possible impacts of tourism development on the surrounding communities

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• Published: 31 March 2023

The benefits of tourism for rural community development

• Yung-Lun Liu 1 ,
• Jui-Te Chiang 2 &
• Pen-Fa Ko 2  

Humanities and Social Sciences Communications volume  10 , Article number:  137 ( 2023 ) Cite this article

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• Business and management
• Development studies

While the main benefits of rural tourism have been studied extensively, most of these studies have focused on the development of sustainable rural tourism. The role of tourism contributions to rural community development remains unexplored. Little is known about what tourism contribution dimensions are available for policy-makers and how these dimensions affect rural tourism contributions. Without a clear picture and indication of what benefits rural tourism can provide for rural communities, policy-makers might not invest limited resources in such projects. The objectives of this study are threefold. First, we outline a rural tourism contribution model that policy-makers can use to support tourism-based rural community development. Second, we address several methodological limitations that undermine current sustainability model development and recommend feasible methodological solutions. Third, we propose a six-step theoretical procedure as a guideline for constructing a valid contribution model. We find four primary attributes of rural tourism contributions to rural community development; economic, sociocultural, environmental, and leisure and educational, and 32 subattributes. Ultimately, we confirm that economic benefits are the most significant contribution. Our findings have several practical and methodological implications and could be used as policy-making guidelines for rural community development.

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Introduction.

In many countries, rural areas are less developed than urban areas. They are often perceived as having many problems, such as low productivity, low education, and low income. Other issues include population shifts from rural to urban areas, low economic growth, declining employment opportunities, the loss of farms, impacts on historical and cultural heritage, sharp demographic changes, and low quality of life. These issues indicate that maintaining agricultural activities without change might create deeper social problems in rural regions. Li et al. ( 2019 ) analyzed why some rural areas decline while others do not. They emphasized that it is necessary to improve rural communities’ resilience by developing new tourism activities in response to potential urban demands. In addition, to overcome the inevitability of rural decline, Markey et al. ( 2008 ) pointed out that reversing rural recession requires investment orientation and policy support reform, for example, regarding tourism. Therefore, adopting rural tourism as an alternative development approach has become a preferred strategy in efforts to balance economic, social, cultural, and environmental regeneration.

Why should rural regions devote themselves to tourism-based development? What benefits can rural tourism bring to a rural community, particularly during and after the COVID pandemic? Without a clear picture and answers to these questions, policy-makers might not invest limited resources in such projects. Understanding the contributions of rural tourism to rural community development is critical for helping government and community planners realize whether rural tourism development is beneficial. Policy-makers are aware that reducing rural vulnerability and enhancing rural resilience is a necessary but challenging task; therefore, it is important to consider the equilibrium between rural development and potential negative impacts. For example, economic growth may improve the quality of life and enhance the well-being index. However, it may worsen income inequality, increase the demand for green landscapes, and intensify environmental pollution, and these changes may impede natural preservation in rural regions and make local residents’ lives more stressful. This might lead policy-makers to question whether they should support tourism-based rural development. Thus, the provision of specific information on the contributions of rural tourism is crucial for policy-makers.

Recently, most research has focused on rural sustainable tourism development (Asmelash and Kumar, 2019 ; Polukhina et al., 2021 ), and few studies have considered the contributions of rural tourism. Sustainability refers to the ability of a destination to maintain production over time in the face of long-term constraints and pressures (Altieri et al., 2018 ). In this study, we focus on rural tourism contributions, meaning what rural tourism contributes or does to help produce something or make it better or more successful. More specifically, we focus on rural tourism’s contributions, not its sustainability, as these goals and directions differ. Today, rural tourism has responded to the new demand trends of short-term tourists, directly providing visitors with unique services and opportunities to contact other business channels. The impact on the countryside is multifaceted, but many potential factors have not been explored (Arroyo et al., 2013 ; Tew and Barbieri, 2012 ). For example, the demand for remote nature-based destinations has increased due to the fear of COVID-19 infection, the perceived risk of crowding, and a desire for low tourist density. Juschten and Hössinger ( 2020 ) showed that the impact of COVID-19 led to a surge in demand for natural parks, forests, and rural areas. Vaishar and Šťastná ( 2022 ) demonstrated that the countryside is gaining more domestic tourists due to natural, gastronomic, and local attractions. Thus, they contended that the COVID-19 pandemic created rural tourism opportunities.

Following this change in tourism demand, rural regions are no longer associated merely with agricultural commodity production. Instead, they are seen as fruitful locations for stimulating new socioeconomic activities and mitigating public mental health issues (Kabadayi et al., 2020 ). Despite such new opportunities in rural areas, there is still a lack of research that provides policy-makers with information about tourism development in rural communities (Petrovi’c et al., 2018 ; Vaishar and Šťastná, 2022 ). Although there are many novel benefits that tourism can bring to rural communities, these have not been considered in the rural community development literature. For example, Ram et al. ( 2022 ) showed that the presence of people with mental health issues, such as nonclinical depression, is negatively correlated with domestic tourism, such as rural tourism. Yang et al. ( 2021 ) found that the contribution of rural tourism to employment is significant; they indicated that the proportion of nonagricultural jobs had increased by 99.57%, and tourism in rural communities had become the leading industry at their research site in China, with a value ten times higher than that of agricultural output. Therefore, rural tourism is vital in counteracting public mental health issues and can potentially advance regional resilience, identity, and well-being (López-Sanz et al., 2021 ).

Since the government plays a critical role in rural tourism development, providing valuable insights, perspectives, and recommendations to policy-makers to foster sustainable policies and practices in rural destinations is essential (Liu et al., 2020 ). Despite the variables developed over time to address particular aspects of rural tourism development, there is still a lack of specific variables and an overall measurement framework for understanding the contributions of rural tourism. Therefore, more evidence is needed to understand how rural tourism influences rural communities from various structural perspectives and to prompt policy-makers to accept rural tourism as an effective development policy or strategy for rural community development. In this paper, we aim to fill this gap.

The remainder of this paper is organized as follows: the section “Literature review” presents the literature review. Our methodology is described in the section “Methodology”, and our results are presented in the section “Results”. Our discussion in the section “Discussion/implications” places our findings in perspective by describing their theoretical and practical implications, and we provide concluding remarks in the section “Conclusion”.

Literature review

The role of rural tourism.

The UNWTO ( 2021 ) defined rural tourism as a type of tourism in which a visitor’s experience is related to a wide range of products generally linked to nature-based activity, agriculture, rural lifestyle/culture, angling, and sightseeing. Rural tourism has been used as a valid developmental strategy in rural areas in many developed and developing countries. This developmental strategy aims to enable a rural community to grow while preserving its traditional culture (Kaptan et al., 2020 ). In rural areas, ongoing encounters and interactions between humans and nature occur, as well as mutual transformations. These phenomena take place across a wide range of practices that are spatially and temporally bound, including agriculture, forestry, fishing, hunting, farm tourism, cultural heritage preservation, and country life (Hegarty and Przezbórska, 2005 ). To date, rural tourism in many places has become an important new element of the regional rural economy; it is increasing in importance as both a strategic sector and a way to boost the development of rural regions (Polukhina et al., 2021 ). Urban visitors’ demand for short-term leisure activities has increased because of the COVID-19 pandemic (Slater, 2020 ). Furthermore, as tourists shifted their preferences from exotic to local rural tourism amid COVID-19, Marques et al. ( 2022 ) suggested that this trend is a new opportunity that should be seized, as rural development no longer relies on agriculture alone. Instead, other practices, such as rural tourism, have become opportunities for rural areas. Ironically, urbanization has both caused severe problems in rural areas and stimulated rural tourism development as an alternative means of economic revitalization (Lewis and Delisle, 2004 ). Rural tourism provides many unique events and activities that people who live in urban areas are interested in, such as agricultural festivals, crafts, historical buildings, natural preservation, nostalgia, cuisine, and opportunities for family togetherness and relaxation (Christou, 2020 ; Getz, 2008 ). As rural tourism provides visitors from urban areas with various kinds of psychological, educational, social, esthetic, and physical satisfaction, it has brought unprecedented numbers of tourists to rural communities, stimulated economic growth, improved the viability of these communities, and enhanced their living standards (Nicholson and Pearce, 2001 ). For example, rural tourism practitioners have obtained significant economic effects, including more income, more direct sales, better profit margins, and more opportunities to sell agricultural products or craft items (Everett and Slocum, 2013 ). Local residents can participate in the development of rural tourism, and it does not necessarily depend on external resources. Hence, it provides entrepreneurial opportunities (Lee et al., 2006 ). From an environmental perspective, rural tourism is rooted in a contemporary theoretical shift from cherishing local agricultural resources to restoring the balance between people and ecosystems. Thus, rural land is preserved, natural landscapes are maintained, and green consumerism drives farmers to focus on organic products, green chemistry, and value-added products, such as land ethics (Higham and Ritchie, 2001 ). Therefore, the potential contributions of rural tourism are significant and profound (Marques, 2006 ; Phillip et al., 2010 ). Understanding its contributions to rural community development could encourage greater policy-maker investment and resident support (Yang et al., 2010 ).

