Linking Culture and the Environment

160 Community Perspectives in Sustainable Tourism
exactly what may constitute ‘local involvement’ or ‘participation’. The type,
amount, intensity and equability of community participation requires closer
examination to determine the level of involvement for a potentially sustainable
tourism project to qualify as having achieved a high degree of local
involvement. It is important to know just how local participation may affect
the people’s means of livelihood and the equitable sharing of benefits. Is the
level of local participation in decision making merely of a consultative nature,
or is the community largely in control of its tourism development and management?
If the latter, would more equitable sharing of decision-making
power result in a more balanced distribution of tourism benefits, and eventually
lead to sustainable tourism?
Community integration
The central question considered in this chapter is whether a relatively high
degree of community involvement in tourism planning, management and
ownership, hence local control, can help reduce negative sociocultural
impacts and increase positive benefits to local residents. Is it possible that a
highly integrated community may increase the likelihood of success for tourism
sustainability? The following characteristics distinguish community
integration in tourism (Mitchell, 1998):
● the extent of a broad-based, equitable and efficient democratic process;
● the amount (or percentage) of participating citizens;
● the degree of individual participation, i.e. influence, in decision
making;
● the amount of local ownership in the community-based tourism sector; and
● the degree of long-term involvement in planning and management by
local communities, i.e. not a ‘one-off’ event.
True community integration would necessitate more than mere participation;
for example, it would take seriously the concept of ‘equality’, which is linked
to fair, democratic and meaningful decision making (Mitchell, 1998). An integrated
community would demonstrate a mature social, psychological and
political integration partially measured by its perceived and actual social, cultural
and economic benefits (Mitchell, 1998). Crucial factors compounding this
assumedly desirable outcome include property ownership, local elite domination,
government policies and economic leakages. Mitchell and Eagles (2001)
and Mitchell and Reid (2001) proposed a framework for community integration
in tourism planning and management that outlines three integral components
of a public participation triangle discussed throughout this chapter:
awareness, unity and power. Many scholars (e.g. Arnstein, 1969; Freire, 1970;
Chambers, 1983; Cernea, 1985; Kaufman and Haroldo Dilla, 1997; Green, 1999)
elaborated at length on community participation as a complex process of
awareness building, control and action, equating it with empowerment or the
ability of a community to ‘take charge’ of its development goals on an equitable
basis (for a critique of participatory development, see Kothari, 2001).