Nicola Palmer

Ethnic equality, national identity and selective cultural representation in tourism promotion: Kyrgyzstan, Central Asia

This paper considers ethnic equality and stakeholder involvement in relation to tourism as a tool to build national identity in post-Soviet, post-communist Central Asia. Both issues are integral to the development of sustainable tourism. The discussion reviews national identity issues and inter-ethnic challenges facing post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan, and focuses on the responses of Kyrgyz tour operators to the emphasis of tourism promotion on ethnic Kyrgyz cultural heritage, excluding other ethnic groups and heritage. Despite a high degree of tour operator freedom from the State, a surprising degree of operator support for this promotional bias is noted, in contrast to the reported ethnic conflict over affirmative discrimination towards the ethnic Kyrgyz population.

Economic transition and the struggle for local control in ecotourism development: the case of Kyrgyzstan

This is a contextual paper, examining the involvement of external development agencies in an emerging post-Soviet economy. The paper provides an outline of some of the main political and economic challenges facing the case example area – Kyrgyzstan. It then goes on to briefly consider ecotourism as a concept linking natural resources and cultural environments with a key focus on ‘local’, locating ecotourism as a key potential vehicle for promoting and protecting diversity in globalisation debates. The main part of the paper discusses the intervention of one external development agency, the Swiss Development Co-operation (SDC), via the introduction of community-based tourism (CBT) to Kyrgyzstan. One particular CBT group has developed a successful ecotourism product using SDC technical assistance. Kyrgyz tour operator responses to this development are presented and the implications of external development agency intervention in Kyrgyzstans tourism development are considered with respect to the creation of a struggle for local control amongst the Kyrgyz tour operators, an emphasis on the cultural value of the ethnic Kyrgyz population and a focus on poverty alleviation amongst these people rather than other Kyrgyz citizens. A need for further research is highlighted, particularly with respect to the potential imperialistic effects of external development agencies.

Societal values and local responses to appropriate livelihoods, fairness and decision-making involvement in ecotourism: Chiang Rai, Thailand

This paper examines local responses to ecotourism within the broader context of societal values. It acknowledges a strong contextual dimension to understanding those responses, and supports that with in-depth research on three villages in Chiang Rai in northern Thailand. The paper finds that land ownership is a central issue: those without land are those who consider alternative livelihoods to agriculture. Tourism, rather than a development option denied to under-privileged or unconnected members of society, appears to be a key development option for those without land. An uncontested view was expressed that benefits from tourism should be individually received by those involved, rather by communities as a whole. Involvement in tourism decision making was low and only desired by those directly involved, as a means of potentially increasing their personal incomes. For those stakeholders, involvement is dependent on village leaders and the representation that local tourism entrepreneurs and workers have through those leaders (on the basis of shared ethnicity). These findings question an understanding within the tourism development literature that positions host communities as being empowered through tourism, and adds to increasing criticism of aspects of community based tourism.

Rural entrepreneurial space and identity: A study of local tour operators and ‘the Nenets’ indigenous reindeer herders

The tourism industry is a capitalist activity concerned with the production, accumulation and distribution of wealth. Power is an important arena for research in this respect as diverse outcomes for the local economy in general, and its players specifically, provide important aspects to study when considering the lives of rural entrepreneurs. However, it may be argued that while Marxist theorists using critical approaches on power have tended to focus on issues around the equality of power relations between actors or stakeholders, the inherently spatial nature of power has received less emphasis. This article focuses on an exploration of the spatiality of power which surrounds entrepreneurship and tourism industry development.

Governance and local participation in ecotourism: community-level ecotourism stakeholders in Chiang Rai province, Thailand

ABSTRACT This paper takes as its starting point the assertion that community-based ecotourism is an activity in which not all members of a community are able to be involved (through barriers or factors of exclusion) and/or wish to be involved (through personal choice). This has implications for discussions about community-level stakeholders, governance and tourism development. Firstly, the paper explores the actors’ interactions as they relate to the use of resources and environment. Within this theme are seen more specific sets of social relations and sustainability elements. These elements highlight key factors, beginning with the actors, the resource uses, and continuing with the influence of different resource management regimes, of power and authority, of networks of social relations, of patterns of governance, and of internal and external relations that occur with actors both inside and outside the local villages. The geographical context is three villages in the northern Thai province of Chiang Rai, a key international ecotourism area. The study is underpinned by use of a range of qualitative methods and considers the views of 70 key informants. Participation in tourism by Thai villagers is argued to reflect both ability to be involved (centred on land ownership and its restriction of livelihood opportunities) and active choice of involvement (the extent to which tourism is individually considered as a potential livelihood option). Involvement in community based ecotourism in a traditional hierarchical society like Thailand appears to be linked to an individuals social standing or general position in society and to be far from a matter of free choice. Governance – in the sense of social order, social coordination, social practices – is identified as having a key influence upon the ways in which participation in tourism occurs at a local level. Social status, legitimacy and power are highlighted as issues for further research in relation to further understanding the dynamics of community-based tourism development.

Re-imagining heritage interpretation: enchanting the past-future

This book finds Staiff drawing on his experiences over the past 15 years, as art historian, heritage tourism lecturer and traveller to a variety of international heritage sites. The prologue provid...