Abstract
Sustainable tourism has grown rapidly in the last 35 years, both on the ground and as an area of academic study. However, the results of sustainable tourism development have proven to be mixed, with many unwanted outcomes stemming from its development in destinations around the world. Recent academic approaches to studying sustainable tourism development are increasingly turning towards social–ecological systems (SESs) thinking in order to embrace the inherent complexity and rapid change found in today’s world. This stems partly from an understanding that tourism is a complex social–ecological phenomenon, and that its success relies on understanding its dynamics in a given location. While SES approaches to understanding complex phenomena such as tourism are well-developed, they tend to be resource-intensive and unwieldy in rapidly changing environments, such as those found in sustainable tourism destinations. Therefore, we hypothesized that a novel form of concept mapping based on an SES perspective and the paradigm of resilience thinking could address limitations in conceptualizing and understanding sustainable tourism as part of a larger SES. In this paper, we outline our method thoroughly, then evaluate concept mapping by assessing its effectiveness as a rapid assessment tool that enhances systems understanding while being easy to use in the field, privileging local knowledge, and emphasizing relationships within the SES. We focus on the method and its applicability rather than the results of the maps themselves. Through a case study in Ometepe, Nicaragua, our results showed that concept mapping revealed key drivers and values within the SES and emphasized the value of participatory and transdisciplinary tourism research. Our study demonstrates that concept mapping is an effective method for rapidly assessing the complexity of a tourism destination in a manner that is accessible, adaptable, and achievable.
| Original language | English |
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| Article number | 10162 |
| Journal | Sustainability (Switzerland) |
| Volume | 14 |
| Issue number | 16 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Aug 2022 |
Funding
The socio-political crisis particularly highlighted the adaptability of concept mapping. Although we initiated this project prior to the crisis, concept mapping was easy to adapt for data collection during a crisis. We followed local advice to arrange activities appropriately, and local government officials were excluded from joining group concept map activities. However, even in a calmer political climate, the presence of public officials would have reflected a power imbalance. Separating participants due to power imbalances is supported by the work of Berkes [] and Kayat []. Foreigners also did not participate in mapping activities. While this was partly intentional for similar power dynamic concerns, it was also due to the crisis. This research was funded by awards from the Alaback & Brewer Melipal Fellowship, American Association of Geographers (Applied Geography Specialty Group Student Research Fellowship), Associated Students of The University of Montana (Research and Creative Scholarship), Conference of Latin Americanist Geographers (Field Study Award), and Kenneth P. Davis Scholarship. Additional funding provided by the USDA Forest Service International Programs.
| Funders |
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| U.S. Forest Service-Retired |
Keywords
- Latin America
- Nicaragua
- methodology
- resilience
- social–ecological system
- sustainable tourism
