This novel ethnographic study investigates the role of culture and tourism in the sustainable development of rural communities in Jamaica. It focuses on two distinctive Jamaican groups, the Charles Town Maroon and the Seaford Town German descendants. The objectives of the study are to examine the meanings culture holds for local people in relation to identity, sense of place and community development; assess the extent to which they capitalise on their intangible and tangible culture in pursuit of sustainable rural community tourism and make recommendations for local people and policymakers. The basis for the research is the economic and social crisis facing rural communities in Jamaica due to the demise of their traditional agriculture base. This has been precipitated by international trade liberalisation rules, which removed the preferential access of Jamaican produce to European Union countries. With small-scale Jamaican sugar and banana farmers unable to compete with major producers from the United States of America and South America, rural communities have been left devastated. For many, farming is now an unreliable source of income. More than half of local farmers are in serious economic and social difficulties and 80 per cent of the 1.1 million people living below the poverty line in Jamaica, live in the countryside. With few alternative livelihood strategies, many rural inhabitants are attempting to exploit their culture resources by way of rural community tourism. This coincides with research, which shows an increasing desire by tourists to capture diverse and ordinary social experiences in destinations such as Jamaica. They want authentic contact with host communities away from resorts. However, with tourism on the island predicated on the sand, sun and sea all-inclusive resort model and poor rural infrastructure, local people face tough challenges to exploit their culture resources. The study is conducted in the real world setting of rural Jamaica and is underpinned by an integrated conceptual framework developed from ideas taken from different literatures and preliminary fieldwork. The framework is applied to the findings of the study to analyse the different development paths taken by Charles Town and Seaford Town. It argues that Ray’s (1998) culture economy approach helps to capture this, but the complex and contested nature of ideas relating to development, identity, sense of place, community and culture commoditisation mean it does not do so holistically. However, a more comprehensive picture of the development paths of the two communities emerges by integrating notions of the culture economy with ideas relating to cultural connectedness and plurality of commoditisation. The concepts reflect a sense of ‘rootedness’ in place (vertical linkages) and same-level locally bounded relationships (horizontal linkages). Plurality of commoditisation refers to the differentiated and diversified tactics being deployed by locals to meet tourists’ demands for actual interactions and co-creative experiences with them. The research approach consists of a constructivist paradigm, relativist ontology, subjectivist epistemology, ethnographic methodology and qualitative methods. The focus is, therefore, not only on who, why, what, when, and how, but also on meanings, human action, identity, sense of place, interactions, emotions and behaviour. Thick detailed descriptions are used to capture the articulations of local people and the circumstances in which they occur. The study finds that the role of culture and tourism in the sustainable development of rural communities in Jamaica marks the transition from a primarily agriculture mode of production to one that places greater emphasis on the use of local culture resources. However, while it is clear that communities such as Charles Town and Seaford Town are rich in culture resources, the extent to which they capitalise on them are somewhat limited. The reasons are socio-economic, historical and deep-seated. Adopting the modified culture economy approach, proposed in this study, could increase understanding of the challenges faced by locals and offer a way forward. This is because the framework is holistic in that it considers the socio-economic, cultural and emotional dimensions of rural communities.

Heritage tourism and the concept of sustainability have some certain intrinsic associations between each other. They both possess the characteristics of inheritance and continuance. In 2015, World Heritage Convention has stated that it is critical to consider present and future needs from economic, societal and environmental aspects when conserving the heritage resources. The Great Wall is one of the most popular and well-known heritage tourism destinations throughout the world, which was designated on the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 1987. Badaling Great Wall, as the study case in the thesis, is one of the eight sections of the Great Wall being located in Beijing. Based on the review of previous literature, there are a lot of research studying on heritage tourism within the context of sustainability from the aspect of local resident. However, there is little research studying from the perspective of tourist, who are the major consumers, financial support and a key group of stakeholders in heritage tourism. Hence, this thesis puts emphasis on exploring the current challenges to sustainability at Badaling Great Wall site, through investigating its current situation of sustainability from a tourist perspective. The research findings are that Badaling Great Wall site has confront several management-related challenges. Lack of commercial appeal and promotion, absence of cooperation between stakeholders, the negative effects caused by excessive visitors, lack of efficient energy, water and waste management, and absence of a sound scheme for monitoring the situation of heritage conservation and supervising negative tourist behaviors.

