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Global Tourism and Disruption in Fiji

As the far corners of the earth grow to become more accessible, the desire and ability
to travel to new destinations grows in sync. Whatever it is that drives an individual to travel
to another part of the world, be it wanderlust, sunlust, or even a military stint, each step of the
travellers journey impacts individuals on all levels within the Tourism industry. The
motivation of any given tourist may seem to have a small impact on a given destination, but
with the growth of tourism around the world, analysing individuals motivation may be the
key to maintaining the complex web of The Tourism System. In the case of large scale
disruptions, such as natural disasters or politics, a tourism region that largely depends on the
income from this industry may be left in dire condition. To understand how this web can
improve or prepare for necessary innovation prior to disruption, it helps to break apart its
complexity.

Although it is nearly impossible to find one simple definition of Tourism, it can be

broken down into systems and approaches in order to better grasp the vast technical levels of
this study. The Geographical Systems Approach breaks the experience of a tourist into three
segments: the generating region which is considered home, the destination region, and the
transit region (Hall, 2005). With this systematic explanation seen as a base, additional
variables can be broken into scale and dimension. These dimensions can be seen as
geographic, human and industrial elements. Each of these elements contributes to the
functioning system, getting a tourist from their generating region to their destination. Within
this trans-continental scale, disruptions can arise on any level or region. The transit region
may be effected by poor weather and airline shut downs. A generating region may ban or
provide propaganda against travel to an area. These disruptions not only affect the tourist and
companies within the transit region, but also the destination. A destination region will suffer
greatly from cut off in business. Most often, major decreases in tourists arise from a
disruption within the destination region.

Prior to and post disruption and recovery, the variables throughout the tourist
experience are dependent on the individual travellers mind-set and motivations. Tourist
Motivation Theories have been explored to better understand what draws a certain person to
a certain place (Kay, 2003). How a person regards home and comfort will directly impact
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their credentials for choosing a destination and the means of which they prefer to experience
that destinations culture or environment. Since the increased scale in human mobility, a new
range of tourist motivation has spread. A growing population has the financial means to
comfortably spend their leisure time in foreign destinations over a shrinking frame of time
and space (Hall, 2005). This concept of global mobility increasing requires need for
continued research, adaptation, and innovation of the Tourism Management system (Hall,
2005). Increasing traffic rates to specific destinations around the world is leaving an
environmental and culture-clashing impact on vulnerable, developing areas. These impacts
are difficult to classify and find solutions for, but the effort is well needed.

The growth of interest in Adventure Tourism is leading to more seemingly ethical

travel, such as Eco-tourism and Justice Tourism (Aporosa, 2007). These alternative styles of
tourism help to decrease the consumption of an individual tourist and enhance the
authenticity of their experience. Thrift and Glennie (1993) point out the selectivity required
to provide these sorts of unique vacations, referring to the aesthetic considerations that must
be made when selecting social or physical environments to entertain the tourists. This
selection process brings in a bias, creating aesthetic illusions (Hall, 2005, p. 41). Although
this bias appears to be impossible to break around, it brings up necessary considerations must
be made as the development of alternative means of tourism rapidly grow. This shows that
however deeply a tourist recognizes the environmental impact of their travels and their own
intrinsic motivation, their choice to go or not go leaves lasting implications. The
understanding of these implications will open doors to the identification of whose needs are
met most in a given tourism system. Striving to identify the needs of a tourist and adapt the
system to them is changing to include the needs of local communities in developing nations
around the world.

The modern world is quickly globalizing, with vast regions gaining exposure to
western lifestyles and customs. This exposure in itself has a large impact on the mind-sets
and desires of remote villagers and whole communities. In recent time, the growth of large
foreign investors opening resorts abroad has been followed by local communities providing
alternative resorts, exhibiting ecotourism practices (Aporosa, 2006). These alternative resorts
often gain the attention of travellers keen to experience the local culture with a more
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allocentric point of view (Kay, 2003). This mind-set of the tourist is key to the livelihood of
the locals who run these resorts. Unfortunately this type of tourist, often sitting high up on
Pearces Career Ladder, does not make up the majority of all travellers (Pearce, 2005). Thus
the mass resorts are first choice through providing: familiar standards of living, leisure
opportunities, easy transportation/accessibility, discounts or promotions, and international
advertising. It would seem as though this would make for all parties to be pleased, but there
is another dimension to account for which affects all styles of resorts; disruption.

The tourism industry is constantly changing, adapting, and overcoming challenges.

Periodic disruptions, in many locations, have become a routine and predictable occurrence.
However, the rare occurrence of severe disruptions can be detrimental to the livelihood of the
people in an area, impacting their means of income from the tourism industry. These
disruptions can have many faces, but one that has potentially triggering a realm of disaster
would be climate change (Nunn, 2013). It was predicted that a rising planetary temperature
could trigger more intense and more frequent natural disasters, rising in Intensity. The April
2015 Nepal earthquake showed a clear disruption in the regions wellbeing, as the citizens of
a developing nation took a shock to their tourism sector. Along with a too-high death toll and
collapse of villages, several historic sites and holy temples were destroyed and severely
damaged. These historic monuments were large draws for foreign pilgrimage to the country.
After the incident, tourism went down drastically, taking time to recover.

