Community engagement in drive tourism in Ireland: case study of the Wild Atlantic Way

ABSTRACT

This paper presents research, which investigates community engagement in drive tourism in Ireland. In particular, it focuses on the Wild Atlantic Way (WAW), Ireland’s first long distance drive touring route stretching along the Atlantic coast for 2500?km from Donegal to West Cork. Face-to-face surveys were carried out to obtain a representative sample of community stakeholders along this touring route. The findings provide insight into the level of community engagement with drive tourism on the WAW with a high level of approval for the project but a low level of community integrated involvement with this drive-tourism product. This paper concludes that while there are low levels of community engagement with the WAW, there is a significant level of community support for the development of the WAW. However, to acquire community engagement in tourism development requires sustainable planning to maximize community benefits and minimize community costs thus increasing community participation, which is somewhat lacking.     

The salience of stakeholders in religious tourism: A case study of the Dajia Mazu pilgrimage

Previous studies have focused on the relationship between religious tourism and some of its stakeholders. However, tourism's success relies on the commitment of all stakeholders. Based on stakeholder theory, this study assesses the stakeholder salience of a mass folk religious pilgrimage, the Dajia Mazu pilgrimage in Taiwan, by using fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (AHP). The results indicate that temples, pilgrims, and host communities are more important than tourists, environment, businesses, and governmental bodies. Among the 18 contributions of all stakeholders, pilgrims' engagement, organizing temple management, food and drink sharing, host communities' engagement, and supporting temples' assistance are the most important. Organizers and administrators therefore need to identify key stakeholders and prioritize their contributions in managing pilgrimages and religious tourism.     

Using volunteer-employed photography to inform tourism planning decisions: A study of St David's Peninsula,Wales

More effective tools are needed to empower stakeholder participation in tourism planning processes, and volunteer-employed photography (VEP) is a promising option. This paper discusses the use of VEP to inform tourism planning on St David's Peninsula in Wales. Locals and tourists were given cameras and photo diaries, and asked to use VEP to comment on what they do and do not appreciate about the area, existing planning problems and ways to avoid future planning problems. Through this case, the paper examines the appropriateness of VEP as a tool for assisting tourism planning. The major finding is that a richer, deeper and more valuable dataset can be generated through the participation of host communities and visitors using the VEP approach. As a means of visually representing participants' views, VEP can be a powerful data collection and analysis tool, making a significant addition to the tourism planning toolkit at the local level.     

Community participation in heritage tourism planning: is it too much to ask?

Considering the complications of collecting empirical data on community participation, this study proposes a new methodological approach that departs from the current literature. For the first time, an experimental procedure is adopted to conduct a direct comparison between participatory and non-participatory decision-making in the context of heritage tourism planning. Contrary to previous work, this is the first ex-ante assessment of community participation at a destination with no such prior experience. The analysis relies on behavioural data on choices, deliberation and conflict studied in the context of a controlled collaborative environment. The findings suggest that choices and deliberation between participatory and non-participatory groups exhibit no statistically significant differences although participatory groups were more susceptible to conflict. However, interestingly, conflict was constructive as it increased provisions for heritage goods. Furthermore, intra-group heterogeneity did not always affect collective decisions negatively whereas trust and institutional credibility played a major role in influencing both individual and collective preferences. These findings have important implications for research and policy, opening a novel avenue for the systematic study of participation dynamics to inform the instigation of participatory endeavours.     

Safer destinations,healthier staff and happier tourists: Opportunities for inclusive water,sanitation and hygiene in tourism

Sustainable tourism development, including tourism's COVID-19 recovery, requires a holistic view of environmental and community benefits, including access to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH). This study presents a system-wide Inclusive WASH in tourism framework for destinations. Using a qualitative approach including interviews and focus groups, the framework is applied at three system scales: hotels, the community and wider destination to assess the current WASH situation in Mandalika, Lombok, Indonesia, a water-scarce destination earmarked for rapid development. Findings highlight differences in Inclusive WASH practices between hotels and communities, the potential for conflict and gendered inequalities. Barriers linked to system elements, structure and the enabling environment are identified. Addressing inequitable planning processes, improving stakeholder engagement and creating tools for hotels to improve Inclusive WASH can contribute to improving destination value. Findings are relevant for practitioners, government and community organisations integrating Sustainable Development Gaols 5 and 6 into tourism development and recovery.     

ENGAGING TIMESHARE OWNERS IN TOURISM DESTINATION MANAGEMENT: TOURISM PLANNING AND TOURISM MARKETING IMPLICATIONS

It is important to understand tourists' willingness to participate in tourism planning and the factors influencing their willingness because they are an integral part of the destination and ultimately one of the main buyers of the product. Timeshare owners are a special group of tourists who have additional connections with the tourism destination through their timeshare. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships among timeshare owners' perceptions of tourism planning, civic engagement, sense of place, and willingness to participate in tourism planning.

