Community,state and power-relations in community-based tourism on Lekhubu Island,Botswana

ABSTRACT

This paper presents the results of a study investigating power relations between the local community and the state in the rural tourism development process in Botswana. The study was carried out in Mmatshumu and Letlhakane villages of the Boteti sub-district in Botswana. These villages act as the administrative centres of a community-based culture and heritage tourism project at Lekhubu Island. The Island is, itself, located about 45 kilometres to the north east of these villages. A qualitative research approach, utilising seven focus group discussions with members of the community and 17 individual interviews with key informants was adopted. To understand the power relations between the state (through the TAC) and the local community, the study focused on; the extent to which members of the local community feel they control tourism development process in Lekhubu Island; perceived level of power yielded by the state in the tourism development process at Lekhubu Island as well as; the implications of power differentials between the state and community for tourism development at Lekhubu Island. The results show that, contrary to the popular narrative about devolution of power in community-based tourism, the state remains a very powerful player in the overall decision-making process. Furthermore, the formation of local management structures (i.e. Trust) appears to simply create new power nodes which in turn continues the same legacy of community disempowerment.     

Visitor Management,the Development of Sustainable Cultural Tourism and Local Community Participation at Chogha Zanbil,Iran

Abstract

Chogha Zanbil, an Elamite ziggurat and UNESCO World Heritage Site in Iran, has considerable potential as a cultural tourism destination but currently it receives a surprisingly small number of visitors. The site has seen a successful international conservation project over the past decade: now it needs a complete heritage strategy, which will give sufficient weight to developing sustainable tourism in a way that ensures the site's conservation, as well as its effective presentation to the public. This paper combines existing approaches to sustainable cultural development with primary research in Iran, including interviews with different stakeholders. It uses the Chogha Zanbil case study to suggest how visitor management strategies and cultural tourism can equip a site with the necessary tools to receive visitors and manage their impact while generating revenue for the site's maintenance and preservation. It also highlights the importance of local community participation in this process and provides examples of how local villagers can participate in, and benefit from, the development of sustainable cultural tourism at Chogha Zanbil.     

Project Narratives: Investigating Participatory Conservation in the Peruvian Andes

This article shares findings from a participatory assessment study of a community-based environmental monitoring project in the Peruvian Andes. The objective of the project was to generate evidence to support sustainable livelihoods through participatory knowledge generation. With the use of narrative framing, the study retrospectively reconstructs the project's trajectory as perceived by the three stakeholder groups: the community, the researchers, and the implementing NGO. This analysis reveals discrepancies between the stakeholder groups both in their view of the course of events and their understanding of the purpose of the intervention. However, while the storylines depict differing project trajectories, they often agree in terms of long-term goals. The study also uncovers some neglected positive externalities that are of considerable significance to local stakeholders. These include community-to-community knowledge transfer, inter-generational knowledge sharing and ecosystem knowledge revival. The article illustrates how assumptions and expectations about participatory projects are encapsulated in narratives of positive change despite the limited level of agreement among stakeholders about what such a change should comprise. It sheds light on development narratives and their power to shape stakeholders’ perceptions in accordance with their beliefs and priorities. This is of special importance for ecosystem governance projects, which are sensitive to normative differences and subject to competing claims.     

Indigenous Tourism and Processes of Resilience – About Communicative Strategies among Tourism Workers in Québec

ABSTRACT

Tourism is a well-known way of life for an increasing portion of the world's indigenous communities, and it has taken tortuous paths and undergone changes in approach and meaning.

Indigenous tourism is examined here within the theoretical framework of resilience, focusing on development, communication and justification. Men and women and their perspectives on space, time and spatial relations are the crucial agents in these processes. Based on an empirical study in Québec, Canada, we show that the impact of indigenous tourism includes networks within the local community at the regional and national levels, as well as translocal networks and relationships. Communicative processes are essential for achieving resilience, communicating identity within families and the community, and giving a voice to a political project. We argue that indigenous tourism works on several geographical levels and that these levels intersect and have the potential to increase resilience if they interact. Our study supplements resilience development theory by highlighting the need to consider communities as parts of networks. It also contributes to the field of tourism research by emphasising communication on several levels.     

