Tourism, Planning, and Community Development

Rhonda Phillips, Sherma Roberts

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781135711955
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Arquitectura
• Subtopic: Planificación urbana y paisajismo

The intersection of community development, tourism and planning is a fascinating one. Tourism has long been used as a development strategy, in both developed and developing countries, from the national to local levels. These approaches have typically focused on economic dimensions with decisions about tourism investments, policies and venues driven by these economic considerations. More recently, the conversation has shifted to include other aspects – social and environmental – to better reflect sustainable development concepts. Perhaps most importantly is the richer focus on the inclusion of stakeholders.

An inclusionary, participatory approach is an essential ingredient of community development and this brings both fields even closer together. It reflects an approach aimed at building on strengths in communities, and fostering social capacity and capital. In this book, the dimensions of the role tourism plays in community development are explored. A panoply of perspectives are presented, tackling such questions as, can tourism heal? How can tourism development serve as a catalyst to overcome social injustices and cultural divides?

This book was originally published as a special issue of Community Development.

Introduction

Rhonda Phillips and Sherma Roberts

The intersection of community development and tourism planning is a fascinating one which tourism and other scholars have over time sought to interrogate. Within the context of transformations in governance structures, strident demands from civil society for equity and fairness, the growth of international tourism, and the ubiquity of social media, among other noticeable trends, the need to explore this interplay between tourism development planning and communities become even more urgent. Noticeably, is that this explorative and discursive conversation has now been expanded to include cities or urban spaces rather than the traditional focus on peripheral jurisdictions and developing countries. This collection of nine chapters adds to the conversation by providing unique insights into the role tourism plays in community well-being and development across a range of differently constituted communities as well as demonstrates how community development approaches can enhance the tourism planning process. The tensions involved in what is largely considered to be power-sharing exercise have been also considered by many authors in this volume.

Traditionally regarded as a development strategy by governments in both developed and developing countries, approaches to tourism planning have typically focused on economic dimensions with decisions about tourism investments, policies and venues driven by these economic considerations. More recently, the conversation has shifted to include other aspects—social and environmental—to better reflect sustainable tourism development concepts. Perhaps most importantly is the richer focus on the inclusion of citizens, residents, or “stakeholders.” This is an essential ingredient of community development and the inclusionary, participatory approach brings the two fields even closer together. It reflects the ideas of building on strengths in communities, and enhancing social and environmental issues.

The Community Development Context

Community development can be defined as activity with the main objective of improving conditions and quality of life for people within a place-based community by strengthening economic and social progress (Aquino et al., 2012). As Joppe (1996) describes, the community aspect of the definition needs some edification: “community is self-defining in that is based on a sense of shared purpose and common goals… It may be geographical in nature or a community of interest, build on heritage and cultural values shared among community members” (p. 475). Indeed, Joppe’s definition of community has resonance in many developing countries where the “sense of shared purpose and common goals” embraces the many diaspora communities of these geographies scattered across the world—who are actively engaged in community advocacy and capacity building action through different media (Roberts, 2010). The idea of sharing, shared value, and community development can then be explained not only as a process centering on building social capital and capacity, but also as outcomes across the dimensions of concerns for communities—social, environmental and economic to name the major types (Phillips and Pittman, 2009). While some focus on community development as an outcome, it should be considered in a wider realm of dimensions, such as improvement in quality of life and increasing capacity across spectrums of community concern (Green and Haines, 2008; Phillips and Pittman, 2009). The notion of capacity is paramount, “it is capacity building that can be seen as the strength of community development, with this collective capacity allowing citizens to participate purposively in the creation, articulation, and maintenance of efforts designed to support and/or change social structures” (Aquino et al., 2012, p. 4). Notwithstanding, the implicit and often explicit barriers to making positive change, we argue that one way to increase capacity is via participation of those impacted by planning and development.

The Importance of Voice

Embedded within the precepts and practice of community development is the notion of citizen or stakeholder participation. Without a “voice” to make known their concerns and desires, development process and outcomes may leave out those for which it is intended. Community development has long included citizen and stakeholder participation in processes as a means to reflect the voices of those most impacted. Having a voice is especially relevant for people living in tourism-dependent areas who may have multiple perspectives on tourism development’s impacts and how their quality of life is affected (Budruk and Phillips, 2011; Chase et al., 2012). It becomes clear that one voice may not be enough to represent all affected, and ensuring that stakeholders have a means to express themselves becomes paramount in the tourism planning and community tourism development processes. This is not a new idea; public participation in community tourism planning has been encouraged for a while now, with studies from the 1980s exploring and advocating applications for tourism (Haywood, 1988; Keogh, 1990; Murphy, 1988). The plethora of literature more recently suggests participation is now much more embedded in tourism planning processes, not least because of the industry and academy’s embrace of the notion of sustainable tourism development. For example, a self-assessment instrument for communities presented by Reid et al., in 2004 helps with participation as a central focus of a community-centered tourism process. Chase, et al., (2012, pp. 488–489) provide considerations and challenges for planners or developers seeking to engage stakeholders:

