Tourism Recreation Research ISSN: (Print) (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rtrr20 Fair vs. fake touristic degrowth Asunción Blanco-Romero, Macià Blázquez-Salom & Robert Fletcher To cite this article: Asunción Blanco-Romero, Macià Blázquez-Salom & Robert Fletcher (29 Aug 2023): Fair vs. fake touristic degrowth, Tourism Recreation Research, DOI: 10.1080/02508281.2023.2248578 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/02508281.2023.2248578 © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group Published online: 29 Aug 2023. Submit your article to this journal Article views: 524 View related articles View Crossmark data Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=rtrr20 TOURISM RECREATION RESEARCH https://doi.org/10.1080/02508281.2023.2248578 RESEARCH NOTE Fair vs. fake touristic degrowth a b c Asunción Blanco-Romero , Macià Blázquez-Salom and Robert Fletcher a Geography Department, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona Spain; bGeography Department, Universitat de les Illes Balears, Palma (Mallorca), Spain; cSociology of Development and Change Group, Wageningen University and Research, Wageningen, Netherlands ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY This contribution aims to advance consideration of the potential and pitfalls entailed in discussions Received 16 May 2023 of degrowth within tourism development. Many mass tourist destinations suffer from saturation Accepted 9 August 2023 impacting local working conditions, access to housing and the collective enjoyment of public KEYWORDS goods, among the many common drawbacks of so-called ‘overtourism’. Yet proposals to Growth; degrowth; address the negative impacts of mass tourism can become contradictory or even overtourism; luxury tourism; counterproductive. In one manifestation of this dynamic, prominent industry actors increasingly quality tourism claim to have embraced the agenda of touristic degrowth by focusing on what is euphemistically termed ‘quality tourism’ (fewer tourists who spend more money), which in reality designates elite travel by the most powerful and wealthy social classes. But just as recession is not degrowth, neither can such elitization be considered genuine touristic degrowth, because it does not address the industry’s general eco-social overreach via measures to promote social and environmental justice as degrowth advocates. It could thus instead be labelled ‘fake’ degrowth. By contrast, fair degrowth is defined by a decrease in the flow of energy and materials per capita, in a planned and democratic way, to contribute to equitable redistribution of resource use and access. There is no good and moral idea that capital cannot energy and materials by the mass tourism industry is appropriate and turn into something hideous. at odds with this aim, contributing to the very ecological David Harvey (November 20, 2021) unsustainability that the industry ostensibly intends to combat via the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set out in the United Nations 2030 Agenda. One response to these dilemmas comprises mounting calls Introduction for pursuit of ‘degrowth’ in future tourism planning Many mass tourist destinations suffer from saturation, (see Blázquez-Salom et al., in press; Fletcher et al., due to intensification of the commodification and com- 2019), a proposal that has recently been the subject of mercialisation of local culture, heritage, and natural lively debate in this journal (Butcher, 2021, 2022; resources (Mowforth & Munt, 2016). This often leads to Higgins-Desbiolles & Everingham, 2022). In this spirit, the detriment of local working conditions, access to indeed, the UN Secretary General himself asserted that housing and the collective enjoyment of public goods, recovery from the COVID-19 crisis should lead to among the many common drawbacks of so-called ‘over- a substantially different economy (Objective 8), tourism’ (Milano et al., 2019). This manifestation of describing tourism as ‘a powerful tool for community uneven geographical development thus exhibits some progress and reduction of inequality’ in this effort symptoms of the ‘polycrisis’ combining climate change (Objective 10) (Guterres, 2020). However, the proposals with energy and social inequality among other pressing contained in the 2030 Agenda for tourism reform con- socio-ecological issues. Safeguarding the global tinue to be based mainly on continued economic commons for all people now and into the future requires growth, the development of infrastructure and taking in consideration safe and just planetary bound- attraction of foreign investment (Objective 9) (UNWTO, aries (Rockström et al., 2023). The indulgent waste of 2015). CONTACT