Thesis (M.Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 99-100) Also available in print.

Thesis (M.Arch.)--University of Hong Kong, 1998. / Includes special report study entitled : Exhibit systems. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in print.

Thesis (M.Bus)--Unitec New Zealand, 2010. / Title page has photo of Rugby World Cup with the caption "New Zealand 2011". Includes bibliographical references (leaves 98-101).

The term 'empowerment' is used with greater frequency in tourism for development, particularly in the context of community-based tourism (CBT), which is often referred to as a tool to 'empower' communities in the initiation, implementation and management of tourism. Still, critical and empirically grounded research on empowerment remains limited, particularly as emerging from social relationships in CBT. These are in many cases regarded as disempowering for community members, such as the tourism encounter and community relationships in cases where they lead to conflicts and jealousy, rather than collaboration. This research analyses these social relationships prevalent in CBT to take them as a potential starting point for social empowerment. Its aim is to locate social spaces of empowerment in CBT by unravelling power relations between the actors involved at local level. In these social spaces of empowerment, the basis of empowerment is generative power, defined as collective power with and power within, based on self-respect, to achieve power to generate positive change and to overcome power over (i.e. dominating power). The fieldwork was conducted in three rural villages in Bali, which engage in CBT and are supported by a local NGO that aims at empowering communities. The methodology draws upon ethnographic traditions alongside semi-structured interviews and participant observations. Symbolic interactionism provides the methodological position, regarding meaning as constructed through interaction. A reflexive chapter discusses the intersubjectivities between the researcher and participants and links the methodology with the intellectual argument and the findings of the study. Empirical evidence reveals that empowerment opportunities are unequal in the studied villages, with obstacles such as language, a lack in skills and caste hindering villagers' empowerment. The village tourism committees (VTCs), a local and trained elite, take control over the space of CBT and the tourism encounter, by employing notions of 'authenticity' to sell the CBT product. Although CBT creates hope for change and empowerment for community members, it currently remains empowering for a few, while others generally experience tokenistic pseudo-participation and a silent involvement. At the same time, this study reveals first signs of empowerment based on power with and power within, generated in the tourism encounter and through villagers' social ties, which are visualised in a 'CBT power diagram'.

Tourism in England has grown to become an activity worth around £111billion to the English economy, and constituting around 4% of employment. This has led to increasing numbers of local areas becoming involved with tourism development. However local authorities supporting tourism are impacted by financial pressures and pressures for ‘less government’, which are indicative of a ‘managerial paradigm’ which has surrounded public sector management in England. This study has examined the impact of the managerial paradigm on management of tourism at the local level. Using the English cities as a ‘case’, a methodological triangulation of questionnaire and contact with senior management in local authorities involved with tourism policy was used. The findings have led to an important understanding of the current picture concerning public sector management of tourism at the local level. This study has found that tourism is worth over £17billion to the English cities, and supports around 360,000 jobs. The findings suggest that the driving forces that characterised the managerial state continue to impact management of local tourism. This study has also examined the impact of policy changes introduced by the Conservative/Liberal Democratic Coalition government on local tourism. The accession of a new government has led to a significant realignment in public sector engagement with tourism. Policy discourse has stressed government ambition for tourism to be ‘industry-led’ with a ‘re-balancing’ the economy towards the private sector. As a result, this study has found the most significant challenges facing local tourism management centre around financial pressures. Reductions in tourism budgets are leading to major changes in departmental structures and tourism managers’ roles. Reductions in tourism budgets are leading to significant pressures on tourism departments to raise income in order to make departments financially viable. This study has found that in some cases local authorities are ceasing to financially-support tourism. This research also suggests that pressure from government for the private sector to increasingly fund tourism partnerships may be difficult to achieve locally. Respondents have argued that high levels of engagement with the private sector already exist locally, and as the private sector in tourism is predominately small businesses there are limitations as to how much such businesses can contribute to marketing partnerships. Policy for the private sector having the ‘majority power’ in the new emerging tourism partnerships may also have implications for the motivation of such partnerships. Doubts have been raised in this study from within the public sector, concerning the ability of local tourism businesses to take ‘responsibility for their own future’ whilst at the same time protecting the public interest. It is concluded that a ‘realignment’ towards more private sector involvement in partnerships brings with it potential consequences if local tourism businesses are unable to ‘increasingly fund’ the new arrangements, and the new tourism bodies are unable to establish a ‘pluralistic’ tourism policy environment in their areas. With evident reductions in local authority budgets, it is legitimate to question the scope of funding that the emerging DMOs will have at their disposal, and thus their ability to deliver local ambitions for tourism development. Therefore, the new tourism partnerships will require careful structuring and management. However, their financial futures will inevitably hinge on the value that the private sector places on the new local tourism arrangement, and their ability to maintain the public interest will depend on striking an appropriate balance of power amongst all stakeholders within the partnership.

