Elsevier

Annals of Tourism Research

Volume 37, Issue 4, October 2010, Pages 1141-1163
Annals of Tourism Research

BEYOND GROWTH: Reaching Tourism-Led Development

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2010.05.004Get rights and content

Abstract

Many communities around the world seek tourism to improve their livelihoods. The changes brought by tourism are often reflected in economic and infrastructural growth. Nevertheless, such growth does not always reflect development goals. Framed around interactional theory, this study intends to open the “black box” of community relations by examining the causal factors, processes, and outcomes associated with tourism-led development. A case study methodology was applied in two amenity-rich Costa Rican communities known to present divergent growth and development outcomes after their incursion in tourism. The study findings suggest the critical relevance of open communication, widespread participation, tolerance, and communion among residents and different tourism-related stakeholders for the promotion of processes leading to tourism-led development.

Introduction

Given the economic profitability potential of tourism, its promotion has become a popular economic strategy for many communities (Andereck et al., 2005, Ioannides, 2003, Krannich and Petrzelka, 2003). The adoption of tourism has profound implications for the economic, social, and natural environments of these localities (Hillery et al., 2001, Liu et al., 1987, Liu and Var, 1986, Stronza and Gordillo, 2008, Tosun, 2002). This is particularly the case when emphasis is placed on economic growth, commonly endorsed with minimal regard for its consequences. This practice is routinely attributed to the common belief that growth intrinsically improves quality of life (Daly, 1990, Morris, 1980, Seers, 1979, Sen, 1999). However, mounting evidence has demonstrated that economic growth does not always leads to overall progress (Holden, 2008, Sen, 1999). Countries that have mainly focused on economic growth have simultaneously experienced increasing social deterioration and natural resource degradation (Daly, 1990, Quiroga, 1994).

Development, as distinguished from economic growth, seeks improvements in overall living conditions in addition to material standards (Firebaugh and Beck, 1994, Maser, 1997). Development strategies often focus on reducing poverty, child mortality, and inequality while enhancing education, health, and self-reliance (Holden, 2008, United Nations Development Program, 2009), agency and solidarity (Bhattacharyya, 2004), personal freedom (Goulet, 1968, Sen, 1999), social civility, and tolerance (Maser, 1997). After the late 80s, such development goals were associated with the notion of sustainability, concerned with practices that produce economic progress, intragenerational and intergenerational equity, social justice, and environmental responsibility (Holden, 2008, World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987). Ultimately, these outcomes reflect a continuous and positive change in the totality of human experience, leading to an improved quality of life (McGillivray, 2006, McGillivray, 2007).

Given the risks associated with placing particular emphasis on economic growth, ways in which tourism-dependent communities can reach development outcomes must be understood. This study seeks to better understand how community-based tourism can attain such outcomes. Framed around interactional theory, a case study methodology (Yin, 2008) was applied to better understand the necessary elements and subsequent processes for tourism to become a source of development for communities that adopt it. The study examines community interactional elements and subsequent processes leading to tourism-led development outcomes. The communities of Liberia and La Fortuna, Costa Rica, were examined to reach the study objective because they experienced divergent outcomes after their involvement in tourism.

Tourism can be a mechanism promoting economic growth and/or development. As an economic growth strategy, tourism is sought for generation of foreign exchange, increased employment, attraction of foreign capital, and promotion of economic independence (Sharpley & Telfer, 2002). Holden noted, “the success of a tourism policy has traditionally been evaluated by maintaining a growth in the number of tourist arrivals and associated expenditure, and obtaining an increasing percentage share of the total world tourism market” (2008, p. 111). Under this paradigm, economic distribution is expected to occur in a ‘trickle-down’ fashion. Nevertheless, such an approach often lacks efforts that promote equity, poverty reduction, self-reliance, or environmental responsible practices (Sharpley & Telfer, 2002).

