The international political economy of tourism and the neoliberalisation of nature: Challenges posed by selling close interactions with animals

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the inter-relationships between neoliberalism, tourism and nature. It argues that scholars of international political economy (IPE) need to engage more fully with the role of nature in driving forward the logics of neoliberalism. Most scholars view nature as a source of accumulation or as an object of governance, but this paper uses the neoliberalisation of nature debate to extend our understandings of neoliberalism. In particular, global tourism has targeted and opened up new frontiers in nature, which serves to expand and deepen neoliberalism to a wider range of biophysical phenomena. This paper uses the case of elephant tourism to demonstrate how tourism is not just reflective of neoliberalism, but is in fact a key driver of it, acting as an environmental fix for capitalism. Further, this paper takes up the challenge of research on ‘actually existing neoliberalisms’ via engagement with locally specific contexts and emerging forms of socio-nature in the Thai tourism industry. It reveals how neoliberalism redraws the boundaries of access to nature, thereby shifting the distribution of costs and benefits. Hence, nature is one of the primary ways in which neoliberalism is constituted, albeit in a highly differentiated way. This reminds us not to reify neoliberalism and accord it a greater degree of power and coherence than it really has.

KEYWORDS:

• IPE
• neoliberalism
• nature
• tourism
• Thailand

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I acknowledge the generous support from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) for funding this research, grant number RES-000-22-2599 (title: Neoliberalising Nature? A Comparative Analysis of Asian and African Elephant Based Ecotourism). I am very grateful to Dr. Lorraine Moore for her insights and work in this project. I thank three anonymous referees for their very constructive comments. Finally, this research would not have been possible without the support of the Thai Elephant Conservation Centre and Maetaman Elephant Camp. This paper is based on fieldwork conducted during 2008 for a comparative study of tourism in Botswana and Thailand. It involved a total of three months fieldwork in Botswana and three months in Thailand, including 75 interviews in Kasane, Maun and Gaborone (Botswana) plus Bangkok and Chiang Mai (Thailand) as the main centres of elephant based tourism.

Notes

Interview with Dr Janaka De Silva, Coordinator of Projects, Thailand Programme, IUCN Asia Regional Office, Bangkok, 6 March 2008. Also see http://www.iucn.org/about/union/secretariat/offices/asia/asia_where_work/thailand/?5559/Thailands-Andaman-aspirations (accessed 26 January 2011).

Interview with Sobthana Anprasert, Assistant Director, Tourism Authority of Thailand, Northern Region Office 1, Chiang Mai, 18 March 2008. Also see the official website of The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), http://www.tourismthailand.org/ (accessed 26 January 2011).

World Tourism Organisation figures for 2010 available at http://85.62.13.114/media/news/en/press_det.php?id=6961 (accessed 18 January 2011); also see http://www.unwto.org/index.php (accessed 18 January 2011).

Observations from Maetaman Elephant Camp, 7 April 2008; Mae Sa Elephant Camp, 10 April 2008; and TECC, 13 March 2008 and 10 April 2008. Also see http://www.maetamanelephantcamp.com/; http://www.maesaelephantcamp.com/; and http://www.changthai.com/ (accessed 20 January 11).

Interview with Sobthana Anprasert, Assistant Director, Tourism Authority of Thailand, Northern Region Office 1, Chiang Mai, 18 March 2008.

For further information on OTOP see http://www.thai-otop-city.com/ (accessed 23 January 2011). OTOP covers a range of products including chemicals and foodstuffs, not just craft products. For further information on the Sunday Market, or ‘Walking Street’ see http://www.embracechiangmai.com/index.php?page=sundaymarketchaingmai (accessed 23 January 2011).

Interview with Sobthana Anprasert, Assistant Director, Tourism Authority of Thailand, Northern Region Office 1, Chiang Mai, 18 March 2008. Also see the official website of The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), http://www.tourismthailand.org/ accessed 26.01.11

Interview with Caroline Marsh, Trekking Collective, Chiang Mai, 10 March 2008.

