Fulbright-winning professor takes holistic approach to ‘critical tourism’ in Indonesia

For nations seeking to benefit from the financial boon travelers can bring, there are almost always downsides, some of them dire for local populations. Tourism is a complex industry that can invoke economics, history, identity, the environment, class and power relationships, and more.

For many years, Kathleen Adams, professor emerita of anthropology, has been studying how best to minimize the inequities of tourism as part of her research in Indonesia. Adams won a Fulbright Specialist Award to visit and work with the Universitas Gadjah Mada in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, in February 2024. The Fulbright Specialist Program matches experienced academics and professionals to serve as expert advisors and consultants at educational institutions abroad, and while in Indonesia, Adams discussed with faculty and administration ways to expand the university’s curricula in critical tourism, a discipline that takes a holistic approach to the myriad issues tourism presents.

Critical tourism differs from typical tourism programs, which are skills oriented and meant to train hotel managers, guides, and planners to enter the tourism industry, Adams explains. “Critical tourism takes a theoretical approach to what tourism brings and how it transforms ecology, societies, and economics,” she says. “Indonesians have an awareness of the need to train young people in critical tourism studies, and to think analytically about tourism.”

As an example of the complexity of tourism issues in Indonesia, Adams cites a study by British researcher Stroma Cole, conducted in Bali. Cole found that tourism was guzzling so much of the fresh water supply that local wells were drying up, and infants were getting sick and dying at disproportionate rates from drinking unregulated, tainted water. On the island of Sulawesi, Adams says a local district has become a destination for tourism, but the financial rewards have been double edged. “Tourism is seen as a resource, and it does benefit some people, but the prices of vegetables and other things there have skyrocketed,” she says.

During her stay in Yogyakarta, Adams consulted with professors and university administrators to expand the undergraduate program the school has in place into a master’s program and, eventually, a doctoral program. She also strategized on how to build support for the initiatives. Adams also gave a series of lectures explaining the theories that drive critical tourism and how to demonstrate and publicize why it matters for Indonesia to create a new graduate program in the field. “It sounds like we’re just here to criticize tourism,” she says. “In fact the intent is to think analytically about all sorts of big issues involved in tourism, like how it might differently impact women versus men versus children, for instance.”

Adams made her first visit to Indonesia in 1983, and her deep knowledge of the country is quickly evident in conversation. Her interest in Indonesia was inspired by a chance meeting on a train in France, when, as an undergraduate, she shared a compartment with a family from Indonesia. Soon, her new friends were sharing photos of the cultural and artistic riches of their country, popping open their suitcases to display hand-dyed batik fabrics. “They just told story upon story upon story, and by the end of the train ride, I thought, ‘I’ve got to learn more about Indonesia.’”

Forty years later, Adams is working to ensure that learning about other cultures is sustainable. “We’re all going keep traveling in spite of all of the changes in the world, like climate change and everything else. So, I think it’s really important not just to produce tourism planners and guides and things, but people who think deeply about these matters and can be problem solvers.”

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