In contrast, development-driven tourism seeks economic health, optimum satisfaction of guest requirements, healthy culture, unspoiled nature/protection of resources, and perceived increased well-being of the local population (Gezici, 2006, Muller, 1994). Following sustainable development notions, sustainable tourism development intends to increase and maintain the economic welfare of a locality through the tourism industry, while promoting social and environmental responsibility (Gezici, 2006, Saxena and Ilbery, 2008).

While development has become a commonly used concept, its practical applicability has proved to be a difficult task (Holden, 2008, Muller, 1994, Northcote and Macbeth, 2006). Political and cultural macro-level complexities make the application of development-guided efforts challenging. Further, threats and opportunities for the fulfillment of society’s basic needs—a primary concern of development goals—are more palpable and consequently amendable at the local level. Because of this, the community level is optimal for the examination of ways in which development-related processes and outcomes are attained (Bridger & Luloff, 1999).

A relatively recent trend linking development goals with community-level participatory processes has emerged (Bridger and Luloff, 1999, Gezici, 2006, Jamal and Getz, 1995, Kruger, 2005, Murphy, 1983, Murphy, 1988, Scheyvens, 1999). Accordingly, community-based tourism has gained the attention of tourism academics due to its potential for the attainment of development outcomes (cf. Okazaki, 2008, Roberts and Tribe, 2008, Trejos and Chiang, 2009). Nonetheless, several have warned that community-based tourism per se does not inherently lead to development (Akama, 1996, Li, 2006, Saarinen, 2006, Stem et al., 2003). This is the case, for instance, when existing local divisiveness and concentrated power distribution serve the interests of particular groups (Reed, 1997, Saxena and Ilbery, 2008). Thus, a need arises to move forward the discussion of community-based tourism as conducive to development. In here, it is argued that such an objective can be achieved by gaining a larger understanding of internal community social processes.

Key to such understanding is interactional theory (Kaufman, 1959, Wilkinson, 1991). Unlike other theories of community organization (see Saxena and Ilbery (2008), on networks and Jones (2005), on social capital), interactional theory views community as a process where community is not a given but is developed, created, and recreated through social interaction allowing its adaptability to change. In this process, the collection of diverse individuals creates an entity whose whole is greater than the sum of its parts (Wilkinson, 1991). From an interactional approach, social interaction is a pervasive feature of community life through which emotional and material needs are fulfilled.

Critical aspects to interactional theory are the motives behind social interaction, as these affect social behaviors in important ways. Interests, according to MacIver and Page (1949), are the objects of actions. Thus, interests give direction to social processes leading to particular outcomes. Wilkinson (1991) noted that within a social group, several fields of interaction, known as social fields, can be identified based on expressed interests. Social fields make up the community and are composed of actors, associations (formal and informal), and activities. According to Kaufman (1959) and Wilkinson (1991), a social field is a process of social interaction whose emerging actions are guided by particular interests. Members comprising or representing such fields act to achieve their own specific interests and goals.

According to Wilkinson (1991), an overarching field connecting the diverse types of social fields can be identified. The community field is also a social field. However, in contrast to the other social fields, the community field is concerned with pursuing the common interests and needs of the community (Brennan, 2007, Brennan et al., 2009, Luloff and Bridger, 2003). The community field is a locally oriented and led process whose actions are characterized by the search of the overall community good—referred to as purposive actions from here on (Theodori, 2005). Wilkinson noted:

The community field cuts across organized groups and across other interaction fields in a local population. It abstracts and combines the locality relevant aspects of the special interests fields, and integrates the other fields into a generalized whole. It does this by creating and maintaining linkages among fields that otherwise are directed toward more limited interests (1991, p. 33).

The emergence of the community field results in improved community well-being as residents are guided by shared interests (Wilkinson, 1991). According to Wilkinson (1991), interactional elements leading to improved community well-being are open communication, active and widespread involvement and participation, tolerance, and communion. Resulting from such elements are community-oriented processes and outcomes, often achieved through the creation of formal and informal associations purposively acting on community-wide goals. Thus, communities with high levels of purposive and widespread participation, tolerance, and communion are distinguished from others by the existence of formal and informal associations acting on the search of the community good.

