Exploring empowerment within the Gullah Geechee cultural heritage corridor: implications for heritage tourism development in the Lowcountry

Empowerment in Tourism: A Review of Peer-reviewed Literature

“…The sense of fulfillment resulting from interactions between hosts and guests related to visitors' awareness of local culture and history. This finding is consistent with studies that include a "sense of pride" and "self-esteem" as indicators of cultural and political empowerment (Boley, Ayscue, Maruyama, & Woosnam, 2017;Boley & Johnson Gaither, 2016;Jensen, 2010;Mazro-Navaro, Pedraga-Iglesis & Vinzón, 2016). Although Brazilians perceived more social and psychological empowerment, Japanese residents the governance of tourism operations-for example, decisions as to how benefits of tourism are distributed within a community.…”

“…This form of empowerment could result from involvement in on local residents. Empowerment may result from direct economic benefits that tourism generates for local people (Boley & Johnson Gaither, 2016;Scheyvens, 1999), through employment opportunities (Coria & Calfucura, 2012;Boley & Gither, 2015), by community control of financial benefits, and via access to productive assets by the disadvantaged (Ramos & Prideaux, 2014;Scheyvens, 1999). Empowering forms of access do not pertain just to jobs but also to natural and other financial resources, political influence, and indigenous ownership and management opportunities (Coria & Calfucura, 2012;Strzelecka, 2015).…”

Minority Community Resilience and Cultural Heritage Preservation: A Case Study of the Gullah Geechee Community

“…For example, heritage tourism is shown to have the potential to be both a positive and negative force, exacerbating some problems (such as fraudulent individuals posing as Gullah Geechee, and increased tension due to the profitability of tourism activities) while improving others (such as economic development), meaning that community resilience could be enhanced in some ways and compromised in others. Regardless, opportunity exists within local and state tourism offices to better showcase Gullah Geechee culture alongside other themes of the southeast and Sea Islands [43]. In addition, documentation of folklore that might otherwise be lost to history provides a legitimate source of linguistic data on early Gullah speech and dialect and representation of the culture, which could promote a sense of shared heritage and therefore foster community resilience.…”

“…Many of the cultural aspects of Gullah people have direct implications for community-led tourism development in the area, though only two publications focused on this connection and the opportunities associated with that [43,64]. Boley and Johnson Gaither [43] found that tourism has contributed to social, economic, political, and psychological empowerment of Gullah Geechee through enhanced pride in being part of that community, new opportunities for community members to connect and collaborate on shared activities such as cultural festivals, and providing outlets for representation and engagement in political decision-making. On the other hand, Thomas [64] documented how a transition from agricultural to resort-oriented tourism industry affected the economic, social, and cultural fabric of the Gullah Geechee community, including tourism, which has created a social and economic injustice related to low-wage labor and "serving-others" culture.…”

“…Although we recognize that tourism can impact culture both positively and negatively, little research has been done on the impacts of marketing on the Gullah culture and heritage for attracting tourists [27]. Equally important, more research is needed to better understand tourism development and its economic benefits, such as job creation [64], and cultural benefits, such as the preservation of tangible and intangible Gullah [23,43] and the heritage of other minority or marginalized communities (See Figure 4).…”