Community Tourism

homes on the Telica volcano, as well as attending administrative meetings at multiple sites with a variety of stakeholders. I attended meetings held in the community of Telica, as well as at the offices of NE and the municipal government. Attendees included COTUR members, municipal government officials, EU representatives, and NE staff.

In every economic activity, and even more when its relation to the growth of a country is analyzed, local entrepreneurs are key element to have into account. And this is because they are the ones who perform the activity, in addition to be an active part of the community which perceives the benefits resulting from the satisfaction of the need to which it is directed. Thus, the main objective of this research is to analyze the perception that Dominican tourism entrepreneurs have about the destination where they operate, to learn from their point of view the situation of tourism in relation to aspects that are considered very relevant for its development. The followed methodology has been conducting interviews with selected entrepreneurs for their apparent relation to the practice of community tourism, and the results show what aspects stand out and which should be improved in a country where much of their community depend on this economic activity.

This essay explores the relationship between visions of the ideal society that emerge from social movements and local, small-scale socio-economic and cultural projects that might contribute to achieving these ideals. It discusses the concept of sumak kawsay, a term meaning "living well" in the Kichwa language, which has been used in Ecuador to refer to a holistic concept of well-being involving economic, environmental, and social factors. Sumak kawsay originally emerged in the discourse of Ecuador's indigenous movements, and the country has incorporated the concept, along with its Spanish-language version of buen vivir, into its most recent constitution in 2008. Buen vivir has also been included in Bolivia's 2009 Constitution. I contrast sumak kawsay with past development strategies and examine the case of the Waira Churi, a Kichwa music and dance group turned tourist and cultural center in the Amazonian region, whose experience with community tourism seems to exemplify the sumak kawsay ideal. I argue for greater consideration of small-scale indigenous collective economic projects and suggest that community-based tourism can play an important role in making sumak kawsay possible in indigenous communities.

Resilience planning has emerged in recent years as an alternative to the sustainable development paradigm to provide new perspectives on community development and socio-ecological adjustments to a rapidly changing world. Tourism scholars have been somewhat slow to adopt the recent conceptual ideas related to community resilience that have been published in other disciplinary areas, though this situation is also changing rapidly. While most resilience research focusses on major disasters and crises, new frameworks that encompass slow change variables provide a more comprehensive view on resilience. A model for tourism resilience considers the rate of change (transitioning from slow to fast), and the scale of tourism interest (scaling from that of the entrepreneur to those that are community-wide). The resulting 2x2 matrix presents four context with distinct resilience issues, methodologies and measurements, ranging from entrepreneurs managing daily maintenance needs, to community disaster readiness, response and recovery.

Community-based tourism is regarded as a potential driver of economic development for rural communities in close proximity to peace parks. The long-term success of peace parks in Southern Africa is only possible if local communities that live within or adjacent to peace parks receive significant benefits. Community-based tourism provides the means whereby such local communities may receive these benefits. This article establishes the spatial distribution of community-based tourism ventures in Southern Africa in relation to the proposed peace parks. A high degree of spatial association was found to exist between community-based tourism ventures and the proposed peace parks.

This essay explores the relationship between visions of the ideal society that emerge from social movements and local, small-scale socio-economic and cultural projects that might contribute to achieving these ideals. It discusses the concept of sumak kawsay, a term meaning “living well” in the Kichwa language, which has been used in Ecuador to refer to a holistic concept of well-being involving economic, environmental, and social factors. Sumak kawsay originally emerged in the discourse of Ecuador’s indigenous movements, and the country has incorporated the concept, along with its Spanish-language version of buen vivir, into its most recent constitution in 2008. Buen vivir has also been included in Bolivia’s 2009 Constitution. I contrast sumak kawsay with past development strategies and examine the case of the Waira Churi, a Kichwa music and dance group turned tourist and cultural center in the Amazonian region, whose experience with community tourism seems to exemplify the sumak ka...

OSEA ongoing research projects (4 or 7 week programs)

Sustainable Community Tourism Development

Emergent Cultures Research:  Research on Sexualities, Sociality, Subjectivities in context of Globalization and Change

Health, Healing, Belief --- Ethnography of Food and Medical Pluralism

Les îles des Petites Antilles, confrontées à la concurrence des grandes destinations régionales, doivent revoir leur positionnement touristique. Le tourisme de masse n'a pas les effets d'entraînement escomptés dans ces territoires exigus aux ressources vulnérables. La réflexion sur les pratiques touristiques alternatives, essentiellement regroupées autour de l'appellation d'"écotourisme" dans la région d'étude, s'inscrit dans le contexte d'un développement mal maîtrisé. Selon les situations, les stratégies autour de l'écotourisme peuvent constituer: 1/ la première étape du processus de développement touristique du pays (par exemple à la Dominique), 2/ un nouveau positionnement pour des destinations en en perte d'attractivité (les Antilles françaises),  3/ un argument favorisent la diffusion spatiale au profit d'un nouvel aménagement du territoire (Sainte-Lucie). Ces projets installent les enjeux de développement de la société d'accueil au coeur de la réflexion; ils peuvent, ponctuellement, contribuer à la lutte contre la pauvreté.