Assignment

An Introduction to Community Development

Tourism-based Development

Resumed by:
Dewi Suriana (P022171114)

MASTER PROGRAMME
REGIONAL PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT
HASANUDDIN UNIVERSITY
2018
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An Introduction to Community Development

(Edited by Rhonda Phillips and Robert H. Pittman)

Chapter 16 : Tourism-based Development

16.1. Introduction
The tourism industry has grown to become one of the largest economic activities
in the world with an estimated 200 million jobs worldwide and accounting for
over 10 percent of global gross domestic product (World Travel and Tourism
Council 2005). In both developed and developing countries, it is one of the fastest
growing industries in the world for all sizes of communities on the continuum
from rural to urban.

What exactly is the tourism industry? According to Nickerson’s Foundations of

Tourism (1996), it is the action and activities of people taking trips to a place or
places outside their home community for any purpose except daily commuting
to and from work and includes business travel as well as travel for pleasure. It
comprises many different organizations from both the public and private sectors
including: Transportation providers, Attractions, Food services, Accommodation,
Travel distributors, Tourism promoters, Supporting infrastructure, and Land
managing agencies.
Why would a community want to pursue a tourism- based development approach?
There are several compelling reasons: (1) tourism can provide both direct and
indirect economic benefits; (2) tourism can generate various social/cultural
benefits; and (3) tourism can help achieve environmental conservation objectives
(Inskeep 1991).

On the other hand, tourism can negatively impact communities on all three of
these fronts economic, social/cultural, and environ- mental. Projects or
programs that are poorly designed and implemented without proper planning
and consideration of impact result in negative outcomes. Tourism-based
development that is too successful may result in undesirable outcomes such as
stressing infrastructure limits or causing conflicts between visitor and resident

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populations. Yet despite these concerns, tourism can be a beneficial development

strategy for communities when approached correctly.

16.2. A review of tourism planning models

A conventional approach to tourism planning involves encouraging the
introduction of a few hotels, ensuring transportation links, and developing a
promotional campaign, but with the advent of mass tourism and its visible
social and environmental impacts, long-term planning and controlled tourism
development has become crucial.

Types of tourism planning models

Several approaches to the planning of tourism are discussed in the tourism
literature. A brief description of the first six are provided as follows, with more
details of the last model presented.
1. Sustainable development approach
This approach evolved in the 1970s and sought to improve quality of life and
meet human needs and wants. Development emphasis was to enhance the living
conditions of people and involved addressing concerns such as life expectancy,
nutritional status, educational achievement, and spiritual benefits (Pearce et al.
1990). Further, the sustainable development approach suggests strategizing
tourism development with a long-term focus in such a way that it benefits
future generations (Fyall and Garrod 1998).
2. Systems approach:
A system has generally been defined as a set of elements interrelated to each
other. “It is like a spider’s web; you touch one part of it and reverberation will be
felt through- out” (Mill and Morrison 1985: 19). According to Murphy (1985),
the systems approach takes a broad view and provides flexibility by
formulating appropriate strategies as applicable to different levels or elements of
tourism.
3. Community approach:
This focuses on decentralization and facilitation of coordination between different
stakeholders of tourism. This approach stemmed from the increasing emphasis on

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democratization and gained significance when political power shifted from the
central government to states, cities, towns, and neighborhoods, thereby giving
voice and empowerment to local communities to address their own problems and
find appropriate solutions.
4. Integrated planning approach to tourism development:
This approach requires inputs from multiple stakeholders and aims to “facilitate
integration of tourism into overall sub-national, national, and international
tourism markets” (Tosun and Jenkins 1998: 105). According to Tosun and
Jenkins, this approach strives to achieve a balance between supply and
demand.
5. Comprehensive planning
This approach calls for a master plan to guide tourism development. This view
focuses on the overall tourism situation and takes all components of tourism into
consideration to promote sustainable planning. The main purpose is to facilitate
coordination among all sectors relevant to the development of tourism (Bannon
1976).
6. Continuous and flexible approach
Continuity here refers to “ongoing research and feedback and flex-driving
mechanisms. According to Gunn and Var (2002), the demand and supply
components are both complex and bring forth multiple issues that require the
attention of all planners and developers for successful tourism to happen. In
other words, the tourist industry is a system of major interdependent components
that are closely linked together.
7. Functional tourism system model
The underlying basis of this model is the functioning tourism system with
demand and supply as the main Information Services. Attractions are often
classified by ownership, resource foundation, and trip duration. Attractions can
have both rural and urban characteristics, and they gain by clustering. Linkage
between attractions and services is important. The service sector, on the other
hand, needs to have local as well as non-local markets for long-term viability.
Because tourism businesses depend on urban infrastructure and accessibility,
services also gain from clustering. The service businesses are highly dependent on

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attractions. The transportation component includes both tourist and local travel in
the transport sector plans, in addition to an emphasis on promoting pedestrianism
(Gunn and Var 2002).

