Participation In Tourism Development Research Articles

Nature‐based rural tourism and its economic benefits: a case study of Kinabalu National Park

PurposeIt has been acknowledged that tourism can play a role in employment creation and in raising the rural community's standard of living. This paper aims to examine the economic benefits emanating from tourism development for a local community in the area of Kinabalu National Park, Sabah.Design/methodology/approachQualitative data was used to provide an in‐depth analysis of the findings on willingness of residents to participate in tourism activities.FindingsThe local community of Kinabalu National Park perceive the tourism sector to have greatly contributed to their economic growth. However, the community has raised other issues in ensuring the sustainability of the park, especially in terms of the provision of facilities.Practical implicationsThe relevant stakeholders need to carefully plan appropriate policies and regulations to ensure maximum economic benefit is gained by local community participation in tourism development within the limited carrying capacity of Kinabalu National Park.Originality/valueThis study provides an understanding of the economic impact of tourism on the local community in Kinabalu National Park. It calls for government action to look into the carrying capacity of the Kinabalu National Park in the near future.

Exploring Factors Influencing Residents' Satisfaction with Tourism Development in Poverty-Stricken Areas: A Case Study of Five Poor Villages in China

As one of the key stakeholders in tourism development, residents' satisfaction with tourism development (RSTD) has an important effect on the alleviation of poverty. Despite its great significance, only limited research had been conducted by researchers to explore factors influencing RSTD in poor regions. To fill the void, this study built the proposed model of RSTD in poverty-stricken areas by structural equation modeling technique. The results indicated that (1) six key influencing factors, namely, perceived benefits of tourism development, perceived costs of tourism development, residents' participation in tourism development, distribution of personal benefits from tourism, residents' expectations for tourism development, and community attachment, were proved to be the antecedents of RSTD in poverty-stricken areas. (2) According to path coefficients between constructs, “distribution of personal benefits from tourism” was the most significant antecedent of RSTD in poverty-stricken regions. Furthermore, “residents’ participation in tourism development” also need to be paid more attention.

The Role of Local Communities in Tourism Development: Grassroots Perspectives from Tanzania

One of the core elements of tourism development is to encourage local communities’ participation as it is central to the sustainability of tourism industry. While the literature suggests a number of roles local communities could take in tourism development, little emphasis has so far been given as to how local communities themselves feel about this. As a result, there has been little evidence, especially from the grassroots, on what communities really think of their role(s) in tourism development. Using a case study of Barabarani village in Tanzania, this paper contributes to the understanding of community participation in tourism development by examining local communities’ views on their role in tourism development. The paper triangulates both quantitative and qualitative data to bring together perspectives from the grassroots based on household questionnaire survey with some members of the local community and a two-month period of field observations in the study area, coupled with the researcher’s experience with the wider community. The findings revealed that local communities want to be involved when tourism policies are being made to enable policymakers to prepare a policy that meets stakeholders’ needs and addresses their concerns. They also want to be part of tourism development decisions to ensure their needs are incorporated. Furthermore, local communities want to have a voice in development issues (not necessarily tourism development) to enable them to protect community interests, and increase transparency and accountability, and wipe out embezzlements and abuse of offices, which are rampant acts amongst decision-makers. Similar to previous studies, they rejected the statement ‘local people should not participate by any means’ in tourism development. It is clear from the findings that people are against the prevailing top-down approach in decision making when it comes to tourism development in their areas. It also depicts the nature of the central government which controls all the forms of decision making when it comes to development and policy formulation. The study emphasizes on small scale methods in analysing and assessing the role of local communities views of participation from the communities themselves rather than what has been normally imposed on them.

Influencing factors of community participation in tourism development: A case study of Xingwen world Geopark

In order to find out the influencing factors of community participation in the tourism development process, several influencing factors are summed up through field survey, questionnaires of local residents and the logistic regression analysis of the investigation datum gained from Xingwen world Geopark. Results indicated there are several key influencing factors of community participation such as the comparative benefit of tourist industry, participant residents’ subjective wishes, preference consciousness of working opportunity obtainment in the tourist enterprise and participant skills. Based on the afore-mentioned, the paper put forward several methods about how to enhance the residents’ participant degree: increasing the comparative benefit of tourist industry, enhancing the attraction of tourism for boosting participant wishes, improving the preference consciousness on obtaining working opportunity in tourism industry and cultivating residents’ participant skills through training. Key words: Community participation, influencing factors, logistic regression analysis, Xngwen world Geopark.

