It is a commonplace that tourism has become one of the world's leading industries, and this is certainly so in Latin America. Kirk Bowman's concise study, which traces the commitment of eight nations to tourism development, uses a political scientist's perspective to assess differences in approaches and outcomes in order to present comparative research findings that will build knowledge and help to inform policy-making. Based on more than 1,000 interviews conducted over a decade, his work is a welcome synthesis of careful analysis that will appeal especially to political scientists, but also to others who may not be well acquainted with the role that tourism is playing across the continent. While the book does not engage significantly with the robust tourism research in Latin America or elsewhere, it will nonetheless be of interest to tourism scholars for the new directions it takes.
Eight chapters take up several puzzles of tourism development that Bowman advances (pp. 1–3): ‘Why was the state's role greatly expanded in tourism in every Latin American country at a time when it was being reduced or eliminated in other economic sectors?’; ‘Why are there such widespread performance differences across the region in attracting international tourists?’; and ‘Why do some countries and cities follow an inclusionary tourism model with better distributional effects, while others follow an enclave model with far fewer positive distributional benefits?’
These are ambitious questions to which, arguably, no single study could do justice, and Bowman could be faulted at times for overreaching. However, his most effective chapters are those that offer more focused comparisons of two or three Latin American nations, in which he identifies salient differences of orientation and success in meeting the goals of tourism development. These comparative cases serve to undergird key arguments and lend weight to the view that tourism is a powerful lens for examining the role of the state in contemporary neoliberal and post-neoliberal development.
A short historical overview of the tourism sector in Latin America usefully discusses national branding as a strategy for drawing visitors, and this is followed by a chapter that examines state capacity and level of commitment to the growth of tourism. Another chapter considers structural constraints on tourism development, including natural resources, security and human capital. Two more chapters present comparative analyses of Brazil's and Argentina's recent experiences with tourism, and of three global cities (Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro and Havana) and their tourism performances. A brief concluding chapter reprises the book's findings.
Among the most illuminating results of the study is the discovery of substantial differences in levels of national commitment to tourism development, despite near-universal enthusiastic assertions. Thus, for all its promise and its structural advantages at the turn of the millennium, Brazil's tourism has declined during the same period in which, notwithstanding its recent economic crisis, Argentina has forged ahead in cultivating its tourism market. Indeed, complacency in the former has proved to be problematic, whereas innovation and entrepreneurship in the latter have led to remarkable gains. Likewise, several leading cities reveal striking differences, with Rio failing to see growth due to a reliance on the tired formula of sun, sand and sea, while Buenos Aires has made great strides as a world-class urban destination ready to cater to tourists with sophisticated interests in culture, heritage and the arts. Havana, for its part, has undergone a broad renovation of its historic urban centre and now draws tourists interested in more than the all-inclusive beach resorts that dominate tourism in the Caribbean.
Although Bowman also conducted research in Chile, Costa Rica, Honduras, Paraguay and Uruguay, we do not learn much about the specifics of their experiences with tourism. A shortcoming of the study, which Bowman himself describes as wider than it is deep, is that we rarely get the benefit of fleshed-out narratives of tourism development or the voices of the tourism providers or tourists themselves. The main protagonists in the story told here are, logically, states, and Bowman is able to show how, during neoliberal decades when states were being rolled back, governments nonetheless were in some instances proactive in helping tourism industries to become more competitive. Even in the case of Brazil's failure to develop a thriving tourism industry, Bowman suggests that the nation's commitment to hosting the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics in Rio may have the desired effect of jump-starting a renewal of interest in attracting international tourists.
If tourism in Latin America can sometimes have negative consequences, such as the revival of racism in Cuba, Bowman acknowledges but does not dwell on it. Occasional repetition of the broad differences among the main nations studied might have been avoided, but in general this is engaging reading and makes a valuable contribution to the literature. Moreover, Bowman addresses questions of state involvement in tourism that often have been overlooked in past scholarship, and he ultimately takes a stance in asserting that ‘Latin America should and must do better’ (p. 159). Readers will have food for thought as they consider his closing remark that all nations can have a shot at attracting more tourism if they just make the right policy choices and commit to supporting tourism development. They might also heed his cautionary comment that even a single policy decision can derail such a commitment.
The main lesson learned, Bowman shows, is that the state must be an active player in policy-making if it is to garner the benefits of tourism. His book is in fairly equal measure a comparative political analysis of tourism development in Latin America and a prescriptive account of what must be done for Latin American states to see economic growth emerge from tourism's promise. While Bowman sees the potential for tourism to bring new inequalities in its wake, he is by and large optimistic that tourism can offer meaningful benefits to those states that are creative enough to seize the opportunity and make it a priority. He makes a good case for states avoiding enclave tourism that would widen the gap between tourists and national elites on the one side and the majority of populations on the other – particularly as such tourism is now out of favour among many who wish to have a ‘cultural experience’ rather than simply a ‘getaway’ – and instead drawing on Latin American nations’ rich histories and contemporary appeal. In some cases, like that of Buenos Aires, welcoming specific categories of travellers, such as the growing LGBT clientele, can open new markets and add lustre to niche tourism branding.
In short, this book is a valuable contribution to the literature on Latin American tourism, politics and development. Moreover, it joins other pioneering cross-disciplinary tourism studies that offer comparative cases from Latin America, furthering the discussion of how well states are availing themselves of the opportunities presented by tourism.
