INOVATIVE APPROACH IN DEVELOPING SUCCESS INDICATORS FOR LOCAL COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION IN ECOTOURISM VENTURES (original) (raw)
Related papers
2011
This paper outlines the process of developing success indicators for local community participation in ecotourism ventures by using qualitative approach. Success indicators are also known as performance indicators, traditionally developed through the process of translating the mission, vision and goals all the way through the strategies, process, actions and targets. Mission, vision and goals that are philosophical such as ecotourism need to be translated into success indicators by using qualitative approach, as there are several stakeholders involved in this sector with different views of success for local community participation. The stakeholders that also made up as respondents to provide the holistic view of success where their perceptions of what constitute success were explored and the results were analysed using thematic clustering and triangulated with reviews to the same respondents to ensure the validity and reliability of the result. The paper also reviews the challenges in developing qualitative-based indicators where this research innovates a method of ranking the indicator based on selected variables i.e. stakeholders and site.
DEVELOPING SUCCESS INDICATORS FOR ECOTOURSIM INNOVATIVE METHOD THROUGH QUALITATIVE APPROACH
Ecotourism is and will be the significant tourism product of Sabah, Malaysian Borneo for the next decade. Sabah, otherwise known as North Borneo, a part of the Federation of Malaysia, are blessed with nature that has high biodiversity with more than 30 distinctive native cultures that made the state colourful and attractive. The ecotourism segment has been growing since the 1990s and this was indicated with the inception of the National Ecotourism Master Plan in 1997 where Sabah published a specific guideline for the state based on the master plan shortly after that. Sabah has positioned itself very strongly in the ecotourism segment with the image of nature and culture with iconic flora, fauna and community such as the Rafflesia flower, Proboscis Monkey and Rungus tribe. Stakeholders in this industry constantly need to evaluate and re-evaluate their ventures in ecotourism and ensure the investment that they made gives the desired outcomes and deemed successful. However, with the complexity of the stakeholders' characteristics, the success context usually varied. This paper explores the research that sets out to interpret and develop indicators for ecotourism sites in Sabah with qualitative approach. The stakeholders consist of four groups, which are the ecotourism advocates, the private sectors, the tourist and the local community. These four groups are selected as ecotourism defines them as the stakeholders in its definition where it focuses on enjoyment of the tourist, safe-guarding the welfare of the local people and promote conservation. While many indicators are developed through quantitative method, this research innovate ways to establish success indicators using the stakeholders perceptions with qualitative approach. The research also reviews and outlines the approach to the challenges in developing indicators through qualitative approach where indicators are output-based and essentially required to establish measurement or parameters of the indicators, which should make it more quantifiable and more meaningful.
Ecotourism as Community Development Tool: Development of an Evaluation Framework
Ecotourism can be seen as a tool for community development, especially when focusing on community empowerment as essential core element as well as ecotourism and how it is influenced by a community-based project. The emphasis is on positive effects of ecotourism on a community as well as on the individual tourist. In order to create a research framework, system theory was used to include all stakeholders as well as inputs and outputs. It shows not only a clear connection between ecotourism and community empowerment but also the mutual influence of additional system elements such as the evaluation framework, internal stakeholders and system parameters such as weather and climate. For the evaluation framework for successful community empowerment through ecotourism projects a set of indicators has partly been adapted and created in order to be applicable to the evaluation of various kinds of ecotourism projects in diverse surroundings. Therefore, this framework can be applied to ecotourism projects with different geographical, historical and cultural background and is still able to deliver comparable results. The evaluation framework was tested through questionnaires and interviews in case studies in Nepal, which included three different target groups; community members, project workers and tourists. The main goals of this study are to show how ecotourism projects can positively contribute to community development, to create an evaluation framework that can help to identify common strengths and weaknesses of different projects and to improve the respective case study projects in Nepal.
Success of Ecotourism Sites and Local Community Participation in Sabah
2009
This paper outlines the success indicators for ecotourism site taking several ecotourism sites in Sabah as examples. These indicators provide a basic framework for managing ecotourism business while ensuring local community participation processes benefited the community and the area as well. A set of success indicators have been developed from all stakeholders by understanding their perspectives indepth. The research employed qualitative approach by using comparative case studies with plan and policy analysis as methodologies. The findings outlined the unique ranking process using perceptions to develop the success indicators. The findings also discussed the success of ecotourism site on a thematic scheme. This research innovates the success measurement, a departure from the normal quantitative index and also ensures the sustainability of the ecotourism projects.
