Towards a gendered political economy of water and tourism

Abstract

In many holiday destinations, the tourism industry exerts an enormous strain on water supplies. This generates a range of social problems, not least because local inhabitants often have to compete with the tourism sector over the access, allocation and use of water for their personal and domestic needs. Nevertheless, there has been very little academic research on the link between tourism and the impact of water scarcity on destination populations in developing countries. While there is a wealth of literature on gender and tourism development, such research has tended to focus on employment relations and tourism policy and planning, neglecting ecological issues such as water. Drawing on original ethnographic research conducted in Tamarindo, Costa Rica, in 2013, this paper makes a preliminary attempt to address this gap in the literature by developing a gendered political economy approach to water in tourism development. Three key themes are identified from this research: the salience of intersectional inequalities of gender, class and nationality, in particular the different experiences of Nicaraguan women, Costa Rican women and women from the Global North; how the role of social reproduction is vital to understanding gender and water in Tamarindo due to enduring assumptions about women's perceived responsibility for water; and the gendered dimensions of conflicts over water. Such conflicts are highly gendered and contribute to reshaping of power relations in this international tourism destination. In conclusion, we argue that our findings demonstrate the need to pay attention to both intersectionality and social reproduction, as well as to identify a future research agenda for developing a gendered political economy approach to tourism and water.

在很多度假地;旅游业给水资源供应造成巨大压力。这产生了一系列社会问题;特别是当地居民为了人和家禽的需要经常与旅游部门争夺水资源;但是鲜有研究把旅游与水资源缺乏对发展中国家度假地居民的影响关联起来。尽管在性别与旅游发展方面有丰富的文献;但是这些研究往往着眼于就业关系与旅游政策规划;忽视了诸如水之类的生态议题。本文利用2013年在哥斯达黎加塔马琳多做的民族志研究;通过发展一种旅游发展中的水资源议题的性别政治经济学的方法尝试填补这一研究缺口。本研究识别出三个主要议题༚不同地区在性别、阶级与民族方面存在明显的不平等;特别是尼加拉瓜妇女、哥斯达黎加妇女和来自北半球的妇女对这些议题有不同的体验༛由于长期以来大家有一个假设;就是认为妇女对水资源承担责任;所以社会再现对理解塔马琳多性别与水资源议题非常重要༛以及水资源的冲突存在性别方面的维度。这些冲突是具有高度的性别特性;并且有助于重新塑造了这一国际旅游目的地中的权力关系。总之;我们认为需要注意地区间关系与社会再现议题;同时本研究识别出了未来应用性别政治经济学方法研究旅游业与水资源议题的研究议程。

Keywords:

• Gender
• water management
• power relations
• gendered political economy
• intersectionality
• social reproduction
• Costa Rica

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Maria Diaz Madrigal for invaluable research assistance and great company during field work; and the University of the West of England for their funding of the field work.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The field work was supported by the University of the West of England.

Notes on contributors

Stroma Cole

Stroma Cole is a senior lecturer in tourism geography at the University of the West of England. Stroma combines her academic career with action research and consultancy, most recently looking at tourism and the abuse of water rights in Tamarindo Costa Rica; Kerala, India; and Bali, Indonesia. She is a director of Equality in Tourism, an organisation dedicated to promoting gender equality in the tourism sector.

Lucy Ferguson

Lucy Ferguson has published on gender and tourism topic in journals such as Review of International Political Economy, International Feminist Journal of Politics and Journal of Sustainable Tourism. She has also conducted training and policy work on gender in tourism with a number of institutions, including UNWTO and Kuoni Travel. Lucy is a Director of Equality in Tourism, an organisation dedicated to promoting gender equality in the tourism sector.