In summary, the generalizations from this chapter include:
· The underlying ‘message’ is that the introduction of tourism into even vulnerable communities may not be detrimental to them and to their cultures if it is managed efficiently.
· The key to the compatibility of local communities with tourism is linked particularly to the degree of participation of all the stakeholders in the strategy process and its operation.
· If the ‘custodians’ of any of the principal resources wish to withdraw from that process, then that is their right, and any resultant strategy should acknowledge and accommodate that right.
· The aspirations of the hosts and ‘custodians’ of the tourism resources and the diverse expectations of the tourists will need to be integrated in the tourism-mix and the tourist-mix.
· This integration may need a diversionary sub-strategy to deflect detrimental tourism intrusion from sensitive cultural areas.
· Any social pathologies which are coincident with the development of tourism may not have tourism as their principal cause.
· The influence of the ‘demonstration effect’ is inevitable, but its local significance will be determined largely by the strength of the philo- sophy and code which binds the community (and especially vulnerable groups) together.
· Some of the flamboyant trappings of tourism are inevitable in most tourism areas, so that forms of spatial segregation and precincting may be necessary as a measure of physical and aesthetic control.
Local responses to cope with visitor interest: ways and means of managing
The various stakeholder groups will approach the accommodation of tourism into a vulnerable cultural setting in a number of different ways.
Within the community, it is likely that, as in this case, some vulnerable groups will consider their best strategy to be to retreat behind a psychologi- cal boundary in the ‘back country’ of the tourism region to avoid contact with the visitors. Other groups in the community, including those which may be more liberal in their cultural attachments and non-members of the cultural group may seek to explore conventional entrepreneurial opportunities by creating businesses that service the tourism market and its
associated activities (e.g. retailing, transport, provisioning, land develop- ment, entertainment). The various levels of government will become involved in responding to visitor interest, in part to derive economic and political benefit, but also in meeting the infrastructure requirements of the communities as they come under pressure from increased visitation.
What may emerge, either by design or by coincidence, may be a pastiche of strategies that have the effect of facilitating the development of tourism and providing protection and sustainability of the ‘exotic’
cultural resource. This pastiche is dependent upon partnerships between stakeholders, with each stakeholder group accepting responsibility for integrating its sub-strategy into a holistic programme of actions, which achieve the highest degree of visitor satisfaction and the highest degree of cultural conservation for the host communities. Previous work by this author (Fagence, 1999) on this issue in the case-study region has identified eight possible partnership strategies (see Table 4.6). The overriding aim is to develop a local partnership of sympathetic interests that can address and respond to the multifaceted pressures of visitor–host interaction and pursuit of their various interests.
Research needs
A number of issues, revealed through this chapter, warrant further research attention. The fundamental research needs are for improvements to the databases on social and cultural circumstances, and for improvements to social cultural modelling to facilitate appropriate interpretations. Within the specific context of this chapter there are five particular research needs.
1. There needs to be clarification of whether the circumstances of poten- tial tourism development in the so-called developed and less-developed
‘environments’ are similar or different.
2. Planning tools need to be developed that are compatible with the interests of vulnerable groups who need protection and cultural resources that deserve to be exposed to the tourist gaze.
3. It will be helpful to planners to have a better understanding of per- ceptual and psychological carrying capacity to heighten awareness of the pressures being experienced by vulnerable groups and cultures.
4. Related to3.above, it is necessary to develop a deeper understanding of the implications of visitor–host interaction, especially to identify the characteristics that may heighten tension, and to clarify the generalizability of indices of irritation.
5. It may be useful to be able to separate the ‘demonstration effects’ and social pathologies that are attributable to tourism and those that are the outcomes of more general societal changes.
Experience gleaned from recorded literature and anecdotal evidence suggests that the intrinsic value of culture is becoming increasingly commercialized, with the progressive collapse of the distinction between culture as an aesthetic, intellectual commodity and the product of social development, and culture as a resource that can be exploited for com- mercial purposes. The research questions are multitudinous; so far, the answers, and the standard of tourism planning practice, have been found wanting in many cases. Even so, there is evidence that the potential to
Strategy Purpose
1.Image To meet the visitor expectations of seeing the symbols of the region’s identity, acknowledging that strict authenticity may not be as important to the tourist and the tourism industry as to the custodians of the culture
2.Protection To control the disturbance of the custodians’ territory through planned practices of physical segregation
3.Deep meaning To protect the deep meaning of the culture by restricting direct confrontation, by providing appropriate interpretation for visitors, and by confirming for the younger members of the cultural group the advantages of their own lifestyle (compared to that of the visitors)
4.Authenticity To ‘allow’ replication of the symbolism of the cultural group (which may be difficult to counter if it is not protected by licence or copyright), in part as a contribution to the image of the region
5.Spatial frameworks
To develop nodal or linear concentrations of distinctive and symbolic cultural heritage features, thereby protecting visitor penetration into protected back country
6.Diversification To provide a diversity of tourism attractions and facilities to meet the variety of expectations and motivations of the many different tourist types, and as a means of deflecting some pressure from the cultural attractions
7.Codes of practice
To develop codes of planning practice with specific codes, regulations, controls, strategies which can afford some protection to vulnerable cultural resources and which can provide incentives to sustain them
8.Organization To develop a locally based organization of the different stakeholders so that each party to the development or conservation decision can play a distinctive and positive (rather than obstructionist or rampant development) role Table 4.6. Possible development strategies.
devise strategies for cooperation, mutual support and sustainability lies within the creative capacity of stakeholder groups in regions where there is tourist interest in the communities and their culture.
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G.J. Ashworth
Heritage, Identity and Places