Unethical Issues In Vanuatu's Tourism Industry: An Essay.

In preparing your analysis, you must answer the following questions:

1. Identify and discuss the prime ethical and governing issues presented in the Vanuatu's Broken Dream video.
2. Did PO Cruises act ethically in this case? Justify your answer.
3. Who should be responsible for rectifying issued that you have identified? Why? Explain your reasoning.
4. Discuss how Australian and/or Vanuatu’s governments could have resolved identified issues.
5. Suggest at least three recommendations to overcome such issues in the future.

The Relevance of Tourism in Developing Countries

Every country in the world has different economic activities. These activities are mainly used by the locals in a particular area to benefit themselves and the whole country in general. Some of these activities which locals in different countries view as to where their sources of income is generated from include mining agriculture fishing and tourism. As much as a single country can have all the sources of income generators mentioned in their borders, different parts of the country rely on specific resources. According to Reddy (2012), 75% of countries that are not landlocked consider tourism as one of their most important resources as they stand to benefit quite a lot from it. Tourism is viewed as one of the critical revenue earners in developing countries. Based on a research paper by (Mihajlov 2012), tourism contributes an average of 15% of the GDP in developing countries. This, therefore, goes to underline the relevance of tourism to the growth of not only the countries but also individuals. All this can only be achieved through the management of the revenues that tourists have brought.

An example is in Vanuatu, an area that was and still is blessed with the beauty and relaxing nature that always attracts tourists. What some may consider as tourist heaven. When cruise liners started arriving at Vanuatu, the residents were quite happy. This was not only because they will be able to meet new people but also because they knew that tourism is going to enrich their lives regarding reduction in poverty rates (Wittersheim, 2011). This was to come as a result of all the revenues that they knew they were going to receive. However, this did not happen due to all the unethical issues that are happening.

The first major unethical issue is the high levels of corruption. This is evidenced by the lack of development in the villages. This is seen as the living standards of the people leaving in the area has remained the same despite the constant presence of tourism. It is a well-known fact to the villagers in the area that the money is not going back to them but to corrupt officials who continue to enrich themselves as they pretend to manage the distribution of resources from the money obtained from tourism. Another grappling issue is the apparent nepotism. This goes hand in hand with corruption as when the corrupt individuals get the money they enrich themselves and even an instance was mentioned in the port villa. This is the rich capital where officials would sell land to their relatives at very low costs (Cheer and Peel, 2011).

Unethical Issues in Vanuatu's Tourism Industry

In addition to corruption and nepotism, there is also favoritism. This is seen as the corrupt officials allow the tourists to build a toilet on the island while the locals have lacked any form of such facility (Pratt, 2013). In addition to that, there is evidenced forms of negligence. This is evident as the tourists do not feel the empathy of either sharing with the locals the facilities or helping them build one. All this is seen to have happened due to the greed of certain individual who valued their interests other than the whole countries interests after independence.

The liner company known as P & O, have played a great role in the promortion of  injustice to the people of  their area. This has ben evidenced by their relactant approach. This is evidenced as despite all the issues affecting the people, the only company which brings tourists in the area does not help in the development of the area. In addition to that, seem corrupt as they are seen as the only company which can access the islands. This is because, instead of championing for the improvement of the facilities in the tourist destination, it is encouraging the lack of development by allowing the government to mistreat and misappropriate funds that were meant to be used to benefit the villages in raising their living standards (Reddy, 2012). The company also seems corrupt as it seems to be the only travel company that is seen to be bringing tourists to that area. This means that they are the company is in cahoots with the government in the web of corruption that is affecting the residents of the area.

So as to rectify this mess, different people must take up their roles and perform their tasks efficiently. The entities include the:

Vanuatu Government: they should put in place measures that ensure a reduction in the corruption rate at the same time ensuring accountability. This way the people of the area will stand to benefit in general. This could be done through placing strict rules on misappropriation of funds (Cassidy and Brown, 2010).

The islanders themselves: as much as they are the ones suffering, part of the blame lies in them. This is because most of them are afraid to speak and identify the individuals who might be dragging them down. However, some people are trying to change this such as Barnabas (Zeng and Ni, 2014). He has been seen as a champion for democracy as he is not afraid to take charge of different aspects in the community such as educating people.

