Political challenges in community-based ecotourism

ABSTRACT

This paper applies the Sustainable Livelihoods Approach (SLA) to explore the development of ecotourism in a Taiwanese community after a major earthquake. The study employs interviews with different NGO groups and residents, participant-observation and documentary analysis. Through a political economy lens, the study examines the social and political influences on, and the social and political consequences of, ecotourism development. Results reveal insights into political elements of the community asset base, calling for its inclusion in the existing model. The paper illustrates the challenges of ecotourism development and recognises the importance of attention to differing values if it is to be considered as a sustainable livelihood option in vulnerable communities. In particular we critique the positions of both existing power structures and NGOs, often envisioned as “experts” in the tourism governance process. In this case the imposition of various political values led to failures in inclusivity, particularly in terms of goal setting, empowerment, leadership, organisational fragmentation and benefit sharing, all of which are important principles of sustainability. Greater attention to the political nature of community-based tourism through the revised SLA model could reduce the many documented cases of hosts being merely objects of development, rather than active subjects.

社区为主的生态旅游中的政治挑战

本文用可持续发展思想探讨了台湾社区地震后发展生态旅游的案例。通过对非政府组织，当地居民，参与者进行访谈和对相关文件进行分析，本文从经济政治学角度探究了社会政治对于生态旅游发展和结果的影响。分析结果揭示了政治因素对于社区建设的重要性，并呼吁把政治因素纳入社区建设模型中。本文阐述了发展生态旅游的艰巨性，并且指出了不同价值观念对社区可持续发展的重要性。特别的，传统观念认为现有的权利结构和非政府组织在旅游管理中担当着``专家"的角色，本文则对这一观念进行了批判。在这种情况下，强行灌输政治思想会影响社区的包容性，尤其在目标管理，自主性，领导力，企业划分和利益分享等可持续发展方面，。通过改善SLA模型，在旅游思维上给予社区更多政治考量可以减轻在许多文献中提到的旅游目的地社区参与力不足的问题。

KEYWORDS:

• Sustainable livelihood approach
• community empowerment
• political economy
• ecotourism
• leadership
• Taiwan

关键词:

• 可持续发展
• 社区营造
• 政治经济学
• 生态旅游
• 领导力
• 台湾

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to the journal editors and reviewers of this paper who provided many helpful insights and additional literature.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Chin Chin Wang

Chin-Chin Wang is an assistant professor in ecology and tourism management at Aletheia University, Taiwan. His research focuses on resident and tourist attitudes and behaviours on sustainable tourism, community-based ecotourism and crisis tourism, and he also has interests in the practice and pursuit of indigenous tourism and tourism development.

Carl Cater

Carl Cater is a senior lecturer in tourism at Aberystwyth University, Wales. His research focuses on the experiential turn in tourism and the subsequent growth of special interest tourism sectors, particularly adventure tourism and ecotourism. He has undertaken field research, research supervision and teaching worldwide, and maintains an interest in both the practice and pursuit of sustainable outdoor tourism activity.

Tiffany Low

Tiffany Low is a lecturer in tourism marketing at Aberystwyth University, Wales, and has particular interests in sustainable luxury and gender representation in tourism. She is co-editor (with Carl Cater and Brian Garrod) of the Encyclopaedia of Sustainable Tourism (CABI, 2016).