Online Opportunities and Challenges for Indigenous Cultural Tourism in Australia

Abstract

Tourism is seen as an industry that has the potential to provide sustainable economic foundations for indigenous communities in Australia. This article identifies online technology as contributing to the capacity for indigenous communities to access the benefits of tourism. Indigenous communities engaged in tourism can utilize the Internet to supply the tourism product as well as deliver much needed cultural support messages around the product in both domestic and international markets. However, limited skills, costs, and physical access barriers have made it difficult for indigenous communities to effectively use online technologies to benefit from the opportunities. This article examines the context of indigenous tourism in Australia as a prelude to a discussion of the issues relating to Australian indigenous tourism going online; it also provides an overview of how the Tourism dotcom initiative has approached the task of developing capacity among indigenous cultural tourism suppliers.