The politicisation and contradictions of neo-liberal tourism

Neo-liberalism is often portrayed as a stable state, a set of social relationships designed to oppress labour and redistribute income and power to capital. In this paper it is, however, argued that it is a contradictory class settlement that has implications for tourism. Tourism is a product of and a means of constructing the neo-liberal class settlement. Yet despite the synergy between tourism and neo-liberal politics, tourism brings up issues that weaken that politics. The paper focuses on four aspects of tourism – consumerism, democracy, the work ethos and urban class politics – arguing that the relationship between this politics and tourism is contradictory in each of these areas. The result is the increasing politicisation of tourism and that is likely to weaken both neo-liberalism and tourism itself.

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