Contributions of rural tourism to rural community development

Maintaining active local communities while preventing the depopulation and degradation of rural areas requires a holistic approach and processes that support sustainability. What can rural tourism contribute to rural development? In the literature, rural tourism has been shown to bring benefits such as stimulating economic growth (Oh, 2005 ), strengthening rural and regional economies (Lankford, 1994 ), alleviating poverty (Zhao et al., 2007 ), and improving living standards in local communities (Uysal et al., 2016 ). In addition to these economic contributions, what other elements have not been identified and discussed (Su et al., 2020 )? To answer these questions, additional evidence is a prerequisite. Thus, this study examines the following four aspects. (1) The economic perspective: The clustering of activities offered by rural tourism stimulates cooperation and partnerships between local communities and serves as a vehicle for creating various economic benefits. For example, rural tourism improves employment opportunities and stability, local residents’ income, investment, entrepreneurial opportunities, agricultural production value-added, capital formation, economic resilience, business viability, and local tax revenue (Atun et al., 2019 ; Cheng and Zhang, 2020 ; Choi and Sirakaya, 2006 ; Chong and Balasingam, 2019 ; Cunha et al., 2020 ). (2) The sociocultural perspective: Rural tourism no longer refers solely to the benefits of agricultural production; through economic improvement, it represents a greater diversity of activities. It is important to take advantage of the novel social and cultural alternatives offered by rural tourism, which contribute to the countryside. For example, rural tourism can be a vehicle for introducing farmers to potential new markets through more interactions with consumers and other value chain members. Under such circumstances, the sociocultural benefits of rural tourism are multifaceted. These include improved rural area depopulation prevention (López-Sanz et al., 2021 ), cultural and heritage preservation, and enhanced social stability compared to farms that do not engage in the tourism business (Ma et al., 2021 ; Yang et al., 2021 ). Additional benefits are improved quality of life; revitalization of local crafts, customs, and cultures; restoration of historical buildings and community identities; and increased opportunities for social contact and exchange, which enhance community visibility, pride, and cultural integrity (Kelliher et al., 2018 ; López-Sanz et al., 2021 ; Ryu et al., 2020 ; Silva and Leal, 2015 ). (3) The environmental perspective: Many farms in rural areas have been rendered noncompetitive due to a shortage of labor, poor managerial skills, and a lack of financial support (Coria and Calfucura, 2012 ). Although there can be immense pressure to maintain a farm in a family and to continue using land for agriculture, these problems could cause families to sell or abandon their farms or lands (Tew and Barbieri, 2012 ). In addition, unless new income pours into rural areas, farm owners cannot preserve their land and its natural aspects; thus, they tend to allow their land to become derelict or sell it. In the improved economic conditions after farms diversify into rural tourism, rural communities have more money to provide environmental care for their natural scenic areas, pastoral resources, forests, wetlands, biodiversity, pesticide mitigation, and unique landscapes (Theodori, 2001 ; Vail and Hultkrantz, 2000 ). Ultimately, the entire image of a rural community is affected; the community is imbued with vitality, and farms that participate in rural tourism instill more togetherness among families and rural communities. In this study, the environmental benefits induced by rural tourism led to improved natural environmental conservation, biodiversity, environmental awareness, infrastructure, green chemistry, unspoiled land, and family land (Di and Laura, 2021 ; Lane, 1994 ; Ryu et al., 2020 ; Yang et al., 2021 ). (4) The leisure and educational perspective: Rural tourism is a diverse strategy associated with an ongoing flow of development models that commercialize a wide range of farming practices for residents and visitors. Rural territories often present a rich set of unique resources that, if well managed, allow multiple appealing, authentic, and memorable tourist experiences. Tourists frequently comment that the rural tourism experience positively contrasts with the stress and other negatively perceived conditions of daily urban life. This is reflected in opposing, compelling images of home and a visited rural destination (Kastenholz et al., 2012 ). In other words, tourists’ positive experiences result from the attractions and activities of rural tourism destinations that may be deemed sensorially, symbolically, or socially opposed to urban life (Kastenholz et al. 2018 ). These experiences are associated with the “search for authenticity” in the context of the tension between the nostalgic images of an idealized past and the demands of stressful modern times. Although visitors search for the psychological fulfillment of hedonic, self-actualization, challenge, accomplishment, exploration, and discovery goals, some authors have uncovered the effects of rural tourism in a different context. For example, Otto and Ritchie ( 1996 ) revealed that the quality of a rural tourism service provides a tourist experience in four dimensions—hedonic, peace of mind, involvement, and recognition. Quadri-Felitti and Fiore ( 2013 ) identified the relevant impact of education, particularly esthetics, versus memory on satisfaction in wine tourism. At present, an increasing number of people and families are seeking esthetic places for relaxation and family reunions, particularly amid COVID-19. Rural tourism possesses such functions; it remains a novel phenomenon for visitors who live in urban areas and provides leisure and educational benefits when visitors to a rural site contemplate the landscape or participate in an agricultural process for leisure purposes (WTO, 2020 ). Tourists can obtain leisure and educational benefits, including ecological knowledge, information about green consumerism, leisure and recreational opportunities, health and food security, reduced mental health issues, and nostalgia nurturing (Alford and Jones, 2020 ; Ambelu et al., 2018 ; Christou, 2020 ; Lane, 1994 ; Li et al., 2021 ). These four perspectives possess a potential synergy, and their effects could strengthen the relationship between rural families and rural areas and stimulate new regional resilience. Therefore, rural tourism should be understood as an enabler of rural community development that will eventually attract policy-makers and stakeholders to invest more money in developing or advancing it.

Methodology

The literature on rural tourism provides no generally accepted method for measuring its contributions or sustainability intensity. Although many statistical methods are available, several limitations remain, particularly in terms of the item generation stage and common method bias (CMB). For example, Marzo-Navar et al. ( 2015 ) used the mean and SD values to obtain their items. However, the use of the mean has been criticized because it is susceptible to extreme values or outliers. In addition, they did not examine omitted variables and CMB. Asmelash and Kumar ( 2019 ) used the Delphi method with a mean value for deleting items. Although they asked experts to suggest the inclusion of any missed variables, they did not discuss these results. Moreover, they did not assess CMB. Islam et al. ( 2021 ) used a sixteen-step process to formulate sustainability indicators but did not consider omitted variables, a source of endogeneity bias. They also did not designate a priority for each indicator. Although a methodologically sound systematic review is commonly used, little attention has been given to reporting interexpert reliability when multiple experts are used to making decisions at various points in the screening and data extraction stages (Belur et al., 2021 ). Due to the limitations of the current methods for assessing sustainable tourism development, we aim to provide new methodological insights. Specifically, we suggest a six-stage procedure, as shown in Fig. 1 .

Steps required in developing the model for analysis after obtaining the data.

Many sources of data collection can be used, including literature reviews, inferences about the theoretical definition of the construct, previous theoretical and empirical research on the focal construct, advice from experts in the field, interviews, and focus groups. In this study, the first step was to retrieve data from a critical literature review. The second step was the assessment of omitted variables to produce items that fully captured all essential aspects of the focal construct domain. In this case, researchers must not omit a necessary measure or fail to include all of the critical dimensions of the construct. In addition, the stimuli of CMB, for example, double-barreled items, items containing ambiguous or unfamiliar terms, and items with a complicated syntax, should be simplified and made specific and concise. That is, researchers should delete items contaminated by CMB. The third step was the examination of construct-irrelevant variance to retain the variances relevant to the construct of interest and minimize the extent to which the items tapped concepts outside the focal construct domain. Variances irrelevant to the targeted construct should be deleted. The fourth step was to examine intergroup consistency to ensure that there was no outlier impact underlying the ratings. The fifth step was to examine interexpert reliability to ensure rating conformity. Finally, we prioritized the importance of each variable with the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (AHP), which is a multicriteria decision-making approach. All methods used in this study are expert-based approaches.

Selection of experts

Because this study explores the contributions of rural tourism to rural community development, it involves phenomena in the postdevelopment stage; therefore, a few characteristics are essential for determining the choice of experts. The elements used to identify the experts in this study were (1) the number of experts, (2) expertise, (3) knowledge, (4) diversity, (5) years working in this field, and 5) commitment to participation. Regarding the number of experts, Murphy-Black et al. ( 1998 ) suggested that the more participants there are, the better, as a higher number reduces the effects of expert attrition and rater bias. Taylor-Powell ( 2002 ) pointed out that the number of participants in an expert-based study depends not only on the purpose of the research but also on the diversity of the target population. Okoli and Pawlowski ( 2004 ) recommended a target number of 10–18 experts for such a purpose. Therefore, we recruited a group of 18 experts based on their stated interest in the topic and asked them to comment on our rationale concerning the rating priorities among the items. We asked them to express a degree of agreement or disagreement with each item we provided. We adopted a heterogeneous and anonymous arrangement to ensure that rater bias did not affect this study. The 18 experts had different backgrounds, which might have made it easier for them to reach a consensus objectively. We divided the eighteen experts into three subgroups: (1) at least six top managers from rural tourism businesses, all of whom had been in the rural tourism business for over 10 years; (2) at least six academics who taught subjects related to tourism at three different universities in Taiwan; and (3) at least six government officials involved in rural development issues in Taiwan.

Generating items to represent the construct

Step 1: data collection.

Data collection provides evidence for investigation and reflects the construct of interest. While there is a need to know what rural tourism contributes, previous studies have provided no evidence for policy-makers to establish a rural community strategy; thus, it is essential to use a second source to achieve this aim. We used a literature review for specific topics; the data we used were based on the findings being presented in papers on rural tourism indexed in the SSCI (Social Sciences Citation Index) and SCIE (Science Citation Index Expanded). In this study, we intended to explore the role of rural tourism and its contributions to rural development. Therefore, we explored the secondary literature on the state of the questions of rural development, sustainable development, sustainability indicators, regional resilience, farm tourism, rural tourism, COVID-19, tourist preferences, and ecotourism using terms such as land ethics, ecology, biodiversity, green consumerism, environmentalism, green chemistry, community identity, community integration, community visibility, and development goals in an ad hoc review of previous studies via Google Scholar. Based on the outcomes of this first data collection step, we generated thirty-three subattributes and classified them into four domains.

Step 2: Examine the face validity of omitted variables and CMB

Face validity is defined as assessing whether a measurement scale or questionnaire includes all the necessary items (Dempsey and Dempsey, 1992 ). Based on the first step, we generated data subattributes from our literature review. However, there might have been other valuable attributes or subattributes that were not considered or excluded. Therefore, our purposes for examining face validity were twofold. First, we assessed the omitted variables, defined as the occurrence of crucial aspects or facets that were omitted (Messick, 1995 ). These comprise a threat to construct validity that, if ignored by researchers, might result in unreliable findings. In other words, face validity is used to distinguish whether the researchers have adequately captured the full dimensions of the construct of interest. If not, the evaluation instrument or model is deficient. However, the authors found that most rural tourism studies have not assessed the issue of omitted variables (An and Alarcon, 2020 ; Lin, 2022 ). Second, we mitigated the CMB effect. In a self-report survey, it is necessary to provide a questionnaire without CMB to the targeted respondents, as CMB affects respondent comprehension. Therefore, we assessed item characteristic effects, item context effects, and question response process effects. These three effects are related to the respondents’ understanding, retrieval, mood, affectivity, motivation, judgment, response selection, and response reporting (Podsakoff et al., 2003 ). Specifically, items containing flaws from these three groups in a questionnaire can seriously influence an empirical investigation and potentially result in misleading conclusions. We assessed face validity by asking all the experts to scrutinize the content items that we collected from the literature review and the questionnaire that we drafted. The experts could then add any attribute or subattribute they thought was essential that had been omitted. They could also revise the questionnaire if CMB were embedded. We added the new attributes or subattributes identified by the experts to those collected from the literature review.

Step 3: Examine interexpert consensus for construct-irrelevant variances

After examining face validity, we needed to rule out items irrelevant to the construct of interest; otherwise, the findings would be invalid. We examined the interexpert consensus to achieve this aim. The purpose was to estimate the experts’ ratings of each item. In other words, interexpert consensus assesses the extent to which experts make the same ratings (Kozlowski and Hattrup, 1992 ; Northcote et al., 2008 ). In prior studies, descriptive statistics have often been used to capture the variability among individual characteristics, responses, or contributions to the subject group (Landeta, 2006 ; Roberson et al., 2007 ). Many expert-based studies have applied descriptive statistics to determine consensus and quantify its degree (Paraskevas and Saunders, 2012 ; Stewart et al., 2016 ). Two main groups of descriptive statistics, central tendencies (mode, mean, and median) and level of dispersion (standard deviation, interquartile, and coefficient of variation), are commonly used when determining consensus (Mukherjee et al., 2015 ). Choosing the cutoff point of interexpert consensus was critical because we used it as a yardstick for item retention and its value can also be altered by a number on the Likert scale (Förster and von der Gracht, 2014 ). In the case of a 5-point Likert scale, the coefficient of variation (CV) is used to measure interexpert consensus. Hence, CV ≤ 0.3 indicated high consensus (Zinn et al., 2001 ). In addition, based on the feedback obtained from the expert panel, we used standard deviation (SD) as another measurement to assess the variation in our population. Henning and Jordaan ( 2016 ) indicate that SD ≤ 1 represents a high level of consensus, meaning that it can act as a guideline for cutoff points. In addition, following Vergani et al. ( 2022 ), we used the percentage agreement (% AGR) to examine interexpert consensus. If the responses reached ≧ 70% 4 and 5 in the case of a 5-point Likert scale, it indicated that the item had interexpert consensus; thus, we could retain it. Moreover, to avoid the impact of outliers, we used the median instead of the mean as another measurement. Items had a high consensus if their median value was ≥4.00 (Rice, 2009 ). Considering these points, we adopted % AGR, median, SD, and CV to examine interexpert consensus.