Such associations produce an increased capacity for local people to gain control over resources and decision-making mechanisms governing their lives—known as community agency (Wilkinson, 1991). Community agency reflects the capacity of people to manage, use, and enhance available resources in order to seek emerging opportunities and address local issues that often emerge from changing conditions (Brennan, 2007, Brennan et al., 2009). This often entails a process of negotiating, compromising, and accepting a series of diverging ideas and interests reflecting the desires of different actors. As a result, local people are linked in a more inclusive manner and are able to consider a wider range of community issues while providing the knowledge and sentiments of the larger social group.

In the case of tourism-dependent communities, well-being is often threatened by tourism’s potential for change and subsequent effects on community life (Andereck et al., 2005, Liu and Var, 1986). Given the local population’s interests in, attachment to, and knowledge of the community, efforts directed toward improvement of a community’s well-being should include broad involvement and participation (Scheyvens, 1999, Stem et al., 2003). Nonetheless, attention should be paid to the interests guiding such involvement and participation. Following an interactional approach, for tourism to result in development outcomes, purposive community-oriented efforts toward the overall good are critical. Development can be attained through interactional processes that promote tourism-led efforts designed to improve the overall quality of life of its residents.

Given tourism’s ability to shape community life, a need arises to understand causal interactional elements that lead to the emergence of community-oriented processes resulting in tourism-led development outcomes. This study intends to open the “black box” of community relations by examining the causal factors and processes essential for tourism-led development outcomes. To reach this objective, two communities with divergent growth/development outcomes were selected. An examination of the factors associated with the existence (or not) of efforts reflecting the emergence of the community field and resulting development was conducted through in-depth interviews and participant observation techniques.

Section snippets

Study methods

As a regional leader promoting tourism (World Tourism Organization, 2006), Costa Rica provides an excellent opportunity to better understand tourism’s potential for promoting growth and/or development outcomes. Formal tourism efforts in Costa Rica started in 1931 with the formation of the Junta Nacional de Turismo, which sought to regulate the country’s tourism activity. Renamed Instituto Costarricense de Turismo in 1955, this organization became an autonomous state institution (Raventos, 2006

Elements Associated with Tourism-Led Development

Interactional elements are the building blocks promoting the necessary conditions for purposive social interaction. The existence of elements including open communication, broad participation, tolerance, and communion is essential for the creation, maintenance, and re-creation of community and subsequent community-wide well-being (Wilkinson, 1991). This is particularly the case for changing communities like the ones studied here.

Communication and Collective Action

According to Wilkinson (1991), residents’ exchanges of ideas

Discussion

In Liberia, tourism has served as a catalyst for growth reflected in commercial and infrastructural enhancements. However, growth was not reflected in development as respondents perceived a large sector of Liberia’s population as experiencing increased poverty and inequality, social malaises, failing self-reliance, and sustainable relationships with the environment. Such outcomes were related, to a large extent, to the lack of communication, participation, communion, and tolerance with other

Conclusion

The tourism literature has called for a better understanding of community-based tourism development and its contribution to the local society (Li, 2006, Trejos and Chiang, 2009). A need to engage in micro-level examination of the efforts of communities to develop tourism is necessary to move beyond romantic views of community-based tourism. Such studies need to provide a better understanding of the mechanisms via which tourism positively contributes to a community’s quality of life.

In this

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Dr. Kyle Woosnam, Dr. Ulrike Gretzel, Dr. Bernardo Trejos, and the anonymous reviewers for their comments that helped to improve this manuscript.

David Matarrita-Cascante is an assistant professor in the department of Recreation, Park, and Tourism Sciences at Texas A&M University (College Station, TX 77843, USA. Email <[email protected]>). His current focus is on the interrelationship between communities and natural resources. To date, this work has revolved around a better understanding of the effects of rapid demographic and structural changes occurring in amenity-rich rural resource dependent communities and their response to

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