Search results

This paper aims to describe the transdisciplinary, multiphase, mixed methods, generative design research, participatory planning and social design activities developed and implemented by the West Virginia University Rural Tourism Design Team and associated outcomes.

The multiphase methodology included quantitative and qualitative research in initial stages of the study (key informant interviews, resident attitudes toward tourism survey, visitor preferences survey, economic impact analysis) which informed social design activities at latter stages (asset mapping, landscape design/visualization of opportunities and sites targeted for development and cultural identity design) using generative design tools facilitating co-design with the communities and helping the destination take sequential steps toward achieving their goals and objectives.

Opportunities and challenges identified through multiple methods were triangulated and pointed to the same conclusions including the need for long term planning and managed growth; protecting community values; underutilized natural, cultural and historic assets; the opportunity to develop nature-based, cultural and historical attractions; and the need for a common vision and collective identity.

This study makes a unique contribution to literature on sustainable tourism planning by incorporating social design activities to visualize findings of more traditional planning methods and provide tangible, visible outcomes of planning activities which can guide local stakeholders in rural destinations more directly to funding for planning recommendations and project implementation.

The transdisciplinary and social/generative/participatory approach provided a scaffolding of outputs to the community with citizen control and active involvement throughout the planning and design process. The incorporation of social design provided tangible outcomes including site designs and a cultural identity. Generative design research gives people a language with which they can imagine and express their ideas and dreams for future experiences.

This paper investigates the role of social design in a transdisciplinary, multiphase project to support sustainable tourism planning.

This paper aims to promote the development of a form of tourism product that can help to promote economic development at Ikare.

The study was conducted at Ikare using a qualitative approach. Tourism assets were identified through interviews and visits to attractions.

Ikare has significant tourism assets that if well harnessed will over time, change the socio-cultural and economic outlook of the town. It is also imperative that the newly formed Ikare Tourism Action Club achieves the objective of this transformation by focussing on the promotion of local tourism assets through local participation.

There were no limitations in conducting this research, however, there may be some limitations in relation to the Ikare Tourism Action Club’s ability to access the funds it needs to achieve its objectives in promoting development from international funding agencies with an interest in nature, cultural and heritage tourism.

Ikare is uniquely blessed with a number of spring waters or rivers as they are more often referred to. These spring waters are not common in any other part of Nigeria because of their unique history. Part of the history is that the springs run throughout the year, irrespective of the degree of drought, thereby providing a sustainable water supply to all the inhabitants of the town. Some of the springs serve specific purposes as they are connected to some of the town’s cultural heritage sites.

Apart from its people, there are cultural assets that underline tourism that tourists look forward to in any destination. In terms of natural resources, there is a little problem because if compared to other towns in Ondo State that do not have such a natural resource base, then the future for Ikare would be quite bright especially if Ikare improves its natural attractions.

Ikare has never been promoted as an ecotourism destination. An aspect of the objective of the Ikare Tourism Action Club is to promote Ikare as a unique tourism destination. In so doing, the development of ecotourism activities in Ikare will offer a unique opportunity that will positively influence the conservation of protected areas and socio/economic development for local people.

Tourism in developing countries has grown rapidly in the past 20 years to the point where a fresh look at its underpinnings appears overdue. The industry itself realizes that the quality of growth is as important as quantity. Inevitably, growth and globalization have brought about a change in tourism's structure, driven by competition, consolidation among the main economic players and the revolution in information and technology. The recent Sommets du Tourisme, now in its third year, promoted by the Geneva/ Chamonix/ Mont Blanc tourism industry, took up these issues in December 5–7, 2001. This paper is a result of a presentation made at that Sommets du Tourisme on tourism, poverty and the World Bank Croup's role. The Bank Croup addresses tourism through its regular channels, including poverty reduction strategy papers (PRSP) and country assistance strategy process (CAS). Its interventions focus on public good issues, market failures, and gaps not filled by others. In this framework, this article reviews tourism as a sector that can contribute to sustainable development, including its economic, financial, social and environmental aspects. It argues that developing countries can compete favorably in world markets — they often have the framework conditions which give them a good opportunity to create the new products and services that consumers seek, often in as yet unspoiled areas. Growth and poverty are addressed, as are the policy conditions for making markets work, and assuring the sustainability of tourism's often all too fragile assets. Local communities are often left out of the decision‐making process that determines their future, leading to disenchantment with tourism; similarly, local communities may have difficulty dealing effectively with the burgeoning international travel industry. The paper underscores the importance of institutions, particularly the respective roles of government and industry, and partnership as a source of mutual inspiration. Some examples are offered here as illustrations of types of investment in sustainable tourism.

The importance of diversification and innovation in strengthening of global competitiveness has been emphasized in both tourism and local development literature. The aim of this chapter is to define the factors (company type, company size, intra-industry investments, collaboration with other companies, and associations) that influence the product- and service-diversification of hotels. This chapter addresses the diversification and innovation strategies of hotels, not only in the light of tourism literature, but also of local development literature, and it provides empirical evidence based on a company-level survey. The findings of the study show that company type, company size, sector-specific knowledge (intra-industry investments and experience of hotel workers), and collaboration with other companies and institutions matter for product- and service-diversification of hotels.

This paper seeks to highlight issues surrounding ownership and copyrights relating to intangible cultural heritage and to raise potential concerns for local (rural, remote, smaller) communities involved in cultural heritage tourism.

