Community Participation in Tourism Development – The Key to Sustainability?

1. Community Participation in Tourism Development – The Key to Sustainability? BEM3037 International Tourism Development Cheryl Willis 27th November 2012

2. Learning Objectives By the end of this lecture, students will: • Understand the link between community participation and sustainability in tourism development • Understand the concept of an ‘Ecosystems Approach’ and how this can help in planning for sustainable tourism • Be familiar with a number of practical techniques for effective participation

3. Tourism – Problems and Prospects

4. Case Study – Galapagos Islands, Ecuador • 18 main islands make up a national park and biological marine reserve • Popular ecotourism destination based on biodiversity • Increased tourist arrivals is damaging the landscape and natural habitats • Little revenue from tourism is returned to local people – no incentives for locals to control tourism • Locals rely on agriculture which is further damaging habitats • Placing locals in control of their tourism industry may provide direct incentives to operate sustainably.

5. 10 Principles and Challenges for a Sustainable Tourism in the 21st Century Tourism must: • help to overcome poverty, promote social and environmental justice and the participation of local people in destinations must be the foundation for this • use sustainable forms of transport • combine with regional development • protect nature and biodiversity • use water sustainably • maintain human dignity and gender equity – ensure protection and empowerment for women and children • ensure local people participate in decision making processes, ‘all social players have the right to decide on tourism development and to benefit from it’ • promote sustainable consumer behaviour in tourism – should be just towards people and the environment • promote sustainable tourism and fair trade in tourism • promote political cohesion and a commitment for sustainable tourism practices (Backes et al., 2002)

6. Ecotourism – an approach which embraces local participation? Interview with Dr Martha Honey, Co-founder and Co-director of the Centre for Responsible Travel : http://soundcloud.com/wbez/the-origins-and-future-of-eco ‘In its simplest terms, ecotourism can be generally described as a low key, minimal impact, interpretative tourism where conservation, understanding and appreciation of the environment and cultures visited is sought’(Wearing and Neil, 1999 p3)

7. Community Participation and Sustainability • Local people best placed to decide what kind and level of tourism is best • A stake in tourism provides incentives for sustainable management • Capacity building ensures local people are able to manage tourism effectively and up-skill, leading to a more diversified and sustainable economy • Putting what matters to local people at the heart of tourism ensures protection for what is valued

9. An Ecosystems Approach to Tourism Development • Putting nature at the heart of tourism planning • It affirms the interconnectedness of social and natural systems • Revealing values for nature from the many perspectives of users • Local participation and negotiation is key to this process

10. Valuing What Matters • Why value Nature? • How can we value Nature? • Whose values count?

11. Case Study – The Maldives • Heavily dependent on marine and coastal ecosystems for well-being • Failure to integrate biodiversity into economic development policy • Valuation exercise resulted in a realisation of importance of biodiversity and a ban on shark fishing • One shark worth $3,300 per year to tourism economy and only $32 as one-off payment to fisherman

12. Local Participation in Tourism Initiatives ‘Participation of local communities in the activity of tourism is an essential element to sustaining the well-being of local people’ (Wearing & Neil, 1999 p77)

13. Pretty’s Typology of Participation Source: Pretty 1995, in Mowforth & Munt (2009: 229)

14. Techniques for Effective Participation Participatory Appraisal – Umbrella term to describe a variety of techniques to reveal community interests and inter-relationships between livelihoods and socio-economic and ecological factors

15. Participatory Mapping

16. Transect Walks

17. Interviews and Focus Groups

18. Ecuador's Amazon Yasuni National Park embraces community tourism

19. Progress for Sustainable Tourism? • Ensuring the inter-relationships between nature and social systems is taken into account in decisions about tourism development may be key to its sustainability • Sensitive community participation is vital to this process

20. References • BACKES, M., BAUMGARTNER, C., PILS, M. & PLUSS, C. (2002) Red Card for Tourism: Ten Principles and Challanges for a Sustainable Tourism Development in the 21st Century. DANTE - The NGO Network for Sustainable Tourism Development, Germany. • EDWARDS, M. (1994) Rethinking Social Development: The Search for 'Relevance' IN BOOTH, D. (Ed.) Rethinking Social Development. Theory, Research and Practice. Longman Group Ltd. • HE, G., CHEN, X., LIU, W., BEARER, S., ZHOU, S., CHENG, L. Y., ZHANG, H., OUYANG, Z. & LIU, J. (2008) Distribution of Economic Benefits from Ecotourism: A Case Study of Wolong Nature Reserve for Giant Pandas in China. Environmental Management, 42, p1017-1025. • MITCHELL, R. & REID, D. (2001) Community Integration. Island Tourism in Peru. Annals of Tourism Research, 28, p113-139. • MOELLER, T., DOLNICAR, S. & LEISCH, F. (2011) The sustainability-profitability trade-off in tourism: can it be overcome? . Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 19, p155-169. • MURPHY, P. (1985) Tourism, A Community Approach, University Press, Cambridge. • WEARING, S. & NEIL, J. (1999) Ecotourism: Impacts, Potentials and Possibilities Reed Educational and Professional Publishing Ltd. • WILCOX, D. (1994) Community participation and empowerment: putting theory into practice. Joseph Rowntree Foundation http://www.jrf.org.uk/sites/files/jrf/h4.pdf