Robert Fletcher robert.fletcher@wur.nl Sociology of Development and Change Group, Wageningen University and Research, De Leeu- wenborch, Hollandseweg 1, 6707 KN, Wageningen, the Netherlands © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc- nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent. 2 A. BLANCO-ROMERO ET AL. This demonstrates how proposals to address the The controversy that we propose to address herein negative impacts of mass tourism can become contra- refers to circumstances in which ostensive pursuit of dictory or even counterproductive. In one manifestation degrowth in mass tourism destinations differs greatly of this contradictory dynamic, prominent industry actors from what is proposed by the ecosocialist thought increasingly claim to have embraced the agenda of tour- grounding the overarching degrowth discussion. In a istic degrowth by focusing on what is euphemistically perverse rhetorical twist, via promotion of so-called termed ‘quality tourism’ (fewer tourists who spend ‘quality tourism,’ industry stakeholders increasingly more money), which in reality designates elite travel distort degrowth’s meaning to elitize and restrict by the most powerful and wealthy social classes (see tourism based on the purchasing power of demand. e.g. https://essentiallymallorca.com/; https://www. Reducing tourism flows by merely making the product ibizaluxurydestination.com/en/; https://www. more expensive is not genuine degrowth; rather, it is exclusivermenorca.com/). But just as recession is not segregation based on wealth and social class. Privileging degrowth (Hickel, 2021), neither can such elitization be the speculative investor and luxury tourist runs contrary considered genuine touristic degrowth, because it to the minimalistic bioeconomic programme elaborated does not address the industry’s general eco-social over- by Georgescu-Roegen (1976), instead merely indulging reach via measures to promote social and environ- an extravagant way of life grounded in excessive per mental justice as degrowth advocates. It could thus capita consumption of energy and materials. The diver- instead be labelled ‘fake’ degrowth because it threatens gence of ‘quality tourism’ from fair degrowth becomes to actually aggravate eco-social crises by distracting even more pronounced if we define degrowth in terms attention from the logic of growth and accumulation of its contribution to the egalitarian improvement of by dispossession at the root of many negative tourism social and ecological well-being via radical redistribution impacts. By contrast, fair degrowth is defined by a of wealth and resource access (Kallis, 2018, 2021). decrease in the flow of energy and materials per capita, in a planned and democratic way, to contribute Fair degrowth applied to tourism to equitable redistribution of resource use and access. This research note aims to clarify what pursuit of Faced with the uneven geographies of capital, degrowth degrowth understood in a holistic sense with social is posed as an anti-capitalist political project, since justice at its centre would actually entail for tourism degrowth is an ‘impossible theorem’ within a capitalist planning going forward. system that requires continuous growth for its survival (Foster et al., 2010). Rejection of the illusion of unlimited growth requires a planned reduction in the flow Misrepresenting degrowth (throughput) of energy and resources leading the The first reference to the term degrowth (Gorz, 1972) economy to a new balance within natural limits, one appears in the context of the debate concerning bio- that reduces inequality and improves human well- physical constraints generated by the Limits to Growth being (Kallis, 2018; Latouche, 2009). Hickel clarifies that report (Meadows et al., 1972). Georgescu-Roegen degrowth it is not simply a question of reducing GDP, (1971) had already stated that economic process could but rather of reducing the processing of materials and not be exempted from the thermodynamic laws govern- energy, for which ‘degrowth proposes the inversion of ing the rest of nature. His diagnosis thus concluded that the processes that underlie growth: it requires deaccu- economic activity cannot grow indefinitely and hence mulation, decommodification and decolonization’ would have to eventually decrease to a sustainable (2021, p. 1107), facilitating the possibility of ‘prosperity level commensurate with the ratio of solar energy flow without growth’ (Foster et al., 2010), or what Latouche and the constraints of entropy. At the beginning of the (2011) called a ‘society of frugal abundance’. 