Local participation for a higher commitment to destination development

The idea of involving local communities in destination development is far from new. However, the extent to which participation is inclusive, active and voluntary remains worthy of further investigation. Literature to date has continued to place a heavy focus on resident attitudes and has highlighted place attachment and cultural values in resource evaluation that often accompany destination development appraisal activities. Despite this, there has been a dearth of attention paid to the influence of wider socio-political factors and contexts on development outcomes and levels of commitment or ‘buy-in’. The way in which destination development is understood and the extent to which it is open to challenge inevitably impact on the measurement of levels of commitment towards it. Despite acknowledgement of the value of increased participatory approaches to tourism development, there have been few attempts to reflect on the nature of actor behaviours and factors of influence that impact on responses to proposed and enacted change. In this chapter we consider the extent to which local participation in destination development in lesser developed contexts might be more deeply understood, drawing on Western and Eastern academic literature source materials. We harness our collective and differentiated experiences of researching and working in tourism environments within Central Asia, East Asia and Southeast Asia to provide case examples that relate to aspects of local commitment to destination development and document how and why change happens. A particular focus is placed on the representation of diverse ethnic positions as we explore potential power-driven gaps or space between policy driven destination development inputs and desired change and note the influence of actor-based contexts that impact upon types and levels of commitment to destination development. Through this lens we identify a future research agenda to study local participation in tourism and sustainable, inclusive and equitable destination-based community development initiatives.