Community-Based Tourism Planning: An Application of the APPA Approach to Ansted, West Virginia

Abstract

Rural communities throughout the world have been struggling with developing effective ways to improve their quality of life while without losing their rural atmosphere. Community-based tourism planning has been regarded as an effective means of achieving this dual goal. This article applied the Appreciative Participatory Planning and Action (APPA) approach to a rural community town of Ansted in West Virginia, USA, whereas the tourism assets, tourism development priorities and challenges, and tourism products/markets were identified for the town. In addition, residents' attitudes toward tourism development in the town were also examined. The results indicate that local residents' attitudes were highly positive and homogeneous. The majority did not believe that issues from increased tourism would be a problem for the community. Rather, they were more disposed toward tourism development for local economic development and benefits. The article concludes that tourism planning for the town cannot be conducted and implemented independent of regional planning and development that involve other factors or economic activities such as coal mining in this study. In addition, community-based tourism planning cannot be separated from community planning as a whole and should be integrated into other aspects of community development programs.