This is the
second in a three-part series exploring ways communities are playing a greater
role in planning and developing their tourism industries. Guest blogger Joe Bly
is a former documentary producer and writer, going beyond film and television
to tell stories of social and urban progress.
Before the drama of the Olympic games in Rio de Janeiro can begin on
August 5th, and the Paralympics in September, another drama has to
conclude: preparing the city to host one
of the biggest and highest profile events on the planet. Of course, when selected in 2009, Rio was
already a premier tourist destination, with tourism revenue representing 67% of
the city’s GDP. It hosted about 1 and a
half million foreign tourists that year, a third of those for a single event,
Carnival.
But since then, Brazil has spent almost $12 billion upgrading nearly
every level of infrastructure required to host the games. That’s not just for specialized sports
facilities and team dormitories. The
city has struggled to completely revamp its train and subway systems, water and
waste management systems, and amid controversy, relocate entire residential
neighborhoods. This to host what is
essentially a single, unique visitor attraction. And every effort is stalked by questions of
what is the ultimate benefit, and for whom.
Here is where we can draw parallels and lessons for any location scaling
up tourism capacity. Even at the other
end of the spectrum, a locale with little or no tourism infrastructure or
resources, the issues of effective capacity building and community benefit
remain the same. So what does launching
a tourism industry from scratch look like?
Community-Based Tourism
Community-based
tourism (CBT) is a model in which often remote communities host visitors in the
homes of residents and provide access to their unique attraction and cultural
events. The most familiar form is
ecotourism. 2800 miles northwest of Rio,
the Manaus region of the Amazon is home to numerous community-based ecotourism
projects. There is little tourism infrastructure
deep in the jungle, but trekkers can homestay with local families, hire guides
and riverboat excursions and buy local foods and handicrafts. The cultural access is as unique an offering
as the setting. Most programs are
planned and administered entirely by local residents with training and guidance
provided by the government or NGOs. The
emphasis is on creating direct and sustainable economic benefit for local
residents and enhancing their autonomy, while requiring little capital. This approach to tourism is found in nearly
every developing country in the world.
Yet CBT in
this form is virtually nonexistent in the United States. Could this approach be adapted to locales
here that wish to develop a tourism industry where none existed before. I found one rare example in a very small
community that shares a communally held resource as exceptional as any Olympics
– a cultural heritage of quilting.
Tourist economy built by hand – Gee’s Bend, Alabama
In the heart
of Alabama, there is a bow in the Alabama River wrapping around the area of
Gee’s Bend so as to almost make it an island, nearly inaccessible, but for one
road and a ferry. It is a very rural
home to about 200 mostly African American residents. What puts it on the map is a long history of
exquisite quilts made by generations of Gee’s Benders. These quilts have hung in museums and art
galleries, and have sold for as much as $20,000. But Gee’s Bend had almost no ability to
accommodate visitors interested in quilting and local heritage; there was
little coordinated marketplace where quilts could be found, no eateries or
overnight lodging, and no related cultural or historical programming. Development grants from the Ford Foundation
and tremendous assistance from groups like Sustainable Rural Regenerative Enterprises for Families (SURREF), and
Auburn University, have allowed Gee’s Bend to decide collectively how to
develop a community based tourism industry, physically and in expertise.
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| The Gee's Bend Quilt Mural Trail |
The highlights:
The Gee’s Bend town of Boykin already had a quilting collective
established during the Civil Rights movement that met and worked in a community
building. This collective and building
has been developed into the hub of quilt visiting, serving as a shop, museum,
information center, and classroom.
An organized quilting trail and maps now help guide visitors through the
area. Quilters offer overnight stays in their own homes. Staffing is
local. Marketing, sales, tours, visitor
services, retail are all staffed by trained local residents.
The Gee’s Bend area now has a café, renovated guest houses, a calendar of
events, and is promoted regionally and statewide. Through community-based planning and
implementation, residents are able to capture more of the economic benefits,
while preserving and promoting a unique heritage. The takeaways could apply to any locale in
the US starting from scratch, and maybe even Rio. CBT emphasizes collective decisions about how
a community exploits its communal resources, and as in Gee’s Bend, every
development has to maximize benefit.
More than just raise tourism revenue, any effort or investment has to
cultivate ability and entrepreneurship within the community, adding mutually
supportive, interlocking pieces of capacity.
I can think of no better metaphor than a quilt.
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| The Gee's Bend Quilting Collective in Boykin, AL |
It has never been easier for a community, lacking any accommodations, to
market themselves and host visitors from anywhere within their own homes – now
that Airbnb and short term rentals are almost instantly ubiquitous. Yet we do not yet see widespread
community-based tourism facilitated by Airbnb.
What’s missing - the coordination.
My next post asks ‘Is any locality or community coordinating short term
rental as a tourism development strategy?’
