Tourism at the Grassroots: Villagers and Visitors in the Asia-Pacific

In two regions where tourism is of considerable economic importance, eastern Asia and the Pacific, there have been remarkably few studies of the impacts of tourism in rural areas. Moreover, the shift towards ecotourism, touted as a more environmentally benign form of tourism, has extended the reach of tourism into more remote and fragile environments. This shift has drawn more local people in rural and remote areas into a partly tourism economy, involving them as participants in the tourist industry. Yet little is known about who have been the beneficiaries of these developments.

This new collection focuses on both the interactions between tourists and villagers, and the impacts of tourism at the local level, considering economic, social, cultural and environmental changes. It traces changes in structures of vulnerability as tourism becomes more prominent, the role of tourism in community development (or localized tension) and examines issues of governance, the role of tour operators as intermediaries, cultural change and other local impacts. In short, it examines the changing role of tourism in local development (or its absence).

It includes case studies drawn from a broad geographical area across eastern Asia and the island Pacific. This book will be useful to those researching and studying tourism, geography and development studies.

John Connell is Professor of Human Geography at the University of Sydney, Australia. John’s publications include (with Chris Gibson) Music and Tourism: On the Road Again (Channel View, 2005), papers on tourism in Bali, the Caribbean and elsewhere, and books on Papua New Guinea, New Caledonia and The Last Colonies.

Barbara Rugendyke is Associate Professor in Geography at the University of New England, Australia. Barbara’s publications have focused on the impacts of nature-based tourism at the local level in Vietnam, on development assistance in the Asia Pacific region, community development planning and the role of development NGOs, including NGOs as Advocates for Development in a Glabalising World (Routledge, 2007).