Community participation in tourism planning and development

Community participation (CP) is a vital component of sustainable tourism development and is advocated as a means to achieve both planning-oriented and community-oriented objectives. This chapter reviews critical issues in CP and its link with local residents’ quality-of-life while discussing pathways and pitfalls in the effective implementation of CP. Based on previous studies and past community participation initiatives, the chapter outlines recommendations for the successful integration of CP in tourism planning, including the need to match the proper CP techniques to the CP objectives. One of the important conclusions of the chapter is that despite the potential of CP in securing the interests of local residents, as well as in supporting tourism development projects, CP might not be the recommended course of action in all cases and should be carefully planned and adjusted to specific destinations, communities, and circumstances. The chapter also includes suggestions for future research on CP in tourism planning and development, including the need to develop comprehensive indicators for measuring the effectiveness of CP programs, which will evaluate both the outcomes of the CP programs, as well as the CP process itself. The need to explore the prospects of Internet-based CP in future programs is also discussed.