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Tourism: Sacred Cow Or Silver Bullet? University of Calgary PRISM: University of Calgary's Digital Repository Graduate Studies The Vault: Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2012-09-24 Tourism: sacred cow or silver bullet? Ambrosie, Linda Ambrosie, L. (2012). Tourism: sacred cow or silver bullet? (Unpublished doctoral thesis). University of Calgary, Calgary, AB. doi:10.11575/PRISM/28469 http://hdl.handle.net/11023/217 doctoral thesis University of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission. Downloaded from PRISM: https://prism.ucalgary.ca UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY Tourism: Sacred Cow or Silver Bullet? by Linda M. Ambrosie A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Haskayne School of Business Calgary, Alberta, Canada September 2012 ©Linda Ambrosie 2012 Tourism: Sacred Cow or Silver Bullet Dedicated to my life parter, Arne Heayn, who handed food and coffee over my shoulder because sitting still to write was more important than cleaning the refrigerator. With love and eternal appreciation to my mother, and in memory of my father i ©Linda Ambrosie 2012 Tourism: Sacred Cow or Silver Bullet Dedicated to my life parter, Arne Heayn, who handed food and coffee over my shoulder because sitting still to write was more important than cleaning the refrigerator. With love and eternal appreciation to my mother, and in memory of my father i ©Linda Ambrosie 2012 Tourism: Sacred Cow or Silver Bullet Acknowledgements The completion of this thesis would not have been possible without the support and encouragement of several special people. Hence, I would like to take this opportunity to show my gratitude to those who have assisted me in a myriad of ways. I would first like to express my heartfelt thanks to my supervisor Dr. Irene Herremans. A more supportive and considerate supervisor I could not have asked for. There were many times when I reached a block, conflict or impatience and each time Dr. Herremans was there to encourage me and offer gentle suggestions on how to proceed. She took the time to re-read numerous versions as the dissertation grew to an impressive size and took on a life of its own. She was kind with her remarks especially when my ideas were absurd. Her willingness to offer me so much of her time and intellect is the major reason this thesis was completed. I am eternally grateful to you Irene. Within the University of Calgary I have also had the support from the tourism area from Dr. Brent Ritchie who supported my bid to enter the PhD programme; Charlotte Echtner an outstanding academic and individual; and Liz Watzon from the university library who with enthusiasm and humour handled my queries on where to find information. For years, the university provided me with numerous travel grants to present the fledgling results at various conferences including the European Accounting Association, Accounting History Association, and the annual congress of the International Institute of Administrative Science. During the research and writing stage, I had the good fortune to work closely with highly committed individuals who work under often arduous conditions yet maintain a sense of humour. First is the Banco de Mexico historian Eduardo Turrent y Díaz who guided my initial investigation and contacted me with Pedro Donde Escalante and his treasure-trove of original documents. From the Universidad del Caribe in Cancún, I am grateful to Dr. Pricila Sosa Ferreira and Dr. Alfonso Jiménez Martínez with whom I had the pleasure of working on a research project which led to the development of the balance sheet. Instrumental in the balance sheet is the support of the biologist Martha Abundes Velasco who patiently spent hours explaining the local biology, biodiversity and difficulties in protecting Quintana Roo’s fragile and precious ecosystem. I am proud to count her ii ©Linda Ambrosie 2012 Tourism: Sacred Cow or Silver Bullet among my closest friends. Last but not least is the assistance from Victor Cobb who ploughed through thousands of pages of unrelated data, copy-pasting the most salient into excel documents, or directing me to important websites for original data on social outcomes. During the year 2011, I the only Canadian to be grated the Organization of American States’ graduate fellowship which provided some funds during the final stages of research. And when the behemoth was finally ready, I am grateful to the other members of my committee: Dr. Jack Mintz for his general guidance on fiscal and economic measures; Dr. Daniel Hiernaux for his stimulating debates and the recommendation of INDETEC; Dr. Denise Brown for introducing me to Instituto Nacional de Geografia and its impressive collection of INEGI documents (not to mention stimulating discussions on Mexico over wine and tequila); and Dr. Steven Smith as external reviewer who made many insightful observations and improvements to the dissertation. Finally I would like to thank my dear friends in Calgary who always leant an ear to my disappointments as well as a cheer to my discoveries. These include, but not limited to, Laurel Nichols, Johnny Ghitan, Lisa Higham, Alan Covington, Myrna Cobb, and John Newton, our designated photographer. Last and best of all, thank you Arne Heayn who was a constant source of support and encouragement (and editing) and gave my work priority even when he had a great number of things to do himself. Without his understanding, this thesis may never have been completed. I thank you all. iii ©Linda Ambrosie 2012 Tourism: Sacred Cow or Silver Bullet OVERVIEW of TOURISM: SACRED COW OR SILVER BULLET INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................. 1 PART I: CANCÚN’S ORIGINS AND THE INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF TOURISM IN MEXICO Introduction to Part I ................................................................................................ 19 Institutional and Structuration Theories ................................................................... 25 Method: Historiographic Archival Research ............................................................ 39 Institutionalization of Tourism: The Case of Cancún .............................................. 45 Discussion and Conclusion ....................................................................................... 78 PART II: FOUR DECADES OF CANCÚN’S PUBLIC FINANCE Introduction to Part II ............................................................................................. 102 Method .................................................................................................................... 108 Public Finance ........................................................................................................ 116 Sources of Revenue ................................................................................................ 126 Expenditure Analysis .............................................................................................. 166 Debt and Municipal Performance ........................................................................... 176 Benefit Analysis ..................................................................................................... 183 Discussion: A Review by Decades ......................................................................... 203 Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 241 PART III: AN ACCOUNTING SYSTEM PROPOSAL FOR SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES: A BALANCE SHEET OF CANCÚN’S SUSTAINABILITY Introduction to Part III ............................................................................................ 279 Conceptual Changes: from Wealth to Sustainability .............................................. 287 Institutionalization of GNP/GDP and the different Accountings ........................... 299 Accounting Principles and Measures of Equity ..................................................... 318 Accounting Technologies Old and New ................................................................. 338 National Wealth Models to address Sustainability ................................................. 357 Case: The Value of Marine Parks to Cancún, Mexico ........................................... 381 Marine Parks Balance Sheet ................................................................................... 383 Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 424 CONCLUSION – UNRAVELING THE MYTHS ……...……………………………… 440 iv ©Linda Ambrosie 2012 Tourism: Sacred Cow or Silver Bullet Tourism: Sacred Cow or Silver Bullet? A comprehensive study of public sector performance and sustainability of the municipality of Benito Juárez (Cancún) INTRODUCTION The industry of tourism is estimated to be directly responsible for five percent of the world’s GDP, six percent of total exports and to employ one out of every 12 people in advanced and emerging economies. Between 1995 and 2010 international tourism arrivals worldwide have doubled to nearly one billion (UNWTO, 2011, Jan). With such impressive growth, it is unsurprising that in thirty-five years following 1972, the World
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