The Development of Community-based Tourism: Re-thinking the Relationship Between Tour Operators and Development Agents as Intermediaries in Rural and Isolated Area Communities

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to invoke a Foucauldian framework in order to re-think the development of community-based tourism by focusing on the relationship between intermediaries and rural and isolated area communities in Papua New Guinea. Foucault's concepts of power/knowledge and governmentality provide a 'way of thinking' about this relationship that challenges the dominant discourse of the tourism industry. To further elaborate these alternative concepts, the researchers lead a discussion through a number of areas that impact on the development of community-based tourism. These include the introduction of western models of management and their ability to undermine traditional forms of knowledge, the conceptualisation of the tourist destination as interactive space, and a critique of the tourism industry through poststructuralist feminist theory. From these perspectives community-based tourism or ecotourism suggests a symbolic or mutual relationship where the tourist is not given central priority but becomes an equal part of the system.