Using PP GIS interviews to understand residents’ perspective of European ecological network Natura 2000

ABSTRACT

Sustainable nature-based tourism was brought to the public's attention as a solution to the problem of economic diversification in Central and Eastern European (CEE) communities included in European Ecological Network – N2000. However, Natura 2000 tourism development has not yet proven to be an effective way to boost local economies and the notion of sustainable tourism based on Natura 2000 resources has been challenged by residents of the CEE communities. The study goal was to explore issues concerning Natura 2000 tourism from the perspective of local residents within three municipalities of Ma?opolska in Poland to determine if Natura 2000 is perceived by local residents as a valuable tourism asset. We employed a mix-mode methodology: an in-depth interview and public participation GIS mapping task. The study results highlight several areas of concern regarding resident perspectives of Natura 2000-based tourism: first, the misconception that residents need and want nature-based tourism when other economic activities provide sufficient income; second, the misconception that Natura 2000 is considered a valuable asset when other tourism attractions in a municipality attract more visitors; third, the residents misconception of nature-based tourism itself; and last but not least the importance of engaging with residents when assessing the potential for Natura 2000 tourism. These findings can assist policy-makers and tourism managers with prioritizing avenues for further action.     

Collaboration and Partnership Development for Sustainable Tourism

Abstract

For many years, the need to improve sustainability in the tourism industry has been widely recognized. Many destinations have attempted to move toward sustainability, but unfortunately, have been hindered in their attempts by a lack of collaboration among stakeholders that is necessary to support their sustainability agendas. Collaboration, specifically through multi-stakeholder partnerships, has been seen as an effective way to support initiatives in tourism development. Through the lens of Gray's collaboration theory and Selin and Chavez's tourism partnership model, the success of collaboration and partnerships in tourism development on the island of Gili Trawangan, Indonesia, will be examined. Through a multi-method approach consisting of an environmental audit and semi-structured interviews, this paper explores the implementation of a multi-stakeholder partnership. The partnership that has been developed, called the Gili Ecotrust, provides an example of successful collaboration, leading to the implementation of innovative sustainability initiatives on the island.     

Asset-based community development as applied to tourism in Tibet

This article is one of the first tourism studies to adopt the asset-based community development (ABCD) approach. It explores the potential of the ABCD approach to tourism development as a poverty alleviation strategy. The study was undertaken in Lhasa, Tibet. Photo-elicitation interviews, focus group interviews, and a questionnaire-based survey were used. It was found that the Tibetan young hosts had a good knowledge of local assets. They identified five categories of local assets as having the most potential to be developed as tourism attractions in the near future. The identified tourism assets were world heritage sites, religious sites, traditional Tibetan yards, daily life and customs, and Tibetan medicines – the last four assets were undeveloped ones. Clear perceptions on the value of the assets, as well as the difficulty and desirability of their development in the future were also mapped, using repeated measures one-way analysis of variance. Through the process of assessing the tourism assets, this study identified in a preliminary way that adopting the ABCD approach to poverty alleviation through tourism is feasible. By mapping other assets in the community (e.g. human, social, financial, and physical), a further and more complete test of the approach can be undertaken. Examining these assets may also reveal more ideas for the community's common future. Theoretically, this work adds to the conceptual approaches for community-based tourism development work. Methodologically, this study illustrates research techniques for obtaining emic voices in a marginal and politically charged environment. The extensive use of the participants’ images as a basis for discussion was of particular note. Practically, this research offers both general and detailed suggestions for the Lhasa Government and its community work, especially ways to approach and access community perspectives.     