Behind the masks: Tourism and community in Sardinia

This paper addresses community-based tourism and raises questions concerning the meaning of the term. Desired results may not be achieved through strict application of the concept in the absence of external inputs in all but a few favoured cases. Tourism, by definition, involves links with the outside world, raising questions concerning the types and extent of inputs that can be accepted without undermining the meaning of ‘community-based’. Through a case study of tourism in Mamoiada, Sardinia, the paper addresses the concept of community and locals’ participation in tourism development. It points out the key role played by local institutions and cosmopolitan locals, who are residents with external exposure, who are able to take initiatives and act as catalysts of development. Tourism planners should carefully evaluate the institutional arrangements, including the presence of cosmopolitan locals and their involvement in the creation of competitive local attractions, for the success of tourism development.

CULTURAL COMMODIFICATION AND TOURISM: THE GOO‐MOREMI COMMUNITY, CENTRAL BOTSWANA

ABSTRACTBotswana is promoting cultural tourism to diversify the country's nature‐based tourism industry, to increase citizen participation in tourism development; and, improve rural livelihoods. The objective of this paper is to analyse tourism and cultural commodification at Goo‐Moremi Village, Central Botswana, an emerging destination for cultural tourism. Conceptually, the study is informed by the debates around cultural commodification. Using both primary and secondary data sources, culture at Goo‐Moremi Village and Gorge is considered sacred as ancestor worship controls the day‐to‐day lives of people. Ambivalence, tensions and local resistance emerge in the process of commodifying culture at Goo‐Moremi village. Some local people embrace the commodification of their culture into a tourism product because of anticipated socio‐economic benefits whereas others resist cultural commodification as a result of fears that it may devalue their culture and belief system.

Mega-events as drivers of community participation in developing countries: The case of Shanghai World Expo

Within a wide body of literature it has been argued and demonstrated that community participation in tourism development is advantageous in terms of the sustainability and effectiveness of the development policies adopted. However, over time, doubts have been raised about whether community participation should take place in developing countries. There are major concerns regarding the immaturity and the incompliance of the political and social conditions of developing countries in relation to the requirements necessary for an effective participatory planning. In this paper, we argue that mega-events, due to their wide scope and the key role that large groups of stakeholders play in their success, may represent a driver for community participation in developing countries. In order to explore our idea, we will analyse tourism development and the planning of a mega-event within the Yangtze River Delta area, driven by the organisation and preparation of the Shanghai World Expo. According to our evidence, some initial elements of participative decision-making have indeed developed around the organisation of this mega-event, even though China has historically been considered refractory towards community participation. Finally, we discuss the findings in the light of existing knowledge to elicit significant questions about community participation in tourism development within developing countries and to address further research on this topic.

Challenges of sustainable rural tourism development in KwaZulu-Natal

Tourism has emerged as one of the strategic instruments and policy tools for community and regional development in Southern Africa (Rogerson, 2007 in Saarinen, et al. 2009). Gradually, tourism is rotating to the political centre stage as an instrument of social and economic empowerment (Binns & Nel, 2002). Consequently, local government authorities have instituted initiatives for promoting tourism as a sustainable economic driver in their municipalities. Sustainable rural tourism development is widely supported because it does not threaten the integrity of the ecological and social systems upon which communities and societies are dependent. Marien & Pizam in Wahab & Pigram (2004:165) argue that since communities are constantly changing, like the nature of tourism, evaluating community’s sensitivity and associated impacts should not be regarded as an temporary event but as an ongoing process. This study focuses on the strategic development of sustainable rural tourism in the rural areas of KwaZulu-Natal, more specifically Ntambanana Municipality. The objectives of the study were as follows: (a) To identify natural and sociocultural resources that can be used for rural tourism development. (b) To assess the participation level of local communities in tourism development. (c) To establish the extent to which the tourism policies and strategies are implemented. (d) To identify the capacity of the local communities to develop tourism products. (e) To reveal the challenges that impede sustainable rural tourism development. Data from a sample size of 320 were collected and analysed using the SPSS programme. The findings of the study indicated that there is potential for natural, cultural and heritage tourism due to the existence of a variety of related resources. The findings, however, indicated that local people are not aware of these resources hence the lack of participation in tourism development. Various strategies were suggested for raising social awareness and the promotion of cultural and heritage resources in the rural area. Keywords: Tourism, rural tourism, sustainable tourism development, socio-cultural resources.

Factors Affecting the Development of Tourism Industry in Iran

This research aims to study the importance of public participation in tourism development in Iran. It is initially dealt with the phenomenon of tourism and its importance, then such factors influencing the development of tourism industry as security, citizen participation, media and information technology are stated and a conceptual model for the research is offered. It is concluded that public involvement results in better decisions and community decisions that involve citizens are more likely to be acceptable to the local people. Also, the role of government in providing security and the role of media and information technology was proved to be significant in development of tourism industry in the country.

