Community Participation in Tourism Destination Development: A Literature Review

Abstract

The aim of this article is to underline the way community is involved in decisions making regarding a tourism destination, how this process was developed during years and how it was studied before. Moreover, this research wants to find out, based on past researches, how communities are motivated to participate in tourism development, what are their benefits from involving in these activities and what is the importance of communities for tourism and their perception. While involvement and participation of communities in the tourism industry can be viewed in the decision making process and in the sharing of tourism benefits, community participation through employment brings more economic benefits directly to the household level On the other hand, participation is also open to a variety of interpretations arising from the fact that a ladder encompassing different levels of participation exists which often range from ‘only being told of’ to being able to influence or determine every aspect of the tourism development [5].