People Centered Tourism

3 main areas for discussion 1. The concept of service in Jamaica linked to the Jamaican self-concept as set against the social, historical and psychological environment in which it developed 2. The importance of community tourism as a model that promotes development of the Jamaican self (concept) 3. The main challenges of that model and what is needed for it to work

SERVICE OR SERVITUDE ? SLAVERY COLONIALISM

The local as a tourism product “ tourists came along to see ‘the natives’…local people were thus encouraged to be interesting natives”

The Harassment Worker o Harassers consider harassment to be their work o They provide service without servitude o Services are of their own design, mostly within their control o If successful, increases sense of own efficacy

The Mass Tourism Worker o Worker roles are mainly pre-defined o Worker experiences less degrees of control o Do workers see their role in a positive or negative light? o How does it relate to their own image of self?

‘Remember, tourism is our business!’ The emotional costs of being a tourism worker: o Worker/role as product o The Tourism experience and delivery become commodities – human relations become a relation between things o Worker must learn not to take things personally

The Community Tourism Visitor “Travel often provides situations and contexts where people confront alternative possibilities for belonging to the world and others that differ from everyday life. Indeed, part of the promise of travel is to live and know the self in other ways.”

The Community Tourism Worker o Is part of the process o Has more time to relate to tourist o Environment – less formal, less constructed – home ground o Could be part of the product development o Opportunities to share knowledge, ideas

Possibilities for Empowerment o View Tourism as a developmental resource o Community tourism linked to issues of self-determination o Community tourism as a PROCESS

Challenges to the Empowerment process o PARTICIPATION o PROCESS

Participation o Suffers from many different interpretations o This makes it hard to implement participatory actions o Not everyone can or wants to participate

Process o Must be a valid process o Must involve real decision-making o Actions must arise from these decisions o Real achievements must be seen and measured and seen to contribute to policies (local/national)

Other Challenges o Myth of community – not homogenous & not necessarily harmonious o Understanding why and how people participate o Linking Community Tourism ideology into National policies

Questions for moving forward o Are Caribbean people to forever remain prisoners of their history? o Is enough being done to change the thinking? o Can Community tourism face up to the economic challenges of Mass tourism? o Can it become a real player alongside Mass tourism? o Will people become central to any tourism model? o Will the WILL be found?