Tourism and community participation

The participation of local communities is essential to protect their interests and to increase transparency and accountability in tourism development. But in practice it is still an abstract concept. Central governance and top-down approaches prevail in policy for- mulation, planning, and decision-making. Usually business dominates through their lobbying mechanisms. The local communities’ roles and how their opinions are incorporated into the whole planning and development process are still not very clear at the ground level, including the role of local governments as key players in achieving the SDGs.

In most cases, local community participation is still ‘voluntary’. To make headway, there needs to be a rights-based approach. The right of local communities to participate at various levels of development needs to be established with adequate legislative measures. Empowerment and capacity building is important to ensure meaningful participation in planning and decision-making, in business activities, and in managing and monitoring tourism in the destinations.