Social Capital and Tourism Development: Insights from a Peripheral Destination

doi:10.7176/ejbm/13-22-09

Abstract

There has been a growing emphasis on understanding the nexus between tourism and social capital from different contexts. This study aims to develop an in-depth understanding of the influence of social capital on tourism development from a peripheral destination context of the Sundarbans, Bangladesh. In this vein, a qualitative case study approach was adopted to gather empirical evidence primarily through qualitative semi-structured interviews with relevant stakeholders. Thematic analysis was adopted to interpret the gathered data. Findings of the study reflect that bridging and linking capitals play a critical role in community-involved tourism development in the Sundarbans. Furthermore, the study reveals that the absence of trust and misuse of power can threaten tourism development in the observed context. This study contributes to the broader literature of tourism-social capital nexus and extends our current understanding in reference to a developing country’s peripheral destinations. Keywords: Social capital, peripheral destination, linking capital, the Sundarbans, Bangladesh DOI: 10.7176/EJBM/13-22-09 Publication date: November 30 th 2021

Highlights

Understood as the connections among individuals or groups, the concept of social capital permeates various structural and cognitive features that influence horizontal and vertical cooperation (Castiglione et al, 2008; OECD, 2001; Putman, 2000)
While the extant literature seemingly evidenced a reciprocal relation between tourism and social capital, this study aims to understand and reconfirm the relationship in the context of a peripheral destination in Bangladesh
Our analysis reveals that tourism development initiatives within the research setting require attention to detail to the social capital elements including social networks, norms of reciprocity, and trust

Summary

Introduction

Understood as the connections among individuals or groups, the concept of social capital permeates various structural and cognitive features (networks, norms and values, trust, etc.) that influence horizontal and vertical cooperation (Castiglione et al, 2008; OECD, 2001; Putman, 2000). Within the growing consideration for social aspects in tourism, social capital has been emphasized with a call for understanding from different contexts, especially from non-western contexts (Mura & Tabakoli, 2014; Moscardo et al, 2017; Rahman et al, 2021). Responding to the above call, this paper aims to develop an in-depth understanding of the nexus between social capital and tourism development in the context of a peripheral destination, namely the Sundarbans, in Bangladesh. The Sundarbans Reserve Forests (SRF) is the largest mangrove forest in the world and remains one of the most popular tourism destinations in Bangladesh, which has been broadly featured for community-involved ecotourism development (Hoque et al, 2018). Regardless of the growing popularity of community centered tourism initiatives (in this region), little has been explored in terms of social aspects of such tourism development, emphasizing social capital

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