Community development through tourism : opportunities and challenges in Burdeos, Philippines

Abstract

Tourism has been viewed and increasingly used as a socio-economic and development strategy for economies world-wide. However, due to negative impacts brought by mass tourism, alternative tourism has been developed focusing on the integral role of communities in tourism development. The emergence of various alternative tourism developments worldwide has attracted much attention and calls for further inquiry from scholars guarantee that tourism is truly a tool for economic progress of many rural communities. Community-based tourism (CBT) is one of the alternative forms of such development. As such, community-based tourism has been adopted in this research to explore whether this form of tourism development is an appropriate community development strategy for Burdeos, Quezon, Philippines. The idyllic panorama of Burdeos offers good reason for optimism, but also grounds for concern and investigation on how to sustain its vitality and strength to grapple with the natural, socio-economic and cultural challenges. This research focuses on the ‘pre-tourism development assessment phase’, in which ethnography combined with participatory action research was employed to obtain an understanding of the local community’s perceptions and attitudes using social exchange theory, and whether the community should consider tourism (community-based tourism) as an economic option for them. This research is designed to generate an understanding of the economic, social, cultural and environmental ramifications of community tourism development in view of a sustainable development pursuit of the municipality. This thesis also justifies the value of pre-tourism development assessment prior to actual planning and development of any form of tourism, particularly if development will take place in a sensitive and vulnerable island community like Burdeos. Because there are few uncertainties on the field, the issue whether there will be a magnitude effect of this research investigation to the communities in Burdeos, largely depends on the commitment of the stakeholders. It may take a year or so for the real and potential impacts on their local governance, economic growth, and trade, socio-cultural and environmental well-being to become evident. What is certain, however, is that new and improved knowledge on community development and pre-tourism development was achieved, which may help tackle a host of challenges to similar communities and destinations. In general, this research proved to be empowering both to the researcher and the researched. The knowledge, shared experiences, innovation and discoveries, in other words, are enabling tools of empowerment for all the individuals and groups involved in every aspect of this scientific investigation.