Made available in DSpace on 2017-07-10T18:01:55Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Fernanda Cristina Sanches.pdf: 4583637 bytes, checksum: a0bd8b5d7cc052a444d0bb02f1175ad4 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-07-24 / The tourism as a socio-economic sector becomes job opportunities and income generator, and means of contributing to the reduction of regional and social inequalities. In turn, sustainable tourism emerges as a way to keep the economic performance so as not to harm the environment, meeting the needs of both tourists and local that receive simultaneously, making it necessary to meet the economy, society and the environment, without neglecting the regional culture, biological diversity and ecological systems that coordinate life. In this scenario, rural tourism seeks to contribute to the quality of life of the rural population. To that end, the general objective of this research was to analyze the environmental sustainability practices used by rural tourism enterprises track called "Turismo Sustentável de Base Comunitária no Oeste do Paraná by way of the Barometer of Tourism Sustainability. In order to achieve the main objective, the following specific objectives were outlined: a) characterize the rural tourism projects comprised in the track, relative to the main tourist attractions and areas of operation; b) examine how the tourism enterprises contribute to the development of local and regional actors (externalities) as well as the entrepreneurs themselves; c) to analyze environmental sustainability practices of the tourism enterprises by way of the Barometer of Tourism Sustainability; d) analyze existing local and regional public politics for rural tourism enterprises. Therefore, the development of the study was initially by means of literature, followed by descriptive and qualitative research. Empirical data were collected through interviews on the spot in rural properties, with the entrepreneurs responsible for enterprises. The main results point to the fact that environmental sustainability actions undertaken by enterprises the tourist track, in the current situation, are classified as potentially sustainable. Empirical research has identified still, the rural tourism activity generates socio-cultural, imprint of contributions, mostly economic and environmental, as much to entrepreneurs, as tourists and to society. Overall, the research shows the environmental sustainability activities undertaken by enterprises of the roadmap investigated, presenting the sustainability levels achieved in each of the five systems (water, use of resources, species and populations, ground, air) that make up the scale environmental barometer of tourism sustainability, and the most satisfactory results match the systems "use of resources" and "species and populations". / O turismo enquanto setor socioeconômico se torna gerador de oportunidades de trabalho e renda, sendo instrumento capaz de contribuir para a redução de desigualdades regionais e sociais. Por sua vez, o turismo sustentável se apresenta como uma maneira de manter o desempenho econômico de forma a não prejudicar o meio ambiente, atendendo às necessidades dos turistas e dos locais que os recebem de maneira simultânea, fazendo o necessário para atender a economia, a sociedade e o ambiente, sem desprezar a cultura regional, a diversidade biológica e os sistemas ecológicos que coordenam a vida. Em tal cenário, o turismo rural busca contribuir para a qualidade de vida da população do campo. Nesse intuito, o objetivo geral desta pesquisa foi analisar as práticas de sustentabilidade ambiental utilizadas pelos empreendimentos de turismo rural do roteiro denominado Turismo Sustentável de Base Comunitária no Oeste do Paraná , à guisa do Barômetro de Sustentabilidade do Turismo. Para atingir o objetivo central, delinearam-se os seguintes objetivos específicos: a) caracterizar os empreendimentos de turismo rural compreendidos no roteiro, em relação aos principais atrativos turísticos e áreas de atuação; b) analisar de que forma os empreendimentos turísticos contribuem com o desenvolvimento dos atores locais e regionais (externalidades), bem como, dos próprios empreendedores; c) analisar as práticas de sustentabilidade ambiental dos empreendimentos turísticos, à guisa do Barômetro de Sustentabilidade do Turismo; d) analisar as políticas públicas locais e regionais existentes para empreendimentos de turismo rural. Para tanto, o desenvolvimento do estudo se deu inicialmente por meio de pesquisa bibliográfica, seguida de pesquisa descritiva e qualitativa. Os dados empíricos foram coletados por meio de entrevistas in loco em nove propriedades de turismo rural, com os empreendedores responsáveis pelos empreendimentos. Os principais resultados apontam para o fato de que as ações de sustentabilidade ambiental realizadas pelos empreendimentos do roteiro turístico, no panorama atual, são classificadas como potencialmente sustentáveis. A pesquisa empírica identificou ainda, que a atividade de turismo rural gera contribuições de cunho sociocultural, econômico e principalmente ambiental, tanto aos empreendedores, quanto aos turistas e à sociedade. De maneira geral, a pesquisa demonstra as atividades de sustentabilidade ambiental realizadas pelos empreendimentos do roteiro investigado, apresentando os níveis de sustentabilidade alcançados em cada um dos cinco sistemas (água; uso de recursos; espécies e populações; terra; ar) que compõem a dimensão ambiental do barômetro da sustentabilidade do turismo, sendo que os resultados mais satisfatórios correspondem aos sistemas uso de recursos e espécies e populações .

