It is perhaps also worth noting here the ambiguity of the term ‘appropriate’. Arguments for appropriate tourism are being heard everywhere - but the vexed question of appropriate to whom or to what is left unanswered. I would suggest that for a number of interested parties, be they tour operators, international hotel chains, local indigenous beneficiaries and indeed many of the tourists themselves, we already have appropriate tourism. Vague, glib assertions as appropriate‘ to the environment’, ‘to the host community’ are not good enough. What, after all is precisely meant by the host
community - the majority, those in power (democratically elected?), or the local politicians? Is, for example,
the decision-making and development of the UK tourist industry in the hands of the ‘host community’?