2000s, Serge Latouche (2003, p. 3) defined degrowth Degrowth thus proposes to liberate leisure time from as ‘a necessity’ for advanced industrial societies to its appropriation and commodification by capitalism as a achieve progress, prosperity and social development form of consumerist ‘compensatory leisure’ facilitating given the impossibility of infinite growth (Latouche, the perpetuation of alienated labour (Fletcher & Neves, 2007). The systemic crisis of 2008 reactivated the aca- 2012). In a degrowth scenario, leisure would instead demic and social debate concerning degrowth (Schnei- become time for life: loneliness, boredom and thinking, der et al., 2010), with a proliferation of new democracy; meetings and relationships; play, festivity publications and international conferences in sub- and other autotelic activities; feeling alive enjoying sequent years (e.g. D’Alisa et al., 2015; Hickel, 2020; nature and poetry; self-production, crafting and DIY; pur- Kallis et al., 2020). suing beauty and wisdom; or engaging in rebellion and TOURISM RECREATION RESEARCH 3 dissent (Puche, 2010). Individual liberation from over- to redress the previously mentioned inequality and work due to reduction in working hours and job socio-spatial polarisation associated with the inter- sharing would make it possible to focus on care, social national tourism (Blanco-Romero, 2019). This transnatio- reproduction and relationships (Aragón, 2022; Herrero, nalization of mass tourism spurred by multinational 2021), engage in a democratically determined, ritualised corporations leads to social, labour, and environmental unproductive expenditure of community surpluses, such abuses as well as tax fraud (Artigues & Blázquez-Salom, as spending on a collective feast, what has been called 2019), which degrowth proposes to address through as dépense (D’Alisa et al., 2015). Such leisure in the inspection, supervision, and public regulation. Given public sphere is part of the enhancement of well-being that international tourism is also associated with trans- envisioned by degrowth, and we can understand trans- mission of pathogens – such as COVID-19 – due to the forming tourism as a key component of this. One of the hypermobility it promotes, as well as worsening of the defining principles of degrowth is sharing the commons, climate emergency due to the industry’s dependence which is also one of the central elements of the convivial on the consumption of fossil fuels, degrowth in tourism conservation proposal (Büscher & Fletcher, 2020). This also entails promotion of proximity travel (Cañada & post-capitalist approach to socio-environmental justice Izcara, 2021), prioritising narrower travel circuits, under- proposes to overcome the human-nature dichotomy pinning local thriving through more localised tourism or by engaging with nonhuman nature is ways that are focusing on public good outcomes from tourism includ- more democratic, local, mundane, daily, prolonged, ing social tourism and youth education (Higgins-Des- committed and contextualised than the typical tourist biolles, 2022). In this way, touristic degrowth can holiday to a remote protected area. Following from contribute to an overarching programme of contraction this proposal, the notion of the commons can be and planned convergence as well as consensual redistri- defined in the domain of leisure as enjoyment of bution of the consumption of materials and energy outdoor space guaranteed to everyone, regardless of (Fletcher et al., 2019) via both public regulation (Fletcher their purchasing power (Kallis, 2018). et al., 2023) and self-restraint (Kallis, 2021). Degrowth in tourism has been demanded by parts of the populations that inhabit cities fashionable for urban getaway tourism (see e.g. Blanco-Romero, 2019; Valdi- Conclusions vielso & Moranta, 2019). Residents have raised alarm Reforming tourism in pursuit of social and environ- when feeling displaced by the touristic commodification mental justice manifests in a variety of short-term propo- of their daily environment, which is in large part com- sals, already extensively developed in social movements posed of common goods: housing, public roads, docks, and in the academic literature addressing degrowth squares, commercial premises, and so forth, but also generally (Agrawal, 2003; Blázquez-Salom et al., in less tangible phenomena such as culture, daily life, and press; Hickel, 2020; Liegey & Nelson, 2020). These urban experience, among other aspects of everyday life. include improvement of working conditions, provision In this regard, degrowth in tourism proposes decommo- of universal basic income (UBI), ecological transition to dification as a demand for social sustainability (see reverse social and environmental crises, collective Table 1). But this demand is complemented by another appropriation of surplus