The high level of vertical integration in the tourism industry, involving western travel agencies, airlines and hotels, means that much of the economic gains do not reach the country that is the
tourism destination. Even within that country, most of the profits go to the
elite, the middle people, persons already wealthy and with political influence.
Some of those are not even of the same ethnic group as the people who are
the objects of tourist attraction, as with Mestizos in Peru or Kikuyu in Kenya
(van den Berghe, 1980: 381–3; Sindiga, 1984: 33; Crick, 1989: 316–17; Bruner
and Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, 1994: 443).
Relatively little trickles down to the locality that is the tourist destination.
However, the little that does trickle down is still very significant