Tourism and Community Development Issues - Tourism and Development: Concepts and Issues - page 194

local tourism planning. Community involvement has to be legitimate and
appropriate, and may vary depending on political and decision-making struc-
tures. In Arnstein's well-cited 'ladder of participation', citizen involvement
with authorities can take the form of non-participation, tokenism and citizen
power (Arnstein, 1969). Legitimate, early involvement of stakeholders in tour-
ism planning is not an easy task, in light of the fragmented control and mul-
tiple stakeholders in the destination. It must be emphasized here that the role
and inclusion of residents is vital and goes beyond merely voicing opinions or
voting on certain agenda items - in addition to early involvement in the plan-
ning process, full ownership by local residents of the planning and deci-
sion-making process is crucial, from initiation to strategy making, to
implementation, evaluation, monitoring and adjustment of the implemented
strategy. This means that adequate resources have to be allocated to the com-
munity tourism planning process, and information provided to enable a joint
knowledge base and foster understanding that can inform sound decision-
making. Generating ongoing community awareness, support and involve-
ment in tourism is critical to the success of tourism at the local level, and
public awareness and educational programs using various communication
strategies should be implemented. Based on the work of Pretty (1995), France
(1998) provides a taxonomy of participation in tourism that ranges from
exploitative at one end to self-mobilization and self-sufficiency at the other.
Arnstein's (1969) ladder of participatory approaches ranges from partici-
pants having none or merely token input (being heard at best), to full partici-
patory decision-making power. Sustainable tourism principles argue for full
resident control of the planning process, and would be situated at the end of
the ladder, providing full citizen power and control. Co-management in
protected areas, for instance, aims for such upfront and full involvement
of traditional owners such as in Kakadu National Park (mentioned earlier).
Another example of local, indigenous control is the Kooljaman at Cape
Leveque in Western Australia, a wilderness style luxury camp that is fully
owned and managed by Bardi Aboriginal people from two communities. The
indigenous Board of Directors liaises with community councils in both com-
munities on all major issues, and significant decision-making and develop-
ment planning is done in conjunction with the Bardi people (Tourism
Australia, 2006). New enterprises have emerged from the success of
Kooljaman, which is oriented to the aims and wishes of the two communi-
ties; environmental and cultural conservation are high priorities (Tourism
Australia, 2006).
Similarly CBC programs aim for resident involvement and control over
the conservation and use of wildlife resources on which local residents may
depend. Crucial to such endeavors is the ability to receive input of tradi-
tional, local and scientific knowledge (including citizen science cultural heri-
tage management and environmental conservation (see Rettie et al. , 2009).
Thus participatory mechanisms and collaborative processes are required for