Testing the Efficacy of an Integrative Model for Community Participation

The purpose of this study was to examine the efficacy of an integrative model for community participation in tourism development. Termed as motivation—opportunity—ability (MOA), the model integrated two streams of research, “means” and “ends” oriented studies, with the intent of providing a holistic view of community participation research. To test the hypothesized relationships, data were collected from a stratified random sample of households in Charleston, South Carolina. The data provided some support for the model; the findings suggest that the extent to which community members participate in the tourism development process depends on motivation, opportunity, and ability to participate. Practical and theoretical implications have been discussed within the general framework of community participation.

Community Participation in Rural Tourism Decision Making: A Case of Karaikudi, Sivaganga District, Tamil Nadu

Tourism is an important mechanism for economic development and the creation of employment opportunities in many countries This has attracted attention from the governments of developing countries looking to maximize economic benefits from tourism development in their own countries. Many developing countries have tried to exploit the tourism industry for economic stimulation by getting foreign investment, capital, and surplus from currency exchange. Local community participation in the decision-making process is always limited or sometimes marginalized, particularly in developing countries (Edelmann 1975; Lea 1988; Timothy 2000). Local communities not only fail to participate in the decision making process, but also fall short in maximising the benefits of tourism development (France 1998; Scheyvens 2003). Researchers (Keogh 1990; Hall 1998; Timothy&Tosun 2003) stress the importance of public participation in the decision-making process during tourism planning and development. Rural Tourism planning involves many stakeholders, such as government agencies, private companies, and non-government organizations (NGOs), which should strengthen the importance of public contribution in the public participation process. In fact, public participation in tourism development does not only relate to the decision-making process and the benefits of rural tourism development, but is also regarded integral to sustainable tourism (D'Amore 1992; Green 1995; Leslie 1993; Murphy 1988).

Community Participation in Rural Tourism Decision Making: A Case of Karaikudi, Sivaganga District, Tamil Nadu

Tourism is an important mechanism for economic development and the creation of employment opportunities in many countries This has attracted attention from the governments of developing countries looking to maximize economic benefits from tourism development in their own countries. Many developing countries have tried to exploit the tourism industry for economic stimulation by getting foreign investment, capital, and surplus from currency exchange. Local community participation in the decision-making process is always limited or sometimes marginalized, particularly in developing countries (Edelmann 1975; Lea 1988; Timothy 2000). Local communities not only fail to participate in the decision making process, but also fall short in maximising the benefits of tourism development (France 1998; Scheyvens 2003). Researchers (Keogh 1990; Hall 1998; Timothy&Tosun 2003) stress the importance of public participation in the decision-making process during tourism planning and development. Rural Tourism planning involves many stakeholders, such as government agencies, private companies, and non-government organizations (NGOs), which should strengthen the importance of public contribution in the public participation process. In fact, public participation in tourism development does not only relate to the decision-making process and the benefits of rural tourism development, but is also regarded integral to sustainable tourism (D'Amore 1992; Green 1995; Leslie 1993; Murphy 1988).

DESTINATION MODELS AND PROPERTY REGIMES: An Exploration

This paper suggests that property regimes determine destination structures; and compares—positioning them in an analytic framework —two destination models based on a different allocation of property rights. It then proposes a third model founded on an altogether different institutional regime, intellectual property, claiming that it could be considered superior to the previous two. In Creative Tourism Districts participation in tourism development is favoured and at the same time competition among a heterogeneous network of producers is prevented from become destructive of place and product. Though the various points of this argument are illustrated by means of real-world examples, this is a purely conceptual paper which inaugurates a research track on property rights and tourism development.

Expected nature of community participation in tourism development

The main objective of this study is to examine nature of community participation expected by various interest groups with special references to a local destination in Turkey. A conceptual framework was developed by examining typologies of community participation. Under the guidance of this conceptual framework, a field research was designed and applied in a case study approach. It was found that different interest groups expected different types of community participation to achieve their own aims that may conflict with each other. This study also showed that expected nature of community participation by interest groups varies from non-participation to one forms of the spontaneous participation.

Mastering Caribbean tourism

This paper attempts to capture the essence of the key elements needed to master tourism in the Caribbean. The author uses his eight years (1994‐2001) hospitality and tourism management and research experience in the Caribbean in writing this paper. He also uses information gathered by participating in ten major hospitality and tourism regional conferences and some 175 elite interviews he conducted with stakeholders of Caribbean tourism during the last three years. The paper analyses the importance of tourism to the Caribbean, key tourist destinations, challenges, sustainable development and community involvement. In conclusion, the author recommends product diversification and well‐planned community participation in tourism development for the Caribbean. The paper also calls for well‐coordinated efforts by all stakeholders to ensure sustainability of tourism development in the Caribbean.