Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
6
Tourism and Community
Development Issues
Tazim Jamal and Dianne Dredge
Introduction
Development is a challenging concept. Telfer and Sharpley (2008)
observe that problems such as poverty, inequality, poor health care and a
lack of educational opportunities are widely recognized and reflected in the
goals of international development programs such as the UN Millennium
Project. However, as these authors state, it is unclear as to what extent par-
ticular developmental vehicles such as tourism are effective in addressing
these issues, especially as many of the problems facing developing countries
may be the outcome rather than the cause of under-development (see also
Telfer, 2009). The notion of 'community' is also problematic, and heteroge-
neity rather than homogeneity may be far more appropriate to describe com-
munities that are encased with geographic (or virtual) boundaries (see
Dicks, 1999). An alternative view of community, characterized by belonging
to multiple networks over time and across spatial scales, fits our contempo-
rary understanding of a globalized world, but also makes 'community' a
slippery concept for the purposes of planning and policy. Hence, both the
notion of 'community' and 'development' tend to be contested, adding to the
challenge of understanding the meaning and contribution of 'community-
based tourism'.
The recent critique of community participation in tourism by Butcher
(2010) in the Research Probe section of
Tourism Recreation Research
, and
responses by Singh (2010) and Weaver (2010), show that the debate around
resident responsive tourism and community participation in tourism are far
from over. This chapter continues to explore the challenges encapsulated in
these debates and attempts to address the overall question: to what extent
can tourism contribute to community development
?
Disadvantaged, low-
income and minority populations generally tend to incur a high proportion
178
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