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7 Community Tourism
Peter Robinson and Peter Wiltshier
Introduction
Community tourism evolves from one of two perspectives. Either the community has a vision of how their place of work or their home can be a destination and the way in which this is connected to the potential for community development, or the community gains the net impacts of their proximity to a major tourist destination. These may be positive, such as the increased popularity and economic growth enjoyed in places such as Whitby as a result of the association with Dracula and the various television programmes that have been fi lmed there.
However, the benefi ts of tourism are not always passed on to the communities where the impacts of tourism are felt. Bladon in Oxfordshire, UK, is one such example. This small village, located on the edge of the Blenheim Palace estate (a World Heritage Site) has a typical village church and graveyard, which includes the burial place of Sir Winston Churchill. Despite huge interest from coach parties and individual visitors, tourism has brought little benefi t to this community, which has seen the closure of pubs and the total loss of the village shop and post offi ce. Here, there is clear capacity to benefi t from tourism.
Similarly, there are other places where the community has a strong identity and is known for its traditions and festivals. An example is Wirksworth in the Peak District (a UK National Park). Wirksworth has a long established and very popular arts festival, yet for many years there was no clear link between this single event and the wider benefi t that could be derived from
a clear and cohesive approach to tourism development.
In essence community-based tourism (CBT) is based upon a useful combination of resources, resources plus strategy, values, vision and suffi cient projects with resources to be implemented and developed. This chapter explores these issues from a developmental perspective, and considers how tourism can become a part of the community and the ways in which it can contribute to economic growth and social cohesion, explained through both theoretical perspectives and case studies.
A Historical Perspective
Since the dawn of the jet age and aff ordable mass transportation, communities have been able to enjoy greater benefi ts from an increased number of visitors – invited and uninvited – as transport, accommodation, food and drink and modest entertainment have become more accessible to a wider range of consumers.
At the same time, especially in the UK since European Economic Community accession in 1973, communities in rural locations have recognized that an increased share of their income is now derived from services such as tourism and not from traditional commercial activities such as farming and manufacturing.
It is this decline in primary activities such as farming and manufacturing, and an increase in the delivery of services such as tourism and technology, that has led communities to slowly recognize that their values, vision, goals and strategies for community development are more
dependent on a healthy mix of tourism and other forms of service delivery.
CBT development is therefore dependent on adequate supplies of goods and services developed for and within the host community.
This must be coupled to a shared set of values and vision developed over a period of time with stakeholders in that community and public sector resources for ongoing maintenance of sustainable and responsible tourism that has been devised by community residents and business owners under shared social, economic and environmental factors.
Defi nitions
France (1997) off ered insight into the approach and the nature of community tourism as an alternative management approach, describing it as ‘A type of tourism run by and for the local community. It may be alternative in character…
or may cater for larger numbers and have more in common with aspects of mass tourism [it can even] be associated with organised packages and even coach travel’. She went on to provide a useful historic contextualization, noting that in 1991 the Department for the Environment identifi ed that among the guiding principles it proposed for sustainable development, it is implicit that such initiatives would only be successful if there was a ‘movement towards integration of the physical environment, the cultural environment (host community) and the tourist … future planning of tourism [requires eff ort] to incorporate community representation into the planning process’. However there is also recognition within this that it will be diffi cult to achieve because of the problem of ‘defi ning the true meaning of community because of its diversity and complexity of social construction’, which makes ‘universal agreement of such wide represen tations of interests … diffi cult’.
A further defi nition off ered by Mathieson and Wall (2006) ‘refers to enhancement, at the local level, of the capability to participate in the development process. Opportunities should be provided for local participation in tourism, both directly through investment in and employment in tourist businesses as well as in supporting activities such as agriculture and craft industries’. It is these relationships that need to
be understood. Shaw and William (2004) recognized that communities ‘may resist or embrace, or simply be overwhelmed by, the infl uences of the tourists. These host–guest relationships are central to tourism experiences and tourism impacts’.
Tourism concern (Shaw and William, 2004) suggests tourism should involve the following:
• Be run with the involvement and consent of local communities, which of course links directly with the ideas of community participation.
• Be in a position to share profi ts ‘fairly’ with the local community.
• Involve communities rather than indi- viduals.
There is, however, a range of limiting factors (Murphy, 1985; Jenkins, 1993; Beech and Chadwick, 2006):
• Nature of politics and degree of political literacy and understanding.
• Nature of tourism and tourism issues.
• Perception of tourism and history of involvement in tourism.
• Attitudes of the media.
• Apathy among citizens.
• Cost in relation to time and money.
• Increase in decision-making time with community involvement.
• Ensuring fair opportunities for representation from the whole community.
• Lack of understanding of complex planning issues and processes.
For any community participation to be eff ective, Shaw and William (2004) highlighted that it is essential to integrate ‘local community needs and ways of life with tourism develop- ments to avoid the problems and confl icts associated with erosion of local cultures’. These ideals of community tourism ‘are increasingly part of the state and [non-governmental organization] agendas billed under “community tourism” or “sustainable tourism” ’.