This study was based on a questionnaire survey of U.S. timeshare owners. The total sample size was 302. A two‐stage structural equation modeling approach was applied in data analysis. Results from the measurement model suggested that the model fit the data quite well. Results from the structural model suggested that timeshare owners' perceptions of tourism planning, their past history of civic participation, and their sense of place significantly impact their willingness to participate in tourism planning, while timeshare owners' past experience in political participation did not significantly affect their willingness to participate in tourism planning. Implications of the findings in tourism planning and tourism destination marketing are presented.     

Comparisons of stakeholder perceptions of tourism impacts in rural eastern North Carolina

The purpose of this study was to discover if differences in perceptions of tourism's impacts on a rural community existed between four stakeholder groups in eastern North Carolina: residents, entrepreneurs, government officials, and tourists. Data were collected from stakeholders using a mail-back questionnaire, which included nine Likert-style questions inquiring about attitudes and perceptions of tourism development in the community. To discover if differences existed, an ANOVA test was conducted for each question, followed by a Scheffe test to determine which groups were different. The analysis indicated that there were differences in the perception of tourism impacts between stakeholder groups. More specifically, the results of the ANOVA test indicated that there were statistically significant differences between stakeholder groups for seven of the nine questions. Differences were identified between the entrepreneurs and government officials, residents and governmental officials, residents and entrepreneurs, and residents and tourists.     

The role of corporates in creating sustainable Olympic legacies

Abstract

The Olympic Games is a major stimulus for increased tourism. In recent years, there have been greater calls for this and other mega-events to leave sustainable positive legacies for the host city, partly to offset the massive cost of hosting. To date, little consideration has been afforded to the role corporates might play in contributing to event legacies. This gap is compounded by the lack of research examining stakeholder engagement in legacy planning more generally. This paper adopts Holmes, Hughes, Mair and Carlsen’s (2015) sustainable event legacy timeline to conceptualise how corporates through the corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives of sponsorship and employee volunteering can engage across the Olympic event planning cycle to generate volunteering legacies. Drawing upon a comparative study of the Sydney 2000 and London 2012 Olympic Games, tentative evidence of corporate engagement was noted but for the most part it was fragmented and CSR initiatives primarily focused on the immediate planning and delivery stages of the event cycle. The paper advances new knowledge of how volunteering legacies can be generated through the best practice engagement of corporates as key stakeholders involved in legacy planning and governance across the Olympic planning cycle.     

社区旅游参与视角下民族村寨旅游地居民地方感生成研究

居民地方感领域的研究在深化“人-地”关系认识、旅游目的地地方性塑造、旅游资源开发与保护以及旅游规划等方面具有特殊意义。已有研究主要探讨人口统计学特征、物理环境和社会环境等影响因素,缺乏对旅游世界中人与场的积极互动而产生的地方感等问题的讨论。本研究从社区旅游参与视角,通过田野调查的方法收集郎德上寨村民主诉的旅游参与实践,对民族旅游村寨居民地方感的生成问题进行分析。研究发现:郎德上寨村民的社区旅游参与主要表现为“合作激励型”“自我激励型”“机械被动型”和“利益激励型”4种类型;在社区旅游参与过程中,村民获得了强烈的地方感,并由自然地理和人文物理环境、社会文化特性、经济制度、乡土认同、血缘认同、文化认同、房屋归属感和生活便利性等内容体现。本研究还发现,居民地方感在不同的社区旅游参与形态中表现出差异性;社区旅游参与和地方感之间是双向、交互式的影响关系,其中,旅游效益感知因素在二者的关系中起着重要的中介作用。     

赋权理论与旅游发展中的社区能力建设

伴随着旅游业的急速增长,作为旅游业利益相关者中之弱势群体的社区,亟须予以不同层面的赋权以提高其参与能力.赋权是一个建立意识、增强能力和发展技能,通向更多参与、更加平等、更大影响的行动过程.本文通过对国内不同地域社区旅游目的地的追踪研究,在赋权理论的框架下,提出旅游发展中社区能力建设的基本路径.     

