Power and empowerment in community-based tourism: opening Pandora’s box?

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to highlight the different realities blended together in community-based tourism, and how storytelling can help us understand the resulting entanglement of actors and power. This paper combines a discussion of power and empowerment in community-based tourism with storytelling. Design/methodology/approach – The fictional narrative of Pandora’s box is used as a metaphor for power and empowerment in community-based tourism, which can leave communities worse off than before the introduction of tourism. Findings – However, the last thing remaining in Pandora’s box after all hardships had flown out, was hope. This paper also presents a hopeful perspective for community-based tourism in the form of another metaphor: the rhizome, which puts power and empowerment in a more dynamic and holistic frame. Just like in the original story of Pandora’s “jar” which gave voice to Pandora herself, within a rhizome, other players are regarded as valuable sources of tacit contextual knowledge. Originality/value – Storytelling and dialogue are recommended methods to obtain this knowledge. Using a storytelling perspective can encourage untold and unheard stories within a dialogue to be heard.

Events and online interaction: the construction of hybrid event communities

“…Through offline and online practices during and around an event, communities are shaped, performed and maintained. The term 'community' is complex and has different meanings attached to it (Laing & Mair, 2015;Simons & de Groot, 2015). Originally, the term community referred to relatively stable, geographical, place-based communities.…”

A Critical Assessment of Community-Based Tourism Practices in Nglanggeran Ecotourism Village, Indonesia

“…In the tourism context, CBT can be perceived as an example of a bottom-up planning approach [4] and emerged as a prominent strategy in poverty reduction, focusing on ownership and the decision-making power of the local community resulting in some positive impacts on the local community [21]. A number of previous studies have debated the impacts of CBT in terms of economic impact [22], socio-cultural impact [23,24], and environmental impact [3]. CBT practices can be beneficial for the local community by enabling more community opportunities for participating and gaining benefits from tourism activities, reducing economic leakage, and increasing the environmental sustainability awareness of both locals and visitors [2].…”

Tourism SME’s Competitive Advantages through ICT Based Community : The Role of GenPI in Eastern Indonesia

“…Furthermore, failure to implement the concept of community-based tourism was caused by the lack of collaborative advantage between stakeholders [7]. Thus, power and empowerment played an important role in the dynamics of the implementation of a community-based tourism approach, especially in efforts to optimize the marketing of tourist destinations [35]. On the other hand, the community played an important role in the marketing of regional tourism, especially in rural areas [36].…”