As a result of academic research into the effects of mass travel, an industry of
alternative tourism has emerged. Application of this research has resulted in myriad
forms of tourism, two of these being ecotourism and educational travel. Ecotourism
represents a response to what is the destructive nature of the mass tourism industry
and its damage to host communities' social, economic and environmental systems.
Educational travel is an attempt to use tourism for education, such as trips arranged by
university study abroad programs. I contend that both forms of alternative travel
represent a reactive approach to mitigating the impacts of mass tourism. The potential
of educational travel is not realized as it provides no framework or guidelines as to
how students can apply the information and knowledge they have acquired on their
trip. I will define a new type of tourism, advocacy travel, which seeks to address the
shortfalls of ecotourism and educational travel. Advocacy travel is tourism as a
strategy used by activists to educate, promote ideological awareness and motivate
participants to work for social change.
Global Exchange, a non-profit organization, has been using organized tours as
one component of their activist strategy since 1989. Tours to destinations that are
politically charged are used as a tactic to create a more politically aware and active
citizen from an average person living in the United States. The ultimate goal of the
tours is to promote change in the participant that will translate into an increased level of activism around the international issue about which Global Exchange is attempting
change.
This study is specifically aimed at determining whether tourism utilized
in this manner can have a successful outcome for the organization employing it. I
developed and distributed a survey questionnaire to Reality Tour participants from
both the Cuba and Chiapas programs. Results reveal that the trips do promote an
increased awareness of general news and world events and, to a lesser degree, serve to
make the participant more politically active overall. However, this result is not equally
applied to all participants. Those who indicate a previous awareness of the specific
situation of their destination or a more general political knowledge are more likely to
report that the Reality Tour inspired them to change. Also, I found that the Reality
Tour participant differs greatly from the average US citizen in terms of education
level, income, area of residence and occupation. / Graduation date: 2002
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ORGSU/oai:ir.library.oregonstate.edu:1957/28454 |
| Date | 02 November 2001 |
| Creators | Donckers, Jana L. |
| Contributors | Smith, Courtland L. |
| Source Sets | Oregon State University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
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