Step 4: Examine intergroup consistency

In this expert-based study, the sample size was small. Any rater bias could have caused inconsistency among the subgroups of experts; therefore, we needed to examine the effect of rater bias on intergroup consistency. When the intergroup ratings showed substantially different distributions, the aggregated data were groundless. Dajani et al. ( 1979 ) remarked that interexpert consensus is meaningless if the consistency of responses in a study is not reached, as it means that any rater bias could distort the median, SD, or CV. Most studies have used one-way ANOVA to determine whether there is a significant difference between the expected and observed frequency in three or more categories. However, this method is based on large sample size and normal distribution. In the case of expert-based studies, the expert sample size is small, and the assessment distribution tends to be skewed. Thus, we used the nonparametric test instead of one-way ANOVA for consistency measurement (Potvin and Roff, 1993 ). We used the Kruskal‒Wallis test (K–W) to test the intergroup consistency among the three subgroups of experts. The purpose of the K–W test is to determine whether there are significant differences among three or more subgroups regarding the ratings of the domains (Huck, 2004 ). The judgment criteria in the K-W test depended on the level of significance, and we set the significance level at p  < 0.05 (Love and Irani, 2004 ), with no significant differences among groups set at p  > 0.05 (Loftus et al., 2000 ; Rice, 2009 ). We used SPSS to conduct the K–W test to assess intergroup consistency in this study.

Step 5: Examine interexpert reliability

Interexpert reliability, on the one hand, is usually defined as the proportion of systematic variance to the total variance in ratings (James et al., 1984 ). On the other hand, interexpert reliability estimation is not concerned with the exact or absolute value of ratings. Rather, it measures the relative ordering or ranking of rated objects. Thus, interexpert reliability estimation concerns the consistency of ratings (Tinsley and Weiss, 1975 ). If an expert-based study did not achieve interexpert reliability, we could not trust its analysis (Singletary, 1994 ). Thus, we examined interexpert reliability in this expert-based study. Many methods are available in the literature for measuring interexpert reliability, but there seems to be little consensus on a standard method. We used Kendall’s W to assess the reliability among the experts for each sample group (Goetz et al., 1994 ) because it was available for any sample size or ordinal number. If W was 1, all the experts were unanimous, and each had assigned the same order to the list of objects or concerns. As Spector et al. ( 2002 ) and Schilling ( 2002 ) suggested, reliabilities well above the recommended value of .70 indicate sufficient internal reliability. In this study, there was a strong consensus when W  > 0.7. W  > 0.5 represented a moderate consensus; and W  < 0.3 indicated weak interexpert agreement (Schmidt et al., 2001 ). To measure Kendall’s W , we used SPSS 23 to assess interexpert reliability.

Step 6: Examine the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process

After examining face validity, interexpert consensus, intergroup consistency, and interexpert reliability, we found that the aggregated items were relevant, authentic, and reliable in relation to the construct of interest. To provide policy-makers with a clear direction regarding which contributions are more or less important, we scored each attribute and subattribute using a multicriteria decision-making technique. Fuzzy AHP is a well-known decision-making tool for modeling unstructured problems. It enables decision-makers to model a complex issue in a hierarchical structure that indicates the relationships between the goal, criteria, and subcriteria on the basis of scores (Park and Yoon, 2011 ). The fuzzy AHP method tolerates vagueness and ambiguity (Mikhailov and Tsvetinov, 2004 ). In other words, fuzzy AHP can capture a human’s appraisal of ambiguity when considering complex, multicriteria decision-making problems (Erensal et al., 2006 ). In this study, we used Power Choice 2.5 software to run fuzzy AHP, determine weights, and develop the impact structure of rural tourism on sustainable rural development.

Face validity

To determine whether we had omitted variables, we asked all 18 experts to scrutinize our list of four attributes and 33 subattributes for omitted variables and determine whether the questionnaire contained any underlying CMB. We explained the meaning of omitted variables, the stimuli of CMB, and the two purposes of examining face validity to all the experts. In their feedback, the eighteen experts added one item as an omitted variable: business viability. The experts suggested no revisions to the questionnaire we had drafted. These results indicated that one omitted variable was revealed and that our prepared questionnaire was clear, straightforward, and understandable. The initially pooled 34 subattributes represented the construct of interest, and all questionnaires used for measurement were defendable in terms of CMB. The biasing effects of method variance did not exist, indicating that the threat of CMB was minor.

Interexpert consensus

In this step, we rejected any items irrelevant to the construct of interest. Consensus measurement played an essential role in aggregating the experts’ judgments. This study measured the AGR, median, SD, and CV. Two items, strategic alliance (AGR = 50%) and carbon neutrality (AGR = 56%) were rated < 70%, and we rejected them accordingly. These results are shown in Table 1 . The AGR, median, SD, and CV values were all greater than the cutoff points, thus indicating that the majority of experts in this study consistently recognized high values and reached a consensus for the rest of the 32 subattributes. Consequently, the four attributes and 32 subattributes remained and were initially identified as determinants for further analysis.

Intergroup consistency and interexpert reliability

In this study, with scores based on a 5-point Likert scale, we conducted the K–W test to assess intergroup differences for each subattribute. Based on the outcomes, the K–W test yielded significant results for all 32 subattributes; all three groups of experts reached consistency at p  > 0.05. This result indicated that no outlier or extreme value underlay the ratings, and therefore, intergroup consistency was reached. Finally, we measured interexpert reliability with Kendall’s W . The economic perspective was W  = 0.73, the sociocultural perspective was W  = 0.71, the environmental perspective was W  = 0.71, and the leisure and educational perspective was W  = 0.72. These four groups of W were all ≧ 0.7, indicating high reliability for the ranking order and convergence judged by all subgroup experts. These results are shown in Table 2 .

The hierarchical framework

The results of this study indicate that rural tourism contributions to rural community development comprise four attributes and thirty-two subattributes. The economic perspective encompasses nine subattributes and is weighted at w  = 0.387. In addition, rural tourism has long been considered a possible means of sociocultural development and regeneration of rural areas, particularly those affected by the decline in traditional rural

activities, agricultural festivals, and historical buildings. According to the desired benefits, the sociocultural perspective encompasses nine subattributes and is weighted at w  = 0.183. Moreover, as rural tourism can develop on farms and locally, its contribution to maintaining and enhancing environmental regeneration and protection is significant. Therefore, an environmental perspective can determine rural tourism’s impact on pursuing environmental objectives. Our results indicate that the environmental perspective encompasses seven subattributes and that its weight is w  = 0.237. Furthermore, the leisure and educational perspective indicates the attractiveness of rural tourism from visitors’ viewpoint and their perception of a destination’s value and contributions. These results show that this perspective encompasses seven subattributes and is weighted at w  = 0.193. This specific contribution model demonstrates a 3-level hierarchical structure, as shown in Fig. 2 . The scores for each criterion could indicate each attribute’s importance and explain the priority order of the groups. Briefly, the critical sequence of each measure in the model at Level 2 is as follows: economic perspective > environmental perspective > leisure and educational perspective > sociocultural perspective. Since scoring and ranking were provided by 18 experts from three different backgrounds and calculated using fuzzy AHP, our rural tourism contribution model is established. It can provide policy-makers with information on the long-term benefits and advantages following the completion of excellent community development in rural areas.

The priority index of each attribute and sub-attribute.

Discussion/Implications

In the era of sustainable rural development, it is vital to consider the role of rural tourism and how research in this area shapes access to knowledge on rural community development. This study provides four findings based on the increasing tendency of policy-makers to use such information to shape their policy-making priorities. It first shows that the demand for rural tourism has soared, particularly during COVID-19. Second, it lists four significant perspectives regarding the specific contributions of rural tourism to rural community development and delineates how these four perspectives affect rural tourism development. Our findings are consistent with those of prior studies. For example, geography has been particularly important in the rural or peripheral tourism literature (Carson, 2018 ). In terms of the local geographical context, two contributions could be made by rural tourism. The first stems from the environmental perspective. When a rural community develops rural tourism, environmental protection awareness is increased, and the responsible utilization of natural resources is promoted. This finding aligns with Lee and Jan ( 2019 ). The second stems from the leisure and educational perspective. The geographical context of a rural community, which provides tourists with geographical uniqueness, advances naturally calming, sensory-rich, and emotion-generating experiences for tourists. These results suggest that rural tourism will likely positively impact tourists’ experience. This finding is consistent with Kastenhoz et al. ( 2020 ). Third, although expert-based approaches have considerable benefits in developing and testing underlying phenomena, evidence derived from interexpert consensus, intergroup consistency, and interexpert reliability has been sparse. This study provides such evidence. Fourth, this research shows that rural tourism makes four main contributions, economic, sociocultural, environmental, leisure, and educational, to rural community development. Our results show four key indicators at Level 2. The economic perspective is strongly regarded as the most important indicator, followed by the environmental perspective, leisure and educational perspective, and sociocultural perspective, which is weighted as the least important. The secondary determinants of contributions have 32 subindicators at Level 3: each was identified and assigned a different weight. These results imply that the attributes or subattributes with high weights have more essential roles in understanding the contributions of rural tourism to rural community development. Policy-makers can use these 32 subindicators to formulate rural tourism development policies or strategies.

This study offers the following five practical implications for policymakers and rural communities:

First, we argue that developing rural tourism within a rural community is an excellent strategy for revitalization and countering the effects of urbanization, depopulation, deforestation, and unemployment.

Second, our analytical results indicate that rural tourism’s postdevelopment contribution is significant from the economic, sociocultural, environmental, leisure, and educational perspectives, which is consistent with Lee and Jan ( 2019 ).

Third, there is an excellent opportunity to build or invest more in rural tourism during COVID-19, not only because of the functions of rural tourism but also because of its timing. Many prior studies have echoed this recommendation. For example, Yang et al. ( 2021 ) defined rural tourism as the leading industry in rural areas, offering an output value ten times higher than that of agriculture in China. In addition, rural tourism has become more attractive to urban tourists amid COVID-19. Vaishar and Šťastná ( 2022 ) suggested that the COVID-19 pandemic created a strong demand for rural tourism, which can mitigate threats to public mental health, such as anxiety, depression, loneliness, isolation, and insomnia. Marques et al. ( 2022 ) showed that tourists’ preference for tourism in rural areas increased substantially during COVID-19.

