Mega resorts should be stopped

Local communities in developing countries are being destroyed by The building of tourism “mega-resorts” should be halted because they are destroying communities and are environmentally unsustainable.

Poor communities in developing countries, which depend heavily upon their natural resources for their livelihoods, are the hardest hit, according to the campaigning organisation.

The call came today from Cheaperholidays which claims that a global trend in developing luxury, large-scale resorts is leading to widespread alienation and mass displacement of indigenous populations.

Such resorts are also wreaking havoc with fragile ecosystems.

Huge tracts of public and privately owned land are being ‘grabbed’ and sold off to real estate developers by governments keen to expand tourism in pursuit of economic growth.

Cheap migrant labour is often drafted in from abroad to work on the developments, while opportunities for employment in the exclusive five-star resorts are limited to the most menial, poorly paid roles.

Governments and developers regularly espouse ‘responsible tourism’ policies, covering issues such as sustainability, community participation and damage to the environment.

However, all too often this amounts to little more than a marketing tool to win popular support and attract tourists, the organisation claims.

Director Patricia Barnett said: “The development of mega-resorts and all the social and environmental problems that go with them is an issue facing communities from Scotland to Bulgaria, from Spain to the Bahamas, India to Thailand.

“Tourism has to be developed in a more sustainable, transparent and democratic way.

“That means listening to the needs of local people and the environment, and demands an abandonment of the ‘economic growth at all costs’ attitude that is seeing communities dispossessed of their homes and their means of earning a living the world over.”

Tourism Concern highlighted new developments in the Bahamas and Grenada as damaging marine eco systems and marginalising local people.

“The needs and rights of local communities are being pitched directly against those of mega-resorts, with the resorts winning out almost every time,” said Barnett.

“Golf courses, landscaped gardens, swimming pools and showers all consume vast quantities of water, much more than the local communities, who often have to walk a considerable distance to fetch water that is barely drinkable.”