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Hospitality and tourism management![]()
Tourism development and local community empowerment
E. Rachmawati
Lincoln University, Lincoln, New Zealand
ABSTRACT: Tourism is an activity that directly touches and involves host communities and causes a wide range of impacts. At the centre of many recent studies of the impact of tourism on host communities, particularly in developing country contexts, is the idea that tourism can and should âempowerâ local residents. Empowerment frameworks can be used to analyze the actual and/or potential impacts of various forms of tourism on local communities. This article will discuss whether tourism development can empower a host community, and to what degree tourism is empowering local rural communities. This knowledge can aid in the planning of appropriate community involvement strategies in tourism development.
Keywords: empowerment, tourism impact, local community, sustainable tourism, tourism development
1 INTRODUCTION
Tourism is an activity directly touches host communities and may cause positive and negative impacts on economic, social and cultural systems thus affecting community quality of life (Wood, 2002, Wilkinson and Pratiwi, 1995). Tourism development success can be seen from benefits obtained by the stakeholders involved, directly or indirectly, in tourism activities (United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and World Tourism Organization (WTO), 2005, Wood, 2002). However, results of many studies indicate that majority of local people, particularly in developing world, still experience negative impacts (Walpole and Goodwin, 2000, Sunkar et al., 2013, Timothy, 1999). To response those negative impacts, a sustainable development perspective applied in tourism development in âsustainable tourismâ concept which aims to increase the benefits for host communities while maintaining and protecting their cultural and environmental resources (United Nations, 2002).
Sustainable tourism is achieved when local communities have control over development process and share equitably of tourism benefits (Scheyvens, 1999, Coria and Calfucura, 2012, He et al., 2008). Therefore, their capacity should be enhanced so they can actively participate in the process. One of important aspects in community development is power decentralization to community since they are most affected by the development. This process is called âempowermentâ (Sofield, 2003, Boley and McGehee, 2014, Boley et al., 2015, Scheyvens, 1999). Empowerment frameworks also can be used to analyze actual and/or potential impacts of tourism on local communities (Scheyvens, 2002). Therefore, empowerment can be defined as an outcome and/or a process (Timothy, 2007, Alsop and Heinsohn, 2005).
This article discusses whether tourism development can empower a host community. The discussion may help researchers and development practitioners who wish to distinguish sustainable forms of tourism that in processes and outcomes empower communities in various ways. This knowledge can aid in the planning of appropriate community involvement strategies in tourism development.
2 SUSTAINABLE TOURISM CONCEPT
Sustainable tourism concept arose in response to tourism impact, particularly the negative impacts on natural environment and communities (Scheyvens, 2002). This concept is based on sustainable development perspectives that apply to tourism activities. Sustainable development has been defined in many ways, but the most commonly used definition is from the Brundtland Report. It stated that âsustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needsâ (Brundtland Commission, 1987). Sustainable development and sustainable tourism focus on the same key issues of ecology, society, and a systemic process of development. Sustainable Tourism Development (STD) goals are to increase tourism benefits for host communities while maintaining cultural and environmental integrity of host communities and enhancing the protection of ecologically sensitive areas and natural heritages (United Nations, 2002). These aims are based on three pillars of sustainable development namely environmental, social and economic (United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and World Tourism Organization (WTO), 2005).
From development perspective, sustainable tourism can be considered successful if local communities have some measure of control over them and share equitably of tourism benefits (Scheyvens, 1999, Coria and Calfucura, 2012, He et al., 2008). The unequal power between stakeholders and local communities inhibit sustainable tourism development since it limit their ability to obtain economic benefit and to have an effective voice in management planning and decision-making (Coria and Calfucura, 2012). Related to benefits, many research studies showed that most of local people in developing countries were only received a small proportion of economic benefits (Walpole and Goodwin, 2000, Sunkar et al., 2013, He et al., 2008). This is caused by the lack of mechanisms of fair distribution, which results in economic benefits only received by a communityâs elite (Lapeyre, 2010, He et al., 2008, Coria and Calfucura, 2012) and/or stakeholders outside the area (Timothy, 1999).
