Tourism in Sardinia: Contribution to Development or Exploitation of Resources?

Giuseppina Solinas 
Tourism in Sardinia: 
Contribution to Development or Exploitation of Resources? 
1 
Introduction 
 
This study is an analysis of the tourism industry on the island of Sardinia in Italy.  It is 
set in a context of development and in particular, attempts to understand whether the 
tourism industry creates any cause of dependency of the island to industrialised 
countries, or cores, from where the tourist flows generates.  In order to do so, a 
research question has been set and then broken down into objectives.  The research 
question aims to investigate whether tourism helps the island development or merely 
exploits its resources, the objectives aim to focus the research on two particular 
elements of dependency: economic and social aspects of tourism on the island.  The 
reason behind the choice of this topic lays on the researcher’s knowledge of the island 
and in particular the tourism industry in Sardinia.  The chosen topic is going to be 
addressed through a sequence of chapters presented in a logical order with the aim of 
answering the research question.  
 
Chapter 1 will deal with the literature review.  All the relevant literature will be 
reviewed and used to set a context where, later in the report, Sardinian tourism will be 
analysed.  This chapter will define concepts such as development, dependence, and 
tourism.  Also, it will examine the concept of Homo Ludens as presented by Huizinga, 
where every person is a potential tourist, this being due to the ludic part present in 
each of us.  It is then believed that tourism acts as a strong capitalist machine which 
system exploits underdeveloped regions of the world such as Sardinia for business 
purposes aimed at enriching the already wealthy industrialised countries generating 
tourism.  The concept of core-periphery is therefore well illustrated according to one
Giuseppina Solinas 
Tourism in Sardinia: 
Contribution to Development or Exploitation of Resources? 
2 
of the most authoritative schools of thought in dependency of tourism, that is Latin 
American dependencia theorists such as Francisco and dos Santos.  Furthermore, the 
broader context of development and dependency will then be broken down in 
economic and social terms.  Economic aspects of dependency in tourism e.g. direct, 
indirect and induced effect, and social aspects e.g. demonstration effect and tendency 
to create enclave resorts.  This chapter will conclude highlighting alternative ways of 
tackling problems raised by dependency in tourism, with particular stress on the 
community approach. 
 
Chapter 2 is an introduction to Sardinia.  It will give general information on the island 
geography, history, and present state of development. It will also put a particular 
emphasis on the autonomous status of the island granted by Italy in 1948.  As the 
island is rich of many forms of heritage from linguistic to cultural-historical, this 
chapter will highlight them all as potential sources to be exploited by the tourism 
industry.  A brief account of the island history of development will also be given, 
which will then be brought up to the present days where economic and social aspects 
of the island will be discussed.  In this context, the tourism industry will be analysed 
according to its importance and the place it occupies within the economy and society 
of Sardinia.  To support this, some technical reports will be presented especially those 
dealing with information such as the island contribution to the regional Gross 
Domestic Product and balance of payments, and others concerned with carrying 
capacity and seasonality. 
 
Chapter 3 analyses in further details everything presented in chapter 1 and above all in 
chapter 2.  Socio-economic advantages and disadvantages of the tourism industry on
Giuseppina Solinas 
Tourism in Sardinia: 
Contribution to Development or Exploitation of Resources? 
3 
the island will be analysed in detail and supported by statistical data, and social and 
economic information of tourism to the island.  After having analysed advantages and 
disadvantages of both the social and economic elements of dependency in tourism, 
this chapter will briefly discuss the involvement of some multinational companies on 
the island and especially on some resorts such as Pula, Santa Teresa di Gallura and the 
Emerald Coast.  Once the context has been set and the island presented in all relevant 
aspects, it is now time to show what method has been used to achieve this.  
 
Chapter 4 will discuss methodological issues.  This chapter will set the research 
question and the objectives aimed to answer the question.  The way the data has been 
collected will also be explained, followed by the choice of the technique and 
instruments adopted along the research and its analysis.  A section on all problems 
encountered and limitations involved will then follow, this part is deemed to be 
crucial as it highlights important shortcomings of the research. 
 
Finally, chapter 5 will converge theory and evidence on a small case study aimed at 
proving that a situation of dependency is actually in place on the island.  This chapter 
will present all the necessary statistical evidence followed by the analysis of the most 
relevant socio-economic implications involved with the condition of dependency 
created by the tourism industry in Sardinia.  In order to give the reader a better insight 
of such a condition, a focus on the Emerald Coast is provided as a very useful 
example to support the findings.  This will then be followed by an indication on how 
to minimise negative effects and try to optimise positive ones.  This analysis will then 
lead to the last section of the chapter where alternative ways of managing tourism on 
the island will be discussed according to their importance and feasibility.
Giuseppina Solinas 
Tourism in Sardinia: 
Contribution to Development or Exploitation of Resources? 
4 
CHAPTER I 
Dependency Theory and Tourism 
The Literature Review 
 
