Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
economic, environmental and/or political factors (MacLeod, 2004). Attitudes and
actions of controlling stakeholders such as the private sector can be interpreted as
neo-colonialism, other negative impacts can include environmental degradation,
destruction of traditional social structures, alteration of local identity, beliefs,
values and politics, adverse shifts in power, the growth of unwanted secondary
industries and other sectors, the instigation of negative attitudes to the environ-
ment, the world, foreigners and women, and the commencement of unknown and
potentially detrimental business and employment structures (Young, 1973; Butler
and Hinch, 1996; Krippendorf, 1987; Swarbrooke, 1999; Fagence, 2003;
MacLeod, 2004). However, change generated by tourism is multifaceted: whilst
enterprises can present problems within a community, threaten its stability and
harmony, and trigger a range of other challenges, where the private sector under-
stands the issues and fully embraces their variety of roles, tourism initiatives do
possess the potential to bring appropriate and effective livelihood benefits to
communities (Murphy, 1985; Mowforth and Munt, 1998; Ashley et al, 2001;
Simpson, 2008a).
The private sector appears to be best placed to identify opportunities, realize
the potential of a destination, drive forward the development of product and has
the potential to adopt a range of highly effective strategies for the benefit of
communities and their livelihoods.
The studies examined in this chapter suggest that the relationship between
tourism and rural livelihoods is fragile and complex and that one of the key
factors for a tourism initiative's success as an instrument for enhancing rural
livelihoods is the adoption of effective and practical roles by the private sector,
including the development of systems of good governance, administration and
logistics, and above all economically sustainable business practices. The imple-
mentation of a series of case studies assessing the impacts and benefits of tourism
on communities and investigating various aspects of different initiatives and the
roles of their stakeholders will provide opportunities to examine other areas for
the further development of tourism initiatives that can provide livelihood benefits.
A consistent and coherent analytical framework such as the one implemented in
these studies will be essential and should be applicable in a range of spatio-tempo-
ral situations in order to learn from the experiences of others and advance
knowledge in the field of tourism and development through cumulative critical
understanding. The importance of on-going monitoring cannot be understated in
order to refine strategies, mitigate costs, maximize benefits to communities and
ensure the long-term sustainability of individual tourism initiatives. These
monitoring and assessment projects should take place over a range of diverse
tourism initiatives in various geographic locations. Elements of 'worst practice',
i.e. problems and failures in tourism initiatives aimed at benefiting communities,
will need to be subjected to rigorous scrutiny along with ostensibly successful
community benefit tourism initiatives (CBTIs, see Simpson, 2008a), in order that
thoroughly effective strategies can be developed. It appears to be the responsibil-
ity of researchers, practitioners, policy makers and stakeholders to strive
continually to raise the level of awareness of tourism's potential for communities
Search WWH ::
Custom Search