Evolutionary economic geography: reflections from a sustainable tourism perspective

ABSTRACT

Evolutionary economic geography (EEG) is receiving increasing attention from tourism geographers with over 30 publications explicitly incorporating EEG into tourism between 2011 and 2016. Many of these contributions are conceptual, which is not surprising given the novelty of EEG within economic geography, in general, and tourism, in particular. However, a sizeable number of these are built on detailed case studies, using EEG as an analytical lens rather than as a conceptual point of departure. Thus, many tourism researchers have found that EEG has great potential for understanding change in tourism destinations. In this Research Frontiers paper I critically reflect on this early research of EEG in tourism geographies from a sustainable development perspective. In the cases presented, EEG offers a fresh understanding of two related challenges in each of two separate aspects of sustainable tourism development. First, pro-growth governance models can be disrupted by engaged local stakeholders in order to make tangible sustainability gains but these gains remain precarious over time as pro-growth governance models prove tenacious in the very long-term. Second, regional institutional legacies hamper new path emergence in two ways – through institutional inertia which keeps the region's focus on past success in other sectors and through the (possibly competing) institutional imperatives of the dominant and emerging tourism sub-sectors or sub-regions. These challenges are illustrated through two complementary Canadian cases drawn from the extant literature – the mass tourism destination of Niagara and the resort community of Whistler. I highlight how a sustainable tourism perspective can also help to critique EEG theory and empirics in line with other recent political economy critiques in economic geography. I conclude that sustainable tourism, at its best, is an established reflexive lens which will help to develop, validate, and challenge aspects of EEG theory within tourism studies, in particular, and economic geography, in general.     

Tourism and Sustainable Development on the Isle of Eigg,Scotland

Although the concept of sustainability has long permeated the literature on tourism and its development, the research on sustainability in tourism rarely reaches beyond the industry level to examine how tourism contributes to the sustainable development of a given destination in wider terms and how effective such processes can be in different economic, environmental and socio-cultural settings. The aim of this paper is to contribute to this important, yet under-developed, research agenda. The paper focuses on the Isle of Eigg – a remote community-owned Scottish island that has recently committed itself to becoming more sustainable and that seeks to rely on inbound tourism as the most important means to this end. It is demonstrated that tourism plays a key role in enhancing the economic stature of Eigg residents and that, rather than undermining, it strengthens the community cohesion on the island. Despite this, its contribution to the island's environmental sustainability cannot always be taken for granted and some trade-offs between these three kinds of sustainability cannot therefore be avoided. Moreover, economic sustainability on Eigg should not be considered synonymous with economic self-sufficiency.     

中国社区旅游模式探讨——以徽州古村落社区旅游为例

综合国内外社区旅游研究文献,认为社区旅游不能进行界定,而只宜于进行描述。本文在此基础上提出了社区旅游描述性工具--社区旅游连续统。并结合徽州古村落各自的特点,对古村落社区旅游及相关策略进行探讨,认为古村落社区的弱势地位导致了社区旅游的非持续性态势,因而古村落社区应充分利用旅游发展促进社区发展的基础上,以"第三条道路"理念为指导,贯彻权利义务对等的原则,对所有社区旅游的利益相关者的要求进行折衷与选择,并结合各村落的旅游发展阶段,确定社区参与的层次和内容。     

Inclusive tourism development

ABSTRACT

In the light of growing inequality globally, it is important to consider how to make tourism, one of the world's largest industries, more inclusive. This concern is set in the context of, first, the growing use of tourism as a tool for social integration in Europe, not least in relation to making refugees welcome, and second, new expectations in the sustainable development goals (SDGs) that development should be inclusive and that the Global North and the private sector will take more responsibility for this. We provide a definition and suggest elements of an analytical framework for inclusive tourism, and note where inclusive tourism sits in relation to other terms that engage with the social and economic development potentials of tourism. Elements of inclusive tourism are illustrated with reference to a range of examples from around the world. This illustrates how marginalized people might be ethically and beneficially included in the production and consumption of tourism. However, it also demonstrates how formidable the challenges are to achieve substantial social change through inclusive tourism given constraints both within the sector and in the wider political economy.     

