Research on Tourism, Indigenous Peoples and Economic Development: A Missing Component

Indigenous tourism is a term commonly used to describe tourism that involves indigenous peoples or first nations in tourism. In recent years, research attention on this topic has broadened and expanded greatly, reflecting both increased involvement of indigenous peoples and their more active participation in controlling and utilising a widening range of tourism and economic development. This more active participation has taken tourism beyond its traditional role as a limited source of employment and economic development to a stage at which tourism is being utilised as an agent to improve the indigenous political position with respect to controlling a wider range of development and strengthening regional and national identities. The paper briefly reviews research on indigenous tourism over the past half-century, noting the increase in volume and the changing nature and role of research on tourism involving indigenous peoples, but also longstanding neglect of some elements of economic development, which are discussed in more detail It also explores current and likely future issues needing research attention in the light of changing motivations for participation in indigenous tourism, and the spread of indigenous tourism beyond traditional areas into activities more associated with metropolitan and mass tourist markets.

The Batwa Trail: developing agency and cultural self-determination in Uganda through Indigenous tourism and cultural performance

This article examines how Batwa—the Indigenous peoples of Southwestern Uganda—negotiate agency and cultural self-determination through touristic cultural performances held during the Batwa Trail, an Indigenous tourist attraction in Mgahinga Forest, Southwestern Uganda. I take a theoretical model that approaches Indigenous tourism and touristic cultural performances as a site of social interaction where identity and representation are negotiated. The touristic performances are crucial in articulating Batwa performance culture and as a forum where counter-narratives against the stereotypes and marginalities associated with Batwa culture are constructed. I argue that touristic performances are a strategic form of experiential and embodied practice through which Batwa identity is negotiated and expressed.

To create the value of indigenous tourism in multicultural market based on tourists' cultural experience

PurposeTourism development can reduce the economic disadvantages of indigenous tribes; however, it is also reproached for the destruction of local culture. The challenge for tourism and culture is to reach those diverse audiences through a multicultural marketing perspective for managers to make decisions. Therefore, learning the activity preferences of tourism experiences and creating the value of indigenous tourism by strategies are essential indicators of this research.Design/methodology/approachThe knowledge lacks cultural understanding and the acceptance of prices concerned with indigenous tourism. This research introduces the value of cultural experience into indigenous tourism experiences and establishes a link between the attributes of tourists' preferences and tourism. The data mining methods are used to analyze relevant indigenous tribal data on the cultural experience.FindingsBy providing a different quality of service for various tourists, it is expected to improve the sustainable tourism of the tribe through the experiential value of different attributes and strategies of push–pull factors.Research limitations/implicationsThe experiential activities are based on second-hand data collected from Taitung's indigenous tourism activities, and sample data are the domestic tourism experiences of tourists over the past year. Through empirical analyses, the attributes of tourists' preferences can create the value of the cultural experience for indigenous tourism.Originality/valueThis research explores how indigenous cultural experience can be communicated via learning the value of cultural experience to formulate effective strategies.

Visual Representations of Indigenous Tourism Places in Social Media

This article focused the analysis on social media representations of Sápmi using the hashtags #visitsápmi and #visitsapmi, which nuance official, top-down versions of the place communicated in other contexts, but simultaneously are more focused on visitors and their experiences. The results show that the making of the Sápmi region as a place and a tourism destination through social media content is an ongoing process of interpretation and reinterpretation of what indigenous Sámi culture is and how it connects to specific localities. Future research should look at the broader understanding of places that can be accessed through social media analysis. The main argument is that visual communication is a very important tool when constructing the brand of a destination. Considering the growing role of social media, the process of place-making through visual communication is explored in the case of the destination VisitSápmi, as it is coconstructed in online user generated content (UGC). From a theoretical viewpoint, we discuss the social construction of places and destinations as well as the production of meaning through coconstruction of images and brands in tourism contexts. The focus is on how places are created, branded, and made meaningful by visualizing the place in a framework of tourism experiences, in this case specifically examined through indigenous tourism. We use a content analysis of texts, photographs, and narratives communicated on social media platforms. Regardless of negotiated brand management's efforts at official marketing, branding, and tourism planning, the evolution of Sápmi as a place to visit in social media has its own logic, full of contradictions and plausible interpretations, related to the uncontrollable and bottom-up processes of UGC.