Tourism and Borders

Contemporary Issues, Policies and International Research

Helmut Wachowiak

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• eBook ISBN: 9781317009665
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Sciences physiques
• Subtopic: Géographie

Although globalization has led to increased cross-border traffic, there has been little examination of how crossing political boundaries affects tourism and vice versa. Bringing together case studies from Europe, the USA and Southern Africa, this volume discusses current issues and policies, destination management and communication, and planning in cross-border areas. Topics studied include borders as tourist attractions and destinations in their own right, as barriers to travel and the growth of tourism, boundaries as links of transit and the growth of supranationalism. The book concludes that the role of borders has changed dramatically in recent years. Many more borders that have traditionally hosted large-scale tourism are becoming more difficult to cross, primarily because of safety and immigration concerns. On the other hand, places that were once forbidden to foreigners are now opening up and new destinations are becoming more commonplace.

PART I
Conceptual Issues and Policies

Chapter 1

Relationships between Tourism and International Boundaries

Dallen J. Timothy
Arizona State University, USA

Introduction

Every day millions of people cross international borders for a variety of reasons. Primary among these is to work in a neighboring country. In addition to this, however, millions more people cross each day for purposes directly opposite of work–leisure. In most cases, people cross some form of political boundary every time they leave home for a weekend, go on an extended holiday, and in many cases they cross municipal, or city boundaries to dine out, watch a movie, or go skating. While these lower level boundaries, such as municipalities, counties and states or provinces, appear to have little effect on tourism and recreation, this is an unfounded assumption. In most cases, these lower administrative boundaries have significant bearings on property and sales taxes, education, law enforcement, public utilities, and social services. While these issues are closely linked to tourism in many ways, the most notable boundaries from a tourism perspective are found at the international level.

Because borders are places where political entities collide, economies converge, and cultures blend, they are perhaps one of the best laboratories for studying the globalization process. Likewise, tourism, one of the most globalized of all industries, has many unique characteristics. When the two, borders and tourism, run together, several interesting and unique relationships become evident: boundaries as tourist attractions and destinations, borders as barriers to travel and the growth of tourism, boundaries as lines of transit, and the growth of supranationalism, to name but a few. This chapter describes and examines some of these relationships between international boundaries and tourism. The author has written extensively in the past about many of these issues, so much of this chapter will be a re-evaluation process based on his previous work and more recent observations and empirical material.

The appeal of borders

Crossing international boundaries has fascinated people for centuries. Even as early as the fourteen century, boundaries were being marked in Europe, and people were crossing them with citizenship papers and special permissions. In most places at that time, however, borders were vague areas of dubious political control, where exact borderlines were few and far between. Today, however, most international boundaries have been clearly defined and well marked on the landscape, and they are even more of an attraction than they have been in the past.

Political boundaries as tourist attractions may be seen from two main perspectives (Timothy 1995; 2001; 2002). First, the borderline itself, including the demarcation indicators, fences, walls, and guard towers, exude considerable appeal for curiosity seekers. This is especially the case with famous borders (e.g. the former Berlin Wall and the North-South Korean DMZ) or where the methods of demarcation provide an interesting contrast in otherwise ordinary landscapes.

For example, until the 1990s, lookout platforms in West Berlin provided opportunities for spectators to look across the ‘Iron Curtain’ into the communist east – an experience that highlighted ideological differences in ways of living, economics, and political landscapes (Elkins and Hofmeister 1988; Koenig 1981). The ‘Golden Triangle’, the point where Thailand, Myanmar and Laos meet, has become a rather important tourist destination from the Thai side of the border. Thousands of tourists visit the location each year to have themselves photographed at the Golden Triangle monument on the bank of the Mekong River. Similarly, visitors to Basle, Switzerland, commonly find themselves peering at the monument that marks the place where Germany, France, and Switzerland meet at a single point. Many examples of these types of border curiosities exist in North America, Europe, Asia, Latin America, and Africa. Research and commentary demonstrate that wherever a borderline is clearly marked, visitors will have an interest in standing astride it, hopping over it, or leaning against it for photo opportunities.

Perhaps the simplest manifestation of the ‘border as attraction’ phenomenon is people’s propensity to want to straddle borderlines, so that they can claim to have been in two places at once or at least having been abroad, even if only by a few meters (Timothy 1995). It is not uncommon to find travelers stopped at ‘Welcome to…’ signs and border markers photographing and standing on them. Even relict boundaries, those that are discontinued, remain important attractions, such as the East-West Germany divide that has remained a popular site in Berlin and all along the border as a series of ‘borderland museums’ that are being promoted as important tourist attractions (Borneman, 1998; Light, 2000). In some cases, the existence of a borderline and its historical significance becomes a tourist icon for the border community’s marketing and promotional efforts.