国外旅游扶贫研究进展

在相关概念辨析的基础上,对国外旅游扶贫理论、实践模式、效果、研究方法、相关国际组织的作用进行了综述。国外旅游扶贫形成了较为系统的理论体系与研究框架,为旅游实践提供了理论支持。从研究内容看,自然旅游、遗产旅游、农业旅游、社区旅游是旅游扶贫的主要方式;从扶贫效果看,旅游扶贫对当地经济有较大的促进作用,但需要合理的规划与操控才能可持续。旅游扶贫研究方法以宏观的定量研究为主,研究案例呈现地理集中性。今后应加强城市贫困问题、精准旅游扶贫及中国旅游扶贫案例的研究。     

Community sustainability and resilience: similarities,differences and indicators

Sustainability has been a core conceptual framework for community development since the approach was popularized in 1987, although in its essence it reflects a long history of environmental conservation reactions to industrialization. Resilience, as a framework for understanding and approaching community development, emerged more gradually out of ecological studies in the 1980s, but has only recently, since the mid-2000s, emerged as a focus of public interest as a way of responding and adapting to the planet's growing anthropogenic changes. For many, sustainability and resilience are slightly nuanced perspectives on the same phenomenon. For others, however, there are distinct differences between them, with sustainability's conservation goals being in opposition to the adaptation goals of resilience. Two major reasons for these confusions are (1) both concepts are defined and used in many different ways to achieve a variety of political goals that may not reflect their core definitions, and (2) both concepts share similar goals and some common approaches, such as a focus on climate change and seeking a balance between humans and nature. Returning to the core definitions of conservation and adaptation helps to clarify their similarities and differences, as well as to articulate indicators for understanding how each applies to community tourism development. Indicators from research in rural Taiwan tourism communities were therefore based on responses to the questions: What does the community want to conserve and how do they want to do it (sustainability)? What do they want to change and how do they want to do it (resilience)? Preliminary results suggest that the new ideal community is the one that is both sustainable and resilient.     

旅游规划中的若干问题

旅游规划的基本范畴不外乎5W2H,但因各范畴的内涵及其相互关系的复杂性,旅游规划仍然存在着难以解决的矛盾。本文章就此展开讨论,旨在提醒旅游规划者、经营管理者细分游客市场,突出产品特色,客观合理地看待旅游效益,根据经营管理者的特点制定旅游发展战略,统筹安排区域旅游开发事宜,多角度评价旅游规划,特别要注意逆向规划,守住生态环境底线,确保旅游资源的可持续利用及旅游业的可持续发展;     

古村落旅游社会文化影响:居民感知、态度与行为的关系——以广西龙脊平安寨为例

以龙脊平安寨为例,从居民感知的视角,通过构建结构方程模型对古村落的旅游社会文化影响进行研究,探讨居民主体因素与旅游社会文化影响感知、社区发展满意度及行为倾向之间的关系。主要结论:(1)居民文化认同感越强,对旅游社会文化影响的正向或负向感知越强。(2)居民的旅游参与程度越高,对旅游社会文化影响的正面感知越强。(3)居民对旅游社会文化影响的正向或负向感知越强烈,对社区发展的肯定或否定评价越强。(4)居民对旅游社会文化影响的正向或负向感知越强烈,其支持或反对旅游开发的行为倾向越明显。研究还对旅游开发中古村落的社会文化传承和发展提出建议。     

