An overestimated relationship? Violent political unrest and tourism foreign direct investment in the Middle East

Although the tourism industry is increasingly globalising, empirical research on the accompanying foreign direct investment (FDI) is surprisingly lacking. Furthermore, the nexus of political risk, violent political unrest and tourism FDI has been relatively neglected. Using Egypt as a heuristic case study and adopting a qualitative methodology, this paper explores the question of how political risk and violent political unrest influence tourism FDI. Surprisingly, the results are not able to corroborate a clear relationship between the two. In contrast, these results indicate that the role of stability and security for tourism FDI in developing countries has largely been overestimated in the…

Zur Zukunft der Analyse von Globalisierungsprozessen – (k)ein Sündenbock sozioökonomischer Realitäten

Johannes Kessler & Christian Steiner Das Schlagwort Globalisierung ist seit vielen Jahren in aller Munde. Nach wie vor - steht jedoch ein erheblicher Forschungs- und Informationsbedarf bezuglich dieses Pha- mens und seiner Auswirkungen. Der wissenschaftliche Bereich ist gefragt, die mit Globa- sierung einhergehenden komplexen Prozesse zu analysieren und fundierte Informationen uber die Globalisierung und ihre Folgen zur Verfugung zu stellen. Das vorliegende Buch versammelt zu diesem Zweck die Beitrage einer gleichnamigen interdisziplinaren Tagung, die im November 2006 an der Johannes Gutenberg-Universitat Mainz stattfand. Die Tagung wurde von uns in Kooperation des Geographischen Instituts …

Political Instability, Transnational Tourist Companies and Destination Recovery in the Middle East after 9/11

The change and mobility of images is one of the main forces influencing contemporary tourism. Tourists decide whether to travel to a destination or not on the basis of changing destination images. This is especially true for tourism destinations in the Middle East and North Africa after 9/11. But how do security related destination images affect the actions of the supply side agents? While the impact of incidents of violent political unrest and the consequent changes in destination images on tourist behaviour has been subject to wide academic research, there is a lack of similar studies concerning the supply side. The interdependencies and interactions of transnational hotel companies, loca…

Facetten der Globalisierung: Zwischen Ökonomie, Politik und Kultur

Johannes Kessler & Christian Steiner Das Schlagwort ?Globalisierung? ist seit vielen Jahren in aller Munde. Nach wie vor - steht jedoch ein erheblicher Forschungs- und Informationsbedarf bezuglich dieses Pha- mens und seiner Auswirkungen. Der wissenschaftliche Bereich ist gefragt, die mit Globa- sierung einhergehenden komplexen Prozesse zu analysieren und fundierte Informationen uber die Globalisierung und ihre Folgen zur Verfugung zu stellen. Das vorliegende Buch versammelt zu diesem Zweck die Beitrage einer gleichnamigen interdisziplinaren Tagung, die im November 2006 an der Johannes Gutenberg-Universitat Mainz stattfand. Die Tagung wurde von uns in Kooperation des Geographischen Institut…

Sectoral Transformations in Neo-Patrimonial Rentier States: Tourism Development and State Policy in Egypt

This article challenges claims that liberalising state regulated markets in developing countries may induce lasting economic development. The analysis of the rise of tourism in Egypt during the last three decades suggests that the effects of liberalisation and structural adjustment are constrained by the neo-patrimonial character of the Egyptian political system. Since the decline of oil rent revenues during the 1980s tourism development was the optimal strategy to compensate for the resulting fiscal losses. Increasing tourism revenues have helped in coping with macroeconomic imbalances and in avoiding more costly adjustment of traditional economic sectors. Additionally, they provided the p…

Tourism, Poverty Reduction and the Political Economy: Egyptian Perspectives on Tourism's Economic Benefits in a Semi-RentierState

Abstract Tourism's potential as a tool for poverty reduction in developing countries is still part of an endless controversy. This paper argues that one of the main problems of the debate is rooted in a missing nexus between micro- and macro-perspectives. The result is a lack of an adequate consideration of local socio-political power structures and their influence on development issues. Macro-perspective paradigms – like dependency or neoclassic theory – tend to argue from a Euro-centric perspective and largely ignore local political conditions. On the other hand, micro-perspectives – like the alternative development paradigm – emphasize local conditions, but tend to underestimate superior…

From heritage to hyper-reality? Tourism destination development in the Middle East between Petra and the Palm

Tourism destination development in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) has been remarkably strong in the last few years, but different types of destinations vary in terms of degree of success. While classical European-centred heritage tourism destinations, such as the Nile valley in Egypt and Petra in Jordan, have been stagnating, other destinations, such as Egypt's coastal resort of Sharm El-Sheikh and the emirate of Dubai, are booming. The expansion in the latter destinations has been enhanced by the construction of new development projects such as El Gouna, Ibn Battuta Mall, Burj Al Arab, and The Palm Islands. Drawing on the work of Eco and Baudrillard, this article interprets these …

Globalisierung und Tourismus: Paradiese unter Palmen auf Kosten der Armen?

Politics, Economics and Tourism Development in Egypt: insights into the sectoral transformations of a neo-patrimonial rentier state

This article challenges claims that liberalising state-regulated markets in developing countries may induce lasting economic development. An analysis of the rise of tourism in Egypt during the past three decades suggests that the effects of liberalisation and structural adjustment are constrained by the neo-patrimonial character of the Egyptian political system. Since the decline of oil-rent revenues during the 1980s tourism development has been the optimal strategy to compensate for the resulting fiscal losses. Increasing tourism revenues have helped in coping with macroeconomic imbalances and in avoiding more costly adjustment of traditional economic sectors. Additionally they provided th…