The second way in which international boundaries attract attention among tourists and recreationists is not the line itself, but the activities, attractions, and special features of communities in the immediate vicinity of the boundary. While the line itself in these cases is not necessarily the main feature, the area’s appeal is rooted in its location adjacent to the border, which creates some kind of competitive advantage from what lies on the other side. This second perspective could more accurately be described as the border as tourist destination, while the first type might best be termed the border as an attraction. Places where the border is a destination tend to have several activities and attractions in common: shopping, prostitution, gambling/casinos, restaurants, bars and nightclubs, and liquor stores.

People who live in countries where gambling is not permitted often travel across a border to neighboring countries where it is allowed (Lintner 1991). In this situation, casinos tend to dot the landscape near border crossing points or further inland, and the majority of their clientele is from abroad. In Canada, casinos have been built near ports of entry from the United States as a way of drawing American gamblers north of the border (Nieves 1996; Smith and Hinch 1996). Another prominent example was in South Africa prior to 1994, when two of the four independent homelands, Bophuthatswana and Transkei, developed successful casinos that drew thousands of gamblers from South Africa and other nearby countries, where gaming was not permitted (Stern 1987). With the re-integration of the homelands into South Africa in 1994, the casinos were permitted to continue functioning and have therefore ceased being a border phenomenon. A similar situation exists in Swaziland, an independent kingdom also surrounded by South Africa.

Alcohol consumption also tends to be associated with border communities. This is especially the case where drinking ages are lower on one side, when purchasing limits are not enforced or are legally lower, or where the cost of alcohol is less expensive. This is one of the main reasons the Mexican border towns grew to such notoriety as exotic playgrounds for Americans. During the prohibition period (1918-1933), when alcohol was not permitted to be manufactured or sold in the United States, hundreds of thousands of Americans poured over the border to quench their thirst for liquor (Arreola and Curtis 1993). Today, the bars and liquor stores are still an important part of the tourist districts there, as prices are much lower than in the United States, and IDs are typically not checked at bars, so that even American high school students are able to drink south of the border (Arreola and Madsen 1999). The same phenomenon gave rise the ‘booze cruises’ between Great Britain and France and between Finland and Sweden during the 1970s, 80s, and 90s wherein people crossed the English Channel and the Baltic Sea in search of alcohol at duty-free prices (Essex and Gibb, 1989; Hidalgo, 1993; Peisley, 1987).

Prostitution tends to be associated with bars and dance clubs in border areas. This activity grew quickly along with alcohol consumption in the Mexican border towns, especially those that are situated near major US military installations to fill the lonely nights of military men. Some countries have strict anti-prostitution and anti-pornography laws, which drive many visitors to neighboring countries in search of sexual gratification (Arreola and Curtis 1993; Curtis and Arreola 1991; Timothy 2001).

Shopping is among the most popular activities undertaken in border communities, usually spurred by the existence of cheaper products, lower taxes, wider arrays of goods, and different hours of operation in neighboring countries. This phenomenon can be found at international borders everywhere, even in fairly remote locations. Rarely do people cross to purchase souvenirs – rather, most products in demand are everyday, household items, such as clothing, food, shoes, cleaning supplies, electronics, jewelry, and gasoline (Michalkó and Timothy 2001; Timothy and Butler 1995). A couple of unique patterns are associated with cross-border shopping. First, there appears to be a notable spatial pattern, wherein the closer a person lives to the border, the more frequently he/she will cross for smaller items (e.g. petrol, groceries, and cigarettes). The further one lives from the border, the less frequently he/she will cross, but the items purchased will be bigger (e.g. clothing, electronics, and appliances) (Timothy and Butler 1995). Second, there is a notable seasonal pattern in most forms of cross-border consumption. Popular shopping holidays, such as Christmas and Easter, tend to see higher levels of consumption. Long-haul out-shopping trips abroad (e.g. from Europe and Japan to North America) are also on the rise. Also, levels of cross-border shopping tend to be higher during long breaks, such as summer vacation and major holidays, suggesting that there is a significant pleasure element involved rather than it being simply a rational, economic activity.

