Introduction

Ever since tourism has become a booming business, characterised increasingly by global activities, communities and regions in every conceivable part of the world find themselves confronted with tourism development. In many developing countries and in communities and rural areas worldwide, tourism is often considered the core of a new future.

Only too often, these newly emerging destinations develop in a spontaneous way, thus causing severe negative cultural and ecological impacts, without generating the long-term economic and social benefits that communities and governments expect from their development.

Sustainable development models and techniques for destination development, therefore, can be of great importance.

The aim of this course is to provide students with the knowledge, know-how and skills to develop destinations and regions in a sustainable way. Special attention will be paid to destinations with a high degree of social, cultural, ecological and/or economic vulnerability, like indigenous communities, traditional rural areas and protected areas.

Learning goal:

Having studied local and regional tourism development students are able to formulate the outlines of a sustainable rural tourism development strategy as part of an integrated rural development perspective for a region, either in a developed or developing country. This approach includes an analysis of the needs and the potential of a region in order to create a sound and feasible future perspective.

Learning objectives

More specific, having studied local and regional tourism development students are able to

• Explain development theories and issues;
• Explain characteristics and problems of rural areas;
• Explain rural tourism, agritourism and ecotourism theories and issues;
• Explain how to analyse tourism potential and carrying capacities of vulnerable areas;
• Explain the importance and implementation of a bottom-up approach;
• Explain what methodology can be used to involve local stakeholders in (tourism) development;
• Explain the principles of integrated sustainable rural (tourism) development (ISRTD);
• Make an adequate background analysis of the situation in any community or region;
• Perform a regional SWOT-analysis;
• Develop vision statement about desired future conditions for any community or region;
• Determine critical success factors that must be met for the tourism vision to be realized;
• Define sustainable tourism development goals and objectives;
• Select adequate local and regional strategies to reach these goals and objectives;
• Explain the importance of working with scenarios;
• Identify the stakeholders in tourism development;
• Formulate what the elements of a tourism development plan for the given community or region are, including feasibility study, environmental impact assessment, marketing plan, communication plan, implementation procedures.

Contents

• Assessment of economic, social, cultural and ecological aspects of sustainable development;
• Development issues;
• Developing countries and sustainable tourism development;
• Global and local cultures, identities and ways of life;
• Steps in the planning process;
• EU rural development policies, rural Europe approach;
• Community-based planning and development;
• Stakeholders and partners;
• Regional strategies for integrated sustainable tourism development;
• Tourism potential and carrying capacity assessment of vulnerable areas;
• Regional SWOTs and scenarios as tools for development;
• Principles of regional tourism marketing: target groups and PMCs;
• Rural tourism, agritourism, ecotourism;
• Eco-tourism planning and development and cultural tourism destinations;
• Regional environmental and quality programmes;
• Economic impacts of regional tourism development;
• Instruments for measurement of economic impacts.

Study methods

Students will study literature and case studies about local and region tourism development. Several experts, including guest lecturers, will lecture about these matters. Every step in the process of planning and development will be discussed thoroughly. Students will present the results of their reading and thinking by means of written reports or oral presentations, either individually or in small groups. At the end of the course students will formulate the outlines of a sustainable rural tourism development strategy for a specific region or community, either in a developed or developing country.

Assessment

The course tutor(s) will evaluate the reports and presentations of students, in particular the outlines of a development strategy.

Literature

Will be published before the start of the course.

Study load

4 credits

Lecturers

Niek Beunders, Ton van Egmond

This course is particularly recommended for students following either of the following programmes: ITMC or MTB.