value to combat accumulation by dispossession, expansion of public services and col- lective self-organisation (in the form of worker owned Table 1. Comparison of fake vs fair touristic degrowth. cooperatives, for instance). But to truly transform Fair Degrowth tourism in pursuit of degrowth, we must complement Fake Degrowth Leisure in the public sphere these with longer-term and more radical efforts to culti- Elite or luxury tourism (dépense) vate post-capitalist ‘spaces of hope’ in tourism provision Commodification Decommodification Exclusive enjoyment Communal enjoyment (Fletcher et al., 2023) that increase free time by enriching Individualised experience Convivial connection and decommodifying leisure, as one essential com- (mundane, prolonged, contextualised …) ponent of an overarching degrowth transition. This, we Private well-being Collective well-being feel, constitutes a vital focus of future research and Elite control Democratic planning social action to move the discussion from fake to fair Resolve negative impacts Politicize radical alternatives to (considered ‘externalities’ of an political-economic contradictions touristic degrowth. ostensibly isolated economic through regulation and self- system) through market constraint mechanisms and technological innovation Disclosure statement Source: authors’ own elaboration. No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s). 4 A. BLANCO-ROMERO ET AL. Funding Aragón, V. (2022). Ecofeminismo y decrecimiento [Ecofeminism and degrowth]. Los Libros de la Catarata. Fundings his work was supported by the Ministerio de Ciencia Artigues, A. A., & Blázquez-Salom, M. (2019). Empresas multina- e Innovación [grant number PID2020-114186RB-C21]; by cionales turísticas [Tourism multinational companies]. In E. MCIN/AEI/ 10.13039/501100011033 and ‘FEDER Una manera Cañada & I. Murray (Eds.), Turistificación global. Perspectivas de hacer Europa’ [grant number RTI2018-094844-B-C31]. críticas en turismo [Global touristification. Critical perspectives on tourism] (pp. 199–224). Icaria. Blanco-Romero, A. (2019). Tourism degrowth. In E. Cañada Notes on contributors (Ed.), Tourism in the geopolitics of the Mediterranean (pp. 64–70). Alba Sud. Barcelona. Alba Sud. Contrast Reports Asunción Blanco-Romero is a tenured Professor at the Depart- Serie, no. 9. https://www.albasud.org/detallespublicacion. ment of Geography at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. She php?id=88&lan=en is a member of the TUDISTAR research group (Tourism and Blázquez-Salom, M., Murray, I., Fletcher, R., Sekulova, F., Blanco- socio-territorial dynamics) in which she has participated in Romero, A., & Cañada, E. (in Press). Tourism and degrowth: several research projects. She has been president of the Beyond the capitalist growth imperative. In J. Wilson & D. ‘Tourism, leisure and recreation’ working group of the Müller (Eds.), New Routledge handbook of tourism geogra- Spanish Geography Association. She is also the editor or the phies. Routledge. scientific journal Documents d’Anàlisi Geogràfica. Her research Büscher, B., & Fletcher, R. (2020). The conservation revolution: include resilience tourism and local development, globalisa- Radical ideas for saving nature beyond the anthropocene. Verso. tion, and sustainability degrowth strategies, territorial plan- Butcher, J. (2021). Covid-19, tourism and the advocacy of ning, geographic and gender issues and critical perspective degrowth. Tourism Recreation Research, https://doi.org/10. in tourism studies. 1080/02508281.2021.1953306 Macià Blázquez-Salom is a full Professor in the Department of Butcher, J. (2022). Debate on de-growth in tourism: Reply to Geography at the University of the Balearic Islands. He teaches Higgins-Desbiolles and Everingham. Tourism Recreation and researches on tourism, sustainability, and land use plan- Research, https://doi.org/10.1080/02508281.2022.2130504 ning. He has been visitor scholar in universities of Mexico Cañada, E. & Izcara, C. (2021). Turismos de Proximidad. Un Plural (Toluca and La Paz), Nicaragua (UNAN), Dominican Republic en Disputa [Proximity tourism: a disputed plural]. Icaria. (INTEC), Austria (Salzburg), Germany (Rurh-Bochum), Sweden D’Alisa, G., Demaria, F., & Kallis, G. (Eds.). (2015). Degrowh: A (Mid-Sweden) and the Netherlands (Wageningen). As a way vocabulary for a new era. Routledge. to link activism and research, within the framework of Fletcher, R., Blanco-Romero, A., Blázquez-Salom, M., Cañada, E., Radical Geography and Political Ecology, he collaborates with Murray, I., & Sekulova, F. (2023). Pathways to post-capitalist social movements in Spain, particularly in the Balearic Islands tourism. 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