Telling our Local Community Story: From Interpretation to Creating Sustainable Hosting Experience

Transcription

1 Telling our Local Community Story: From Interpretation to Creating Sustainable Hosting Experience Prof. Yoel Mansfeld, PhD Head, Centre for Tourism, Pilgrimage & Recreation Research University of Haifa, Israel 4 th NATIONAL CULTURAL TOURISM DAY Fort Revelin 19 th May 2011 Dubrovnik

2 Main topics Critical approach to the applicability of sustainable tourism in Cultural Tourism context Trends in conceptualizing Host Communities Enhancing socio-cultural sustainability an alternative approach The VS model + NGT An integrated tool for enhancing sustainable tourism communities

3 Ministry of Tourism of Israel & OECD - Organization for Economic Co-Operation & Development «Industry & Policy Approaches to Fostering Green Growth in Tourism» Document on Green Tourism Policy for the High Level Round Table Prepared by: Prof. Maria Gravari-Barbas & Prof. Yoel Mansfeld October

4 The three Pillars of Sustainable Tourism Economic Considerations Environmental Considerations Socio-cultural Host Considerations Community s Socio-cultural Considerations

5 The rise and fall of sustainable tourism Problem of definition Management and development theories as fashion Blurred concepts Standardized top down approach G to L approach Lack of attainable goals No calibration of standards according to local abilities to develop sustainable tourism offsetting is still not implemented

6 This transformed sustainable tourism into highly controversial concept Over the relevance of each of the three pillars Over the need to look after the interests of future generations Over the ability to overcome differences amongst stakeholders interests Over its sensitivity to political pressures Over its sensitivity to economic pressure Over its green-wash effect Over its practicality and affectivity as an environmental management tool

7 Cultural Tourism as a concept Product based Approach Community based Approach Product based Approach Community based Approach

8 Trends in conceptualizing socio-cultural sustainability of Host Communities Carrying Capacity TIME

9 The Carrying Capacity Concept Community s Carrying Capacity Threshold

10 Limits for Acceptable Change - LAC Upper Level of Acceptable Change Lower Level of Acceptable Change Range of Acceptable Change

11 Alternative Approach to Community Tourism Interface Assumption that each community is different Real and successful tourism planning, development and management must be based on bottom up approach Socio-cultural feasibility study is a prerequisite All solutions must take into account the local Limits for Acceptable Change- LAC

12 The Value Stretch Model: A Cultural Tourism Application Expectation Level Reconciliation Gap Value Stretch Current Situation Level Tolerance Gap Tolerance Level

13 Scenarios for VS application As a cultural tourism planning process for untouched communities Assessing the impact of tourism development processes on local communities Improving poor cultural tourism performances affected by hostile host community A community call for help due to operation of a cultural tourism system beyond the community s LAC

14 The VS model + NGT An integrated tool for enhancing sustainable tourism communities The Tool: Normative Socio-cultural Value Stretch Model Nominal Group Technique (NGT)

15 Principles of NGT Based on focus group sessions Allows three rounds of guided and controlled discussions Detects groups attitude towards planning problem or issue Allows groups definition of acceptable planning and development priorities A source for strategic and action plans for short, medium and long-term tourism projects

16 V.S. as an Integrated Research Tool The three VS model levels can be integrated to both quantitative and qualitative research tool. Quantitative Research Approach integration to a structured questionnaire using psychographics for each model levels Qualitative Research Approach integration to Nominal Group Technique )NGT(

17 Implementation The integrated VS model was used so far in three spatial contexts: Regional: in the Dead Sea Region Local Urban: in the resort town - Eilat, Southern Israel Local rural: Kibbutzim in Northern Israel

18 Results reached In all three cases the integrated VS model proved to be an efficient, low-cost and simple tool to detect LAC parameters of different tourism communities Insofar, it managed to detect and define the unique characteristics of cultural and social LAC and carrying capacity issues that might infringe on the cultural and social coherence of the three communities. Teaching, instructing and implementing this technique is straightforward. It can be easily integrated into any module that teaches social, cultural and environmental tourism impacts and into research and planning tools aimed for sustainable tourism community development

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