社区参与和旅游业可持续发展

在旅游业迅猛发展的同时,旅游地问题日益突出,促使人们重视旅游与社区关系问题的研究,从社区的角度思考和寻求实现旅游业可持续发展的可行途径。目前,我国旅游学界对社区参与的研究方兴未艾,但仍然缺乏社区参与的历史演化进程的纵向分析和归纳研究。本文通过分析社区参与旅游发展的阶段性特征,将其划分为四个阶段:个别参与、组织参与、大众参与和全面参与,并描述了"近S形"的总体发展曲线;在此基础上,文章提出:为实现旅游业可持续发展,防止旅游地衰落和旅游地社区解体,社区应该全面参与到旅游业发展过程;当前,社区参与需要在旅游规划、旅游地环境保护、旅游地社区文化维护等三个方面得到加强。     

旅游发展中居民态度与社区问题研究--以江苏省无锡市(马山)太湖国家旅游度假区为例

旅游发展不可避免地会引发一些社区问题,这些社区问题与当地居民的社会经济生活密切相关,并直接或间接影响着当地居民对旅游发展所持的态度。该文以无锡市(马山)太湖国家旅游度假区为例,在详细的实地调查所得数据的基础上,运用SPSS(11.5)统计软件,衡量了马山居民对旅游发展的态度及对社区问题的重要性感知,并对两者之间的相关关系与可信度进行了分析。     

Tourism development,rights consciousness and the empowerment of Chinese historical village communities

In recent years, China's tourism researchers have started to pay attention to the empowerment of rural communities. Current theoretical research and social practices reflect that tourism needs to seek localized empowerment with respect to different types of tourism destinations. This paper, taking Furong Historical Village in Zhejiang Province as a case study, examines a special kind of Chinese historical village community in which the villagers’ consciousness of their rights is weak and tourism development is only in its initial stages. Based on the field surveys, this paper points out four roots of such a community's disempowerment: (1) the failure of political institutions to ensure the community's public interest; (2) accusations of historical villages ‘damaging protection’; (3) information asymmetry in the relationship between rural leaders and villagers; and (4) a sense of powerlessness in the daily lives of rural residents. Based on these findings, this paper suggests several empowerment paths: (1) placing the enhancement of psychological power as the core of community empowerment; (2) addressing villager empowerment needs according to different types, rather than generalizing a community as a whole; and (3) including a diversity of subjects in the process of empowerment. These empowerment paths would be a moderate extension toward increasing community empowerment, based on this empirical study.     

The Power of Place: Tourism Development in Costa Rica

Abstract

In this paper, I question how representations of tourist destinations color and are colored by development. Presenting the results of ethnographic fieldwork conducted on the southern Caribbean coast of Costa Rica, I find that the authenticity of portrayals of place is important not for its veracity, but for the social work it performs. Authenticity is not merely socially constructed but expressive of social relations which value people and places. Tourist perceptions of the caribe sur as genuinely underdeveloped—gauged by an analysis of photos and guidebooks as well as surveys—produce an approach to resource use within the community that is limiting. Because the value of the place is its underdevelopment, development itself constrains the possibility of sustaining further growth. Ultimately, reading development via place can be a guide for critically appreciating contemporary patterns of tourism and sustainable development in the caribe sur and elsewhere.     

Sustainable Tourism Planning and Consultation: Evidence from the Project INTER.ECO.TUR

Expansion of territories targeted by travellers and growth of attendance rates make tourism sector of significant interest for the implementation of policies on environmental protection at the European Union (EU) level. The need to protect local natural heritage, to integrate tourism industry development policies with the ones pertaining to other sectors that characterize a given territory and to enhance the overall environmental performance are some of the priorities that may appear conflicting at times. This paper discusses a method of analysis and planning aiming to promote potential directives of local governance. This method, representing the outcome of a process coordinated and shared across territories, is oriented towards the sustainable development of the area and refers to the implementation of integrated policies, The Interreg Eco Tourism (INTER.ECO.TUR) project, co-financed by the European Commission under the EU's INTERREG IIIC, provided the research with a useful case study to analyse the dynamics of sustainable tourism development within the European Mediterranean area. The debate of its results offers evidences on the possibility to develop such a governance process effectively, providing insight into an assessment methodology enriched by a clear-cut analysis of its applied experiences.