The objective of the paper is to provoke reflection and further discourse on how local culture in smaller rural communities has been appropriated for tourism and related issues and concerns. Selected literature, other relevant documents and data from personal observations, derived from previous research, were examined to provide insights on the subject and to help achieve this objective.

Findings suggest that an inequity gap exists in benefits distributed to many rural communities whose cultural heritages are being appropriated and exploited by multiple commercial entities for tourism purposes and personal gain. Little, if any, of the profits realized benefit the local community – the actual creators and owners of the local culture.

With a new awareness and understanding of this phenomenon, developing and implementing a new and alternative approach is possible – an alternative approach that may help narrow this inequity gap while also ensuring significant sustainable benefits to all the stakeholders.

This paper presents new perspectives about the value of intangible cultural heritage when used for tourism. This paper should be of interest and importance to community tourism planners and policy makers, industry operators/suppliers dependent on local cultural tourism products, and consumers of local intangible culture who seek unique cultural experiences.

This study examines the valuation methods for publicly and privately managed heritage assets in Australia. A critical examination of methods exposes the weakness of traditional measurement methods for valuing heritage assets. A major problem is that traditional methods rely on an identifiable cost or an active market as their basis, factors generally absent when valuing heritage assets. In addition, traditional methods do not capture the intrinsic value of heritage assets. This study applies the more innovative non‐traditional measurement methods of Travel Costs and Contingent Valuation. The results suggest that these methods can be more usefully applied to value heritage assets. They are not constrained by the requirements of an identifiable cost or active market and the Contingent Valuation method is capable of capturing total values. The implications of incorporating more than a narrow, purely economic value can be applied to policy makers and management decisions in terms of maintenance and preservation of these heritage assets. The application can also extend current reporting of heritage assets values to include social and environmental aspects in line with the growing movement towards triple bottom line reporting and sustainability.

The research aims to identify the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Site (WHS) managers' perception of cultural sustainability concepts and elements in tourism.

A literature review was carried out to identify the main speeches and characteristic elements of cultural sustainability present in the academic field, and then a quantitative survey was carried out with 60 managers of UNESCO WHSs to evaluate their perception of the theme.

The results show that managers believe that the concept of cultural sustainability is much more closely linked to the social dimension of sustainability than to the economic and environmental dimensions. Thus, elements such as the preservation of tangible and intangible assets, the participation of society in the management of heritage, the democratization of access, the guarantee of the appreciation of culture and its preservation for future generations are basic elements for cultural sustainability. Finally, although they believe that understanding the concept of cultural sustainability is fundamental to their activities, they still lack knowledge of how to measure cultural sustainability in their spaces.

Although the theme of sustainability has several published studies, most of the work focuses only on studies of its social, economic and environmental dimensions. The debates on the role of culture in sustainability are still incipient, and understanding the managers' perception of the topic enables the creation of more effective strategies that guarantee cultural sustainability in heritage by tourism.

The purpose of this paper is to develop nine criteria for tourism disaster resilience scorecard for destinations (TDRSD) by using the “disaster resilience scorecard for cities, based on UNISDR’s ten essentials”. As a surrogate for the city, the Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) is used at the destination level to manage and oversee disasters within the perspective of a visitor. The initial section of the paper revises the scorecard to adapt to the destination, while the second part of the paper applies the scorecard to a specific city destination. The TDRSD scorecard for CVBs was used to evaluate the destination of Manta, Ecuador.

The approach included four stages. The first stage was to use a Delphi technique to evaluate and adapt the UNIDSRR scorecard to a destination (tourism) context. The second stage included conducting interviews with members of the Manta CVB and Mesa 5 (Emergency Management Department of Manta). Consequently, each answer was paired with support for the item and criteria score. Finally, the weak and strong scores were identified for each essential and match them up with recommendations and trends available in literature.

This study set out to do three things: suggest that a similar scorecard is necessary for destinations; adapt the UNIDSR scorecard to a destination focus; and apply the TDRSD to Manta, Ecuador. Overall, these goals were met. But most interestingly, findings suggest some troubling outcomes.

The study allowed to undercover gaps in the current risk management plan of the destination, while providing an evaluation of the engineering resilience of the tourism sector of Manta in case of a disaster.

Many rural areas, even in mature economies possess an obvious yet weakly cultivated tourism potential for short stays and leisure. Even with a plurality of initiatives, the industry can remain rather fragmented. This chapter, based on quantitative and qualitative methods, provides insights into collaboration among the local entrepreneurs of such an area (case: the Flemish Ardennes in Belgium) and their willingness to participate in a regional tourism development process. It also discusses perceptions and opinions about the effectiveness of institutional actors and influential tools such as a White Paper. Though the study discerns a deep gap between collaboration discourse and common practice, it also illustrates the inauguration of a reflexive process, a change of attitudes and a clustering of activities following from a White Paper initiative.

This chapter offers an experience-based report about the development of the first Scandinavian PhD program in tourism studies at Mid-Sweden University. This process is documented through a framework which, rather than having the coherence of a single clearly bounded discipline, focuses on tourism as a study area encompassing multiple disciplines. Tourism knowledge is derived through a synthesis of fact-oriented positivist methodologies and critical theory. The theoretical framework employed to develop the graduate program in tourism studies is presented by critically discussing its multidisciplinary base and briefly outlining future veins of further development.