The role of local community empowerment in the digital transformation of rural tourism development in the Philippines

Abstract

Local participation is essential in rural tourism development in the Philippines. However, as technology becomes a critical factor in the digital transformation of the rural tourism paradigm, local participation evolves into local community empowerment. How does this local community empowerment affect the transition through digital transformation? The stakeholder engagement theory was utilized to ensure the relevance of the selected informants' roles and responsibilities in the local community empowerment process. Using a purposive sample of local tourism stakeholders engaged in the digital transformation functions and responsibilities, a semi-structured interview was conducted to describe the role of local community empowerment towards a more effective digital transformation of rural tourism development. The findings revealed that as residents engage in the digital transformation process, residents are empowered based on individual, gender, political, and social aspects. Individual empowerment constitutes the improvement of technical capabilities and setting higher goals, while gender empowerment leads to gender equality specialization and breaking the glass ceiling. Political empowerment was attained through the boosting of their influence and the taking of a decision-maker role. In contrast, social empowerment promotes building industry networks and implementing a family-centric approach. This study contributes to the academic landscape on rural tourism development that determined specific factors of community empowerment essential in the digital transformation of tourism management processes.