the developing world. Evidence from evaluations of IA in developing countries suggests that
expensive and time consuming IA techniques are unlikely to be of much practical value in an
operational sense (Bisset, 1987). Although strong regulations and policies may be in place,
agencies are unlikely to have the budgets, staff, expertise or political power to enforce them
(Brillantes, 1993). Faced with these limitations, agencies tend to concentrate their efforts on
politically palatable projects or projects deemed to have potentially major impacts (e.g., heavy
industry, dams), leaving many tourism projects relatively free of regulatory controls