Tourism and Community Development Issues - Tourism and Development: Concepts and Issues - page 198

Table 6.1 Types of community empowerment in tourism development

Type Signs of empowerment

Economic Tourism brings long-term fi nancial benefi ts to a destination

community. Money is spread throughout the community. There are
notable improvements in local services and infrastructure.

Psychological Self-esteem is enhanced because of outside recognition of the

uniqueness and value of their culture, natural resources and
traditional knowledge. Increasing confi dence in the community
leads members to seek out further education and training
opportunities. Access to jobs and cash leads to an increase in
status for usually low-status residents, such as women and youth.

Social Tourism maintains or enhances the local community's equilibrium.

Community cohesion is improved as individuals and families
cooperate to build a successful industry. Some funds raised are used
for community development initiatives like education and roads.

Political The community's political structure provides a representational forum

through which people can raise questions and concerns pertaining
to tourism initiatives. Agencies initiating or implementing the
tourism ventures seek out the opinions of community groups and
individual community members, and provide chances for them to be
represented on decision-making bodies.

Source: Adapted from Scheyvens (1999) and Timothy (2002).

been the inability to link strategy, implementation and evaluation, so as to
ensure accountability and to measure the success of the planning exercise
over time. Without careful assessment and constant monitoring of the
actions generated, the plan may receive little ongoing attention with respect
to adjusting the plan to respond to problems or ensuring long-term sustain-
ability of the community's resource base and the achievement of community
goals (see Jamieson, 1997). Hence, local community organizations or com-
mittees are often set up to work with residents and tourism development
interests in strategy making and implementation.
An effective monitoring program is also essential to ensure that develop-
ments and impacts are monitored and evaluated with respect to the plan's
goals and objectives. Indicators and thresholds of development and/or
impacts have been developed in a variety of contexts (see Tourism Recreation
Research 36 (3) edited by Jamal & Dredge, 2011) but an uneasiness remains
that such practices, often developed by external Western 'experts', tend to
reinforce pro-growth narratives and do little to address the underlying rea-
sons for inequities, marginalization and poor participation. Considering the
many complex issues and concerns, what indicators should the community