Community engagement in pro-poor tourism initiatives: fact or fallacy? Insights from the inside

ABSTRACT

Tourism's economic impacts are considerable for many developing countries yet those most in need often benefit little from the tourism sector. As such, Pro Poor Tourism (PPT) has been advocated as a means of contributing to poverty alleviation. However, it is acknowledged that such projects may not succeed and this often occurs when PPT projects are not properly managed or when they are implemented without, among other things, appropriate community engagement and mechanisms for capacity development. Arguably the consultant has an important role; not only do they act as the intermediary between the PPT funding agencies and the local community, but they carry out the funding agency's directives with regards to community engagement. Utilising the insights and perspectives of 17 tourism consultants engaged in PPT projects in developing countries, this study sought to explore the role/s of tourism consultants in PPT projects and their perceptions and experiences of the engagement of local communities in PPT projects. It was found that consultants were cynical of approaches to local community engagement and discussed issues of tokenism, inefficient frameworks and strategies for engagement, and a lack of political will to meaningfully engage local communities.

KEYWORDS:

• Pro-poor tourism
• consultants
• community engagement
• developing countries
• tourism development

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Nozomi Saito is a consultant with PADECO Japan and a former Masters student of the University of Queensland.

Lisa Ruhanen is Associate Director of Education with the UQ Business School, The University of Queensland, Australia and her research interests include sustainable tourism development and Indigenous tourism.

Steve Noakes is an Adjunct Professor at Griffith Institute for Tourism at Griffith University Australia and Director of Pacific Asia Tourism Pty Ltd.

Megan Axelsen is a Senior Research Assistant with the UQ Business School, The University of Queensland, Australia.