Community Capital
This chapter develops the theme of shared socioeconomic and environmental factors
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under the umbrella of good sustainable practices, which are explored in all of the case studies, identifying inputs and outcomes that deliver a return to the host community. That return is comprised of socioeconomic and environmental benefi ts to both host and visitor and a measurable, long-term improvement in the capital invested in the relationship between host and visitor. This capital has at least two components: one is the inventory of goods and services owned and developed within the community by the community (residents, busi- nesses, groups, charities and other stakeholders;
discussed later) and the second is the social capital owned in common by the community.
Social capital can be perceived as identifi able from other forms of capital, infrastructure or regional enterprises and social services. The social capital is held in equal shares by residents and business owners within the community and is derived from education, skills, knowledge, esteem, recognition and health, all of which are attributable to the benefi ts that tourism brings to the destination.
Supply Issues
Inherent in the successful and sustainable development of CBT is the view that scarce resources need to be managed eff ectively to maximize the return on the deployment and
management of commercial activity, including services management and tourism. Tourism development is therefore seen as a historical process of structural changes that are essentially driven by innovation and embedding new forms or organization and management.
The conceptual view of tourism is as a driver of economic development using innovation-driven qualitative change through the introduction of new combinations of political freedom, eco- nomic facilities, social opportunities, trans- parency guarantees and security (Schumpeter, 1943; Sen, 2006).
A successful CBT regime is dependent on maximizing a return on the economic and social investment in tourism compared to a range of alternative, or substituted, goods and services using existing and planned resources available.
A decision support process and system is useful in identifying whether tourism is an appropriate and sustainable commercial activity for the destination. The elements of a decision support process required to determine the likelihood that tourism is an appropriate and sustainable option comprise a resource audit, skills audit of community residents and business owners, inventory of components of competitive advantage, evolving community satisfaction indicators, legacy of sociopolitical structures, supportive legislation, quality of life indicators and impact analysis.
Case Study 7.1. Linking communities through tourism.
West Oxfordshire, branded as ‘The Oxfordshire Cotswolds’, is characterized by the historic market town of Witney and the famous village of Burford, with its steep hill and golden stone buildings, acting as a mecca for tourists. It is wealthy area, close to the M40 and within the London commuter belt. It has a low population and is distinctly rural. Most communities are based around small villages, many on the main routes into the district, but others are hidden away off the beaten track. Traditional villages in this area still retain their manor house, church and pub, and in some cases a village shop. However, the appeal of these villages has led to many houses being bought as second homes or holiday cottages and the traditional community has been degraded. This has led to a breakdown in community spirit and the apparent wealth of the area also hides pockets of deprivation; rural deprivation is much harder to identify than it is in urban areas. In response to this, the local authority has worked hard to include these villages within the tourism product, focusing on walking trails and cycle routes, linked to places to stop and eat, and highlighting specifi c features that are worth visiting such as churches, village pubs, quaint tea rooms and attractive architecture. This is an effective way of bringing additional tourism into these rural backwaters and while this may exacerbate the appeal of second homes it does, at least, encourage people to spend money in local pubs, make donations to churches and discover another dimension of the destination.
The Role of the Small- and Medium-sized Enterprise
Most communities working within the framework of CBT comprise small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The success of CBT, therefore, is predicated on successful socioeconomic capital development and return on investment to compare the destination against a basket of comparable community- based sustainable examples to identify the nature of successful CBT in practice. This benchmarking is currently the only way to measure success. Globally, tourism is a series of
complex and highly interdependent organ- izations linked to provide core and ancillary services for consumers. These organizations are typically SMEs, characterized by the scale of operations. SMEs have few employees, are often built around the family, tend to specialize in some aspect of services for visitors, usually have specialist skills and are ultimately focused on delivering specifi c goods and services to the visitor. This is illustrated by Case Study 7.2.
SMEs typically build business and resources around the goodwill of the family or the owner- operator. The disadvantages of the small scale of operation of SMEs are as follows:
Case Study 7.2. Wirksworth.
The pretty post-industrial heritage town of Wirksworth is located on the south-east boundary of the Peak District National Park, which was established in 1951 and is now the busiest national park in Britain and second most visited in the world. In the late 1970s with the demise of quarrying and mining in the district, the local council and parish decided to bid for public funds to restore the town’s fi ne Georgian architecture and ultimately ensure Wirksworth would become a great place to live and work.
Mining has been associated with Wirks worth since Roman times and the town stands at what was once the core of the lead mining industry in England. The town has a fi ne collection of Georgian market- town vernacular architecture and Richard Arkwright’s Mill at Cromford, the heart of the Industrial Revolu- tion, and the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site are located adjacent. In addition to the Wirksworth Festival, visitor attractions include the Wirksworth Heritage Centre, the Ecclesbourne Valley Railway, the National Stone Centre and the Cromford to High Peak Trail, as well as Carsington Water, a reservoir owned and operated by Severn Trent Water. All of these attractions and the festival have the potential to deliver 100,000 visitors each year to the town and create further employment in related services. Unfortunately some related negative factors emerged as researchers engaged in dialogue with stakeholders. Power elites, nimbyism, low levels of cross-sectoral interest between organizations, disagreement over sectoral and spatial development agendas, com petition for public funding and fi nally the complete absence of any sector-specifi c or integrated implementation planning are notable, but certainly not unique to Wirksworth.
