I find this all-inclusive hotel situation rather confusing. On the one hand we have some great qualitative examples of how things can go absolutely wrong (see torremolinos, Jamaica, Cancun) and on the other hand we have big Tour Operators telling us that there is no study that proves all inclusive hotels are in any way damaging. I mean come on! Do I need a research to tell me that bullets KILL? Having said that I guess bullets are only a tool and can also be used for a good cause (see McGuyver). I am sure there are all inclusive hotels that are actually working in harmony with the local businesses I just have to search hard and find one…
Perhaps what we should be talking about is All Inclusive Islands or all Inclusive villages. An all inclusive scheme that every business in a destination participates. It could be done and with a voucher system it could easily be implemented… restaurants offer a specially designed menu…Bars offer special drinks... you get the idea.
Anyway going back to the whole notion of all inclusive hotels and the way the system works today. It is really a shame that we do not have some undisputed research (if such a thing exists) on that matter, but I can see why it would be so difficult and time consuming. One would need to identify a hotel that is not all inclusive and perhaps is planning to become so in a year or two, and measure as many indicators as possible for the 2 years before and the 2 years after the hotel becomes all-inclusive it would then need to revisit the are after a 5 year period for a follow up research! You can see why it would be very difficult to conduct such research and by the time it was published the world would have moved on…. Perhaps an alternative way would be to measure impacts from two similar hotels in an area, one all-inclusive and one that does not offer all-inclusive packages.
Having said that I believe that with the evidence we have today we know we should be cautious and we could still have some progress by protecting the local economies by setting simple guidelines which I suggest in this article.
I know I am a hopeless romantic but I still hope that we have learned from the mistakes of past generations and that some countries and some Tour Operators will be brave enough to try a more positive approach to the issue of all-inclusives…
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