Interview with Rachet Wapeetha, branch office and project development manager, East-West Siam Tour Operator/Manager of Lisu Lodge, Lisu Lodge, 16 March 2008; observations by the author, Lisu Lodge, 16 March 2008; also see http://www.asian-oasis.com/hilltribes-trekking/lisu-lodge (accessed 22 January 2011).

Interview with Dr. Janaka De Silva, Coordinator of Projects, Thailand Programme, IUCN Asia Regional Office, Bangkok, 6 March 2008.

Interview with Caroline Marsh, Trekking Collective, Chiang Mai, 10 March 2008; also see http://www.trekkingcollective.com/ (accessed 26 January 2011); this issue was also raised in an interview with Tee, Trekking Guide, Pooh's Eco Trekking, Chiang Mai, 10 March 2008, also see http://www.pooh-ecotrekking.com/ (accessed 24 January 2011).

Interview with Tee, Trekking Guide, Pooh's Eco Trekking, Chiang Mai, 10 March 2008, also see http://www.pooh-ecotrekking.com/ (accessed 24 January 2011).

http://www.elephantreintroduction.org/eng/act_en.html (accessed 20 January 2011); and interview with Richard Lair, Thai Elephant Conservation Centre, Lampang, 13 March 2008.

Interview with Richard Lair, Thai Elephant Conservation Centre, Lampang, 13 March 2008.

Interview with Somchat Changkarn, Mahout Training School, TECC, Lampang, 20 March 2008. Interview with Pat, Theerapat, Patara Elephant Farm, Chiang Mai, 6 April 2008 (see also Scigliano, 2004).

Interview with Prasop Tipprasert, Elephant Specialist, Forest Industry Organisation/Chief of the Training School for Thai Elephants and Mahouts, TECC, Lampang, 20 March 2008; Pers comm Pornsawan Pongsopawijit, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Chiang Mai University, 17 March 2008.

Interview with Prasop Tipprasert, Elephant Specialist, Forest Industry Organisation/Chief of the Training School for Thai Elephants and Mahouts, TECC, Lampang, 20 March 2008; Pers comm Pornsawan Pongsopawijit, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Chiang Mai University, 17 March 2008; Interview with the Manager Thai Permanent Life exhibition, Thailand Cultural Centre, Bangkok, 25 March 2008.

Interview with Somchat Changkarn, Mahout Training School, TECC, Lampang, 20 March 2008; for further information on Anantara Resort see http://goldentriangle.anantara.com/Elephant-Camp/default.aspx (accessed 22 January 2011).

Interview with Somchat Changkarn, Mahout Training School, TECC, Lampang, 20 March 2008; also see http://www.changthai.com/ (accessed 22 January 11) for further details on the mahout training programmes.

Interview with Anchalee Kalampimjit, Manager Maetaman Elephant Camp, owner of the Elephant Life Experience Camp, Maerim, 7 April 2008–8 April 2008.

http://www.elephantnaturepark.org/ (accessed 9 November 2010).

http://www.kuoni.co.uk (accessed 7 April 2011).

www.MaeSaelephantcamp.com (accessed 20 January 11); http://www.chiangdao.com/nest (accessed 20 January 2011).

Interview with Caroline Marsh, Trekking Collective, Chiang Mai, 10 March 2008; Interview with Prasop Tipprasert, Elephant Specialist, Forest Industry Organisation/Chief of the Training School for Thai Elephants and Mahouts, TECC, Lampang, 20 March 2008; and Interview with Rachet Wapeetha, branch office and project development manager, East-West Siam Tour Operator/Manager of Lisu Lodge, Lisu Lodge, 16 March 2008.

Interview with Richard Lair, Thai Elephant Conservation Centre, Lampang, 13 March 2008.

Interview with Prasop Tipprasert, Elephant Specialist, Forest Industry Organisation/Chief of the Training School for Thai Elephants and Mahouts, TECC, Lampang, 20 March 2008.

‘A Jumbo Feast to Trumpet Elephant Day in Thailand’, The Times (U), 14 March 2009, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article5904308.ece; I also attended the National Elephant Day celebrations at the TECC in 2008, and because the TECC is the national institution for elephant training the celebrations drew large crowds and a lot of media interest.