“The idea that well thought-out tourism would make it possible to promote the preservation of the environment is not new”

Lhe summer season begins and, with it, the hope of returning to the tourist attendance records of 2019. Then representing nearly 8% of French GDP and around 10% of world GDP, tourism has established itself as a major sector of the contemporary economy. In response to the ecological challenges present, at all levels, from companies to international organizations, including communities and States, post-Covid-19 reminders defend tourism ” sustainable “ in which the growth of international flows and income would be decoupled from an ecological footprint which would itself be reduced.

While specifying that tourism is responsible for 11% of greenhouse gas emissions in France, the recovery plan for the sector announced by the Prime Minister in November 2021 nevertheless plans to consolidate the country’s place as the first world tourist destination and earning the top spot in terms of revenue. The “quest for authenticity, proximity” would provide the opportunity to “provide sustainable tourism [qui] becomes a decisive comparative advantage”, “to bring even more tourists from all over the world to us”.

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The idea that well thought-out tourism would make it possible to value the preservation of the environment is not so new. We find it explicitly since the 1960s, at least. To address concerns about the environmental effects of growth and urbanization of a society losing its ties to ” nature “, the State then favored facilities which were to attract and concentrate tourists while avoiding sprawl: new resorts on the Languedoc and Aquitaine coasts or those devoted to skiing in the Alps. At the same time, the policy of national parks was initiated, designed to reconcile the protection of the last spaces of authentic nature and economic development, thanks to tourism, in regions in decline. Tourism offering to remunerate protection.

Accelerated degradation

Research, following the example of that of Guillaume Blanc, has shown the way in which similar logics, applied in colonial and postcolonial spaces, justified the expulsion of populations living in protected areas, offered for consumption by travelers from of the world’s upper middle classes, whose lifestyles are nevertheless at the root of the accelerated degradation of the earth’s environment. The virtuous circle of protection and growth has turned into a vicious circle of dispossession and violence, for an ecological gain that is ultimately difficult to assess.

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