Control Models of Tourism Development and Conservation Management with Respect to Indigenous Culture - Restorative Redevelopment of Devastated Ecocultural Landscapes - page 42

The exploration stage is the beginning period in which indigenous people contact
with the outside. In this stage, only a few visitors are attracted by the unspoiled nature
and culture. Scientists and researchers comprise the major group of people staying
in the indigenous land, and there are almost no tourism infrastructures and facilities
in this stage. After the site is explored by researchers, it brings people's attention to
the indigenous environment and its unique culture, and thus the involvement stage
begins. In the involvement stage , the indigenous lands start to be promoted as tour-
ism destinations and the basic infrastructures are constructed. Because indigenous
people live in a different culture and different living conditions from those of the
mainstream culture, indigenous communities are always viewed as impoverished
and heathen lands from outside. Thus, development in this stage also comes from the
involvement of mainstream governance and international organizations. Large num-
bers of visitors start to arrive at the indigenous land in the prime development stage .
At the peak period, the number of tourists may even equal or become more than the
indigenous population. In this stage, most of the tourism business is controlled by
outside investments, and visitors mainly rely on making arrangements through travel
agencies. This is also the stage at which indigenous people face tremendous cultural
influence by tourists. Beyond this period of time, the rate of increase of tourists will
stop or even decline. This is the stage that combines the development, consolidation,
and stagnation stages in Butler's model.
After the tourism business operates in the indigenous land for a certain time
period, there are instances in which indigenous people start to pick up the tourism
game and run their own tourism business. They will capitalize on their advantageous
position of using their traditional culture as attractions to compete with outside
investment. But usually, it is also the tourism decline period when the destination
is no longer fashionable. This is the stage at which local accommodations increase
to compete for the tourism income, but this is also the stage where external invest-
ments start to decrease. After tourism declines and many indigenous people have
started their businesses, there occurs a phenomenon in which the indigenous lands
are repromoted with new attractions of their culture and environment a few years
later. This begins as local tourism business initiatives, but very soon large external
investments will roll in again with new tourist packages in the indigenous land if
there is profit in the market. Depending on the political, social, and economic situa-
tion in the indigenous land, the rejuvenation stage may transfer from a regulated to
unregulated situation with a spread of development. The rejuvenation stage may not
happen in some of the indigenous lands, and in some cases, destinations may have
more than one rejuvenation stage.
THE RELATIONSHIP AMONG CONTROL POWER,
DEVELOPMENT, AND TOURISM TYPE
Control power, development, and tourism type are three basic elements that shape
the indigenous culture and environment. These three factors are related to each
other and result in numerous circumstances that will have to be faced by the indig-
enous Marsh Arab community in Iraq. Thus, a new model may be generated by