Atelier on Tourism Development - Challenges in facilitating multistakeholder collaboration in...

Harald Buijtendijk Ferry van de Mosselaer

Dynamics of Tourism Systems

Challenges in facilitating multi stakeholder collaboration

What we do?

• Atelier on Tourism DevelopmentCreating platforms for knowledge exchange in tourism development

• Platforms for learningWorkshops for university students

• Platforms for inspirationWorkshops for professionals

• Platforms for solutionsProjects for commissioners in the field

Our work

• Wageningen UR• NHTV Breda University of Applied Sciences• SNV Netherlands Development Organization• Asian Development Bank• Inter-American Development Bank• UNDP• UNWTO• VSO• MercyCorps• Bodegas de Argentina

Why are we here?

The world is messy and sometimes flat!

Our goal: to help you on the way!

Why are we here

• Preparing you for VietnamHow?

• We offer a reality check

Two steps:• Lecture today• Multi-stakeholder workshops week 8 & 9

This lecture

Analyzing destination dynamics is about you as a researcher…......

• Your role as a researcher

• The changing role of researchers and consultants in analyzing and developing actor networks in tourism

• How can you research destinations?• How can you contribute to destination development?

This lecture

…..stepping into an unknown situation,

• Actor networks in tourism

• The nature of relationships between actors in tourism systems• What is the situation?• How do actor relationships come into being?• Looking at practical examples.

This lecture

..with the help of a real-life simulation

• Introduction to the role play

• Introducing the role play• What is the role play about?• What is the current situation regarding tourism development on

Tralaly Island?

Why a reality check?

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STZUgKGqK5A

Why a reality check?

• Tourists are just visitors, tourism industry is a visiting industry

• Whereas many relationships between actors are constant over time

• Our aim: stressing that tourism has a highly incidental character in local societies

Why a reality check?

Why a reality check?

Why a reality check?

• There is no absolute truth in development

• It is all a matter of perceptions

• Our aim: helping you to acknowledge the subjectivity of actor positions

Why a reality check?

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ahg6qcgoay4

Why a reality check?

There are many hidden truths

Actors in any development context:• Main focus is on individual interests• Participation in development is means to an end• Action is highly circumstantial

• Our aim: helping you to broaden your view, and look beyond the obvious

1. Your role as a researcher

(pics researchers)

Who are you?

1. Your role as a researcher

Your positionality:• Your identity & personality• Views and opinions you take with you in the field• Based on your view of the world, which is the sum of• your background, education and previous experiences

Why is this important?

Research essentially represents reality as perceived by the researcher

The result?

• Not one absolute truth, but many versions of truth • Informed by positionalities and ongoing interactions• The question is: whose reality counts?

Whose reality counts?

Reflected in the international development industryUp and down between top down and bottom up interventions; an

ongoing balancing act!

1960s large infrastructural projects1970s alternative development1980s structural adjustment (lost decade)1990s the rise of participatory development2000s UN Millennium Development Goals

The changing role

From traditional researchers and consultants…

The changing role

…to facilitators

So, whose reality counts?

Does the intervention in the video contribute to lasting (sustainable) change?

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWmRTjLRMfU

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkM28ojPlVU

2. Actors and power

Who’s involved?

The supply chain

The Tourism Supply Chain:

• Tourists• Agents• Tour operators• Airlines• Local agents• Accomodations• Excursion providersSource figure: IDH (2011)

More complex value chain

Source: SNV (2008)

Whose involved?

(pics stakeholder examples)

But what about us?

And us?

They all (should) have a say in tourism d’ment

Is the world equal?

Source: The Atlas of the Real World (2008)

World tourism

Source: The Atlas of the Real World (2008)

Aircraft travel

Source: The Atlas of the Real World (2008)

War Deaths 1945 - 2002

Source: The Atlas of the Real World (2008)

HIV prevalence

Source: The Atlas of the Real World (2008)

Why?

• Money• Knowledge and expertise• Ownership• Ideas and entitlements• Contacts• Access• Influence• And many other things…..