Drivers of community participation in heritage tourism planning: an empirical investigation

Despite increased emphasis on community participation in tourism planning, our current knowledge of community attitudes and their motivations to engage in such collaborative governance is limited and fragmented. This paper explores the role of heritage values, tourism and community perceptions held by destination hosts as drivers to willingness to participate in heritage tourism development. Such enquiry aims to enhance our current knowledge of community views and their potential to influence involvement in participatory decision-making in order to inform policy approaches to collaborative heritage tourism strategies. Using a relatively inexperienced destination community (Kastoria, Greece), the study collects quantitative data via an attitudinal survey. Our findings suggest that intentions to participate are mainly driven by community ideals while their positive influence is more evident on community members with high place attachment. Heritage values play a significant role; however, their effects do not always favour participation as they can also act as barriers to involvement. On the other hand, tourism perceptions are found to be mainly insignificant in shaping intentions to participate. Finally, the paper presents and discusses variations between different demographic groups and draws implications for policy.     

Inhibitors to host community participation in sustainable tourism development in developing countries

The involvement of host communities (or destination residents), particularly in developing countries, is critical to the success of tourism development and to the creation of a “Just Destination”. This paper investigates host community perceptions about obstacles to their participation in tourism development in Lombok, Indonesia, providing new insights into institutional influences on tourism opportunities and issues. Purposive and snowball sampling techniques targeted separate groups of destination residents who live in a developed tourism destination, a less developed tourism destination, a remote rural village far away from tourism destinations, as well as a group of university students. Data were collected through in-depth interviews, qualitative questionnaires and observation, and were analysed using content analysis. Results show three main institutional factors inhibit host community participation in tourism: tourism agencies, private sector providers and tourism infrastructure, and perceptions of the negative impacts of tourism. The underperformance of state tourism agencies and private sector providers resulted in a lack of tourism infrastructure and limitations on host community opportunities to participate in tourism development and businesses. The findings suggest the need for improvement in the training of state tourism agency employees, better coordination among government agencies, and improved education and training for tourism operators.     

Interrogating the equity principle: the rhetoric and reality of management planning for sustainable archaeological heritage tourism

International archaeological heritage management in developing countries frequently entails planning for the development of sustainable tourism. A central tenet of sustainable tourism development is the equitable distribution of tourism benefits, a goal reflected in stakeholder consultations and management plan provisions for capacity-building among community members. The lack of longitudinal data demonstrating the meaningful participation of target populations in tourism development dividends, however, calls into question the efficacy of such measures. A review of tourism development outcomes at Machu Picchu, Angkor, Lijiang, Copan, Borobudur and Cape Coast Castle supports the contention that sustainable management planning has not produced equity. The problem lies not in specific planning provisions but in the lack of correspondence between developed country assumptions and developing country reality, which is characterized by structural and systemic power imbalances. The cases inform the creation of a generalizable model of tourism development inequality, the implications of which present philosophical, professional, methodological and conceptual challenges that must be overcome if the heritage management discipline is to deliver on the promise of sustainability.     

Smart governance for heritage tourism destinations: Contextual factors and destination management organization perspectives

The sustainable development of tourism is a major concern for destination management organisations (DMOs) in heritage tourism. Smart tourism advocates claim that technologically-driven innovations can help DMOs to optimise tourism development by addressing issues such as carrying capacity, stakeholder management and community involvement. This study enhances the understanding of smart tourism governance (SG), showing how contextual factors affect DMO perspectives of SG. A mixed-methods approach was used to investigate heritage tourism destinations in the United Kingdom. The results demonstrate that well-established DMOs do not perceive SG as potentially beneficial, as they already perform well in many areas in which SG promises improvements, such as citizen engagement, decision-making, and stakeholder engagement. Despite this, this research highlights the aspects of SG that these destinations can take advantage of as social inclusion, environmental performance and the provision of citizen-centric services. All of these can help heritage tourism destinations to optimise their tourism development. This research additionally demonstrates the effect of contextual factors, such as the level of public-sector support for tourism and the growing influence of non-tourism stakeholders in destination management, on DMO perceptions of SG and makes recommendations for how developments in the use of SG by DMOs can be made, in light of these.     

Mega-events as drivers of community participation in developing countries: The case of Shanghai World Expo

Within a wide body of literature it has been argued and demonstrated that community participation in tourism development is advantageous in terms of the sustainability and effectiveness of the development policies adopted. However, over time, doubts have been raised about whether community participation should take place in developing countries. There are major concerns regarding the immaturity and the incompliance of the political and social conditions of developing countries in relation to the requirements necessary for an effective participatory planning. In this paper, we argue that mega-events, due to their wide scope and the key role that large groups of stakeholders play in their success, may represent a driver for community participation in developing countries. In order to explore our idea, we will analyse tourism development and the planning of a mega-event within the Yangtze River Delta area, driven by the organisation and preparation of the Shanghai World Expo. According to our evidence, some initial elements of participative decision-making have indeed developed around the organisation of this mega-event, even though China has historically been considered refractory towards community participation. Finally, we discuss the findings in the light of existing knowledge to elicit significant questions about community participation in tourism development within developing countries and to address further research on this topic.     