The research aims (i) to evaluate possible differences in the practical application of knowledge and skills learning concepts employed by selected further- and higher education institutions in the Western Cape; (ii) to evaluate the Western Cape tourism industry’s awareness of the differences in tourism educational programmes and qualifications offered by the relevant institutions. The research methodology for the project has, via a literature search and empirical survey, evaluated the extent of differences in practical application that exist among tourism educational programmes offered by further- and higher education institutions respectively, in the Western Cape. It seeks to establish the possible impact these differences could impose on knowledge levels of graduates and on their employability. In the literature search, inter alia, relevant sources were consulted. A number of applicable normative criteria were extracted from the literature, followed by an empirical survey in which randomly selected tourism professionals practicing in the Western Cape were approached to complete questionnaires. The responses to the empirical survey were codified on a computer data-base and were statistically analysed with the assistance of a registered statistician. The findings and interpretations of the statistical analyses were presented as tables and charts and were individually explained. A number of recommendations have been made, followed by relevant, concluding remarks.

Destination attractiveness is a subjective concept that has raised discussions among academics and researchers within the field of tourism. Attractiveness has been studied from different approaches, and due to the importance of tourism in contemporary societies, it has also been studied within different disciplines of knowledge, without achieving an agreement on its definition, measure and creation. This thesis is an attempt to contribute to these discussions through the analysis of the case of Malaga, Spain, a city with a long and strong relation to tourism, but which for particular reasons and context, had to develop its tourism sector almost from the scratch over the course of recent decades, before becoming one of the most important urban cultural destinations in Spain. This thesis will explore the factors that influenced the creation of Malaga’s attractiveness and the strategies that supported this evolution.

The years since World War II have witnessed a rapid growth in International Tourism consequent on improved technologies, increased affluence and leisure time in developed nations. Many of the poorer third World Nations lacking major marketable resources have opted for tourism as a developmental strategy hoping to draw some of the "free-spending" visitors to their shores thereby reducing the World's unequal distribution of wealth. Tourism promises beneficial effects such as the generation of urgently needed foreign exchange, employment and promotes overall economic growth. The objective of this thesis is to present information on the contribution of tourism when compared to the other major industrial sectors in Jamaica, in order to assist the island's planners in the decision as to whether or not tourism can be relied on to provide the economic development needed. In addition, to suggest possible strategies and areas for improvement to derive increased benefits from tourism while minimizing the negative impacts. The data for this paper comes from primary sources such as government publications and secondary sources mainly hospitality industry literature. Tourism can be an effective method of earning foreign exchange with proper planning and foresight to reduce to minimum tourism's negative impacts. Jamaica should carefully choose between a mere quantitative market expansion, the "mass" market or a "fewer but better" tourist market, the "class" market. The specific market chosen will determine the economic and social implications on the country and the type of facility planning necessary. Jamaica needs also to revitalize the tourist industry to build on its uniqueness, improve services and employee attitudes while indulging in a balanced policy of import substitution.