Similarly, the multi-island nation of Fiji has recently taken a severe blow on their
wellbeing with Cyclone Winston, said to be the most powerful storm on record in the
Southern Hemisphere. After this event, an in-depth examination can be made to compare the
recovery of resorts of different styles and management. The recovery within a remote, eco-
tourist resort is not often comparable to the preparedness of foreign-owned, mass resorts
elsewhere in the nation. The differences among large and small scale businesses will become
more apparent after examination, seeing the dependency a destination has on a generating
regions continuity of morality and support for small scale eco-resort recovery. The resort in
question is Botaira Resort, located on Naviti Island, a three hour ferry ride (offered once a
day) from the airport city of Nadi. This resort is owned and run by native Fijians, using much
of their commission to provide for their families in the village over the hill from the resort, a
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two hour hike. Most of the employees do this daily to return home from work. The resort,
being less than a decade old, has been working hard to adapt to an expanding group of
visitors as well as adapting to online promotion. When Cyclone Winston hit, the resort did
not yet have insurance, nor did the majority of employees. They had been accustomed to a
level of destruction from cyclones, going as far as keeping a stock of supplies to use for
reparations post storm. Winston was an exception, blowing their extra supplies off to sea.
This was the case for people around the nation, prolonging time taken to repair basic shelter.
Immediate care was put towards hygiene, shelter, and food recovery along with reparations
of the resort.

Fijians makeup the majority or employees at all resorts around the nation, often
leaving their home village to send home money or relocating their family closer to the
business. These families are dependent upon the resorts to run. In this way, the negatives of
foreign owned and exported profit is decreased, as the management of a resort of this
standard can recover from disruption more quickly, thus keeping employees at work for more
time (Nunn, 1997). The difficulty of recovery post disaster is impacted by the introduction of
mass tourism in the developing nation, as Aporosa references,

Mass tourism has also been accused of being responsible for environmental
degradation, prostitution, the debasement of the culture through cultural
commercialisation, the introduction of drugs and alcohol, and the breakdown of
family values associated with materialism and individualism.

In addition to the previously stated setbacks in Fiji, one unforeseen issue is quickly coming to
forefront. That is the rise of sea levels, leaving a permanent mark on villages along Fijis
coastlines (Nunn, 1997). This issue is most ironic due to the cause of such climate change.
Being looked at as an open system, the low-impact lifestyle of villagers in Fiji does not
compare to the impact brought on from the developed world. The developed nations
travelling internationally to an extremely remote location such as the Pacific Islands means
the utilization of extended air travel. The environmental impact from air travel is quite high,
directly relating to the increase in greenhouse gases. Climate change is a clear disruption to
Fijian Tourism, one that ironically and unfortunately is tied to Fijian Tourism.
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Evaluation and planning is necessary to create a new system of recovery and

adaptation in a nation such as Fiji. The developmental needs are ethically a priority for
continued tourism to this region. The ethics of economic development and its immediate tie
to large industries is a complex system itself. This system is one that shall be discussed
further separate to this essay. The main takeaway from a light examination of this justice
issue comes to be that disruption throughout the Tourism industry is handled differently by
varying levels of wealth and consumption. These patterns of consumption exhibited all
depend on incoming tourists to continue their business support. Although it is clear that high
levels of transportation and consumption can leave negative impacts on developing nations,
the increase of interest in Adventure Tourism shows a positive future of adaptation to an
unpredictable future.
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References

Aporosa, S. (2007). TOURISM IN FIJI: How its making the rich even richer, and the poor
even poorer. Fiji Observer. Retrieved April 3, 2016 from http://www.academia.edu
/211172/Tourism_in_Fiji_How_it_s_making_the_rich_even_richer_and_the_poor_ev
en_poorer

Cornelissen, Scarlett. 2005. The Global Tourism System: Governance, Development Lessons
from South Africa. Aldershot, United Kingdom: Ashgate.

Hall, C. Michael. 2005. Tourism: Rethinking the Social Science of Mobility. London, United
Kingdom: Pearson Education Limited.

Kay, Pandora. (2003). Consumer motivation in a tourism context : continuing the work of
Maslow, Rokeach, Vroom, Deci, Haley and others, in ANZMAC 2003 : A
celebrations of Ehrenberg and Bass : marketing discoveries, knowledge and
contribution : Proceedings of the 2003 Australian and New Zealand Marketing
Academy conference, ANZMAC, Adelaide, S. Aust., pp. 600-614.

Nunn, P. D. (2013). The end of the Pacific? Effects of sea level rise on Pacific Island
livelihoods. Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography, 34: 143171.
doi: 10.1111/sjtg.12021

Nunn, P. D., & Mimura, N.. (1997). VULNERABILITY OF SOUTH PACIFIC ISLAND
NATIONS TO SEA-LEVEL RISE. Journal of Coastal Research, 133151.
Retrieved April 5, 2016 from http://www.jstor.org/stable/25736092

Pearce, PL and Lee, U-I. (2005). Developing the travel career approach to tourist motivation.
Journal of Travel Research 43: 226237

Swick, Nancy. Botaira Resort Information: Sourced from my own communication directly
with locals and a visit to the resort and local village