Power through relations

Resistance

• Foreign control• Traditions and customs• Conservation• Religion• Lack of benefits• And again many other things….

Examples from Nepal

1 The essence of airline companies

1. The essence of airlines

• Nepal was and again is an emerging tourism destination• Internal conflict between 2001 and 2006, peak years in

arrivals (+500,000) in 1997, 1998, and• since 2007.

• Why?

1. The essence of airlines

• Direct flight connections from major source markets in Europe to Kathmandu

• Including direct charter flights from Amsterdam• Transavia /OAD (1998) and Arke Fly / TUI (from 2009

onwards)

1. The essence of airlines

Why did airlines decide to operate direct flights?And why did they stop?

• Coincidence, and • Factors beyond the control of destination stakeholders.

Examples from Nepal

2 Humla, pathway for pilgrims to holy Mount Kalaish

2. Pathway of the pilgrims

2. Pathway of the pilgrims

2. Pathway of the pilgrims

• Indian and non Indian pilgrims increasingly travel to Kalaish via Humla

• Humla is the poorest district of Nepal• Tourism huge opportunity• Indian pilgrims important market:• big spenders

2. Pathway of the pilgrims

2. Pathway of the pilgrims

Tourist demand Tourist demand in Humlain Humla

Indian touristsIndian tourists Non Indian Non Indian touriststourists

20052005 109109 412412

2. Pathway of the pilgrims

Tourist demand Tourist demand in Humlain Humla

Indian touristsIndian tourists Non Indian Non Indian touriststourists

20052005 109109 412412

20062006 516516 800800

2. Pathway of the pilgrims

Tourist demand Tourist demand in Humlain Humla

Indian touristsIndian tourists Non Indian Non Indian touriststourists

20052005 109109 412412

20062006 516516 800800

20072007 455455 10731073

2. Pathway of the pilgrims

Tourist demand Tourist demand in Humlain Humla

Indian touristsIndian tourists Non Indian Non Indian touriststourists

20052005 109109 412412

20062006 516516 800800

20072007 455455 10731073

20082008 88 6565

2. Pathway of the pilgrims

Tourism to Humla came in a virtual standstill in 2008

2. Pathway of the pilgrims

(picture Beijing 2008)

2. Pathway of the pilgrims

• Because of fear for disruptions from Tibetan dissidents and sympathisers….

• China closed the Nepali Tibetan Border• Chinese Embassy in Kathmandu stopped issuing visas

for Tibet

Examples from Nepal

3 Increasing income and employment through tourism in Humla?

3. Increasing income and employment

3 Increasing income and employment through tourism in Humla?

3. Increasing income and employment

Development in Humla:

• Poorest and most isolated district in Nepal• Only 1.5% of total land surface suitable for agriculture• Food deficiencies throughout the year• No infrastructure• Shift from barter to cash economy• Poverty defined as lack of (access to) resources

3. Increasing income and employment

Tourism in Humla:

• No tourist infrastructure• No tourist accommodation outside district capital Simikot• Only camping treks, independent travel not allowed (permit

required)• Tourists are underspending

3. Increasing income and employment

Tourism development in Humla:

• Development organizations have been involved in pro poor (tourism) development in Humla for over a decade

• Examples of two interventions:• Vegetable production (cash crops) for trekking groups• Offering loan facilitation to small businesses

3. Increasing income and employment

Both interventions have not been successfulWhy?

• They have been based on the logic of business economics alone

• Based on outside, Western perspective

• Did not consider specific conditions in local society

Wrapping up

Level of success or failure in participating in tourism networks depends on power and agency of individual actors

Power• The ability to influence others• Embedded in action• Exercised through relationships

Agency• The ability to cope with life• Embedded in strategy

Wrapping up

• Power and agency are never equally distributed

• Action is based on the values, needs , and interests of individual actors

• Sustainable development starts with a collective ability to mutually respect individual needs and interests

• Sustainable development results from a collaborative effort towards jointly defined common purposes