Victoria Peel

Revealing hidden attractions in a rural Kenyan periphery

Tourism geographers have noted the tendency for enclaves to develop in attraction-rich tourism zones and population centres. The accumulation of tourism in such enclaves can act to limit the spread of benefits to the most impoverished regions and their inhabitants. This research addresses the question of whether peripheral regions can utilise the inherent motivations of specific types of tourists in order to reveal hidden attractions and build sustainable tourism. Within the frameworks of enclave theory and complex systems analysis, this case study of a charitable field project in Gatarakwa, Kenya, utilises qualitative approaches including in-depth interviews, blog analyses and participant observational research to examine whether a philanthropist-as-tourist model could reveal hidden attractions and spread the benefits of tourism beyond the enclaves. It was found that the philanthropists’ religious motivations, cultural drives and desire to experience poverty and to assist in its alleviation enabled their broader engagement with the largely experiential offerings of the peripheral region. This created an alternative tourist attraction at no cost to the local community and with no repatriation of profits to foreign investors. The programme also created transferable job skills and had the potential to generate income for local businesses. If managed accordingly, such projects can reveal the attractiveness of peripheral areas of other developing countries and so spread the benefits of tourism more equitably.

Unfriendly, unfunny, and tyrannical: an exploratory study of the travel guidebook in the Australian print media.

Frequent casual allusions to guidebooks in the tourism literature suggest their significance in contemporary tourist experience. Yet beyond the dominant discourses of literary and historical textual analysis, focused interpretation of the role of guidebooks in the tourism system is rare. this article aims to stimulate debate concerning the role of the guidebook in contemporary tourism and to identify how the guidebook is represented in the context of popular media. results from a content analysis of representations of the guidebook in Australian print media between 2000 and 2009 suggest guidebooks are perceived both negatively and positively within journalistic discourse, that they are framed as significant facilitators of visitor experience and tourism development, and that an extensive range of travel guidebooks in both book and digital form available to consumers reflects the recent evolution in independent travel. Future guidebook-specific research objectives are identified.

Philanthropic tourism and ethics in charitable organizations: a case study in Central Kenya

ABSTRACT The not-for-profit sector works within a market environment, in which charities compete with one another for donations. Despite their humanitarian aims, the sector suffers from both financial and sexual misconduct. Some researchers have called for the creation of professional bodies with self-governing accreditation schemes to monitor and signal ethical behaviour and provide charities with a competitive advantage. An ethnographic case study of a charitable field project in Kenya is analyzed within the frameworks of motivation theory and core values theory. Multiple ethical violations were found and reported on by visitors. As an alternative to accreditation which can be expensive and can divert donations away from worthy programme activities, this paper argues for the use of philanthropic tourism, i.e. a visitor programme. Combined with a well-structured code of conduct, such programmes can provide the small to medium-sized charity with a cost effective, revenue enhancing way of signalling and enforcing ethical behaviour in the not-for-profit organizations.