Fourth, the contributions of this study to policy development are substantial. The more focused rural tourism in rural areas is, the more effective revitalization becomes. This finding highlights the importance of such features in developing rural tourism to enhance rural community development from multiple perspectives. This finding echoes Zawadka et al. ( 2022 ); i.e., policy-makers should develop rural tourism to provide tourists with a safe and relaxed environment and should not ignore the value of this model for rural tourism.

Fifth, our developed model could drive emerging policy issues from a supporting perspective and provide policy-makers with a more comprehensive overview of the development of the rural tourism sector, thus enabling them to create better policies and programs as needed. For example, amid COVID-19, rural tourism created a safe environment for tourists, mainly by reducing their fears of contamination (Dennis et al., 2021 ). This novel contribution that rural tourism destinations can provide to residents and visitors from other places should be considered and built into any rural community development policy.

This study also has the following four methodological implications for researchers:

First, it addresses methodological limitations that still impede tourism sustainability model development. Specifically, we suggest a six-stage procedure as the guideline; it is imperative that rural tourism researchers or model developers follow this procedure. If they do not, their findings tend to be flawed.

Second, to ensure that collected data are without extraneous interference or differences via subgroups of experts, the assessment of intergroup consistency with the K–W test instead of one-way ANOVA is proposed, especially in small samples and distribution-free studies.

Third, providing interexpert reliability evidence within expert-based research is critical; we used Kendall’s W to assess the reliability among experts for each sample group because it applies to any sample size and ordinal number.

Finally, we recommend using fuzzy AHP to establish a model with appropriate indicators for decision-making or selection. This study offers novel methodological insights by estimating a theoretically grounded and empirically validated rural tourism contribution model.

There are two limitations to this study. First, we examine all subattributes by interexpert consensus to delete construct-irrelevant variances that might receive criticism for their lack of statistical rigor. Future studies can use other rigorous methods, such as AD M( j ) or rWG ( j ) , interexpert agreement indices to assess and eliminate construct-irrelevant variances. Second, we recommend maximizing rural tourism contributions to rural community development by using the general population as a sample to identify any differences. More specifically, we recommend using Cronbach’s alpha, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and structural equation modeling (SEM) to test the overall reliability and validity of the data and results. It is also necessary to provide results for goodness-of-fit measures—e.g., the goodness-of-fit index (GFI), adjusted goodness-of-fit index (AGFI), comparative fit index (CFI), normed fit index (NFI), Tucker–Lewis Index (TLI), standardized root mean square residual (SRMR), or root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA).

Numerous empirical studies have illustrated how rural tourism can positively and negatively affect the contexts in rural areas where it is present. This study reveals the positive contributions of rural tourism to rural community development. The findings show that using rural tourism as a revitalization strategy is beneficial to nonurban communities in terms of their economic, sociocultural, environmental, and leisure and educational development. The contribution from the economic perspective is particularly important. These findings suggest that national, regional, and local governments or community developers should make tourism a strategic pillar in their policies for rural development and implement tourism-related development projects to gain 32 benefits, as indicated in Fig. 2 . More importantly, rural tourism was advocated and proved effective for tourists and residents to reduce anxiety, depression, or insomnia during the COVID-19 pandemic. With this emerging contribution, rural tourism is becoming more critical to tourists from urban areas and residents involved in rural community development. With this model, policy-makers should not hesitate to develop or invest more in rural communities to create additional tourism-based activities and facilities. As they could simultaneously advance rural community development and public mental health, policy-makers should include these activities among their regional resilience considerations and treat them as enablers of sustainable rural development. We conclude that amid COVID-19, developing rural tourism is an excellent strategy for promoting rural community development and an excellent alternative that could counteract the negative impacts of urbanization and provide stakeholders with more positive interests. The proposed rural tourism contribution model also suggests an unfolding research plan.

Data availability

The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Liu, YL., Chiang, JT. & Ko, PF. The benefits of tourism for rural community development. Humanit Soc Sci Commun 10 , 137 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-01610-4

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Impacts of Tourism Development on Residents’ Quality of Life: Efficacy of Community Capitals in Gateway Communities, Northern Tanzania

• Published: 20 June 2023
• Volume 18 , pages 2511–2539, ( 2023 )

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• Alpha J. Mwongoso   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-3508-3742 1 ,
• Agnes Sirima   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-0810-6785 2 &
• John T. Mgonja   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-8226-9462 2  

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This study examined the structural relationship involving residents’ perception of tourism impacts embedded on material and non-material community capitals, satisfaction, quality of life and whether residents support for further tourism development. Multi method approach was employed to collect data. Focus group discussion with key informants coupled with trend data on wealth, tourism receipts and expenditure complemented the household survey. The hypothesized structural model was empirically tested, involving a randomly selected sample of 408 agro-pastoral residents from three gateway communities; Loliondo, lake Natron and Burrunge in northern Tanzania. It was found that residents support for further tourism development is a function of favourable perceived quality of life, influenced by residents’ satisfaction with both material impacts (i.e. increase in physical and financial capital) and non-material impacts (e.g. devolution of power to community and social-cultural cohesion). However, despite positive tourism impacts observed, residents endure costs in land-use in terms of restricted grazing and cultivation in order to sustain tourism. The study drew conclusion that c ommunity capital framework extends the traditional tripartite tourism impacts (i.e. economic, social and environment) to other aspects such as: political, cultural, human and built-capital, thus, provide a thorough understanding about tourism impacts in predicting residents’ quality of life. Future studies should emphasize on the efficacy of community capitals in the context of tourism development and its impacts on resident’s quality of life.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the District Executive Directors of Babati and Ngorongoro, Village Executive Officers, local residents and tourism investors for their hospitality and cooperation during data collection.

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Alpha J. Mwongoso

Department of Tourism and Recreation, College of Forestry Wildlife and Tourism, Sokoine University of Agriculture, P.O. Box 3167, Morogoro, Tanzania

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Mwongoso, A.J., Sirima, A. & Mgonja, J.T. Impacts of Tourism Development on Residents’ Quality of Life: Efficacy of Community Capitals in Gateway Communities, Northern Tanzania. Applied Research Quality Life 18 , 2511–2539 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11482-023-10196-7

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Building tourism-resilient communities by incorporating residents’ perceptions? A photo-elicitation study of tourism development in Bruges

Journal of Tourism Futures

ISSN : 2055-5911

Article publication date: 20 November 2017

Issue publication date: 15 December 2017

In a current trend of a growing amount of short city trips, it becomes crucial to understand how local residents perceive the presence of tourists and tourism in their cities and how their socio-cultural context influences those perceptions. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to this understanding which will enable the city planners to take actions to create the well-balanced and resilient communities in which the needs of residents and tourists are equally met.

Design/methodology/approach

To understand residents’ perceptions’ about tourism in Bruges, this research applied photo-elicitation interviews with 28 residents who lived in various locations in the historical center to understand socio-cultural background of residents, their tourism-related concerns and whether they are in line with what is commonly perceived as problematic in Bruges.

Results show that as long as residents can benefit from tourism and tourism-related infrastructure, they support tourism. On the other hand, tourism decreases the liveability of the historical center due to supersession of infrastructure serving the residents by tourist-oriented amenities.

Practical implications

To build a sustainable and resilient city in the future, the authorities of Bruges should cease further “museumification” of the historical city by breaking the hegemony of tourism industry, providing affordable housing and rethinking the concentration model of tourism.

Originality/value

The photo-elicitation method proved to produce rich content and good-quality data by stimulating respondents’ memories and evoking experiences and emotions. Thus, this paper recommends that future research about residents’ attitudes is developed around visual methods as they give voice to the residents and are able to uncover issues which are difficult to capture with other methods.

• Perceptions
• Sustainability
• Tourism policy
• Local residents

Photo-elicitation

Janusz, K. , Six, S. and Vanneste, D. (2017), "Building tourism-resilient communities by incorporating residents’ perceptions? A photo-elicitation study of tourism development in Bruges", Journal of Tourism Futures , Vol. 3 No. 2, pp. 127-143. https://doi.org/10.1108/JTF-04-2017-0011

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Copyright © 2017, Katarzyna Janusz Sofie Six Dominique Vanneste

Published in the Journal of Tourism Futures. Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode

Introduction

Tourism can be understood as a phenomenon of encounters which take place in different ways: with other people, places, cultures and environments. However, Colomb and Novy (2016) claim that the whole process of defining, measuring and conceptualizing tourism is deeply political and primarily dominated by tourism-related businesses. A dominance of the tourism sector in decision-making processes and its leading role in reshaping places and localities allows tourism to slowly enter a domain of urban social movements and to become an arena of struggle for local residents ( McGehee et al. , 2014 ). Often, conflicts surrounding tourism are not merely about tension between tourists and residents, but rather reflect wider struggles over socio-economic urban transformation, space ownership and the division of costs and benefits related to tourism ( Colomb and Novy, 2016 ).

Ashworth (2001) notices that, in particular, tourists and tourism activities in historic cities have evoked ambiguous reactions which might lead to potential management conflicts. Therefore, Sandercock (2000) suggests that instead of ignoring such conflicts and marginalizing residents’ protests and claims, urban governments should proactively engage in building a relationship between local residents and policy makers in a way which values positive place identities of local residents. In order to undertake such a lengthy, time-consuming and demanding process, it is important to understand the attitudes of residents toward tourism and tourists. From a significant body of literature, we learn that some authors link the attitudes with the concept of place image and place attachment, claiming that residents have a more comprehensive understanding of a destination, its uniqueness and attributes than visitors. Therefore, they are also more prone to notice changes caused by tourism development ( Gallarza et al. , 2002 ; Henkel et al. , 2006 ; Jutla, 2000 ; Reiser and Crispin, 2009 ). Researchers have noticed and understood that community inclusion in tourism policy making is essential to guarantee the sustainability of the destination, the well-being of residents ( Dyer et al. , 2007 ; Lee, 2013 ; Nunkoo and Gursoy, 2012 ) and to minimize potential negative impacts of tourism development ( Prayag et al. , 2013 ). As Dowling (2000) noticed, there is still more theory than practice in incorporating residents’ perspectives into tourism planning. Although, in recent years, the discourses on sustainability are gaining more relevance, and local governments apply different levels of participatory planning in tourism, the struggle for sustainable tourism is far from concluded.

This paper aims at contributing to understanding the perceptions of local residents in destinations under considerable tourism pressure related to tourism and tourists, and the socio-spatial and cultural context which defines such perceptions. Bruges (Belgium), being an internationally known tourist destination, experiences a distinct pressure of tourism on its historical center and on the quality of life of its residents. By identifying the main sources of concern of the residents, the authorities of Bruges will be able to design policies to match the needs of residents, build a tourism-resilient community and, as a consequence, minimize the risk of potential conflicts. Before going into this research more in-depth, we elaborate a number of concepts focusing on attitude toward tourists and tourism.