1. Identify important stakes
2. Be inclusive
3. Consider using multiple techniques for incorporating stakeholder input
4. Encourage constructive deliberation and understanding
5. Find ways to balance competing interests

Challenges to engaging stakeholders include:

1. Resistance from some stakeholders
2. Ensuring equity and fairness
3. Problematic relationships among institutions
4. Communication issues
5. Lack of time and money
6. Difficulty defining and measuring quality of life

As seen in the list above, there are numerous considerations for engaging stake-holders. Despite the challenges, it is vital that tourism planning and community development processes strive to include the “voices” of those impacted. There is not one right way as the chapters in this volume reveal. The call is therefore for a flexible, placed-based approach to participation that brings the “silent voices” to the centre of the process. The discussions by the authors here reveal that not only will the process be enhanced by participation, but the outcomes will be as well. It should be noted too that while community development focuses on citizen and resident stakeholders, tourism needs to include others as well in the in these processes—the organizations and tourists, for example.

Planning Dimensions

A simple definition of planning is that it provides the opportunity to envision what a community wants, and how to get there. It includes the idea that it will represent what people value in their communities. There are numerous models and approaches for tourism planning, as movement away from only physical dimensions of planning occurs. There is a

more inclusive perspectives common in recent sustainable development dialogues and debate…tourism planning is moving gradually from the edges of planning proactive toward the center, and with this movement will follow important questions regarding socioeconomic, political, and cultural representation and equity.

(Harrill, 2004, p. 263)

Approaches and models for tourism planning include sustainable development, systems, community, integrated planning, comprehensive planning, flexible, and functional systems (Chhabra and Phillips, 2009). While many integrate related concepts of community development, the community approach centers on several of these:

Community Approach: This focuses on decentralization and facilitation of coordination between different stakeholders of tourism. This approach stemmed from the increasing emphasis on democratization and gained significance when political power political power shifted from the central government to states, cities, towns, and neighborhoods, thereby giving voice and empowerment to local communities to address their own problems and find appropriate solutions. This approach calls for better participation between the tourism industry and the local residents. It is hoped that the involvement of local residents in decision-making processes will facilitate better working partnerships between the host communities and the travel and tourism industry.

(Chhabra and Phillips, 2009, 238–239)

Community approaches can be enhanced by integrating community development precepts. Mair and Reid (2007, p. 407) note that the “promise of combining the broader goals of community development with less traditional approaches to planning tourism” can hold potential to overcoming existing deficiencies of community-based tourism approaches. We agree that community development holds relevance for tourism planning and can help achieve broader dimensions of community improvement and change. We propose that building social capacity is a means to elicit effective change and transform communities.

Planning processes typically start with an inventory or research phase and cycles to an evaluation or monitoring of outcomes phase, noting that the process is reiterative as conditions and desires change through time. It should also be noted that “planning is a process and a movement; not merely an outcome or product,” and can provide ways to enhance community expression and control (Mair and Reid, 2007, p. 407). The following considerations illustrate briefly a planning process that incorporates community development elements such as participation and decision-making (Chhabra and Phillips, 2009, p 241).

1. What do we have?

Inventory assets (people; organizations; cultural/heritage; natural, financial and built resources) and contexts (political, economic, social, environmental) of the community. This is the research phase and can include a variety of sources and tools such as surveys, focus groups, asset mapping, etc. It includes considering the social capacity and capital of the community.

2. What do we want?

At this point, the all important vision as a guide to seeing what could happen is crafted by stakeholders—those in the community that have an interest in helping achieve a more desirable future. Belief is a powerful tool and can inspire a community to achieve remarkable outcomes. The vision should be bold enough to inspire and realistic enough to attain.

3. How do we get there?

This stage is about developing the plan so it is a guide with specifics for achieving the vision and includes goal statements and actions. Most importantly, it selects the strategies or approaches desired. It also identifies which organizations or groups of collaborators will be responsible for the tasks and action items. Collaborative efforts typically work best, but in some cases, it takes a “champion” to start the efforts and others will join in later.

4. What have we done, and what do we need to do now?

Monitoring is critical to see if the above steps are working; if not, then adjustments and revisions are needed. Because the nature of this process is continuous, it provides feedback for refining on-going activities as well as starting new initiatives until desirable change is elicited (and adjusted and maintained).

While these are simple questions, they show several of the major aspects important to community development and planning, helping bring together the ability to elicit desirable change at both the micro and macro levels.

