Tourism and community development vs. tourism for community development: Conceptualizing planning as power, knowledge, and control

• Published in: Leisure (Waterloo) 2007, Vol.31 (2), p.403-425
• Main Authors: Mair, Heather, Reid, Donald G.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Area planning & development; Community development; développement communautaire; mobilisation sociale; planification radicale de tourisme; planning theory; radical tourism planning; social mobilization; Theory; théorie de planification; Tourism
• ISSN: 1492-7713; 2151-2221
• DOI: 10.1080/14927713.2007.9651389

The paper aims to contribute to the debates surrounding community-based tourism planning by re-visiting the foundations of planning and injecting the discussion with more radical considerations of community development practice. Using a framework of planning traditions set out by Friedmann in 1987, it is argued that while the growth in community-based tourism planning literature represents an important shift away from more traditional, "top down" approaches, tourism planning needs to go much further to meet broader community development goals. The social transformation traditions within planning, namely social mobilization, social learning and radical planning models, are introduced as potential avenues for the development of tourism planning that is grounded in considerations of community development. The potential of this approach for the fostering of empowerment and local control is highlighted as tourism is "decentered" and community development re-prioritized.