In recent decades, tourism has been developed rapidly in the world. With such development, tourism sustainability has drawn great attention, especially in remote destinations. In Swedish Lapland, the studies have been focusing on social sustainability in terms of local communities and other external factors. Personnel as an important part of the tourism industry received less attention. Therefore, this research aims to provide an in-depth examination of the reasons behind personnel instability, personnel management, as well as maintaining the company image with personnel instability in small-sized tourism businesses in remote destinations. By using Abisko Mountain Lodge as the case, this research conducted five in-depth interviews with personnel, and one interview with the manager. The findings of this research revealed that personnel took the job without any aim for material needs, and the reasons for leaving Abisko include the location of the hotel, lack of living necessities, and emotional loneliness. Personnel management is mainly a flexible personnel strategy while a transformational leadership style plays a critical role. The company image of this case is ‘including’. Though new ideas are welcomed, the image will remain the same for all stakeholders. The limitations of this research include lack of interviews with permanent personnel and lack of nationality differentiation.

This study explored the feasibility of developing community-based homestay tourism in Nigeria. Stakeholder theory was used to develop a strategy to ideally develop homestay tourism in the local communities, using Old Oyo National Park in Oyo State as a case study context. The approach entails assessing practicability and acceptability, the operational feasibility, and the potential outcome of developing community-based homestay tourism. A qualitative research design was deployed to capture credible results for this study, which entailed engaging tourism stakeholders through a focus group discussion data collection method conducted via Zoom. The participants were purposefully selected based on their experience in the tourism industry and their willingness to participate in the study. The various groups of stakeholders who provided data during the focus group discussion were academia, tour operators, NGOs, and local community stakeholder groups, respectively. The results showed that Nigeria's tourism state is at its lowest level due to a lack of funding, government attention, and insecurity. It was confirmed that the development of community-based homestay tourism would be practicable in Nigeria provided all stakeholders collaborated to formulate enabling tourism policies, agreed to co-manage, put into consideration the plight of the locals, and ensured the locals held a relevant position within the homestay management committee, were funded, and created effective strategies to market and promote the destination. For homestay tourism to be accepted in the local communities, the benefits must be communicated to the potential operators, the local culture must be respected, and economic benefits must be shared with equity.

A presente pesquisa teve como objetivo principal investigar e elaborar instrumentos e procedimentos para a proposição do Sistema de Indicadores de Sustentabilidade do Desenvolvimento do Turismo (SISDTur), utilizando-se abordagem participativa e envolvendo a comunidade local do município de Bueno Brandão-MG, localizado na região da bacia hidrográfica de montante do rio Mogi-Guaçu, no sul do estado de Minas Gerais, Brasil. As preocupações com os problemas e desafios socioeconômicos e ambientais, relacionados ao uso dos recursos hídricos e à estrita dependência econômica da produção agropecuária nesta região remetem à necessidade e proposição de oportunidades de desenvolvimento local, visando propiciar melhores condições de vida aos moradores locais. A inserção do turismo, no contexto de novas perspectivas de desenvolvimento, torna-se alternativa socioeconômica emergente, exigindo a elaboração e aplicação de procedimentos, instrumentos e indicadores que verifiquem e avaliem a efetivação das condições de sustentabilidade (ambiental, social, econômica, cultural e institucional) do desenvolvimento do turismo. Assim, o processo de desenvolvimento da pesquisa envolveu: a contextualização do desenvolvimento sustentável e da sustentabilidade aplicada ao turismo; a análise das condições atuais do desenvolvimento turístico na região; a elaboração e a aplicação do programa de sensibilização turística; a abordagem conceitual e tipológica de indicadores, assim como as iniciativas, os sistemas e os modelos de indicadores do turismo sustentável, levantados e obtidos a partir de estudos de casos; o processo de seleção e definição de indicadores de sustentabilidade, por meio da abordagem participativa da sociedade local de Bueno Brandão, levando em consideração visões de outros grupos envolvidos na pesquisa (turismólogos e graduandos de Engenharia Ambiental); e a elaboração e proposição do Sistema de Indicadores de Sustentabilidade do Desenvolvimento do Turismo (SISDTur), configurando-o como um instrumento metodológico prático, útil e exequível para subsidiar o processo de desenvolvimento, gestão e monitoramento do turismo na região, consonante com os princípios de sustentabilidade. E por fim, são apresentados os legados metodológicos, relatando algumas recomendações e sugestões identificadas e adquiridas pelas experiências vivenciadas no decorrer da pesquisa. / The main objectives of this study were to assess and to create instruments and procedures in order to propose a System of Sustainability Indicators for Tourism Development (SISDTur), by following a participatory approach and involving the community of Bueno Brandão-MG located in the region of upstream basin of the Mogi-Guaçu river, in southern Minas Gerais state, Brasil. The concern for the socioeconomic and environmental problems and challenges related to the use of water resources and the strong economic dependence on agriculture and animal farming have led to the needs analysis and planning of opportunities for local development in order to provide better living conditions for that population. As a new perspective for development, the introduction of tourism becomes an emerging socioeconomic option, which demands the creation and application of procedures, instruments and indicators to verify and evaluate the effectiveness of sustainability conditions (environmental, social, economic, cultural and institutional) of tourism development. Thus, the research process involved: the contextualization of sustainable development and of sustainability applied to tourism; the analysis of the current status of tourism development in the area; the creation and application of the tourism sensitization program; the conceptual and typological approach to indicators, as well as the initiatives, the systems and the models concerning indicators of sustainable tourism, which were identified following the analysis of case studies; the process of selecting and defining sustainability indicators, which resulted from a participatory approach involving the local community of Bueno Brandão and took into consideration the opinions of other groups of individuals involved in the research (tourism professionals and undergraduates in Environmental Engineering); and the creation and proposition of the System of Sustainability Indicators for Tourism Development (SISDTur), which characterized it as a practical methodological instrument that was both useful and feasible to support the development, management and monitoring of tourism in the region, in compliance with sound principles of sustainability. Finally, the methodological contributions are discussed, and recommendations and suggestions are made, all of which originate from the experience accrued throughout the implementation of the study.

