Kelly J. MacKay Ph.D. et J. Michael Campbell Ph.D.
p. 59–64
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This paper illustrates an innovative approach to enhance rural livelihoods through community tourism in Uganda. Following pro-poor tourism principles of local participation and linking with existing systems, Gorilla Friends Tented Camp opened in Ruhija village, where mountain gorillas were recently habituated for gorilla tracking tours. In a village that had no previous tourist accommodations and few opportunities for villagers to earn income, a percentage of profits from Gorilla Friends Tented Camp are returned to support other livelihood enhancement initiatives in the village. While much of our previous research has focused on identifying and developing local capacity to participate meaningfully in Uganda’s tourism industry, attention must also be paid to tourists’ experiences at the site to ensure continued viability. Findings based on interviews with tourists to Ruhija illustrate the need for national partnership networks to support local community tourism. Additionally, understanding how tourists came to and experienced the community will assist the local people with sustainability of their operations and activities, and inform continued innovation in community tourism development in Ruhija.
Sonya R. Graci Ph.D.
p. 65–70
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To move towards sustainability, tourism must contribute to the empowerment of local communities. This can be achieved through community participation in decision-making where essential information is gained, with the early stages of empowerment allowing the community to determine their own development (Cole, 2006). Community capacity building ensures the benefit of tourism to the local community by developing skills and entrepreneurial spirit to become part of the tourism industry, which will lead to the reduction of negative impacts. This article focuses on the community of Moose Factory that used a community based approach to create one of the world’s top ecolodges. It was collaboratively developed in an attempt to provide economic, social and cultural livelihoods. Strategies used to develop and involve the community will be discussed.
Lacey Willmott et Sonya R. Graci Ph.D.
p. 71–76
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Solid waste management is a critical, complex, multi-dimensional challenge for societies. The nature of solid waste management in each community can differ based upon a number of factors including economic activities and geographies. Solid waste management in small island tourist communities is often complicated by their isolated geographies and tourism dominated economies, resulting in even greater challenges for ensuring sustainable solid waste management. This article discusses a case study of the small tourist island of Gili Trawangan, Indonesia that has addressed their long-standing issues of solid waste management through a governance and management approach centered on a multi-stakeholder partnership. The partnership involves collaboration between a community-based organization and environmental non-governmental organization, each having broader ties to stakeholders in the island community. Through this partnership they have seen improvements with stakeholder involvement, access to resources, financial support, transparency and accountability, and have been able to implement a number of key initiatives to improve waste management in this destination and move towards sustainability. Initiatives include source separation, expansion of collection services, revised collection fees, material reuse projects, education and awareness initiatives and enhanced planning.
Juste Rajaonson et Georges A. Tanguay Ph.D.
p. 77–84
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This article describes the creation of a grid of sustainable tourism indicators, specifically the strategy adopted by the Gaspésie and Îles de la Madeleine regions of Québec. First, a list of indicators recognized by experts, which systematically cover the dimensions of sustainable tourism, was compiled. In the second step, the indicators were coordinated with the sustainable tourism policy framework of each region, to operationalize the indicators while preserving their validity. This two-step strategy led to identification of a list of recognized and measurable sustainable tourism indicators consistent with the tourism policy of each region. This approach thus minimizes the risks of instrumentalization of the concept of sustainable tourism, and guarantees the validity of the assessment and follow-up approaches in this area.
Bruno Sarrasin Ph.D. et Jonathan Tardif
p. 85–90
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Tourism is one of the major outcomes of globalization, which also brings new challenges to local authorities. In this perspective, co-management could be analyzed as an innovative practice in promoting natural resources-oriented tourism. Moreover, it raises the following question: how does power sharing – on which co-management is based – contribute to local development? This question could be answered through a case study using political ecology which could contribute to renew the reading of ecotourism through an innovative analytical framework.
Rachel Dodds Ph.D.
p. 91–97
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Communities, in particular traditional users of natural resources, are often concerned about threats to their livelihoods and destruction of their environments but do not have the awareness, skills and political power to control the development that comes from the tourism industry. Education and collaborative partnerships are one approach that can help destinations achieve more sustainable tourism. Looking at Chumbe Island, a small island located in the Indian Ocean channel off the coast of the semi-autonomous region of Zanzibar in Tanzania, this paper examines innovative education and multi-stakeholder partnerships that have helped to avoid negative environmental and social impacts on the communities who live in the area. The environmental education programs, employment and capacity building of the Chumbe Island Coral Park Project will be focused upon.
Nicolas Berthet
p. 99–103
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Bordered by Spain to the south, between the Mediterranean Sea and the Pyrenees mountains, the French département of Pyrénées-Orientales, also known as Northern Catalonia or French Catalonia, has long seemed to be an outlying rural area, isolated, with very little industry. The advent in the 1960s of the Mission Interministérielle d’Aménagement touristique du littoral du Languedoc-Roussillon (also known as the Racine Mission, after its director, Pierre Racine), would quickly turn the département into a major southern France tourist destination. The dynamic of developing the coastal plain contrasted with the decline of agriculture and the rural exodus taking place in the backcountry. Aware that a preserved rural and natural setting nonetheless had tourism potential, various neo-rural populations moved to the backcountry starting in the 1970s. They developed nature tourism in this area at the beginning of the 1980s. Although it was marginal compared to the activity generated by mass tourism on the coast and at ski resorts, backcountry nature tourism was the starting point for future sustainable tourism development in the Pyrénées-Orientales.By referring to stakeholder networking initiatives, as well as public transportation policies, this article offers a description of the innovative processes set up and/or maintained by the Conseil Général des Pyrénées-Orientales in the area of sustainable tourism. The outcome of discussions in a professional capacity with various actors in local tourism, this article stresses the importance of the engagement of local authorities, in this case the Conseil Général des Pyrénées-Orientales, to carry through with sustainable development of tourism in a Mediterranean destination that is still largely given over to mass tourism.
