Tourism in the Gambia: problems and proposals

This paper analyses the development constraints which confine The Gambia to being one of the poorest countries in the world. The programmes designed to reduce these constraints are outlined. In particular, tourism is identified as an appropriate development strategy. Using primary data, tourism in The Gambia, its development and administration are described in some detail. Althoiugh a prima facie case can be made extolling the virtues of tourism in that country, the industry is beset by a range of problems. The juxtaposition of the country's growing reliance on tourism against increasing stagnation in the sector is a focus of particular concern. Constraints in the tourism sector are identified in the spheres of policy formulation and implementation, capital investment, human resource endowment, existing and potential tourist markets, seasonality issues and product resource base. For each constraint identified, a management strategy is proposed. In essence, the article is an advocation of sustainable tourism development for The Gambia based on long-term holistic planning, including appropriate resource development, community involvement, education and training.     

Australian indigenous tourism policy: practical and sustainable policies?

This paper reviews the development of Australia's policies for indigenous tourism and analyses those policies for their sustainable tourism content. It notes that in Australia, tourism is increasingly seen as an instrument for sustaining indigenous communities, many of whom look to tourism for a better future. Growing intervention from Australian federal and, more recently, State/Territory governments has sought to create tourism policies to facilitate market growth and product development in the indigenous sector. Yet the effectiveness and appropriateness of these policies, particularly in terms of a sustainable approach to development, has been questioned. A qualitative study of Australian State/Territory governments' policy for indigenous tourism examines the extent to which sustainable development principles are addressed. The results revealed that 32 of the 35 analysed policies demonstrated “sustainability rhetoric” that lacked the rigour and depth to realise any legitimate moves towards achieving sustainable tourism development for indigenous peoples. Based on the study's findings, this paper recommends that there cannot be a “one size fits all” framework for indigenous tourism development to suit all circumstances. Policies need to draw upon indigenous diversity and, in a consistent, collaborative, coordinated and integrated manner, provide the mechanisms and capacity-building to facilitate long-term sustainable indigenous tourism.     

Community-based Tourism Enterprises Development in Kenya: An Exploration of Their Potential as Avenues of Poverty Reduction

The United Nations World Tourism Organization endorses tourism for economic development and poverty reduction in developing countries, emphasising the role of micro-, small- and medium-sized tourism enterprises. In Kenya, community-based enterprises (CBEs) are preferred. This paper evaluates CBE potential and challenges for poverty reduction in Kenya. Reviewing literature on Kenyan tourism development, it uses case studies of six Kenyan CBEs spread across Kenya's tourism-focused community-based initiatives selected using opportunistic and snowball sampling. The case studies used individual in-depth semi-structured interviews with community leaders, CBE managers, tourism academics, support organisations and government officials, and focus groups with community members. The paper develops a detailed understanding of the CBEs, identifying the catalyst for their establishment and the role and degree of external intervention. It explores critical success factors, the extent to which CBEs alleviate poverty, and factors making communities welcome CBEs (or not). The results emphasise the conservation orientation of CBEs, with support agencies preferring partnership approaches involving white investment which inadequately addresses community priorities. Through foreign resource control and heavy reliance on donor funding, CBEs promote neocolonialism and reinforce dependency. An urgent review of the support framework for community tourism development in Kenya integrating the principles of sustainable development is advocated.     

Identifying cultural tourism: a theoretical methodological proposal

This article explores the effectiveness of tourism as a means to heritage conservation in urban areas, focusing on the case study of Woolloomooloo Finger Wharf, an inner-city industrial heritage site in Sydney, Australia. The Finger Wharf redevelopment represents a familiar scenario whereby an old industrial site located at a sought after inner-city location has been redeveloped and transformed from a derelict structure into a popular leisure and recreation precinct. The findings of a study of local stakeholder perceptions of the redevelopment are presented and then evaluated according to the goals of sustainable tourism development. The findings highlight the importance of planners and managers of heritage tourism sites thinking beyond the cosmetic conservation of the tangible asset to also consider how best to preserve the non-material value of the site. Through the provision of more effective interpretation heritage, managers can create a visitor experience which is authentic and meaningful to visitors and local stakeholders.     

关于旅游业可持续发展的环境伦理学思考

通过对传统旅游的重新审视,作者分析了旅游业可持续发展的环境伦理学内涵,提出了加强旅游环境伦理建设的基本对策,应加强旅游环境伦理教育,优化环境道路目标,健全环境道德规范,完善旅游环保制度,加强旅游环境道德控制,并大力开发生态型绿色旅游产品。     

Sustainable tourism as an adaptive paradigm

Despite owing its origins to the general concept of sustainable development, the subject of sustainable tourism appears to have evolved largely in isolation from the continuing debate on the meaning of the former. This paper argues that such isolation has resulted in the emergence of an overly simplistic and inflexible paradigm of sustainable tourism which fails to account for specific circumstances. It is suggested that the concept of sustainable tourism be redefined in terms of an over-arching paradigm which incorporates a range of approaches to the tourism/environment system within destination areas. These approaches are outlined for a variety of abstract situations with the aim of demonstrating the legitimacy of different perceptions of sustainable tourism.     