16.3. Getting from here to there: selecting approaches

One of the most critical components of selecting approaches is determining who is
going to carry it forward. Many communities develop a collaborative arrangement
with both public and private entities; others focus on one organization to serve as
the umbrella agency for the community’s efforts. Here are examples of
approaches that a community can use to implement tourism-based development.

Main Street approach

In 1980, the National Trust for Historic Preservation established the Main Street
Program to focus on traditional downtown revitalization. It transcends historic
preservation and includes community and economic development, infrastructure,
and marketing elements. The approach includes not only aspects of encouraging
tourism in the form of visitors to shop and spend downtown, but also more broad-
scale community development outcomes. While not all can be a designated Main
Street community, there is much to be learned from looking at their
development strategy, the Main Street Four-point Approach™: Organization,
Promotion, Design, and Economic.

Heritage tourism
Whether it is ethnic activities or styles of architecture, using heritage as a basis for
building tourism- based development can be very rewarding. Preserving heritage
and tourism have not always been congruent ideas, but in the recent past it has
become one of the most popular forms of tourism with heritage travelers typically
staying longer and spending more than any other type of tourist. The benefits of
this approach are numerous including new opportunities for preserving and
conserving an area’s heritage while giving the visitor a learning and enriching
experience.

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Natural/recreational tourism
Many communities or regions have a bounty of natural resources that lend
themselves as a basis for tourism. The U.S. national park system and the
individual states park systems are major destinations for natural and recreational
tourists each year. However, at the community level this type of tourism can
yield benefits as well. While the scale may be different, the appeal is still high.

Popular culture approaches

Popular culture runs the gamut from visual arts and music to filmmaking. Using
these elements as a basis for building a tourism-based development strategy is
speculative yet very exciting. The entertainment industry can play an important
role in stimulating development outcomes. There are three major popular culture
strategies that have been used with success : Arts-based, Music, Filmmaking

Corporate culture approaches

Corporate culture has long fascinated Americans. A fast-growing tourist venue are
factory tours and corporate museums, with currently over 300 such attractions in
the U.S. and more expected. When Binney and Smith Inc.’s Crayola Factory
museum opened in Easton, Pennsylvania, over 300,000 visitors came in the first
year. These venues are mostly private sector initiatives, but when combined with
integrated community efforts as a development strategy, they can be very
effective.

Surrealistic approaches
This category is in a world of its own. This type of strategy is of an incongruous
nature that defies or exceeds common expectations. It emerges when a community
does not have inherent natural, cultural, ethnic, or built resources to use as the
basis for its tourism development approach, so it creates them with energy and
imagination. In other instances, a community may already have the genesis of a
resource and then take it to a different level altogether. There are three elements
to consider in this strategy: Shock value, Scale and Scope.

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Case 1
La dune de Bouctouche, Bouctouche, Canada

The Bouctouche Bay community in New Brunswick was considered successful in

its tourism planning because it considered community participation as integral to
the development process. The Bouctouche Bay Ecotourism Project was
considered successful worldwide in its efforts to achieve public–private
partnerships with its emphasis on resource protection and tourism interpretation.
This project promoted educational workshops that involved
entrepreneurial/community groups and included leadership by professionals as
well as field trips and the sharing of ideas for the future (Gunn and Var 2002:
277). The local stakeholders, community groups, government, industry, and
aboriginals were all encouraged to participate in the planning process so that a
shared vision and plan could be created.

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Case 2
Spritual Tourism Cassadaga, Florida and Helen Georgia, Alpine Village,
German Town, City

Tiny Cassadaga, Florida has found its niche in its surrealistic strategy by building
it reputation as a center for providing palm readings and other mystic services. Its
shock value is seeing an entire community that revolves around these services in a
rather removed location; its scale is appropriate as most businesses in town have
some elements of the theme; and its scope is focused on tourists who enjoy a dip
into the mystical side of life.

Perhaps the best case to illustrate this approach though is Helen, Georgia. Located
in the north Georgia mountains, this small community developed itself as an
alpine village with strict design standards, venues, and special events year round.
Transforming itself from a dying town with only six businesses open to now over
200 and over a million visitors per year, Helen is a great story of how creativity
an lead to a total transformation of an economy

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