In North America, a unique form of cross-border shopping has developed in recent years, namely buying pharmaceuticals and health care. This exists in other parts of the world, too, where people travel to various nearby countries for surgery and other health care needs (e.g. Middle Easterners to Europe and North Americans to Latin America). Owing to the high cost of medications and health care in the United States, Americans have begun traveling across the border into Canada to purchase medications. Many also cross into Mexico for the same purpose, but also for medical and dental care. Among the most ubiquitous commercial establishments in the Mexican border town tourist zones are pharmacies, dentist offices and medical facilities.

Borders as obstacles to tourism

While borders may in many instances be significant tourist attractions and destinations, they also function as barriers to travel. In this sense, borders can be seen as either real or perceived impediments to travel. Real barriers are created when heavy fortifications are erected by a country to defend itself against threatening forces. Barbed wire fences, concrete walls, minefields, and armed guards contribute to the development of landscapes of conflict that are generally uninviting to cross (Timothy 2001). Strict immigration and customs policies may also function as real barriers to travel when citizens of certain countries are refused entry or are made to go through rigorous visa application processes or physical scrutiny when entering a country. It is not uncommon for people to choose countries where a visa is not needed over destinations that require one.

Travel to the countries of Eastern Europe during the communist period was affected by this phenomenon quite notably. Strict visa requirements to enter East Germany and Poland, for instance, deterred many people from visiting. Likewise, countries such as North Korea and Albania before the 1990s, were the strictest and most closed of all communist nations. US citizens, for instance, were not permitted entry into either country, and it was difficult at best for other nationalities to acquire visas. US citizens are still not permitted to enter North Korea, with only very few exceptions. Likewise, travel between Israel and Lebanon today is an uninviting prospect owing to war conditions and the heavy fortifications between the two countries, and virtually impossible for most nationalities because of austere military restrictions. If they were allowed, border crossings between Lebanon and Israel would be important in the realm of tourism owing to the heritage tourism linkages with a common past that exist on both sides and many cultural similarities.

Psychological, or perceived, barriers are the second type of border impediment to tourism. This is certainly the situation with borders that separate hostile neighbors or at borders that are heavily fortified and defended. However, even at friendly borders, people may feel a sense of nervousness or apprehension about crossing. Language and cultural differences, different currencies, and opposing political ideologies may contribute to some travelers’ reluctance to cross. In addition, border formalities can be an intimidating process that might keep some people from traveling abroad. Even borders as innocuous as Italy-Switzerland or USA-Canada may erect psychological barriers when it comes to customs and immigration policies and procedures and perceived differences on opposite sides of the border (Timothy and Tosun 2003). The US-Mexico border is an excellent example of a line that separates two very different entities – the developed world from the less-developed world, language and culture, history, and political systems. For many Americans, crossing into Mexico is not easy owing to different driving laws, language differences, and fears of food and quality of hygiene.

Borders as lines of transit

The third relationship between tourism and international boundaries, and perhaps the least understood, is that of borders as lines of transit. In the majority of cases throughout the world, borderlines are simply places to go beyond to get to more important destinations. Many people pass through entry procedures and then continue on to their final destinations. Typically, border crossings that have a high level of traffic flowing through them are dotted with landscape features such as petrol stations, banks and currency exchange booths, restaurants, and insurance brokers.

Another interesting transit feature of borders is that they are similar to airports in that they are typically viewed as ‘non-places’ or ‘placeless spaces’ (Travlou 2003). For instance, it is unlikely that someone flying between New York City and Los Angeles, stopping to change airplanes at the Minneapolis airport for two hours would ever consider that he/she has been to Minneapolis. Such is often the case with international boundaries. For example, many Americans visiting Mexican border towns would be unlikely to claim that they have been to Mexico. For these people, Mexico is something that lies further inland – a place that takes longer to get to and that requires more time in the destination. Thus, borders and their adjacent communities, at least in the North American psyche, become non-places, unrecognizable as Mexico, and certainly apart from the United States.

The changing role of borders today

Finally, a look at borders and tourism would not be complete without at least a cursory discussion of the changes that have taken place during the past two decades and the ongoing geopolitical transformations that are changing the relationships between tourism and political boundaries. Broadly speaking two dichotomous patterns of change exist: a decrease in the barrier effects of borders and an increase in their role as barriers.

In the realm of decreasing barriers, one of the most prominent types of change is popularly known as supranationalism (Jessop 1995; Teye 2000; Timothy and Teye 2004). As early as the mid-twentieth century, countries began to realize the value in working together to further one another’s economic development. Since that time, many supranational alliances h...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Maps
• List of Tables
• List of Authors
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• PART I Conceptual Issues and Policies
• PART II Destination Marketing and Management
• PART III Communication and Information
• PART IV International Research
• Final Word
• Index