Entities Responsible for Change

The private Cruise Company: this company should also be responsible. This is because all the trips that they have sailed to the islands, they have hardly done any specific project for the community (Buckley and Kinaston 2014). Therefore the company should at the very least help raise funds to improve the living standards of their destination of choice. This can be done through the creation of an improved water system for the community. This would not only help the area residents but also tourists as they will be more encouraged to visit the area.

To prevent these situations from happening various methods could have been implemented. An example is the imminent capture of the section of veteran leaders who had personal motives by the government of Vanuatu. Klint (2013) indicates that these are the leaders that set the trend that is eventually eating up the whole area. External assistance from outside especially Australia might have been hard at that particular time, but that would have helped the Vanuatu government in the capture of the corrupt individuals.

The Australian Government- through the AUSAID. Over the years the Australian government has been struggling as much as possible to assist the country. They have been  giving the country about $4.5 million yearly (Cassidy and Brown, 2010). This should change and the AUSAID should come up with specific project that help the country rather than giving them money which may end up in the pockets of greedy officials.

To change the way things currently are in the areas the following should happen.

1. The government of Vanuatu should ask for external assistance from other countries such as Australia to not only help in the capture and detention of corrupt individuals but also in the provision of basic commodities such as schools and toilets. In addition to that they should set up a taskforce that can investigate and un-biously reveal the identities of the individuals who are unfairly benefiting from the booming tourisim business in the islands.
2. The people of Vanuatu should raise up as one and name out the specific individuals that they know are swindling their money (Dick, 2014).after that is done they should come up with an efficient method of monitoring the money flow in the country. This can only be done through raising up in arms and championing for their rights to elect visionary leaders and not opportunist leaders.
3. After the identification of the individuals, the government of Vanuatu should be swift in dealing with the culprits in a harsh was to discourage other individuals from practicing unethical behaviors (Buckley and Kinaston, 2014). This xcan be done by implementing harsh penalties to individuals found in such scandals. An example is the life imprisonment sentence for officials found capable of commiing the act of  corruption or nepotisim.

References

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Buckley, H.R., Kinaston,., 2014. Scurvy in a tropical paradise? Evaluating the possibility of infant and adult vitamin C deficiency in the Lapita skeletal sample of Teouma, Vanuatu, Pacific islands. International Journal of Paleopathology, 5, pp.72-85.

Cassidy, F. and Brown, L., 2010. Determinants of small Pacific island tourism: A Vanuatu study. Asia Pacific Journal of Tourism Research, 15(2), pp.143-153.

Cheer, J.M., and Peel, V., 2011. The tourism–foreign aid nexus in Vanuatu: Future directions. Tourism Planning & Development, 8(3), pp.253-264.

Cheer, J.M., Reeves, K.J. and Laing, J.H., 2013. Tourism and traditional culture: Land diving in Vanuatu. Annals of Tourism Research, 43, pp.435-455.

Kelly, G.C., Hale, E., Donald, W., Batarii, W., Bugoro, H., Nausien, J., Smale, J., Palmer, K., Bobogare, A., Taleo, G. and Vallely, A., 2013. A high-resolution geospatial surveillance-response system for malaria elimination in Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. Malaria Journal, 12(1), p.108.

Klint, L.M., 2013. “Buoyancy–bifo and afta”: a climate change vulnerability/resilience framework for tourism–the case study of Vanuatu dive tourism (Doctoral dissertation, Centre for Tourism and Services Research).

Mihajlov, M., 2012, June. Cruise Tourism and Vanuatu. In Tourism, Cultural Landscapes and Sustainable Livelihoods Symposium, Poppy’s on the Lagoon (Vol. 29).

Reddy, M.V. 2012. Tourism, climate change, and sustainability. Routledge.

Zeng, X. and Ni, S., 2014. Evidence for an independent 26-s microseismic source near the Vanuatu Islands. Pure and Applied Geophysics, 171(9), pp.2155-2163.

Pratt, S., 2013. Same, same but different: Perceptions of South Pacific destinations among Australian travelers. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 30(6), pp.595-609.

Dick, T., 2014. Vanuatu water music and the Mwerlap diaspora: Music, migration, tradition, and tourism. AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples, 10(4), pp.392-407.

Wittersheim, É., 2011. Paradise for sale. The sweet illusions of economic growth in Vanuatu. Le Journal de la Société des Océanistes, (133), pp.323-332.