Attitudes toward tourism development

Multiple studies have mainly focused on the impact of tourism on local communities using the social exchange theory as a theoretical basis ( Bimonte and Punzo, 2016 ). This theory is concerned with “understanding the exchange of resources between individual and groups in an interaction of situation” where “actors supply one another with valued resources” ( Ap, 1992 , p. 668). As a result, residents perceive tourism positively if the benefits for their well-being and economic status are higher than costs (Vargas-Sánchez et al. , 2011). Such residents are willing to support tourism development. On the other hand, residents who experience more costs than benefits will see tourism development as problematic ( Andriotis and Vaughan, 2003 ). There are typically three main aspects that social exchange theory takes into account: economic, environmental and socio-cultural.

From the economic point of view, tourism and tourists are mainly favored by residents who can get economic benefits from the development of tourism, for example, landowners, investors, tourism service providers, etc. Positive attitudes are related to: opportunities for employment ( Andereck and Nyaupane, 2011 ; Andereck et al. , 2005 ), leisure activities ( Brunt and Courtney, 1999 ), improvements for the community infrastructure and public facilities ( Andereck and Vogt, 2000 ; Andereck et al. , 2005 ), quality of life of residents ( McGehee and Andereck, 2004 ; Ribeiro et al. , 2013 ) and appearance of the city ( Andereck et al. , 2005 ; Korca, 1996 ; Oviedo et al. , 2008 ). However, sometimes residents can give a priority to the environmental benefits rather than the economic ones such as increased amount of parks and recreation or protection areas (Andereck et al. , 2005). Socio-cultural benefits brought by tourism are: the development of cultural activities ( Andereck and Vogt, 2000 ; Brunt and Courtney, 1999 ; Chen, 2000 ), the rising interest in maintaining and preserving historic buildings and archeological sites ( Akis et al. , 1996 ; Korca, 1996 ). An increase in pride and cultural identity can be identified (Besculides et al. , 2005; Yoon et al. , 2001 ), while this promotes exchange between cultures ( Besculides et al. , 2005 ; Dyer et al. , 2007 ; Korca, 1996 ).

Tourism evokes, on the other hand, negative opinions among residents, as it increases the cost of living ( Bestard and Nadal, 2007 ; McGehee and Andereck, 2004 ). A higher inflow of visitors leads to increased congestion, not only externally with effects as traffic congestion ( Andereck et al. , 2005 ) and parking problems ( Lindberg and Johnson, 1997 ) but also internally, as the visited region is overcrowded ( Brunt and Courtney, 1999 ; Johnson et al. , 1994 ). Overcrowding can fluctuate according to seasonality ( Bestard and Nadal, 2007 ). Other negative tourism effects, though less direct, are pollution (Johnson et al. , 1994; Yoon et al. , 2001 ), delinquency and vandalism ( Haralambopoulos and Pizam, 1996 ) and feeling of alienation in residents’ own community ( McKercher, Shoval, Park, and Kahani, 2015 ; McKercher, Wang, and Park, 2015 ).

There are a range of factors influencing the perceptions about tourism which go beyond the social exchange theory ( Ward and Berno, 2011 ; Almeida-García et al. , 2016 ). One of the most important factors is host-guests interactions ( Sharpley, 2014 ) which are characterized as ambiguous. Early research on host-guests interactions (e.g. Pearce, 1980 ) identified that length of residence influences hosts’ perceptions about tourism, i.e. the longer the residents live in the community, the less positive they are toward tourism development. However, this correlation is not always valid ( Vargas-Sánchez et al. , 2011 ; Andereck et al. , 2005 ; Sharpley, 2014 ). Andereck et al. (2005) demonstrated that when residents have more intense contact with tourists, and more knowledge about tourism, the more positive are their attitudes. Nevertheless, some previous studies (e.g. Lankford and Howard, 1994 ; Brougham and Butler, 1981 ) did not find any correlation between contact with the tourists and attitudes toward them, and tourism development.

The economic reliance on tourism creates positive attitudes, especially among groups with lower income who see tourism as an easy source of income ( Almeida-García et al. , 2016 ). Furthermore, residents positively perceive tourism if they have an opportunity to benefit from the developed tourist infrastructure ( Gursoy et al. , 2002 ). However, this attitude may change if the local population loses accessibility to their traditional leisure pursuits. Other aspects mentioned in literature are the socio-demographic characteristics of the population, their gender and age, but no clear line of conclusions has been reached ( Brida et al. , 2011 ). Finally, the impact of tourism on the place ownership of residents is getting attention in the recent years ( Stylidis, 2016 ; McKercher, Shoval, Park, and Kahani, 2015; McKercher, Wang, and Park, 2015).

Research points at a correlation between the level of tourism development at the destination and residents’ attitudes ( Hunt and Stronza, 2014 ). Diedrich and García-Buades (2009) confirmed the strong correlation between the development phase of tourism and the attitudes of local residents as mentioned already by Butler (1980 ). Their study showed that residents are willing to accept tourism to a certain point, after which it generates more costs than benefits, hence tourism activities become a nuisance. This can be linked to the concept of limits of acceptable change presented by McCool and Lime (2001) . Research conducted by Dyer et al. (2007) did not prove this correlation to exist. Rather, their study conducted in Sunshine Coast in Australia showed that despite the high level of tourism development, local residents are still positive about tourism and are willing to support further tourism development.

In order to overcome ambiguities related to presence of tourism, especially in the relation between tourists and local residents, many studies (e.g. Tomljenovic, 2010 ; Reisinger and Turner, 1998 ; Pratt and Liu, 2016 ; Luo et al. , 2015 ) use the contact hypothesis proposed by Allport (1954) as a tool to mediate interactions between hosts and guests. According to Allport: “under appropriate conditions interpersonal contact is one of the most effective ways to reduce prejudice between two groups.” Consequently, Steiner and Reisinger (2010) pleaded for increased encounters between tourists and locals in order to understand each other and reassess former attitudes and ideas and to open up to differences. Although often proposed, in practice contact stays limited and is not satisfactory when trying to evolve beyond service encounters.

Case study description

In this paper, we discuss the central area of Bruges which is located inside thirteenth century ramparts and considered the “historic” town. This area is also known as the Egg because of its elliptical form visible in Figure 1 . The majority of tourist activities and tourist presence are concentrated on a very small part of the Egg which is called the Golden Triangle ( Figure 2 ).

Bruges, a city of 120,000 inhabitants, is an established, mature destination. In 2015, Bruges welcomed almost 7.9 million visitors, including 1.3 million recreants (people that came from a zone of 20 kilometers around Bruges), 5.3 million excursionists and 1.3 million overnight tourists (Interview with Visit Bruges, 2016). This leads to a tourist ratio of 403.47 [1] . This means that for each citizen in the historical center of Bruges, there are 403 tourists. Even when the recreationists are left out, the ratio of 338 is much larger than the desired 5, as described by Cole (2012) . It puts Bruges on the top of the list of cities with a high tourist ratio.

In 2005, Bryon researched the impacts of tourism on the daily life of the citizens of Bruges for the first time. As a result, he divided the local population into four types according to their attitude, as indicated by David et al. (1988) : the haters (16 percent), the critical realists (28 percent), the conscious lovers (24 percent) and the passionate lovers (32 percent). The haters and critical realists, who have a rather negative view on tourism, feel disturbed by tourists. These local residents think of the Golden Triangle as a touristic ghetto, and avoid it. However, there are places inside the Golden Triangle of which they took ownership, for example, the Wednesday Market which is a meeting place for the residents of Bruges. The conscious and passionate lovers focus on the economic value of tourism.

Tourism definitely has an impact on the spatial structure of the city and its various functions. Figure 1 shows the use of the buildings in 1972 (a) and in 2011 (b). Comparison of the two maps reveals that especially housing and offices changed into accommodation. Tourist-related amenities (pub/café, chocolates, snack and souvenir) generally increase. In the same period, everyday goods and services largely decline (pharmacy, bakery, bank, flowers, newspaper, hairdresser, clothes, optic, shoe shop, butchers, fish shop and nutrition).

Methodology

The majority of studies on our topic use quantitative data in the form of questionnaires ( Sharpley, 2014 ). It is justified by the fact that most of the studies search for the relation between opinions and personal variables. Nevertheless, some authors call for a more comprehensive understanding of residents’ perceptions ( Woosnam, 2012 ). In such case, qualitative research which attempts to answer not only “what” residents think but also “why” can provide more information and enhance understanding of residents’ perceptions of tourism and tourists ( Deery et al. , 2012 ). Moreover, the majority of studies based on quantitative research a priori categorize tourism impacts (e.g. into negative or positive, socio-cultural or environmental, etc.). The studies do not give freedom to respondents to classify the impacts by themselves but rather state the level of agreement with pre-coded positive or negative statements ( Andereck et al. , 2005 ). For example, Ap and Crompton (1998) show that the statement “tourism creates employment opportunities” might not necessarily be positive as the jobs might be low paid, seasonal and targeted mainly at foreigners. In this research, in order to get more in-depth answers from residents, we applied a qualitative research method in the form of photo-elicitation and interviews.

Photo-elicitation is a field method to search the meaning attributed to certain visual materials ( Kerstetter and Bricker, 2009 ; Pachmayer and Andereck, 2017 ). The photo-elicitation method is a rather new one, using photographs to get people talking about several aspects ( Vanneste, 2009 ). There are several advantages of using photo-elicitation. Definitely, visual material facilitates rapport between respondent and researcher, triggers respondent’s memories and emotions linked to a particular experience, evokes, often tacit, knowledge and helps express ideas better ( Willson and McIntosh, 2010 ; Richard and Lahman, 2015 ). In short, “talking through photographs increases respondent reflexivity as they are able to verbalise their experiences and knowledges” ( Scarles, 2010 , p. 191). For the researchers, photo-elicitation provides an insight into socio-economic characteristics of the community which is crucial for the development of future sustainability policies ( Kerstetter and Bricker, 2009 ).

There are three ways to handle the photo-elicitation method: the researcher takes photographs and chooses which ones are used in the interview; the participant takes the pictures and explains them to the researcher; and a negotiation between the researcher and the participant ( Kerstetter and Bricker, 2009 ; Dockett et al. , 2017 ).

Ideally, as many proponents of photo-elicitation state, respondents should be given the cameras to capture their own experiences ( Willson and McIntosh, 2010 ; Scarles, 2010 ; Stedman et al. , 2004 ). However, for this research, we used the first way to implement the photo-elicitation method: using the photographs taken by the researcher. Matteucci (2013 , p. 191) stated: “the benefit of using researcher-produced photographs lies in that fruitful discussions may arise as interviewees are confronted with taken-for-granted aspects of their life world.” Thus, the reason behind this choice was to get a coherent set of attitudes and perceptions about tourism in Bruges and to confront common stereotypes of tourism in Bruges with the views of local residents. Photo-elicitation in this research allowed not only to give voice to the residents but also to understand their socio-cultural background, their tourism-related concerns and whether they are in line with what is commonly perceived as problematic in Bruges.