A presente pesquisa teve como objetivo principal investigar e elaborar instrumentos e procedimentos para a proposição do Sistema de Indicadores de Sustentabilidade do Desenvolvimento do Turismo (SISDTur), utilizando-se abordagem participativa e envolvendo a comunidade local do município de Bueno Brandão-MG, localizado na região da bacia hidrográfica de montante do rio Mogi-Guaçu, no sul do estado de Minas Gerais, Brasil. As preocupações com os problemas e desafios socioeconômicos e ambientais, relacionados ao uso dos recursos hídricos e à estrita dependência econômica da produção agropecuária nesta região remetem à necessidade e proposição de oportunidades de desenvolvimento local, visando propiciar melhores condições de vida aos moradores locais. A inserção do turismo, no contexto de novas perspectivas de desenvolvimento, torna-se alternativa socioeconômica emergente, exigindo a elaboração e aplicação de procedimentos, instrumentos e indicadores que verifiquem e avaliem a efetivação das condições de sustentabilidade (ambiental, social, econômica, cultural e institucional) do desenvolvimento do turismo. Assim, o processo de desenvolvimento da pesquisa envolveu: a contextualização do desenvolvimento sustentável e da sustentabilidade aplicada ao turismo; a análise das condições atuais do desenvolvimento turístico na região; a elaboração e a aplicação do programa de sensibilização turística; a abordagem conceitual e tipológica de indicadores, assim como as iniciativas, os sistemas e os modelos de indicadores do turismo sustentável, levantados e obtidos a partir de estudos de casos; o processo de seleção e definição de indicadores de sustentabilidade, por meio da abordagem participativa da sociedade local de Bueno Brandão, levando em consideração visões de outros grupos envolvidos na pesquisa (turismólogos e graduandos de Engenharia Ambiental); e a elaboração e proposição do Sistema de Indicadores de Sustentabilidade do Desenvolvimento do Turismo (SISDTur), configurando-o como um instrumento metodológico prático, útil e exequível para subsidiar o processo de desenvolvimento, gestão e monitoramento do turismo na região, consonante com os princípios de sustentabilidade. E por fim, são apresentados os legados metodológicos, relatando algumas recomendações e sugestões identificadas e adquiridas pelas experiências vivenciadas no decorrer da pesquisa. / The main objectives of this study were to assess and to create instruments and procedures in order to propose a System of Sustainability Indicators for Tourism Development (SISDTur), by following a participatory approach and involving the community of Bueno Brandão-MG located in the region of upstream basin of the Mogi-Guaçu river, in southern Minas Gerais state, Brasil. The concern for the socioeconomic and environmental problems and challenges related to the use of water resources and the strong economic dependence on agriculture and animal farming have led to the needs analysis and planning of opportunities for local development in order to provide better living conditions for that population. As a new perspective for development, the introduction of tourism becomes an emerging socioeconomic option, which demands the creation and application of procedures, instruments and indicators to verify and evaluate the effectiveness of sustainability conditions (environmental, social, economic, cultural and institutional) of tourism development. Thus, the research process involved: the contextualization of sustainable development and of sustainability applied to tourism; the analysis of the current status of tourism development in the area; the creation and application of the tourism sensitization program; the conceptual and typological approach to indicators, as well as the initiatives, the systems and the models concerning indicators of sustainable tourism, which were identified following the analysis of case studies; the process of selecting and defining sustainability indicators, which resulted from a participatory approach involving the local community of Bueno Brandão and took into consideration the opinions of other groups of individuals involved in the research (tourism professionals and undergraduates in Environmental Engineering); and the creation and proposition of the System of Sustainability Indicators for Tourism Development (SISDTur), which characterized it as a practical methodological instrument that was both useful and feasible to support the development, management and monitoring of tourism in the region, in compliance with sound principles of sustainability. Finally, the methodological contributions are discussed, and recommendations and suggestions are made, all of which originate from the experience accrued throughout the implementation of the study.