Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
of negative environmental and socio-cultural impacts compared to other
social groups, such as tourists and local elites. How does community-based
tourism address inequalities in the distribution of economic, environmental
and sociocultural costs ? And how do pro-poor and sustainable tourism agen-
das address pressing issues like climate change in the context of community
development ? This chapter will take up these questions of tourism's contri-
bution to community development, first by examining the key issues and
challenges that underpin the topic, followed by an examination of various
approaches and forms of tourism. Planning and participatory approaches and
mechanisms will then be addressed.
Issues and Challenges
The relationship between tourism, community and development (CD)
has, over recent years, been subjected to sustained critical debate with the
orthodox view that tourism as a tool for community development is now
viewed as oversimplified and naïve (Higgins-Desbiolles, 2006; Weaver, 2010).
A number of factors have led to this assessment and are important to high-
light so that a critical perspective can be adopted in exploring the different
approaches and forms of community-based tourism later in the chapter.
First, there has been a progressive breaking down of rational and modern-
ist views of the world, with communities now seen as being more dynamic,
complex and diverse. Individuals might belong to multiple communities that
operate in and across a range of geographical, social, cultural, environmental
and economic spaces. When arguments first started to emerge about the role
of tourism in community development, the world was divided between, for
example, 'first' and 'third' worlds, between north and south, and between
center and periphery. Over the last 30 years, however, these divisions have
disappeared in favor of more nuanced approaches to understanding the flows
of power, resources, influence and the impacts of tourism on people, places
and communities.
In this context, traditional discourses of development often seemed to
position developed and developing regions as dichotomous in terms of devel-
opment challenges and CD priorities, but such a blunt classification has been
quite misleading. For instance, while wealthy urban or resort communities
may not need to worry about basic needs, securing health services or a pri-
mary school, or obtaining a sense of pride or respect after years of colonial
subjection, community benefits of tourism are not always distributed evenly
across space, and benefits might also vary over time. Further, impoverish-
ment and marginalization can prevent minority, diverse or low-income resi-
dents in industrialized countries in the 'North' (as referred to by the
Brundtland Commission, WCED, 1987) from achieving self-reliance and
well-being, as measured by the UN Human Development Index.
Search WWH ::




Custom Search