The areas presented in the pictures were taken from the USE-it map [2] which combines tourist attractions with places recommended by local residents; other pictures were taken in the areas which were commonly reported by the local press as “problematic” from a tourism point of view, where presence of tourism activities was (is) stereotypically being contested by the residents. The knowledge of local informants and the detailed search through recent news publication was used to identify those places. The themes covered by the pictures were: tourist attractions and residents’ opinions about them; perceptions of impacts of tourism on the daily life of residents; and contested areas which residents would like to (re)claim ownership of. Each picture was supported by a hypothesis regarding a particular topic. The examples of the pictures are shown in Plate 1 .

For the purpose of this research, the residents of the historical center of Bruges were interviewed. This covers the area acknowledged as the UNESCO Heritage site ( Lievevrouw and Vandekerckhove, 2012 ) which is widely visited by tourists ( WES, 2012 ). The Golden Triangle is situated inside this area, which is the part of Bruges that is highly touristified and promoted as such.

The sample was based on a snowball technique. The snowball technique was used after an attempt to use purposive sampling technique. Due to high amount of tourists which causes an “invisibility” of residents in the historical center and a high rejection rate after random residents were telephoned, we decided to opt for a snowball technique. In total, 28 interviews were conducted in Spring 2016. The average age of the respondents is 67 years. The group between 71 and 80 years old is strongly represented with 12 respondents in that age category. This reflects the general demographic structure of the residents: 28 percent are over the age of 60, and there is a strong decline in the population of under 35-year olds, as well as a fall in the number of families with children ( Lievevrouw and Vandekerckhove, 2012 ). A gender balance was obtained as 15 women and 13 men were interviewed. We kept track of the interviewee’s location as well since we consider it important to have interviewees living inside the Golden Triangle (10) as well as beyond the Golden Triangle (18). Figure 2 presents a detailed location of respondents and location of the pictures.

The interviews were carried out in Flemish and recorded. The average duration was 55 minutes per person. The interviews started with semi-structured questions which concerned the socio-economic status of respondents; opinions about tourists in Bruges; and opinions about local policies, including tourism-related policies. After this initial conversation which allowed us to break the ice, introduce the topic and get the respondent and researcher to know each other, 25 pictures of Bruges were shown. The photos were used to expand ideas which were discussed earlier during the interview ( Cappello, 2005 ). The photos were stacked randomly and the participants were asked to describe what they see on a photo; if they see a relation with tourism and why; if it has any impacts on their daily life; if they ever had any experiences with the tourists in a given place; and what would they like to change about this particular place/tourist attraction.

The interviews were transcribed and thematically analyzed with NVivo®10 Software. In a first phase, the descriptive nodes were loosely attributed to interview transcripts ( Cope, 2010 ) and were compared with a pre-established coding scheme which was determined by the reasons behind choosing each picture and the hypothesis selected to each picture. In a second phase, the coding scheme was merged with more abstract concepts, organized according to a rather hierarchical scheme ( Stoffelen and Vanneste, 2017 ), while the perceived impacts were categorized as positive or negative ( Figure 3) .

Attitudes of residents toward tourism and tourists

The positive aspects mentioned by residents are economic gains and job creation. Additionally, residents are happy to live in a dynamic cosmopolitan city and they often benefit from the facilities and infrastructure which were originally designed for tourists. Residents also see the link between tourism and heritage preservation. Often, the efforts of the city to remain a well-known destination are translated into heritage preservation efforts. Importantly, the terrorist attacks in Brussels on March 22, 2016 and the consequent drop in the number of tourists made the residents realize how important tourism is for the economy of the city.

Touristification

They fill Bruges, the city is filled already, but they fill it up even more, with these big groups, because they come with a lot, and they don’t consume anything, as they have everything on their boat. […] So they come here for 3 to 4 hours (Simon, 72).

I feel bad that they deceive people like that. There are people that know that they are paying too much, but there are also those that have no idea. I feel bad that those people pay way too much without knowing. It may seem ridiculous that I feel sorry for them. But there are things that are Disney. It really serves to attract visitors (Marie, 21).

Yes, the boat refugees (laughs). You see how many of them are waiting, to be transported by those human traffickers as well. At a way too high speed, in a way too full boat, in a way too big boat (Ignace, 73).

The least desired activity by residents is the Segway tours. Their silence is rather dangerous combined with the speed and the lack of skills of the tourists who use it for the first time. Further, it is considered not to fit in a city like Bruges.

Residents’ relation with the city

Almost every evening we go walking in Bruges. The richness of the city is that you always can make a new walk, always interesting, in a beautiful scenery. The canals of course. In the summertime, the back of the Groot Seminarie, the Hemelryck. No tourists, very quiet in contrast to the crowd in the golden core. Very beautiful, but very quiet, you’re all alone there (Annabel, 63).

The local pride and local identity are strongly rooted in the citizens’ minds who feel the sense of belonging to Bruges. They express their sense of identity by speaking dialect, putting out the local flags during national holidays, and highly valuing the architectural composition of Bruges. The citizens born in Bruges have an especially strong identity and call themselves the “true” citizens.

That if you go for instance to the Katelijnestraat, all those small shops, that used to do something else than selling chocolate. It all disappeared, and it is replaced with beer and chocolate […] (Ludwine, 76).

Residents’ relation with tourists and tourism

On the contrary, I think a city can only grow by attracting a variety of people as broad as possible. All races and colors and movements and languages […] (Hanne, 61).

This open-mindedness is possibly a cause for the very low number of stereotypes to be gathered from the interviews. The only stereotypes given by a few people are that: Dutch people and people from Antwerp are arrogant; Russians are impolite; and Asians take a lot of pictures.

They [tourists] take in the whole street. And if you drive your car out of the street, they look at you as if they want to say: what kind of thing is that? When you have to pass them, it feels like you’re an extra-terrestrial (Samantha, 50).

It happens of course that we sit on the terrace in summer, because we are close to the canals, it is pleasant to sit there. Terrace outside, a bottle of wine with the neighbors, and it happens that tourists pass by, they get a glass as well and that can be very pleasant in summer (Gilbert, 65).

On the other hand, it becomes clear from the interviews that some interviewees, inhabitants of the historic center, never get in touch with tourists. This happens because tourism is so concentrated within a very limited area, a few streets further than the Golden Triangle, and one hardly sees visitors. Surprisingly, this is also the group that holds very strong opinions against tourists and tourism.

The results show that the characteristics of local residents which are commonly shared, such as nostalgia for the past, open-mindness, local pride, etc., influence respondents’ attitudes toward tourism ( McKercher and Ho, 2012 ; Yen and Kerstetter, 2008 ). The conservative attitude toward changes makes respondents reluctant to accept tourism-related dynamics in the city and, in particular, decreasing the liveability of the Golden Triangle due to the development of tourism-based services. Similarly, the feeling of alienation in the city makes residents perceive tourism in a negative way ( McKercher, Shoval, Park, and Kahani, 2015 ; McKercher, Wang, and Park, 2015 ). This alienation can be fostered by the existence of some stereotypes about tourists. Stereotypes and prejudices are one of the obstacles for the intergroup contact, in this case host-guest interactions ( Pettigrew, 1998 ). On the other hand, the open-mindness of respondents for other cultures and tourists and their awareness of economic benefits of tourism influence the positive perception about tourism ( Faulkner and Tideswell, 1997 ; Boley et al. , 2014 ). One cannot forget that Bruges, and its surroundings, is not strongly industrialized which makes tourism an important economic sector and job creator. Thus, following the social exchange theory, respondents see tourism in a positive way as long as the benefits, mainly the economic ones, outweigh the nuisances. Respondents who directly benefit from tourism (six respondents) definitely support tourism.

Colomb and Novy (2016) noticed that conflicts around tourism reflect struggles over socio-economic transformation of the cities rather than a sole dissatisfaction from tourists’ behavior. This thesis is also confirmed by this research. Residents, in general, are positive toward tourism but perceive touristification negatively. Additionally, attitudes toward tourists are positive if the tourists are individualized and a tourist becomes a person rather than part of a larger group called the tourists. In this case, the behavior of tourists is of utmost importance to bring positive perceptions. Often, non-tourism-related characteristics such as residents’ personal relation with the city mediate those attitudes. This is definitely an implication for the policy makers toward a more participatory and comprehensive approaches in order to understand in-depth residents’ relations with tourism and tourists and implement suitable policy measures. As Woosnam (2012 , p. 315) noticed: “the present literature on residents’ attitudes does not consider how residents’ feelings toward tourists (on an individual level) may potentially influence their attitudes about tourism.” The terms “tourists” and “tourism” are used interchangeably, while, in fact, the majority of literature discusses attitudes toward tourism development rather than toward tourists ( Sharpley, 2014 ). Consequently, the attitudes toward tourists are rarely discussed. This research has shown that this is a very complex issue.

Regarding a debate in the literature whether the length of living in a place influences tourism perceptions ( Pearce, 1980 ; Andereck et al. , 2005 ), and considering that majority of our respondents have lived in the historical center of Bruges their entire life, it is evident that time does not influence their perceptions about tourism and tourists. Rather, it is a change in the provision of services and decreased quality of life that happens over time which makes respondents reluctant to tourism, as also mentioned by Colomb and Novy (2016) . Moreover, residents lose access and ownership to some places which their originally perceived as “theirs” ( Gursoy et al. , 2002 ) but this is rather exceptional as they still cultivate their traditions of going to markets or museums, especially because the former is free of charge for them. This can suggest that the limits of acceptable change ( McCool and Lime, 2001 ; McCool, 2012 ) are still not transgressed in Bruges. On the other hand, given the fact that 28 percent of residents are over 60 and young people keep moving out, once there is a generation change, there might be no one whose limits of acceptable change will be transgressed.

The spatial location of the interviewees results in an interesting differentiation of attitudes ( Sharma and Dyer, 2009 ). All respondents living inside the Golden Triangle, thus having contact with tourists, are positive about tourists and tourism in the city. Respondents living outside of Golden Triangle, hence having very rare encounters with tourists, expressed more negative opinions about tourists and tourism in Bruges. It confirms the contact hypothesis of Allport (1954) which states that contact with other people and cultures is the best way to mediate stereotypes, prejudices, etc. Nevertheless, the fact that so many residents in the Golden Triangle earn their income from tourism fosters this attitude as well ( Almeida-García et al. , 2016 ).

The majority of the hypotheses behind each photo were confirmed by the residents. Majority of respondents negatively reacted to the photos showing crowding, some tourists amenities such as Segway tours or tourists boats or souvenir shops. Only 4 hypothesizes out of 25, such as “tourism is perceived to increase filth and pollution; tourism is associated with vandalism; city tours is an activity locals dislike; the Christmas market is an event where locals like to come,” were not confirmed during the interviews. Respective photos to discuss those hypotheses were presented to the respondents to discuss those issues such as litter and graffiti on the streets in the historical center, Christmas market or a car with a “City tour” signature. Certain activities shown on the pictures (e.g. horse carriages and local festivals) cause ambiguous feelings. In general, the results prove the existence of problems that have been commonly known and contested in Bruges by the local residents; however, through the in-depth interviews, we understood why certain issues are problematic for them and what emotional values and meanings they attach to Bruges and particular places within the city. Those meanings and values are central to the notion of sustainability ( Kerstetter and Bricker, 2009 ).

