Theories of Dependency and Tourism

The theory of dependency arose and emerged in the 1950s as a contradiction to another theory that prevailed at the time, the theory of modernization.It emerged from the empirical observation of Latin American countries, whose main focus was to investigate the causes of underdevelopment.He argues that the cause of underdevelopment consists of a number of parameters that have a negative impact on conciliation between countries.However, the concern of underdevelopment is not limited only to external influences, but is coexisted and assisted by the presence of internal distortions over time, which do not have the potential to cope satisfactorily in the international economic system.Therefore, the dipole, external and internal effects, are the parameters that create dependency conditions.While, in the beginning, the theory focused on underdevelopment and a defined production structure of Latin American countries, the advent of tourism and the parallel expectation 1 that it would be a driving force for growth, 2 turned the interest of many countries to the specific economic activity and at the same time the interest of many researchers in order to determine whether this claim, i.e. that tourism will create growth, has empirical verification.The majority of a series of studies from the 1980s onwards show that the tourism industry has such a structure which, combined with structural dysfunctions of the geographical areas receiving tourists, re-induces conditions of dependence and excessive leakage of the profit of tourism activity, while only one study 3 of Angel-Turegano, in limited geographical boundaries and under specific constraints, shows the lack of dependency conditions.Concluding the present study and with a spirit of positivity, which, however, wants a new in-depth investigation, taking into account other parameters, 4 is the assumption that when parameters that create the conditions of dependence are identified, then tourism also operates under these conditions and is not tourism, as an economic activity, the cause of dependency, at least, to a certain extent.Purpose: The present study attempts to record the different versions and points of convergence in the theory of dependence and to identify whether its content has undergone changes over the years as a result of social and economic transformations.At the same time, it will be attempted to identify the extent of the impact of the theory of dependency on the productive sector of the economy, which has even been characterized as a pillar of growth, tourism.Methodology: Approaching the international literature and studies related to the development of dependency theory, as well as the application of theory in the context of tourism activity.