Jurnal Manajemen Hutan Tropika, 2006
Banyak faktor yang mempengaruhi sukses tidaknya pengembangan ekowisata. Salah satu faktornya ialah partisipasi masyarakat lokal. Studi ini meneliti bagaimana masyarakat lokal berpartisipasi atau dilibatkan dalam pengembangan ekowisata melalui identifikasi proses penetapan tujuan pengembangan ekowisata dan level partisipasi dimana masyarakat terlibat atau dilibatkan. Informasi dikumpulkan dari data sekunder seperti laporan-laporan penelitian atau proyek yang dipublikasikan. Tujuh puluh tiga studi studi kasus berhasil dikumpulkan, di-review, dan kemudian di analisis dengan metode content analysis. Hasil studi mengindikasikan bahwa tujuan dari kebanyakan pengembangan ekowisata adalah untuk meningkatkan kapasitas masyarakat lokal. Namun demikian, tujuan kegiatan ini umumnya ditetapkan oleh pihak luar (outsider driven) dan masyarakat lokal hanya dilibatkan hanya pada level pelaksanaan (process nominal and action initiation).
December 2020, 2020
This study aimed to explore the model that can be used to improve local community participation in ecotourism development processes. The study was conducted at the communities adjoining the Oribi Gorge Nature Reserve in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. A mixed methods design was adopted by the study during collection and analysis of data. A total of 384 respondents were sampled through convenience sampling technique. Questionnaires were used to collect data through face-to-face surveys. The study found that local communities had not been actively participating in ecotourism development processes, especially those undertaken within the rural setting as a result of different socio-economic factors including lacking necessary skills. This study asserts that this gap could be mitigated through implementation of local community participation improvement model (LCPIM) based on its potential for influencing enactment and/or amendment of policies on ecotourism development
Approaches toward Community Participation Enhancement in Ecotourism
Protected Area Management - Recent Advances, 2021
A vast majority of scholarship share a similar view that collective participation of different stakeholders serves as a prerequisite for ecotourism sustainable development. Local community participation is considered to be an important pillar of ecotourism development as local communities are capable of influencing success or failure of ecotourism development projects. Socio-economic and socio-cultural well-being of local communities are crucial ingredients for maintaining rapport amongst stakeholders and sustaining ecotourism development. Despite being promulgated as a central pillar of ecotourism development, literature reveals that local communities have not been actively participating in planning and decision-making processes regarding ecotourism development. Adoption of Western-centric oriented participation frameworks by numerous state authorities coupled with lacking necessary skills have been identified as the main factors that hinder active participation of local communitie...
Globally, human activities are under pressure to strive towards sustainability. This movement towards greater sustainability is influencing all aspects of our lives on a daily basis including our holiday and travel decisions. This paper presents a portion of the results and findings of a larger study which applied a series of sustainability indicators to a number of community-based tourism ventures across southern Africa. An evaluation framework was constructed making use of a number of sustainability issues and their associated indicators to measure the sustainability of six community-based ecotourism ventures across southern Africa. The evaluation framework was tested for its applicability to investigate the social, economic and environmental sustainability of the six case studies. The utility of the constructed evaluation framework was subsequently commented on and changes recommended. A number of important lessons were leant during the application of the sustainability indicators to the investigated case studies. These lessons provide valuable insights and benefits for the subsequent application of the evaluation framework to future case studies. Besides providing valuable lessons for the application of sustainability indicators to rural base tourism ventures a number of importantbaselines for future benchmarking of sustainability performance also result from this study.
OTS Canadian Journal, 2023
Ecotourism and other forms of sustainable tourism management are being recognized as important means to an end-the attainment of sustainable development goals to the mutual benefit of local communities and visitors. However, assessing how well these methods work in various settings is essential. The purpose of this research is to investigate how different factors in the growth of ecotourism in Kurdistan, Iraq, affect sustainability, community involvement, and the protection of natural resources. A total of 109 people were polled using a quantitative methodology, and their responses were examined with descriptive statistics, checks for validity and reliability, correlations, and a hierarchical regression model. Ecotourism growth, sustainability, community involvement, and environmental protection all appear to have positive effects on one another and be interconnected. Using a hierarchical regression model, we find that local involvement greatly moderates the connection between ecotourism growth and long-term viability. The results can be used to manage sustainable tourism in Kurdistan and to theorize about ecotourism's role in advancing sustainable development. The research suggests that ecotourism's positive effects on the environment and local people can be increased by more community involvement in the industry's growth.
Identification and Role of Stakeholders in Ecotourism Development in Indonesia
Atlantis Press, 2020
Ecotourism becomes one of the economic support alternatives to a country if it is well managed and also has very good management. However, on the other hand, the existence of ecotourism gives a negative impact on the environment in the form of garbage, damage to historic objects, pollution, and others. Therefore, there is a need for a mechanism to overcome this negative impact, one of which is through collaborative governance. This study use qualitative research methods with the SLR approach, with a database and some research limitations in the search for literature. The purpose of this study is to provide a brief analysis of the identification and also the role of stakeholders in ecotourism development. The results of this study are to provide a mapping to stakeholders namely the government, the private sector, and the community in their participation in ecotourism development in Indonesia.