Why extreme tourism is here to stay

Mobility, tourism and a sense of adventure are so firmly embedded in the lifestyles of rich countries, we simply can't stop travelling, argues Peter Burns, professor of tourism at Brighton University

·Patrick Barkham on extreme tourism

·Gallery: extreme tourism


No journey too far ... a yurt camp in the desert of Mongolia. Photograph: George Steinmetz/Corbis

I spent last Thursday and Friday at a conference on tourism and heritage. Not really extreme tourism, but it did allow me to share the views of colleagues who have had a lifetime trying to figure out various aspects of tourism. Not so much the nuts and bolts of how the industry works as a sector, but more what it means in modern society.

It was as complicated as I thought it was going to be. There was the whole business of addressing the seemingly disarming question, "Why is there so much tourism?" You can answer this in several ways. First, the easy stuff about increased post-war leisure time, cheap holidays and the potent mix of technology, willingness to travel "abroad" and the money to do it. Then we entered the more complicated arena of asking what the social (rather than economic) drivers of tourism are.

If you think about it for a moment (and most people don't), tourism is very complicated (yes, I know that as a tourism professor I would say that, but bear with me for a moment). I recently described it as being political, cultural, and ideological, often referred to as the world's largest industry. But it goes beyond that.

Adrian Franklin, an Australian tourism academic, reckons it is a "relentless force" that is "re-ordering society". What does he mean by this? Well, in his view (which I increasingly share), the way we act in our everyday lives is becoming more like that of a tourist: we want to live near easily available Italian or Vietnamese food; we follow the urge to take photos of the most mundane subjects; we go out for drinks mid-week and not just at the weekends - it may not exactly fit your personal profile but the service economy is expanding in ways that stretch fare beyond the needs of holidaymakers: we are all tourists now!

In an essay provocatively titled Tourists and Vagabonds, the sociologist Zygmunt Bauman described it as "the only acceptable form of human restlessness", which in a way has to be a precursor to his idea of "liquid modernity" in which society and technology changes so fast we never have time to catch up before the next idea comes along. Francesco Bonami, who curated the delightful exhibition Universal Experience: Art, Life, and the Tourist's Eye at the Hayward at the end of 2005, even goes so far as to say: "Whether we travel or not, the modern world increasingly forces us to conform to modes of behaviour that mimic the rituals and structures of tourism and the psychology of the tourist". Here we are back to Franklin.

So, if we believe any of this stuff (and I do), we clearly need to see tourism as more than a supply chain ending in deckchairs and ice-creams. It is part of the mass-mediated society which has spawned tourists who fulfil their dreams in landscapes, ethnoscapes, heritagescapes. I could go on, but you get the picture.

All this leads us to the underlying causes of extreme tourism. But first, what do we mean by the term? Probably nothing more than the phrase implies: going to obscure places and doing obscure things while suffering hardship (I jest, but you see where this is going). The routine answer to the environmental and social problems of tourism in remote or sensitive places is to cut back or even stop. I would have agreed 10 years ago. I am not so sure now. Along with the rest of society, I am confused by the contradictory messages I am bombarded with: don't travel by plane, it contributes to greenhouse gas emissions (but do go to New York as the dollar is weak and you can get there for £199); use biodiesel in your car (but maybe don't because it's contributing to deforestation).

Given the argument that mobility, tourism, travel (and dare we say a sense of adventure) are firmly embedded in the lifestyles of rich countries, we can't simply stop. Just as we can't, in all honesty, imagine a world without flights, we can't even consider a world without tourism, including extreme tourism.

Instead of simply viewing tourism as a series of impacts, we have to consider the benefits it brings to people who may not have many economic opportunities. I am not simply playing the industry card here, I have seen economies transformed by tourism. What is often lacking is proper planning and controls that ensure benefits spread to all parts of society including the poorest. Extreme tourism is here to stay and, as far as I am concerned, so long as the only ones suffering are the tourists, then good luck to it!

· Peter Burns is professor of Tourism and Development at the University of Brighton

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