3 analyses in further details everything presented in chapter 1 and above all in
chapter 2. Socio-economic advantages and disadvantages of the tourism industry on
Giuseppina Solinas
Tourism in Sardinia:
Contribution to Development or Exploitation of Resources?
3
the island will be analysed in detail and supported by statistical data, and social and
economic information of tourism to the island. After having analysed advantages and
disadvantages of both the social and economic elements of dependency in tourism,
this chapter will briefly discuss the involvement of some multinational companies on
the island and especially on some resorts such as Pula, Santa Teresa di Gallura and the
Emerald Coast. Once the context has been set and the island presented in all relevant
aspects, it is now time to show what method has been used to achieve this.
Chapter 4 will discuss methodological issues. This chapter will set the research
question and the objectives aimed to answer the question. The way the data has been
collected will also be explained, followed by the choice of the technique and
instruments adopted along the research and its analysis. A section on all problems
encountered and limitations involved will then follow, this part is deemed to be
crucial as it highlights important shortcomings of the research.
Finally, chapter 5 will converge theory and evidence on a small case study aimed at
proving that a situation of dependency is actually in place on the island. This chapter
will present all the necessary statistical evidence followed by the analysis of the most
relevant socio-economic implications involved with the condition of dependency
created by the tourism industry in Sardinia. In order to give the reader a better insight
of such a condition, a focus on the Emerald Coast is provided as a very useful
example to support the findings. This will then be followed by an indication on how
to minimise negative effects and try to optimise positive ones. This analysis will then
lead to the last section of the chapter where alternative ways of managing tourism on
the island will be discussed according to their importance and feasibility.
Giuseppina Solinas
Tourism in Sardinia:
Contribution to Development or Exploitation of Resources?
4
CHAPTER I
Dependency Theory and Tourism
The Literature Review
The purpose of this chapter is to review all the existing relevant literature on
dependency theory, the way it relates to the concept of development, and how it has
been analysed both in economic and social terms by authoritative writers. The review
will then move its focus on the concept of international tourism and will highlight
how its nature stems from the play element present in every individual. The
relationship between dependency theory and international tourism will find its place
in the hands of capitalist tourism industry. However, shortcomings of this
relationship and the application of such theory to the tourism industry will also be
discussed along this chapter.
The concept of dependency derives from a broader set of theories grouped as “conflict
theory”. They take a macro, holistic approach of society and start from the principle
that changes only occur through conflicts, that is through domination and
subordination. The dichotomy power-dependence is thus central in this theory and
finds two of its major precursors in Charles Darwin and Karl Marx. Darwin’s clash of
interests and Marx’s belief that the basis of society and social structure is the
economy have formed the basis of many writers’ interpretation of the burgeoning
European capitalist system of the nineteenth century (Sharpley, 1994). Roxborough
clearly follows this school of thought and defines dependency with the following
quotation:
Giuseppina Solinas
Tourism in Sardinia:
Contribution to Development or Exploitation of Resources?
5
“Dependence can be conceptualised as a process of historical
conditioning which alters the internal functioning of economic and
social sub-system within an underdeveloped country. This
conditioning causes the simultaneous disintegration of an indigenous
economy and its reorientation to serve the needs of exogenous markets
(1979:42-49, in Britton, 1982:33).
Although impeccable in its structure and content, Roxborough idea of dependency
puts too much stress on the influence of the needs of exogenous markets as a primary
factor of influence in a country state of dependency. He probably overlooks the
history and background of each individual country and how these would affect the
present economic and social conditions. Another strong shortcoming of this theory,
and of all conflict theories in general, is the absolute macro approach given to a
country condition of dependency. The ability of individuals to influence and change
society seems to be ignored as if societies and countries were entities per se, able to
decide other entities’ destiny. Also, Roxborough (1979) over-emphasises the negative
aspects of dependency which are, though often present, normally balanced with
considerable advantages too. Dependency and conflict theory, all fall under the
broader umbrella of development theory. Contrarily to dependency, the term
development does not seem to have a universally accepted definition. Goulet
(1968:338, in Pearce, 1989:6) addresses this issue by suggesting that the term
development is of an ambiguous nature as it both refers to a state and a process. In
this context dependency too can be seen both as the present state of a particular
country or as a process which implies a period of transition, thus not necessarily
aimed to be permanent.
Giuseppina Solinas
Tourism in Sardinia:
Contribution to Development or Exploitation of Resources?
6
After having defined the concepts of dependency and development, it is now
important to understand how they fit with tourism. The Tourism Society defines
tourism as follow:
Tourism is a temporary short-term movement of people to destinations
outside the places where they normally live and work, and their
activities during the stay at these destinations; it includes movement
for all purposes as well as day visits or excursions (Sharpley,
1994:30).
The above quotation clearly defines the very nature of tourism, i.e. the movement of
people for pleasure or other purposes, but it does not take into account many of the
implications of such movement. In this direction has moved the work of Huizinga
(1995). His Homo Ludens tells us a great deal about the play element present in each
individual which makes every person a potential tourist. The tourism industry takes
advantage of this exploiting the ludic part of each individual and, through the creation
of international tourism, the resources of many underdeveloped countries where the
Homo Ludens can go and “play”. The pleasure periphery is thus established and
exploited by capitalist tourism. If we see tourism as part of the leisure industry, it is
interesting to notice how the leisure industry has emerged in post-war years as a huge
and expanding sector of the capitalist economy (Rojek, 1985; Ingham, in Ingham and
Simmons, 1987). Also Price (1980: 286) writes “En masse Homo Ludens is
pioneering the settlement of many peripheral regions”, meaning how the tourism
industry has been able to take advantage of the ludic part of individuals and made it
match with the creation of subordinated parts of the world. This is the concept of the
core-periphery (Rojek, 1985:110) where for core powers are intended the most
economically and military advanced societies, and for periphery is meant all of those
Giuseppina Solinas
Tourism in Sardinia:
Contribution to Development or Exploitation of Resources?
7
underdeveloped societies that constitute inelastic markets and cheap sources of raw
material to the core, which in the case of tourism provide peripheral paradises where
tourists can spend their leisure time. To support the concept of core-periphery in
tourism is a study conducted by Linda Richter (1983) where she states that of 33
nations where tourism is a leading industry, 25 are developing nations. This kind of
practices used by capitalist tourism has made international tourism as a form of
imperialism (Nash, in Smith, 1989).
The expansion of international tourism and the creation of tourist areas take place
according to the intentions and objective of the productive centres and their people.
The tourist area, therefore, must have a slightly lower standard of living than the
region where the tourist come from in order for the system to exploit the country.
Typical geographical patterns of imperialism usually follow a down-stream direction,
from North America to South America and from Northern Europe to Southern Europe
are common examples. International tourism is therefore increasingly recognised by
dependency theorists as a powerful vehicle for metropolitan manipulation of the
periphery. Front-rank people in this type of study are the Latin America dependencia
theorists such as Ronaldo Francisco and Teotonio dos Santos (1968). Francisco
(1983:365) describes dependency of tourism in this way:
“International system of capital and trade results in a centre-periphery
relationship that perpetuates (even creates) underdevelopment,
authoritarianism, military government, and international political
servitude”.
Of course, the Central and South American experience of strong US dominance may
not be applied in other parts of the world with the same emphasis and manner.
Ricevi informazioni sui nostri servizi, sulle offerte e non perdere news e consigli su università e lavoro.
