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MASSEY is
published by Massey University, Private Bag 11-222, Palmerston
North, New Zealand
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MASSEY has a circulation of 75,000.
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provided you first gain permission from the editor. |
 Tourism
for development: empowering communities
Dr Regina Scheyvens
“Often we hear about wealthy foreign companies going
into Third World countries, developing a lucrative tourist
venture and then taking all the money offshore. It doesn’t
have to be like that,” says Dr Regina Scheyvens from
Massey University’s School of People, Environment and
Planning.
In Tourism for development:
Empowering Com-munities, Dr Scheyvens suggests tourism in
Third World countries can be both good for local communities
and environmentally friendly. Travellers are becoming increasingly
aware of the impacts – environmental, social and economic
– they can have. “A growing number of travellers,
especially from Europe, are demanding tourist operators adhere
to strict ethical guidelines. This is now becoming an effective
marketing tool,” says Dr Scheyvens. Companies can do
well by doing good.
Dr Scheyvens has spent time in Southern Africa, Asia and the
South Pacific. In the book she outlines a number of travel
styles she found of benefit to local communities. Budget tourism,
where backpackers stay in locally owned accommodation, buy
food from local stores and use local transport, makes for
a cheap holiday and supports tourism at a local level, Dr
Scheyvens says. Eco-tourism attracts travellers who want to
experience – and protect – the natural environment.
For those with yet more altruistic impulses there are vacations
that embrace voluntary work on conservation or development
projects.
Dr Scheyvens’ book looks at the role local governments
and non-government organisations (NGOs) play in protecting
the interests of local communities. “Some governments
are providing small-scale credit schemes and training programmes
to get more people from poorer communities involved in tourism
and many NGOs act as watchdog organisations and promoters
of ethical tourism in Western countries.”
The book, published in England, is being used in geography
and development studies papers and can be ordered through
New Zealand bookstores. Dr Scheyvens says the book will be
of interest to those travelling to Third World countries and
also has implications for the development of Mäori tourism.
Dr Scheyvens is co-authoring a text on practical and ethical
guidelines for fieldwork in developing countries, which will
come out next year.
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