Central to this regeneration is a community-led organization, New Opportunities for Wirksworth (NOW!). NOW! is an organ ization run by and for local people, under the name of the Wirksworth Regeneration Board. It has articulated a tourism vision and mission statement that incorporates a strategy for tourism development that, in its own words, is designed to be ‘a framework for Tourism Development which can operate at strategic level, as a tool for funding applications and for ensuring clear aims and objectives for businesses and residents in Wirksworth’. By the end of the 1980s the townspeople had undertaken reviews to address and reverse trends in economic decline and social deprivation, with a view to funding heritage building conservation that would retain the historic character of Wirksworth and focus on an improved local economy (Michell et al., 1989). In 2002 a further report (Davies, 2002) was commissioned by the town council and funded through the East Midlands Development Agency. This report identifi ed that further research into developing tourism and retail, the arts and education would be desirable from the perspective of local solutions for local problems and scoping of clusters to support regeneration was recommended. Over two decades a range of stakeholders from the arts, tourism, retail and services sectors, initially under a civic trust umbrella and funded through local government grants, considered various pathways to regeneration. Initial work focused on community consultation, resource provision (usually defi ned in this context as experts and their advice) and tended towards the unoffi cial rather than the offi cial (Michell et al., 1989). As Foley and Martin observed in 2000, governments have traditionally underestimated the practical problems at the local level: patchy support to endogenous policy creation, capacity concerns from the local community, effectiveness of disseminated experiences and lessons learned, low skill levels and lack of time resources provided by local and central government to the regeneration project.
Community Tourism 91
• The diffi culty in parallel development of resources and skills required to manage complex relationships with suppliers and consumers.
• Time needed to up-skill.
• Limited time and opportunities to refl ect on the success of the current activity.
• Reduced purchasing power and negotiation for maximizing return on the investment because of scale.
• Limited control over product development.
• Legacy issues and inheritance of the business through succession planning.
Forecasting
Without doubt, the sustainability component of CBT is based around decision making informed by all of the relevant factors in social, economic and environmental development. To successfully manage the business now and into the future requires the business owner to be able to measure how well CBT is managed now and positioned in relation to a basket of other competing organizations and relative to the supply chain (vertical, horizontal and diagonal).
Generally, there is a focus on three types of collaboration: vertical relationships, horizontal relationships and diagonal relationships. A vertical relationship can exist between suppliers and buyers – in Case Study 7.2, between a heritage tour operator, an accommodation provider and a transportation provider. We witness con temporary challenges and success in modern supply chain literature through the deliberate creation of collaborative strategic partnerships with select partners. Horizontal relationships occur between competing companies selling similar products or services, for example two competing coach tour operators.
Diagonal relationships represent relationships that develop in diff erent industries and sectors (Fyall and Spyriadis, 2003; Von Friedrichs Grängsjö, 2003).
To compete sustainably, a business must accumulate and articulate a range of analytical tools in planning for the future. These comprise a broad range of datasets, expert opinions and macro-economic scenario plans. At fi rst glance these forecasting tools appear daunting to the
owner-operator of an SME. What can be simplifi ed and made accessible to SMEs is a tool kit that empowers the owner-operator to comprehend strategic forecasting issues while simultaneously reinforcing or adapting, due to changes in the social, economic and physical environment, the values, mission and vision in contemporary CBT.
The toolkit comprises public and private perspectives on CBT, the contribution of the public sector, local or regional government best practices, sources of funding required for SMEs to develop their services, a review of employ- ment and business creation statistics and other items required to attract inward investment and confi dence from the supply chain. This chapter now looks at these issues as they contribute to a successful forecasting toolkit.
Public Sector Input
The public sector, typically represented by local government regeneration, plays an essential role in the delivery of CBT because of the intrinsic relationship between planning, develop- ment and economic growth derived from tourism. This is, however, often a contested issue because of the sensitive balance between growth and development and the need to retain community spirit. The primary point of contest, though, is the misunderstanding that often arises between community stakeholders and the local authority. The community can easily identify and will frequently comment on poor- quality public sector services, but often the relationship to ensure stakeholder buy-in does not exist. For example, a review of the economics of market towns is undertaken by the local government to inform development and regeneration, but the outcome does not drive product or service development by relevant stakeholders within that community. If understanding is created between both sides of the argument it becomes easier to explain, for example, what support the community needs and to work with the local authority to improve public toilets, develop tourist information resources and improve interpretation and signposting within the community.
There are generally clear lines of responsi- bility for the public sector and often these are