1st Edition

Tourism at the Grassroots Villagers and Visitors in the Asia-Pacific

Edited By John Connell, Barbara Rugendyke Copyright 2008
    320 Pages 28 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    308 Pages 28 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    In two regions where tourism is of considerable economic importance, eastern Asia and the Pacific, there have been remarkably few studies of the impacts of tourism in rural areas. Moreover, the shift towards ecotourism, touted as a more environmentally benign form of tourism, has extended the reach of tourism into more remote and fragile environments. This shift has drawn more local people in rural and remote areas into a partly tourism economy, involving them as participants in the tourist industry. Yet little is known about who have been the beneficiaries of these developments.

    This new collection focuses on both the interactions between tourists and villagers, and the impacts of tourism at the local level, considering economic, social, cultural and environmental changes. It traces changes in structures of vulnerability as tourism becomes more prominent, the role of tourism in community development (or localized tension) and examines issues of governance, the role of tour operators as intermediaries, cultural change and other local impacts. In short, it examines the changing role of tourism in local development (or its absence).

    It includes case studies drawn from a broad geographical area across eastern Asia and the island Pacific. This book will be useful to those researching and studying tourism, geography and development studies.

    1. Introduction: Tourism and Local People in the Asia-Pacific Region2. Another (Unintended) Legacy of Captain Cook?: The Evolution of Rapanui (Easter Island) Tourism3. Moderate Expectations and Benign Exploration: Tourism in Papua New Guinea4. ‘Everything is Truthful Here’: Custom Village Tourism in Tanna, Vanuatu5. The Whole Nine Villages: Local Level Development through Mass Tourism in Tibetan China 6. Weapons of the Workers: Employees in the Fiji Hotel Scene7. On the Beach: Small-Scale Tourism in Samoa8. After the Bomb in a Balinese Village9. Sustainability and Security: Employing Local People in Lombok Hotels, Indonesia10. Priorities, People and Preservation: Nature-Based Tourism at Cuc Phuong National Park, Vietnam11. Communities on Edge: Conflicts over Community Tourism in Thailand12. Community-Based Ecotourism in Thailand13. Ecotourism and Indigenous Communities: The Lower Kinabatangan Experience in Borneo14. Adventures, Picnics and Nature Tourism: Ecotourism in Malaysian National Parks15. Conclusion: Marginal People and Marginal Places?

    Biography

    John Connell, Barbara Rugendyke

    "Should be useful to tourism researchers and planners in the Asia-Pacific and beyond....Recommended."Choice, March 2009

    "Connell and Rugendyke's introduction helpfully enumerates the problems with tourism that villagers, and academics, are keeping their eyes on." – Pacific Affairs