Tourism and Community Leadership in Rural Regions: Linking Mobility, Entrepreneurship, Tourism Development and Community Well-Being

Abstract

This study addressed contradictions in the tourism development literature about the importance of locals versus outsiders and the role of entrepreneurs. More specifically, it explored the characteristics of tourism entrepreneurs and their connections to the destination community, their roles as community leaders and the overall outcomes of tourism development for the host community. This exploration was conducted through a qualitative analysis of 47 case studies of rural tourism development and used concepts from the new mobilities paradigm and community well-being framework to examine how entrepreneurs could be connected to tourism development outcomes. The results suggested that the local-outsider distinction was not a useful way to classify actors in tourism development, that community entrepreneurs were the most successful at supporting positive outcomes for both tourism and the destination community, that social and human capital were more important than financial and built capital for community development and that governance structures were critical to the long-term outcomes of tourism development.

Positive psychology and tourism: a systematic literature review

“…This is in accordance with Zhang (2013), who acknowledges that studies that link tourism and wellbeing are not the norm. (Filep, 2014b); (Jenkins & Romanos, 2014); (Kruger, Saayman, & Ellis, 2014); (Lee, Kruger, Whang, Uysal, & Sirgy, 2014); (Moscardo, 2014). Coghlan, 2015); (Kim, Lee, Uysal, Kim, & Ahn, 2015); (Mnguni & Giampiccoli, 2015); (Morgan, Pritchard, & Sedgley, 2015); (Tuohino & Honkanen, 2015); (Willis, 2015).…”

“…The review of Hartwell et al (2016) reflected that this new conceptualization can be a novel way to promote destinations using wellbeing as a marketing tool. Moscardo (2014) found that the community entrepreneurs showed higher success in promoting positive outcomes for tourism and for locals. Additionally, they concluded that financial and built/physical capital were less important than social and human resources for the development of the community and that administration structures are fundamental for the sustainability of tourism development.…”

Community Leadership in Rural Tourism Development: A Tale of Two Ancient Chinese Villages

“…In addition, local communities require leaders to take the initiative to achieve success in tourism development [65]. Thus, entrepreneurship is a very important character of community leaders who lead other residents to promote rural tourism development [63,105]. Pre-existing experiences are also important for community leaders.…”

What is a Learning Town? Reflections on the Experience at Wirksworth

“…The knowledge transfer and repository aspects of this research are secondary objectives but by no means of lesser importance (Moscardo, 2014;Arnaboldi & Spiller, 2011;Geuna & Muscio, 2009;Agrawal, 2001;Raivola et al, 2001).…”

“…A further focus is skills acquisition to manage new knowledge and extract maximum shared benefit with new social capital held in trust for future generations (Raivola et al, 2001;Moscardo, 2014;Shone et al, 2016).…”