Peru :land of the Incas? : development and culture in responsible, homestay tourism in Peru

Abstract

Mass tourism and mainstream development have been widely criticised as continuing in the colonial legacies of market integration on highly unequal terms, failing to benefit local people and for causing environmental and cultural destruction. Responsible, homestay tourism, where tourists stay in local peoples’ homes in the rural areas of largely developing countries, proposes an alternative to mass tourism. It has emerged within sustainable development principles of working to benefit local people and to protect ‘fragile’ natural environments and traditional cultures. However, homestay tourism privileges global markets to deliver the interdependent agendas of development and cultural revival. It is this central assumption that market mechanisms will bring sustainable development, that has largely been left unchallenged in popular and academic discussions of responsible tourism and that this thesis examines. Travel to experience other cultures and to benefit others is a deeply rooted cultural practice among certain sectors of UK and, more widely, Northern1 societies. Notions of elite travel as the pursuit of educational experiences have been normalised through the legacies of the ‘Grand Tour’. Moreover, imaginations of travel as a quest to discover ‘new’ lands, resources and peoples originated in and drove colonial exploration. The idea of travel to benefit others can be traced to imperialism’s moral project, the missionary movements and the ‘civilizing mission’, whose ideals and goals arguably carry through into development discourses. While often seen as an alternative to more exploitative mass tourism, homestay tourism could be argued to validate these contentious imaginative legacies. It provides spaces for contact between tourists and ‘exotic’ peoples, while claiming to bring developmental benefits. Moreover, it offers a product to fulfil Northern, middle-class consumers’ tastes for niche, exclusive and ethical products. This thesis aims to explore the neo-liberal approaches to sustainable development embedded in homestay tourism by bringing together a critical analysis of the intersecting genealogies of colonialism, development and class-based tastes in travel. Moreover, it examines the home as an emerging space of commodity culture. It combines these theoretical perspectives with a multi-sited study of homestay tourism in Peru. Sites are studied across multiple scales and include popular and promotional material (guide books, travel company brochures and websites), international development agencies’ policy documents and interviews with key actors from international development agencies, Peruvian State agencies, NGOs and responsible travel agents and indigenous community tourism association leaders. It also draws on observations recorded and photographs taken during participating in homestays during fieldwork in Peru. Drawing on postcolonial critiques of tourism, post-development perspectives that highlight the professionalisation of the development industry and literature exploring the historical legacy of colonialism and modernisation in Peru, this thesis proposes that homestay tourism needs to consider more deeply the assumptions on which it trades. It suggests that the absence of critical reflection within the industry seriously weakens its radical claims of offering an alternative to mass tourism and mainstream development.