Tosun Timothy

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esources and popular creativity to find locally appropriate methods of tourism development. (Brohman, 1996, p. 61) In addition, since planning has a temporal dimension, planning by public authorities can become difficult and cumbersome owing to changes brought about by elections and other political transformations. This lends further support to the need to involve residents and other key stockholders into a flexible and dynamic planning process that can sustain the changing administration and adjust to other forces impacting on the tourism system (Jamal & Getz, 1995, p. 199) in a more democratic manner. Conclusion This paper has presented a set of normative arguments in favour of the participatory tourism development approach. It has purposefully taken an optimistic viewpoint and advocacy approach in an effort to highlight the benefits of participatory tourism development and attract the attention of tourism scholars, practitioners and decisionmakers. The arguments for community participation in tourism development were conceptualised around a set of seven propositions that deal with the relationships between participatory tourism development and the implementation of tourism plans, achieving sustainable tourism development, increasing tourist satisfaction, fair distribution of costs and benefits of tourism between involved stakeholders, satisfaction of local-felt-needs and strengthening democratisation process in local tourist destinations. Clearly, arguments developed in favour of participatory tourism development may not be found equally valid from every point of view. Some may be thought to apply in some localities and others in different ones, but they are not in general mutually exclusive, and taken together they make a sensible argument. It should be noted that community participation in the tourism development process has emerged and been refined in the context of developed countries. Advocates writing on developed countries have also popularised it. Therefore, these prescriptive and tentative propositions were developed for a participatory approach are essentially based upon theoretical frameworks and principles that planners from the developed world employ in tourism planning (Timothy, 1999; Tosun, 2000). Thus, the validity and implementability of those arguments in various conditions in developing countries may be uncertain. In the developing world context, there are most certainly operational, historical, structural, and cultural obstacles to this pro-active tourism development approach (Din, 1989; Harrison, 1994; Mitchell & Reid, 2001; Timothy, 1999; Tosun, 2000) Operational barriers include centralisation of public administrations systems including tourism, lack of co-ordination among private and various public bodies responsible for tourism development (Timothy, 1998), and a lack of information made available to local people in tourist destinations. Structural obstacles refer to elite domination, clientelism, unwillingness of decision-makers to implement the participatory approach in general, negative attitudes of tourism professionals in designing a participatory tourism plan, a lack of financial resources, a shortage of qualified human resources, discouraging legal frameworks, and a dearth in expertise. Cultural limits include limited capacity and desire of poor people, apathy by some residents, traditions of power, and low levels of awareness throughout local communities. The success of participatory tourism development will depend upon many factors including relationships among interests groups and levels, types, scales, directions and stages of tourism development. For example, the existence of some types of barriers in some tourist destinations will have negative implications for implementing community empowerment. By no means does this article claim universal validity in terms of the arguments for participatory development, for some of the arguments might not be entirely applicable in all destination countries. Significant limits to this approach may also be encountered in rural or peripheral regions of advanced economies as well. Thus, participatory tourism development may not be feasible under every condition in all tourist destinations. Finally, future research should test these propositions with special reference to specific local or national destinations alongside the provision of strategies to practice the participatory approach advocated here. Moreover, possible barriers to public participation in tourism development might be a research topic on their own accord, as these will vary from place to place and from time to time. THE JOURNAL OF TOURISM STUDIES Vol. 14, No. 2, DEC. ‘03 11
12 THE JOURNAL OF TOURISM STUDIES Vol. 14, No. 2, DEC. ‘03 References Allen, R.L., Long, T.P., Perdue, R.R., & Kieselbach, S. (1988). The impact of tourism development on residents' perceptions of community life. Journal of Travel Research, 27(1), 16-21. ANGOC (1989). People’s participation and environmentally sustainable development. Manila: Asian NGO Coalition for Agrarian Reform and Rural Development. Blank, U. (1989). The community tourism industry imperative: The necessity, the opportunities, its potential. State College, PA: Venture. Boaden, N., Goldsmith, M., Hampton, W., & Stringer, P. (1982). Public participation in local services. Harlow: Longman. Bradley, R.M., & Karunadasa, H.I. (1989). Community participation in the water supply sector in Sri-Lanka. Journal of the Royal Society of Health, 109(4), 131-136. Broadbent, J. (1988). State as process: The effect of party and class on citizen participation in Japanese local government. S o c i a l Problems, 35(2), 131-144. Brohman, J. (1996). New directions in tourism for third world development. Annals of Tourism Research, 23, 48-70. Buck, J.V. (1984). The impact of (US) citizen participation programs and policy decisions on participants' opinions. Western Political Quarterly, 37(3), 468-482. Colchester, M. (1994). Sustaining the forests: The community based approach in South and Southeast Asia. Development and Change, 25(1), 69-100. Cooper, C. (1993). An introduction to tourism. In C. Cooper, J. Fletcher, D. Gilbert & S. Wanhill, (Eds.), Tourism: Principles and practice (pp. 7-12). London: Pitman. D'Amore, L. (1983). Guidelines to planning in harmony with the host community. In P.E. Murphy (Ed.), Tourism in Canada: Selected issues and options (pp. 135-159). Victoria, BC: University of Victoria, Department of Geography. Davidoff, P. (1965). Advocacy and pluralism in planning. Journal of the American Institute of Planners, 31(4), 331-338. de Kadt, E. (1982). Community participation for health: The case of Latin America. World Development, 10(7), 573-584. Din, K.H. (1989). Islam and tourism: Patterns, issues, and options. Annals of Tourism Research, 16, 542-563. Dogan, H.Z. (1989). Forms of adjustment: Social cultural impacts of tourism. Annals of Tourism Research, 16, 216-236. Eadington, W., & Smith, V.L. (1992). Introduction: The emergence of alternative forms of tourism. In V.L. Smith & W.R. Eadington (Eds.), Tourism alternatives: Potentials and problems in the development of tourism (pp. 1-12). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Fagence, M. (1977). Citizen participation in planning. O x f o r d : Pergamon. Fong, P.F.W. (1986). Citizen participation and administrative decentralisation in Hong Kong. Habitat International, 10(1/2), 207-217. Getz, D. (1983). Tourism, community organisation and the social multiplier. In Leisure, Tourism and Social Change - Proceedings of the International Geographical Union Commission of the Geography of Tourism and Leisure, 2, 85-99. Gunn, C.A. (1988). Tourism planning (2nd ed.). New York: Taylor and Francis. Hall, C.M., & Jenkins, M.J. (1995). Tourism and public policy. London: Routledge. Harrison, D. (1994). Learning from the old south by the new south? The case of tourism. Third World Quarterly, 15(4), 707-721.
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