Tourism and Community Involvement

Introduction The co-relationship between tourism development and host communities has proven to be a powerful combination in deciding the possibility and future of tourism development in a given destination. Aref (2011) supplements that in spite of skills and awareness, the pace of tourism development at a destination is measured by how host communities perceive tourism development. Host communities are the major stakeholders to decide the future of tourism for they are dependable suppliers in the tourism industry (Holden, 2008). The local residents can exclusively pose a deterrent effect on tourism if not given priority or badly involved. Horner and Swarbrooke (2004) claims that the failure to create democratic systems and procedures to enable community members to become actively involved and take responsibility for their own development has arguably crippled tourism development in Africa. This means communities are deprived of decision-making powers, and therefore developers may be reluctant to formulate tourism strategies with sound institutional frameworks based on partnerships between the host communities and other stakeholders. This piece of work is therefore designed to establish how host communities can drive tourism, what necessary elements must be considered in involving communities so that tourism development is a success venture at destinations. What is community involvement?
Community involvement, according to Muganda, Sirima and Ezra (2013), can be seen as a process whereby the residents of a community are given a voice and a choice to participate in issues affecting their lives in relation to tourism development. One may argue that the pace of tourism development is virtually determined by how local communities view and perceive tourism, who can alternatively guarantee the future of tourism in a given destination. Community involvement in tourism can be considered from at least two viewpoints, namely the decision-making process that would

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