Preparing for the future and policy making

It was noted in the report by UNESCO (2016) that many European cities have transformed into open-air museums or tourist ghettos. The results of this paper show that this is partially the case for Bruges, at least from the residents’ perspective. Therefore, the report puts mitigation of “museumification” and gentrification as the most pressing issue for the historical cities in Europe. To achieve this, UNESCO encourages cities to promote sustainable tourism practices which include substituting mass tourism with “quality” tourism, development of innovative methods to alleviate negative property trends and replacement of chain shops with local stores.

Therefore, issues of resilience and sustainability become crucial for historical towns as the impacts of a visitor economy can have a long-term influence on a city, region or state ( Tyrell and Johnston, 2007 ). These impacts are quite complex and not necessarily always entirely negative as we have seen in the case of Bruges. Future cities, according to the UNESCO report, should be sustainable, resilient and green. Cities should develop resilience not only to threats from natural hazards or armed conflicts, but also from the effects of socio-economic changes, which include the effects of tourism. The EU guidelines on sustainable tourism elaborated by European Association of Historic Towns and Regions (2009 , p. 9) stated that: “sustainability embraces social, environmental and economic matters and cultural tourism involves a consideration of each of the components through the needs of visitors, industry and community.” Thus, resilience and sustainability include managing the city not with a top-down approach, but rather from multi-sector, horizontal and bottom-up approaches which engage local communities and take their culture and needs into account. Finally, to be resilient, there should be a mixed use of the cities, including their historical centers which means that the tourists’ ghettos put resilience at stake.

To build a resilient city according to those recommendations, the authorities of Bruges have launched the program called the “Future of Bruges,” described by the mayor as “the project which means that we start with a white sheet.” It is a participatory project which allows the residents to make the city from scratch. The residents are responsible for bringing the ideas and developing them in coalition with a variety of stakeholders such as city government, civil society organizations and businesses. Among the proposed projects up to now, there are very few directly related to tourism but there are several which aim at strengthening the liveability of the Golden Triangle, including aspects of tourism. For example, one project aims at developing activities for both tourists and residents on the fish market during Sunday afternoon. Another project proposes to make Bruges a sustainable city by linking the needs of local residents and tourists by improving safety, bringing more life to the streets of Bruges via, for example, street performances or preserving Bruges’ heritage.

Moreover, one of the most pressing needs in Bruges is to make the Golden Triangle liveable again. This can be achieved by finding a balance between tourism and residential functions, i.e. providing residents with affordable housing, especially for young families. This would help reverse the negative trend of depopulation of the Golden Triangle. There are already some housing investments at the fringes of the Golden Triangle which indicate city’s efforts to maintain the livability of the historic center. Surprisingly, they cause conflicts with UNESCO (2014) which reports for Bruges: “the gradual erosion of the attributes that convey the Outstanding Universal Value which threatens the integrity of the property with regards to its overall coherence and originality” (p. 36). The question arises about keeping the balance between protection of heritage and hence, maintaining the UNESCO label and, simultaneously, maintaining residential functions which are desired by the residents. Another possibility would be to offer social housing in the historical buildings as it is done in Porto (Portugal).

Furthermore, in order to break the hegemony of the tourist-oriented activities in the historical city, the land-use mix should be encouraged. This can be potentially done in the form of subsidies for the local shops. Current high rents in the historical center means that only chain shops can afford to open there. Additionally, the type of tourism in Bruges should be rethought to build greater resilience. Limiting the cruise tourism, which is highly disliked by the local residents and opting for more quality tourists, who spend more time in the city and “consume” its cultural attractions in a mindful way could be one of the suggestions ( Tyrell and Johnston, 2007 ).

Finally, this brings a debate about the model of tourism Bruges is currently applying. For many years, Bruges has applied a model of concentration of tourism activities to relieve the pressure of tourism on other neighborhoods beyond the historic center. Tourists, mainly excursionists, have been encouraged to stay within the Golden Triangle. However, according to the results of a recent survey conducted by VisitFlanders (2016) among the residents, the dispersion model of tourist activities should be considered in the future, allowing the tourists to spread around the historical center. In this way, due to contact with tourists, residents will be able accept tourism and tourists. Potentially, it can create a more balanced city (in terms of tourists-local residents’ ratio and tourists-local services) in given areas. A similar model of dispersion is currently being tested in other UNESCO World Heritage Sites, for example, in Krakow (Poland).

Conclusions

Given the impacts tourism can have on a community, it is imperative to gain an understanding of residents’ views if consensus is to be built. Residents are, after all, likely to be impacted by the changes tourism brings along. The identities they ascribe and attachments they have to their communities are likely to be altered for the better or the worse ( Williams et al. , 1995 ).

The results partially show how to avoid the “deterioration” of resident’s identities and attachments. The projects suggested by the residents for the Future of Bruges program reflect the residents’ need to ensure the livability of the Golden Triangle. Simultaneously, those projects put emphasis on interactions between residents and tourists and aim at developing the creative spirit in the city. It confirms, at least from the residents’ perspective, the need for increased contact or for the involvement of residents in the process of “co-creation,” i.e. the creative collaboration between tourists, hosts and policy makers in the experience creation and development of tourism policies ( Richards, 2011 ). Participation and learning play a key role in pursuing of the creative tourism following Glăveanu’s (2010) statement that “creativity does not take place in a social vacuum” (p. 59) but is based upon social interaction and interactive dialogs. As a result, not only the “living culture” at the destination is created ( Tan et al. , 2014 ) but the destination itself becomes resilient and sustainable.

Participation starts with better understanding the tourism-related needs of residents. The photo-elicitation interview method proved to be a useful tool to achieve this. The photos contributed greatly to stimulating respondents’ memories, evoking experiences and emotions connected to them. It led to extensive interviews which provided rich content and quality data. Those photo-elicitation interviews, compared to other methods such as survey design, generate much more in-depth information, including meanings attached to places and explanations of phenomenon. Most importantly, photo-elicitation interview means giving a voice to the residents, especially when they are given the cameras so they can choose which places to photograph. On the other hand, photos taken by the researcher, as in this study, allow us to confront residents with topics that they often take for granted and perhaps find too obvious to mention. Thus, this paper suggests that future research on attitudes and perceptions is developed around visual methods, which are still highly underused but have proved to provide rich data and uncover issues which are difficult to capture with other methods.

Functions of the city in 1972 (left) and 2011 (right)

Spatial location of respondents and photo locations in the historical center of Bruges

Analytical scheme

Examples of the pictures shown to the respondents: concert hall, boat tours, horse carriages, Segway tours

TR Bruges, 2015 =783,462.1/194.18=403.47 (19,418: population within the Egg in 2014).

As explained on the USE-IT website: “USE-IT stands for no-nonsense tourist info for young people. USE-IT maps and websites are made by young locals, are not commercial, free, and up-to-date, they are about life and soul of the city.”

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Further reading

Bryon , J. ( 2005 ), “ De dialectische relatie tussen stadsbewoners en de toeristisch-stedelijke ruimte (The dialectic relationship between residents and the urban tourism space. Case study Bruges) ”, Case Studie Brugge (unpublished doctoral dissertation), Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Leuven .

Jurowski , C. , Uysal , M. and Williams , D.R. ( 1997 ), “ A theoretical analysis of host community resident reactions to tourism ”, Journal of Travel Research , Vol. 36 No. 2 , pp. 3 - 11 .

Rose , G. ( 2016 ), Visual Methodologies: An Introduction to Researching with Visual Materials , Sage , London .

Acknowledgements

© Katarzyna Janusz, Sofie Six and Dominique Vanneste. Published in the Journal of Tourism Futures. Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode

Corresponding author

About the authors.

Katarzyna Janusz is a PhD Researcher at the Faculty of Science, University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.

Sofie Six is based at the Faculty of Science, University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.

Dominique Vanneste is based at the Faculty of Science, University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.

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UN Tourism: Putting Communities at the Centre of Tourism Development in the Americas

The Seminar “Enhancing Tourism Development through Innovation in Community-Based Tourism” was held within the framework of the 69th meeting of the UN Tourism Regional Commission for the Americas. The meeting served as a prelude to the institutional event and brought together leading players in the sector to address challenges, strategies and good practices in this tourism segment. The aim of the Seminar was to promote the development of community-based tourism through the empowerment of and investment in local populations, as well as the promotion of innovation in their products. 

It is necessary to continue exploring models that promote the autonomy and participation of communities in the tourism management of their territories. Creativity, collaboration and commitment to local traditions are fundamental pillars in this journey towards more inclusive and responsible tourism.

Zurab Pololikashvili, Secretary-General of UN Tourism, said: “Community-based tourism in the region of the Americas shows great diversity and opportunities for the sustainable development and economic inclusion of local communities. It is necessary to continue exploring models that promote the autonomy and participation of communities in the tourism management of their territories. Creativity, collaboration and commitment to local traditions are fundamental pillars in this journey towards more inclusive and responsible tourism.”

After the opening, Natalia Bayona, Executive Director of UN Tourism, highlighted: “Community-based tourism is a great opportunity for social innovation and allows us to be creative with the tourism product itself. In 2022, the global market for this type of tourism amounted to USD 575.9 million. Latin America and the Caribbean, with their natural resources and great nature areas where local communities flourish, announced 80 greenfield projects between 2018-2023 representing USD 3.89 billion.”

The challenges of tourism and the role of communities

The topic of  “Challenges, Strategies and Good Practices for Sustainable Tourism Development through Empowerment and Investment in Community Tourism”,  was discussed by a panel including the Cuban Minister Juan Carlos García Granda and the Vice-Ministers of Tourism of Panama, Magda Durán; of Peru, Madeleine Burns, and of Colombia, Arturo Bravo. Gustavo Santos, Regional Director for the Americas of UN Tourism acted as the moderator of the discussion, as the participants outlined the current situation, shared experiences and expressed their proposals for the future of the sector.

A second panel consisted of a discussion involving both the private sector and representatives of the academic field. On this occasion, with the title “Promoting Social Innovation in Tourism through Impact Investments in Community Tourism, Human Capital and Business and Territorial Strategies”, the debate focused on investments.

A place for entrepreneurs and communities

Two startups belonging to the UN Tourism ecosystem participated in the last of the seminar’s debates. On the one hand, the company Quantum Temple, dedicated to the application of new technologies to conserve the cultural and natural resources of communities in Indonesia, and on the other, SmArt for Sustainability, from Panama, which incorporates cutting-edge technology and integration practices to move towards sustainability.

In addition to these meetings, local communities also had their space to publicize their work and showcase success stories, including the Women’s Association ‘Weaving Dreams and Flavours’ of Mampuján, Colombia, which has been an example of transformation for more than two decades. This group of women, including victims of sexual violence and displaced persons, has been able to weave suffering and transform it into a hymn to peace and a historical testimony.

The conference reflected UN Tourism’s efforts to promote the evolution of community-based tourism, among others, through its innovation network that includes a wide variety of startups and projects that promote this segment, as well as innovation challenges, which strengthen tourism initiatives in local communities, while helping to develop new strategies and give visibility to these projects at a global level.