The research problem was based on the private sector implementation of Responsible Tourism, since 1996, perceived to be slow and challenging (Frey & George, 2010: 107). The South Africa Government proposed Responsible Tourism as the guiding principle for sustainable tourism development (Goodwin, 2011: 138). The problem is compounded by shortcomings identified in the nature of the research conducted about tourism and communities and the methodologies used. Tourism-Community relationships Theory was applied as the conceptual framework of the study. This theory advocates a holistic approach when conducting research about the impacts of tourism, encompassing community perspectives, attitudes, reactions and considerations for the future development and control of tourism (Pearce, Moscardo & Ross, 1996: 2). The insights gained contributed an emic understanding of the keyinformants’ perspectives imparted in their own language. This study is located in the Interpretevist paradigm, underpinned by Constructivist philosophy. Meaning is created through the reality of key-informants, their perspectives and the interaction of individuals in a community (Cresswell, 2014: 8). The Instrumental Case Study Approach (Stake, 1995) contributed an etic perspective in terms of the researcher’s interpretations. The single, qualitative case was applied to gain deeper insights about the phenomenon of Responsible tourism. The case investigated was Stormsriver Adventures (SRA), an eco-adventure tourism business in the Tsitsikamma tourism destination in the Eastern Cape region of South Africa. SRA is reputed to be business best practice in its implementation of Responsible Tourism. Data triangulation was established through multiple methods of data collection, namely in-depth interviews with key-informants, documentation sourced from them and researcher observation. Data analysis methods, namely direct interpretation, categorical aggregation, pattern seeking and naturalistic generalisations (Stake, 1995), were used. The member checking process assisted with establishing data triangulation as keyinformants corroborated or dispelled the researcher’s interpretation of data. Findings were structured according to within-case themes, namely SRA’s perspective of its Responsible Tourism practices, the community’s perspective of SRA’s Responsible Tourism practices and perspectives about the future development and control of tourism. The study contributes new theoretical insights through applying the inductive approach to selected findings. Findings indicate that the perspectives of the community are divided. SRA keyinformants conveyed positive economic, social and environmental impacts of SRA’s Responsible Tourism practices. Key-informants not directly linked to SRA raised negative economic impacts and questioned the accuracy of SRA’s marketing messages. Within-case conclusions are that it is not the responsibility of one tourism business that practices Responsible Tourism to achieve sustainability within the tourism destination. To this end it is recommended that SRA and the community find common ground and that the misunderstandings that exist, be addressed. The study concludes that in order to achieve successful Responsible Tourism- Community Relationships, a holistically and integrated approach is required. To this end the recommendations made provide an implementation framework within the context of a tourism destination. The study adds value to the field knowledge about the implementation of Responsible Tourism by the private sector in South Africa and also contributes new knowledge to the field of tourism in terms of the particular methodology used.

Thesis (M. Dev.) -- University of Limpopo, 2007 / The main purpose of this study was to investigate the benefit of tourism development in Thulamela Municipality with specific reference to Mphaphuli Nature Reserve and Phiphidi Waterfalls. It was found out that the two tourist areas had great potential for tourism growth. In this study tourism was considered as an industry that had positive impacts on the quality of life a nation, province and the host community. Tourism was seen as an industry that provided employment opportunities, increased incomes and spread development. Three benefits of tourism development were mentioned in this study. The economic benefits such as employment, income etc was found to be real since there were people who were employed in these tourist areas whose quality of life changed because of tourism development. The other benefit was the environmental benefit which resulted into the conservation of nature. The social benefit of tourism development was shown to be a manner in which tourism effects changes in collective and individual value systems, behavior patterns, community structures, lifestyle and the quality of life. For the success of this study, the researcher had to decide on the research design and methodology to be employed in the study. The researcher decided on the target population from which a stratified random sampling was used to get the respondents. The research design employed in this study was the qualitative one. The research methods used to collect data were the observation and interviews. A form on which to record the field notes during observation was designed. Three types of interview questionnaires were prepared to collect data. The collected data was then analyzed. From the data collected through observation and interview, the researcher started with data analysis process. It was found that tourism development, if well fostered, can lead to economic, environmental and social benefits. There were people that were employed in these tourist areas and this improved their quality of life. Several recommendations about the critical issues raised during the study were made / Limpopo Agro-Food Technology Station (LATS) and Technology Innovation Agency (TIA)