Tourism development is a system where inter-dependence is essential and collaboration and cooperation between different organisations within a tourism destination creates the tourism product (Tinsley and Lynch, 2001). It involves numerous stakeholders interact with each other. For tourism development to be sustainable, stakeholders including local community, should be supportive (and supported) and involved in the entire process (Tosun, 2000). Local community is the stakeholder that most affected by tourism development in their area. Therefore, it is important that they feel empowered prior their involvement in tourism development (Scheyvens, 2002) so they can involve in tourism development process and received benefit from it and furthermore may promote sustainable tourism development (Wood, 2002).
In developing world context, there are some operational, historical, structural, and cultural obstacles for community involvement in tourism development, particularly in planning and decision making processes (Cole, 2007, Ramos and Prideaux, 2014, Tosun, 2000, Timothy, 1999). Operational barriers include a lack of co-ordination among private and various public bodies responsible for tourism development and a lack of information which available for local people in tourist destinations (Tosun, 2000, Timothy, 1999). Co-ordination is needed to identify actors and their roles in tourism development and distribute those roles and responsibilities. Any lack of co-ordination may reduce potential opportunities for community involvement (Tosun, 2000). Regarding information, knowledge of decision making processes and tourism system are essential if community wants to participate in tourism planning and management (Cole, 2006). Therefore, communities need access to a wide range of information about tourism, so they understands what they are to make decisions about (Sofield, 2003).
Structural obstacles include elite domination, lack of resources and skills, negative attitudes of tourism professionals in designing a participatory tourism plan, a shortage of qualified human resources, discouraging legal frameworks, and a dearth in expertise (Tosun, 2000, Ramos and Prideaux, 2014). In some developing countries, the voices are limited to business elites, state elites and/or foreign institutions and organizations (Diamond, Linz and Lipset, 1995 as cited at Tosun, 2000) which resulted in community voices exclusion during tourism development process (Tosun, 2000). Therefore, their lack the opportunity to involve in the process. Regarding resources, community have limitation since sometimes they have troubles using their communal property as collateral due to land conflict and tenure insecurity (Coria and Calfucura, 2012). It makes community difficult in selling or developing the land so that the community becomes dependent on external support and may fail to develop financial and management skills during this process (Kiss, 2004). The lack of skills and experience in planning, business and financial management, marketing, and product research and development often places them in a poverty trap, as the NGOs usually undertake these tasks (Omofonmwan and Odia, 2009, Zhuang et al., 2011). Related to legal systems, most of policies in developing countries are difficult for community members to understand and sometimes do not describe community rights in tourism development process (Tosun, 2000). If the community does not understand their rights in tourism development, they may not participate in the process.
Cultural limits include limited capacity and poor people desire, some residents apathy, power traditions, and low levels of awareness, cultural and political traditions (Thammajinda, 2013, Cole, 2007). In less-developed countries, the poorer or inferior groups have least influential and seldom able to express their views (Thammajinda, 2013). Their powerlessness is often interpreted as passivity and indifference, but the problem is lack of opportunity for their direct involvement (Midgley, 1986 as cited at Tosun and Timothy, 2003). In societies with centralized political structures, the government often takes a prominent role in developing and managing tourism (Wood, 1997) and makes decisions that favor dominant segments and discriminate underrepresented groups (Garrod, 2003). This problem is more serious when local tourism planners may lack of expertise, time, or money to conduct participatory planning process in an equitable way (Garrod, 2003; Timothy, 1999). Therefore, tourism planners in developing countries have to consider local conditions in traditional societies (Timothy, 1999).
To overcome those inhibiting factors, various stakeholders should involve to support community, including improving their capacity. The external stakeholders roles and their interaction with community need to be identified and the processes need to be investigated to gain insights of tourism development process and determined critical factor(s) that encourage and/or inhibit sustainable tourism goal achievement including community empowerment.
3 EMPOWERMENT IN TOURISM CONTEXT
Empowerment can be defined as a condition/outcome and a process (Alsop and Heinsohn, 2005, Timothy, 2007). Empowerment is defined as a condition where host community members have an authority and a capacity to act, a choice of actions, and control over decisions and resources (Timothy, 2007). Empowerment can also be defined as a process of control transfer to individuals and communities (Alsop and Heinsohn, 2005, Timothy, 2007) by improving communityâs understanding of the occurring condition and the decisions they may being asked to make (Sofield, 2003); as a way of gaining knowledge and capacity that may arm a community to challenge outside and elitist interests i...