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Cultural tourism development and the impact on local communities: a case study from the South of Italy

• Alessandro Destefanis Politecnico di Torino, Corso Duca degli Abruzzi, 24, 10129 Torino, Italia http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9833-752X
• Lorenzo Angelini Collège des Ingénieurs Italia, Via Giuseppe Giacosa, 38, 10125 Torino, Italia;
• Daniele Borlizzi Collège des Ingénieurs Italia, Via Giuseppe Giacosa, 38, 10125 Torino, Italia;
• Alessandro Carlucci Collège des Ingénieurs Italia, Via Giuseppe Giacosa, 38, 10125 Torino, Italia;
• Giuseppe Ciardella Collège des Ingénieurs Italia, Via Giuseppe Giacosa, 38, 10125 Torino, Italia;
• Giuseppe Governale Politecnico di Torino, Corso Duca degli Abruzzi, 24, 10129 Torino, Italia http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1935-0575
• Isotta Morfini Collège des Ingénieurs Italia, Via Giuseppe Giacosa, 38, 10125 Torino, Italia;

Cultural tourism is the idea that a place’s cultural perception has enough value to make it a destination for travel. Communities characterized by a high level of cultural development are usually associated with a high level of satisfaction about living conditions and wealth. In this research, we postulate that the creation and development of the cultural attractions of a place to attract tourists also have a positive impact on the life condition of the local community, not only for increased money availability but also for a change of inhabitants’ mind-set. Case study methodology has been used to support the hypotheses.

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Socio-economic Impacts of Tourism Development and Their Implications on Local Communities

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Tourism has significant potentials for generating positive social, cultural and economic benefits depending on how tourism activities are managed and developed. However, tourism also has the potential to generate more negative outcomes. Therefore, the objectives of this study are first; to examine the impacts of tourism development on local communities, second; to recognize the attitudes and perception of local communities towards tourism development in their neighbourhoods. The study is based on the data gathered from 108 families in three villages to analysis the attitudes and perceptions of local communities towards tourism development. Additionally, six unstructured interviews were conducted with government officers of these villages to get the precise understanding of the tourism development in local communities and its impacts. The study reveals inadequate government planning, policies and regulations, insufficient knowledge and skills of tour operators, and the broader social issues of poverty and its concomitant implications have become the impediments. Despite numerous economic advantages for the government, private businesses and other external organizations, the local villagers do not sufficiently benefit financially from tourism development. The study area is located in the heart of the cultural triangle; villagers and tourists in this region generally demonstrate high levels of sensitivity to indigenous cultures, thus minimizing the negative socio-cultural impacts.

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How Environmental Impact Assessments Promote Sound Tourism Investments

An evaluation of possible project impacts helps preserve culturally and environmentally important sites and protect nearby communities.

Tourism has the potential to contribute to economic growth and generate substantial foreign exchange earnings. In many countries in Asia and the Pacific, tourism ranked high in government’s development plans , especially for those rich in tourism assets but lacking in manufacturing ability.

However, tourism development can also have adverse effects unless the proper measures are in place to ensure sustainable and inclusive growth.

Tourism assets include protected areas, such as cultural heritage sites. Because these sites are crowd-drawers and with national or international mandates to maintain or secure their value, managing them demands clear policies and careful development planning. These sites are mostly centuries-old and require extra caution when building structures or introducing improvements near them.

Tourism investments or projects that concern heritage sites, therefore, must be assessed properly to avoid or minimize any adverse impacts not only to these sites but to their surrounding communities as well. Facilities and service enhancement components of projects should also be evaluated.  

Conducting an environmental impact assessment can help decision makers identify, predict, evaluate, and mitigate adverse environmental impacts and consequences of development projects or activities prior to major decisions and commitments.

A project funded by a government or international financial institution requires appraisal of its technical feasibility and financial and economic viability. In the wake of the damages caused by unregulated growth and rising public awareness, the assessment of potential environmental and social consequences was added since the late 1960s to feasibility studies. This is mainly through the environmental impact assessment.

Proponents must look at the environmental consequences and compare feasible alternatives that may reduce these consequences. The discussion on alternatives is described by academia as the “heart” of the environmental impact assessment process. All reasonable alternatives must be considered, including “no action.” At the end of the process, the authorities decide whether the project can go ahead, the conditions for it, and the measures that must be taken to reduce the residual adverse effects.

An environmental impact assessment has three objectives:

• Aid investment decision-making—specifically whether to finance or reject a proposed project.
• Optimize and inform project design by comparing alternatives and modifying components. Or design to minimize or avoid altogether the negative consequences from the outset.
• Mitigate the residual impacts by developing and implementing actions, like in the form of an environmental management plan.

In most countries and international financial institutions, project proposals are first screened to quickly judge their environmental impacts. Subsequently, they are classified as having low, medium, or high impact, which require different levels of intensity for assessment and management.

• Minimal-low impact projects need no further assessment.
• Assessment for medium-impact projects focuses on informing and optimizing the project design.
• Assessing high-impact projects is critical to the investment decision. Projects can be vetoed on account of the dire social–environmental consequences revealed by the environmental impact assessment.

A proposed Asian Development Bank (ADB) project in Cambodia demonstrates how an environmental impact assessment process can optimize the design of a tourism investment.

Two project areas

In northern Preah Vihear province, 11 kilometers south of the famous Preah Vihear temple, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site, the local government proposed expanding and dredging a lake in front of the new tourism center near the project village. During the project discussions, environmental experts cautioned against its adverse impacts on ecology and water resources management. Instead, they suggested to fund only a small improvement around the lake, such as a garbage clean-up, and focus on village sanitation and waste management—which are indispensable for tourism and improves the wellbeing of communities. Lake and riverside investments were reduced to a simpler landing, walk paths, and viewing platform with budget saved to finance sanitation investment and basic solid waste management. Public toilets and standard latrines with septic tanks for homestay pilots were also suggested and considered by both project areas. 

The second one is near Phnom Da temple in Angkor Borei district, Takeo province, 80 km southeast of Phnom Penh. This district Phnom Da temple is one of these and is on the UNSECO’s tentative World Heritage list. The project intends to support high-value agriculture to strengthen the tourism–agriculture linkage and to supplement income during the low season. The environmental impact assessment flagged the potential pollution and health and safety issues associated with conventional commercial agriculture. It narrowed down activities to eco-farming, specifying the provision of water-saving equipment and trainings on safe cultivation and veterinary practices. Following the Ministry of Agriculture’s suggestion, pest and disease control to minimize chemical usage were integrated in the training plan.

How it protects cultural heritage

Originally, new stairways and viewing platforms were proposed close to the monuments in both project areas. This proposal was dropped as the Heritage Department of the Ministry of Cultural and Fine Arts (MOCFA) and UNESCO’s National Office in Cambodia, during the consultation, indicated that such could affect the integrity and authenticity of physical cultural resources.

For the second project area, the local cultural department also proposed placing a simple staircase and platform at a small archeological excavation site. According to the heritage protection law of Cambodia, light structures that are more than 30 meters from the cultural property boundary are allowed. The MOCFA considered the platform and railing as light structure and supported the investment. However, building the structure near the excavation site entails the transportation of construction materials and equipment and generates noise and vibration, which may structurally weaken the nearby heritage sites. These are typical residual impacts that the EIA process has identified and aimed to address (i.e. third objective) through developing mitigation measures.

The environmental impact assessment was the basis for the mitigation measures that formed the physical cultural resource management plan—also a part of an environmental management plan. This plan specifies measures during design, construction, and operation phases. It stipulates the maximum height of buildings (two stories) and construction materials selection. It requires that heavy machinery and equipment should be avoided, and the use of manual construction and transportation methods are preferred to the extent possible. It is incorporated into the bidding documents. During implementation, a physical cultural resource conservation expert with engineering experience will be recruited to plan and supervise all work related to this.

In addition to the usual maintenance and supervision measures, the management plan specifies measures to prevent and control fire risks and electric hazard, drawing on the experience of recent projects in other countries.

Climate change risk assessment is part of the environmental impact assessment process for ADB. Two-thirds of the project village in this district is flooded during raining season, and climate change is expected to make the situation worse. Extra caution in the location and choice of technologies for some project structures, such as underground septic tanks to avoid inundation and related health hazards, was recommended.

Meaningful consultation begins with full disclosure of information.

Following the completion of the assessment, the entire draft, including the environmental management plan, was translated into Khmer and disclosed at both project areas and among key stakeholders.

To allow sufficient time for the stakeholders to digest the information, the last and most comprehensive round of consultation was conducted about a month after the disclosure.

Key stakeholders, such as the Ministry of Environment, reviewed and provided written comments. The final assessment, specifically the management plan, incorporated all comments to facilitate domestic environmental compliance.

Overtourism is a major cause for deterioration of heritage sites. This might not be an issue for Cambodia in the short term given its small population and the time it will take for international tourism to recover because of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. Nonetheless, the environmental management plan recommended to identify the maximum number of tourists allowed per day or year through a survey and data collection during operation for rational planning of tourism development and expansion of public utilities and services.

With a $3 million investment, the project can support the basic sorting and collection of solid wastes, but not the downstream garbage disposal. The environmental impact assessment suggested that garbage disposal in both project areas is primitive, with no public funding for proper disposal facilities in the foreseeable future. This is a common challenge in rural Asia. Tourism development however demands decent sanitation and hygiene conditions, including sewage, excreta, and garbage management. As tourism in the project areas develops, further work is needed to identify suitable sanitation technologies that are compliant to basic standards, cost-effective, and easy to build, operate, and maintain by local people.

Asian Development Bank (ADB). Cambodia: Community-Based Tourism COVID-19 Recovery Project.

A. Pedersen.2002. Managing Tourism at World Heritage Sites: A Practical Manual for World Heritage Site Managers. Paris, France: UNESCO World Heritage Centre.

International Association for Impact Assessment (IAIA). Principles of Environmental Impact Assessment Best Practices.

M. Helble and A. Fink. 2020.  Reviving Tourism Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic . Manila: Asian Development Bank.

Ask the Experts

Once an ADB safeguard reviewer, Xin Ren now works on environmental issues in rural sector. Prior to ADB, she worked at World Bank on environment in diverse sectors. She also worked at UNEP and in the People’s Republic of China on waste management and clean production, and at UNFCCC on climate change.

Leonard has worked in the agriculture, energy, and transportation sectors, covering sovereign lending and project-finance. He conducts integrated financial and economic analysis to identify risks and mitigation measures, inform financial structuring, and confirm project viability.

The Asian Development Bank is committed to achieving a prosperous, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable Asia and the Pacific, while sustaining its efforts to eradicate extreme poverty. Established in 1966, it is owned by 68 members—49 from the region. Its main instruments for helping its developing member countries are policy dialogue, loans, equity investments, guarantees, grants, and technical assistance.

View the discussion thread.

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The views expressed on this website are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) or its Board of Governors or the governments they represent. ADB does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this publication and accepts no responsibility for any consequence of their use. By making any designation of or reference to a particular territory or geographic area, or by using the term “country” in this document, ADB does not intend to make any judgments as to the legal or other status of any territory or area.

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