Indigenous ecotourism in the Mayan rainforest of Palenque: empowerment issues in sustainable development

Abstract

Indigenous ecotourism in the Mayan rainforest has received little research attention. This study examines issues related to the level of empowerment in a Mayan village located near the Palenque World Heritage Site in southern Mexico. An adapted empowerment framework was used to assess community empowerment and its relationship with stakeholders' participation by collecting the views of internal and external stakeholders in indigenous ecotourism. Using a checklist of 60 empowerment indicators, the study developed a wheel of empowerment tool that graphically illustrates and compares levels of empowerment/disempowerment in local communities. Results indicate that although there is a will from many villagers to participate in tourism, lack of knowledge, limited economic resources and the poor negotiation skills of local leaders have disempowered the community from undertaking ecotourism ventures. Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) have not supported the community until recently, the private sector has played little part, and while the Mexican government is shaping the course of indigenous ecotourism with support programmes, state agencies have resisted local ecotourism development. Overall, the community fell below the midpoint on the Wheel of Empowerment Scale. These findings show a need for more effective empowerment strategies to maximise community involvement in managing cultural and natural resources for tourism development.

Comparing levels of resident empowerment among two culturally diverse resident populations in Oizumi, Gunma, Japan

“…The authors add that "economic empowerment can also be fairly easily determined and tracked through existing secondary data". Ramos and Prideaux's (2014) environmental dimension of empowerment falls under the same logic because it is more focused on a community's environmental quality rather than an individual's personal perception of environmental empowerment.…”

“…Although empowerment, in its broadest sense, refers to gaining this "mastery over one's affairs" (Rappaport, 1987), the concept is considered multidimensional by many (Friedmann, 1992;Ramos & Prideaux, 2014;Scheyvens, 1999Scheyvens, , 2002. Within the sustainable tourism literature, this concept has been broken down into dimensions of psychological, social, economic, political and recently, environmental empowerment Ramos & Prideaux, 2014;Scheyvens, 1999).…”

“…The discussion of resident empowerment has long been at the philosophical core of the sustainable tourism literature (Cole, 2006a;Farrelly, 2011;Ramos & Prideaux, 2014;Scheyvens, 1999Scheyvens, , 2000. Cole (2006a) describes the rhetoric associated with resident empowerment as a "mantra" within sustainable tourism, and Sofield (2003) acknowledges that without resident empowerment, sustainable tourism is difficult to obtain.…”

“…Within the sustainable tourism literature, this concept has been broken down into dimensions of psychological, social, economic, political and recently, environmental empowerment Ramos & Prideaux, 2014;Scheyvens, 1999). When considering the empirical measurement of residents' perceptions of empowerment, most of the attention has focused on tourism development's influence on residents' psychological, social and political empowerment because according to Boley & McGehee (2014, p. 86), economic empowerment "does not lend itself to the application at the individual level" as easily as the other dimensions.…”

Research in Sustainable Tourism: A Longitudinal Study of Articles between 2008 and 2017

“…Moreover, various issues arise in communities where indigenous tourism is developing quickly, such as the protection of heritages [83], the upholding of the rights of indigenous populations [84], and the preservation of indigenous culture [85]. Empowering the residents in indigenous areas with knowledge, economic resources, and communication skills has been suggested to help sustain the development of indigenous tourism [86]. Integrating indigenous values with capitalism through tourism is demonstrated to be another way to realize indigenous sustainable development [87].…”