浅析民族地区旅游可持续发展的某些限制性因素

近20年来,民族旅游业极大地推动了民族地区社会和经济的发展。然而,在民族旅游业迅速发展的过程中,一些民族地区的自然和人文资源也受到了威胁和破坏。可持续发展是我国旅游业发展的基本战略。无论何种性质的旅游业,只有把可持续发展作为其发展的基本模式,才可能有效地利用和保护旅游资源。本文在实地考察的基础上,并借鉴一些他人的调查资料,对限制民族旅游业的可持续发展中的一些因素进行了初步的分析,指出目前我国的一些相关的理论和政策都存在一些误区。要使我国民族旅游业持续发展下去,理论上对旅游业的性质需要进一步明确,政策上田要进一步朝着有利于当地人的利益方面进行调整。     

旅游人类学家谈中国旅游的可持续发展

2005年6月下旬至7月下旬,美国加州大学柏克莱分校的纳尔逊·格拉本(Nelson H.Graburn)教授和厦门大学彭兆荣教授在北京出席学者俱乐部性质的\"国际旅游研究院双年会\"(2005 Biennial Conference of International Academy for the Study of Tourism)后,赴四川、贵州和广西进行了为期20天的调研.借此机会,彭兆荣对格拉本教授进行了专访,内容涉及到中国旅游发展的可持续性,少数民族地区的旅游发展特点及潜在的危机,农业旅游与生态旅游的发展空间,旅游人类学研究中的\"真实性\",传统民族志在旅游研究中的范式问题等.     

Sustainability Indicators for Small Tourism Enterprises – An Exploratory Perspective

Despite the numerical dominance of small tourism enterprises (STEs) in many destinations, little is known about their role in helping destinations progress towards sustainability objectives. The a priori assumption is that, by being small and locally owned, these enterprises automatically contribute to sustainable tourism development. This paper argues that to test this assumption, relevant indicators of sustainability (ISTs) should be developed. In contrast to destination and community ISTs, which are often stakeholder driven, the indicators developed here take an unconventional but not unprecedented approach, drawing on published frameworks and peer-reviewed case studies. The methodology of this approach has been made explicit so that potential users and researchers can assess its value and build upon it. A list of indicators that emerge from the process, covering the four broad sustainability dimensions, is given, which can be used in assessing the STE's progress towards a destination's long-term sustainability goals.     

旅游业的可持续发展与旅游高等教育改革

可持续发展的旅游业是旅游业未来发展的最佳选择。旅游业可持续发展的实现,需要高素质的旅游人才。高素质的旅游人才的培养,必须依赖旅游教育。旅游教育要真正在旅游业的可持续发展中发挥应有的作用,必须要进行改革:端正教育思想,确立“为学生的可持续发展而教”的教育理念;调整旅游教育的课程内容和课程结构;改进旅游教学方法等。     

The Guided Hike in Banff National Park: A Hermeneutical Performance

Sharpley identifies the need to help the public adopt a new paradigm of sustainable development through learning and understanding. The example of a guided hike in Banff National Park, Canada, that communicates to visitors ideas about sustainable development – and sustainable tourism – is examined in this paper to gain some sense of the world of the hike. The paper is based on a hermeneutical theatrical model derived from the philosophical hermeneutics of Gadamer, which includes play, festival, mimesis, gaze and beauty. Through the use of the model, the paper examines the present day performance of the hike, including the narratives of hikers and those involved in presenting the hike. The examination also includes relevant legislation, history and the setting. The result explores the nature and process of understanding a sustainable development paradigm on a guided hike in a natural protected area.     

Golf-centered Development in Coastal Mediterranean Europe: A Soft Sustainability Test

Since the late 1980s, upmarket tourist and residential golf resorts, golf-centered development (GCD) henceforth, are spreading in the environmentally sensitive and already stressed coastal Mediterranean Europe. This paper examines, on a Mediterranean-wide level, whether and under what conditions GCD is (or might be) a sustainable local and regional development option. After reviewing the main features of GCD in coastal Mediterranean Europe, it conducts a soft sustainability test using a set of criteria that reflect the overarching quest to maintain the present and future integrity of local and regional socio-ecological systems. The criteria are assessed using primary and secondary information for coastal Mediterranean Europe complemented with international evidence where appropriate. The findings indicate that the principal criteria of resource maintenance and use efficiency, livelihood sufficiency and opportunity and intra- and intergenerational equity as well as the necessary conditions to achieve them may not always be satisfactorily met. A summative evaluation, guided by Aristotelian phronesis in balancing multiple goals under conditions of uncertainty, suggests that GCD engenders considerable risks to sustainable local and regional development in coastal Mediterranean Europe. Siting GCD should be embedded within cautious strategic regional planning that is multifunctional, collaborative and adaptive. In closing, the paper indicates future research directions.     

从“社区参与”走向“社区增权”——西方“旅游增权”理论研究述评

增权是目的地获得可持续发展的重要前提.缺乏关于政治和权力关系的分析,仅将社区参与作为一个经济和技术过程而不是政治过程,是当前社区参与旅游发展在实践中不能取得真正进步的原因.本文对西方增权理论以及旅游研究中有关增权的研究成果进行了介绍和分析,认为旅游增权这一新兴理论的提出必将对未来发展中国家的旅游实践产生深刻的影响.文章剖析了西方旅游研究者仅仅关注于社区增权模式的局限性,提出个人增权先于社区增权的观点,并指出在把增权理论应用于中国的旅游实践时,除了西方学者倡导的信息增权和教育增权外,还需要将增权的范围扩展到\"个人权利\"的增进和制度增权,通过国家政治制度的建设保障个人权利和社区增权的合法性.     

关于社区参与旅游发展的若干理论思考

实施可持续发展战略是中国旅游业发展的必然选择。除了包含经济的发展、环境的保护、社会的进步等内容外,可持续发展更需要一种发展理念和评判依据。社区参与旅游发展就是旅游可持续发展宏观系统中不可或缺的机制。本文试从这一角度出发,在提出社区参与的概念的基础上,探讨参与所涉及的不同层面及参与的内在机理,并针对目前中国实施社区参与旅游发展存在的问题提出实现社区参与旅游发展的方法和措施,旨在为旅游发展方针、政策的制定提供决策依据。