Tourism Development and the Question of 'Stasis': A Case Study of Internal Leisure Travel in Gabon

The thesis looks into the under-researched phenomenon of ‘stasis’ that can be observed in many emerging tourist destinations in the world. Stasis—defined here as non-growth—has been essentially addressed in the tourism literature from the perspective of operational constraints. However, in this thesis it is argued that such an approach neglects to consider these constraints as outcomes of deeply sedimented and chronically reproduced structural properties. In other words, the study attempts to gain an understanding of why operational constraints fail to receive response in destinations experiencing stasis. With its focus on stasis rather than on change, the study adopts an innovative approach to tourism development, intending in this way to add to destination development theories.Accordingly, the examination of the research problem is integrated into the general reflection on the development of tourist areas, composing the theoretical background of the study. Moreover, two important methodological decisions are made with the aim to better grasp the dynamics of tourism development within stasis. A first decision is to dissociate the quantitative aspects of destination development from the qualitative ones, introducing two distinctive constructs named destination growth and destination shaping. A second decision is to address the research question from a strategic relational approach to structure and agency. The use of a structure-agency approach is decisive in appraising the extent to which structural constraints affect tourism stakeholders’ actions. The phenomenon is explored empirically from a critical theory perspective and a qualitative approach based on a single case study. The case under scrutiny is Gabon, a politically stable destination with acknowledged tourism assets and a tourism strategy adopted in the past decade. Gabon is examined essentially for its function as internal leisure travel destination. The analysis thus includes both domestic and international tourism, but limits itself to leisure travel. The study results indicate that, in the case of Gabon, structural properties and their rigidity explained a great deal of operational constraints and their continuity over time. However, and while structural properties adversely affect destination development, including growth, tourism initiatives are still able to emerge. These tourism initiatives are varied in that they are undertaken by different types of actors, they have different goals and take different forms. Yet, very few of these tourism stakeholders are in a position to modify the country’s structural properties due to a high centrality of social control. In such context, destination growth is primarily determined by the vested interest of a small circle of agents with social power. In conclusion, a country’s structural properties need to be regarded as spatialized and temporalized tendencies having a selective effect on actors but cannot fully explain action, hence destination development. In turn, action is intended—and strategic—but results do not necessarily match initial intentions. This implies that tourism development cannot be apprehended through the sole actions of tourism stakeholders, but need a combined analysis of the interrelationships between structure and agency.Doctorat en Sciences