The purpose of this chapter is to review all the existing relevant literature on 
dependency theory, the way it relates to the concept of development, and how it has 
been analysed both in economic and social terms by authoritative writers.  The review 
will then move its focus on the concept of international tourism and will highlight 
how its nature stems from the play element present in every individual.  The 
relationship between dependency theory and international tourism will find its place 
in the hands of capitalist tourism industry.  However, shortcomings of this 
relationship and the application of such theory to the tourism industry will also be 
discussed along this chapter. 
The concept of dependency derives from a broader set of theories grouped as “conflict 
theory”.  They take a macro, holistic approach of society and start from the principle 
that changes only occur through conflicts, that is through domination and 
subordination.  The dichotomy power-dependence is thus central in this theory and 
finds two of its major precursors in Charles Darwin and Karl Marx. Darwin’s clash of 
interests and Marx’s belief that the basis of society and social structure is the 
economy have formed the basis of many writers’ interpretation of the burgeoning 
European capitalist system of the nineteenth century (Sharpley, 1994).  Roxborough 
clearly follows this school of thought and defines dependency with the following 
quotation:
Giuseppina Solinas 
Tourism in Sardinia: 
Contribution to Development or Exploitation of Resources? 
5 
“Dependence can be conceptualised as a process of historical 
conditioning which alters the internal functioning of economic and 
social sub-system within an underdeveloped country.  This 
conditioning causes the simultaneous disintegration of an indigenous 
economy and its reorientation to serve the needs of exogenous markets 
(1979:42-49, in Britton, 1982:33). 
 
Although impeccable in its structure and content, Roxborough idea of dependency 
puts too much stress on the influence of the needs of exogenous markets as a primary 
factor of influence in a country state of dependency.  He probably overlooks the 
history and background of each individual country and how these would affect the 
present economic and social conditions.  Another strong shortcoming of this theory, 
and of all conflict theories in general, is the absolute macro approach given to a 
country condition of dependency.  The ability of individuals to influence and change 
society seems to be ignored as if societies and countries were entities per se, able to 
decide other entities’ destiny.  Also, Roxborough (1979) over-emphasises the negative 
aspects of dependency which are, though often present, normally balanced with 
considerable advantages too.  Dependency and conflict theory, all fall under the 
broader umbrella of development theory.  Contrarily to dependency, the term 
development does not seem to have a universally accepted definition.  Goulet 
(1968:338, in Pearce, 1989:6) addresses this issue by suggesting that the term 
development is of an ambiguous nature as it both refers to a state and a process.  In 
this context dependency too can be seen both as the present state of a particular 
country or as a process which implies a period of transition, thus not necessarily 
aimed to be permanent.
Giuseppina Solinas 
Tourism in Sardinia: 
Contribution to Development or Exploitation of Resources? 
6 
 After having defined the concepts of dependency and development, it is now 
important to understand how they fit with tourism.  The Tourism Society defines 
tourism as follow: 
Tourism is a temporary short-term movement of people to destinations 
outside the places where they normally live and work, and their 
activities during the stay at these destinations; it includes movement 
for all purposes as well as day visits or excursions (Sharpley, 
1994:30). 
The above quotation clearly defines the very nature of tourism, i.e. the movement of 
people for pleasure or other purposes, but it does not take into account many of the 
implications of such movement.  In this direction has moved the work of Huizinga 
(1995). His Homo Ludens tells us a great deal about the play element present in each 
individual which makes every person a potential tourist.  The tourism industry takes 
advantage of this exploiting the ludic part of each individual and, through the creation 
of international tourism, the resources of many underdeveloped countries where the 
Homo Ludens can go and “play”.  The pleasure periphery is thus established and 
exploited by capitalist tourism.  If we see tourism as part of the leisure industry, it is 
interesting to notice how the leisure industry has emerged in post-war years as a huge 
and expanding sector of the capitalist economy (Rojek, 1985; Ingham, in Ingham and 
Simmons, 1987).  Also Price (1980: 286) writes “En masse Homo Ludens is 
pioneering the settlement of many peripheral regions”, meaning how the tourism 
industry has been able to take advantage of the ludic part of individuals and made it 
match with the creation of subordinated parts of the world.  This is the concept of the 
core-periphery (Rojek, 1985:110) where for core powers are intended the most 
economically and military advanced societies, and for periphery is meant all of those
Giuseppina Solinas 
Tourism in Sardinia: 
Contribution to Development or Exploitation of Resources? 
7 
underdeveloped societies that constitute inelastic markets and cheap sources of raw 
material to the core, which in the case of tourism provide peripheral paradises where 
tourists can spend their leisure time.  To support the concept of core-periphery in 
tourism is a study conducted by Linda Richter (1983) where she states that of 33 
nations where tourism is a leading industry, 25 are developing nations.  This kind of 
practices used by capitalist tourism has made international tourism as a form of 
imperialism (Nash, in Smith, 1989).  
The expansion of international tourism and the creation of tourist areas take place 
according to the intentions and objective of the productive centres and their people.  
The tourist area, therefore, must have a slightly lower standard of living than the 
region where the tourist come from in order for the system to exploit the country.  
Typical geographical patterns of imperialism usually follow a down-stream direction, 
from North America to South America and from Northern Europe to Southern Europe 
are common examples.  International tourism is therefore increasingly recognised by 
dependency theorists as a powerful vehicle for metropolitan manipulation of the 
periphery.  Front-rank people in this type of study are the Latin America dependencia 
theorists such as Ronaldo Francisco and Teotonio dos Santos (1968). Francisco 
(1983:365) describes dependency of tourism in this way:  
“International system of capital and trade results in a centre-periphery 
relationship that perpetuates (even creates) underdevelopment, 
authoritarianism, military government, and international political 
servitude”. 
Of course, the Central and South American experience of strong US dominance may 
not be applied in other parts of the world with the same emphasis and manner.