Structure of This Volume

This volume presents panoply of perspectives, tackling such questions as, can tourism heal? How can tourism development (and by implication management of, and policies for, tourism) serve as a catalyst to overcome social injustices and cultural divides? Other considerations include the need to capture intangible benefits of tourism. This issue is one that community developers and tourism planners wrestle with continuously —how do we measure and convey the benefits of our actions beyond the tangible aspects? We feel tourism planning and community development are intricately connected; it is our hope that this volume will inspire tackling these and other challenging questions in the quest to foster community well-being.

Chapter 2, “Incorporating social justice in tourism planning: racial reconciliation and sustainable community development in the Deep South” by Alan W. Barton and Sarah J. Leonard provides a close look at the healing potential of tourism. An interpretive approach is used to gain insights about “Reconciliation Tourism,” one of four models of tourism for social equity and justice. The other models are “Educational Tourism,” “Development Tourism” and “Pilgrimage Tourism.” Their investigation focused on monthly meetings of, and personal interviews with, the nine white and nine African-American members of the Emmett Till Memorial Commission (ETMC) in Tallahatchie County, Mississippi. Emmett Till was a black teenager from Chicago who was murdered during a visit to relatives in 1955. A local jury acquitted two white residents accused of the crime and the verdict left “a pall of fear and shame on the county that continues to shape race relations today.” ETMC is an organization working to create racial reconciliation through tourism. It is currently engaged in three tourism efforts: the restoration of the Tallahatchie County Courthouse in Sumner; the Emmett Till Interpretive Trail Community Development and the creation of an administrative structure for tourism planning and management in the county. As a result tourism planners are not only developing a story of reconciliation as a tourism narrative, but they are also engaging in a process of reconciliation among their members and in their community. The most significant impediment has been a lack of understanding on the part of county residents as to the value of the story they can market to tourists. This chapter shows the power of narrative and the need for stakeholders to be engaged with, and aware of the “story” of their place as represented to others including tourists.

Chapter 3 by Sherma Roberts provides a look at the role of community participation in tourism development with, “An analysis of factors mediating community participation outcomes in tourism.” It is now widely acknowledged in the contemporary tourism literature that community participation is crucial to sustainable tourism development, the latter of which emphasizes local participation in the decision-making process. The rationale for resident involvement is that it helps minimize the negative social impacts of tourism development, it increases the level of buy-in into tourism projects and it creates an environment for the host community to receive optimal benefits from the industry. These assumptions have been challenged based upon the heterogeneous nature of communities and the power differentials in participation which can often undermine expected beneficial outcomes. While acknowledgment of these issues is crucial to any discussion on community participation initiatives and outcomes, this paper argues that there are other factors that mediate the extent to which communities are able to access the benefits of community participation initiatives. These factors have been identified in this study as clear and consensual objectives, sustained interest and institutional support. The study was conducted using interviews and a focus group among residents of a small community on the island of Tobago.

Chapter 4, “Tourism planning and power within micropolitan community development” by William L. Obenour and Nelson Cooper investigates power structures within community planning processes. Their focus is on a micropolitan community (a rural community with an urban cluster of 10–50 thousand and total population of less than 250,000). They found that while a proposed iconic tourist attraction, in this case, a celebrity named performing arts center, produced immediate gains, long-term sustaining symbolic capital development did not occur. Conversely, organic growth of selected recreational assets into tourist attractions was successful because of a collaborative approach with transparency, accountability and public involvement. These elements are considered in high quality planning processes, and ensuring their presence in the tourism planning process can enhance the tourism planning process. However, it is noted that the authors conclude that a typical comprehensive planning model traditionally employed by the micropolitan region cannot easily adapt to iconic and unique tourism attractions that can create more chaotic activity.

Chapter 5, “Community understanding of the impact of temporary visitors on incidental destinations” by Ken Simpson and Phil Bretherton explores the extent to which residents of local communities on the brink of tourism industry development are fully aware of the conventionally accepted ramifications of such a move. Their study was motivated by the observation that such communities are frequently encouraged to enter into such an activity by the promise of high level economic benefit, accompanied by manageable social and environmental change. The authors point out that tourism development literature may be partly to blame when it emphasizes maximizing the cost-benefit equation in contrast to the communi...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• 1. Introduction
• 2. Incorporating social justice in tourism planning: racial reconciliation and sustainable community development in the Deep South
• 3. An exploratory analysis of factors mediating community participation outcomes in tourism
• 4. Tourism planning and power within micropolitan community development
• 5. Community understanding of the impact of temporary visitors on incidental destinations
• 6. Sustainable practices of community tourism planning: lessons from a remote community
• 7. Engaging residents in planning for sustainable rural-nature tourism in post-communist Poland
• 8. Participatory modeling as a tool for community development planning: tourism in the Northern Forest
• 9. Golden geese or white elephants? The paradoxes of world heritage sites and community-based tourism development in Agra, India
• Index