Sustainable tourism development and residents’ perceptions in World Heritage Site destinations

Set in Malaysia’s Lenggong Valley World Heritage Site (WHS), this paper uses stakeholder theory to explore the heterogeneity of positive and negative perceptions among residents and their effects on residents’ support for and participation in sustainable tourism development. Data from 221 completed questionnaire surveys revealed heterogeneous negative perceptions across residents’ age, level of education and economic involvement in tourism. Moreover, residents’ positive perceptions had a positive effect on their support for and participation in tourism development. This study contributes to the resident perception literature by using stakeholder theory to conceptualise the heterogeneity of residents’ perceptions and by examining the effects of those perceptions on their support for and participation in tourism development in a rural WHS destination in the developing world. Furthermore, the findings of this study have practical implications for local authorities aiming to improve residents’ support and participation in tourism planning for sustaining tourism development.     

From culture shock and culture arrogance to culture exchange: Ideas towards sustainable socio‐cultural tourism1

Ecologically sustainable development has captured the imagination and the serious attention of governments and world business. All too frequently the socio‐cultural component of ecologically sustainable development is given secondary and cursory attention in the planning of industry futures, including the future of tourism. This review paper will argue that empowering visitors, training tourism professionals and educating host communities in the nature of cultural interaction are all necessary activities in order to move from a paradigm of culture shock to one of cultural exchange, and hence ecologically sustainable socio‐cultural development. This paper presents two opposing future scenarios for tourism development, under which key socio‐cultural implications for four groups of participants are outlined. These groups, segmented for the purpose of analysis, are: tourism community professionals; the host community; visitors in general; and visitors who are committed culture seekers. Specific educational, research and human resource development strategies for each of these groups are identified in order to achieve a pro‐active, planned and sustainable model of cultural exchange.     

The environment‐community symbiosis: A case for collaborative tourism planning

This article advances the proposition that sustainable tourism can be achieved through recognition that the public and private sector, the host communities and the natural environment are interdependent stakeholders in a complex tourism ‘domain’, where no single individual, agency or group can resolve strategic tourism issues by acting alone. The planning and management of this domain for the purpose of achieving sustainability requires moving away from traditional approaches towards dynamic collaboration among the stakeholders of the tourism development and planning domain. Collaboration provides a flexible process which evolves over time, enabling stakeholders to disseminate and manage problems or issues on an interactive basis. It offers an attractive alternative to adversarial problem solving methods in tourism planning and management, when inter or multi‐sectoral participation is required. The paper commences with a discussion of the shortfalls of traditional tourism planning processes and models, followed by an overview of collaboration ‘theory’. Examples are given which illustrate collaborative approaches in several mountain resort areas. An exploratory case study of tourism development and planning issues in the mountain community of Canmore, Alberta (Canada) is then presented, leading to a discussion and conclusion regarding the theoretical and practical applications of collaboration toward achieving sustainable tourism.     

Responsible and responsive tourism planning in the community

In recognizing tourism as a community industry the intention of this article is to focus broadly on developing a framework for encouraging a broader, more participatory approach to tourism planning. Specifically, the constraints that befuddle community involvement are identified, and the difficulties facing public participation are discussed, as are some provisional action steps. The characteristics of a diversified approach to tourism planning are then highlighted. Appropriate creative, involving and learning techniques, such as scenarios should be utilized and the application of scenarios as a device to help develop and integrate a community's tourism goals, as a prelude to further planning, is explained.     

Collaborative marketing for the sustainable development of community-based tourism enterprises: voices from the field

This paper examines stakeholder engagement in the collaborative marketing of community-based tourism enterprises (CBTEs). The study explored the various collaborative marketing approaches shaped by diverse stakeholders’ perspectives on ways to achieve the sustainable development of CBTEs in Vietnam. The results of 30 in-depth, semi-structured interviews from three CBTEs in Vietnam showed that three collaborative marketing approaches were prevailed among CBTE stakeholders and were categorised as commercial viability-driven, community development-driven and balanced approaches. The approaches’ differences were reflected in the marketing objectives to achieve CBTE sustainability, the central linkages of CBTE collaborative marketing, and the facilitators of stakeholder collaboration. The research found a knowledge gap between researchers and research participants and divergent perspectives among different categories of research participants regarding marketing and CBTE sustainability. This paper implies the role of a knowledge co-production approach to drive the stakeholder engagement in CBTE collaborative marketing for CBTEs’ long-term success. Additionally, this study provides insights into the discussion of marketing for sustainable tourism. Furthermore, the findings contribute to a better understanding of the collaborative approach at the organisational level.