Mass International Tourism as Migration: The Case of the Maya Riviera, Mexico

Tourists often travel to escape the realities of their ¡°real life,¡± and find a destination for ¡°rest and relaxation.¡± R&R is shorthand for stepping outside of the political, economic and social realities of home. Mass global tourism is motivated to a great extent by such escapism. The movement of millions of people from the global North to the global South also mimics colonization projects that include sending ¡°settlers¡± as a strategy to appropriate spaces, both physical and political. Therefore, the tourist who feels ¡°apolitical¡± in fact is participating in a demographic phenomenon that has important political implications. This paper argues that mass tourism should be considered part of a global neo-colonial initiative that seriously distorts local political, economic and social processes in favour of non-local interests. Tourism is thus seen to be a key tool of globalization and Western appropriation of the global South.