Abstract

Even though community empowerment is a crucial component of sustainable tourism, true community empowerment is in fact hard to achieve and still eludes many countries. Few studies have looked at factors that may inhibit or encourage empowerment processes for local people. In response to this gap, this article explores intrinsic barriers to and opportunities for community empowerment in community-based tourism development in Thai Nguyen province, Vietnam. Drawing on empirical data, results show that intrinsic barriers to community empowerment derived from their dependence on government, especially in top-down political systems such as in Vietnam, and the framing of knowledge associated with formal education. Findings also reveal opportunities to enhance community empowerment if community power were acknowledged, and locals were able to exercise that power. Such recognition has the potential to transform experiences of/about local people, to empower them by shifting the focus to a paradigm that starts from within local people themselves, and their community, to using their inner strength - a significant power that they could use to enable them to achieve what they desire in tourism, and to make real change occur. The paper concludes with the implications of this analysis for community empowerment and sustainable tourism development.

摘要

尽管社区赋权是可持续旅游业的一个重要组成部分，但真正的社区赋权实际上很难实现，而且许多国家仍然无法实现。很少有研究关注可能抑制或鼓励当地人民赋权过程的因素。针对这一差距，本文探讨了越南太原省以社区为基础的旅游发展中社区赋权的内在障碍和机会。根据经验数据，结果表明，社区赋权的内在障碍源于他们对政府的依赖，特别是在越南等自上而下的政治体系中，以及与正规教育相关的知识框架。调查结果还揭示了如果社区权力得到承认，增强社区赋权的机会，当地人能够行使这种权力。这种认可有可能改变当地人的经验，通过将焦点转移到从当地人自己和他们的社区内部开始的范式上，利用他们的内在力量来赋予他们权力——这是他们可以用来使他们能够在旅游中实现他们的愿望，并实现真正的改变。本文最后总结了该分析对社区赋权和可持续旅游发展的影响。使用他们的内在力量——一种重要的力量，他们可以利用它来实现他们在旅游业中的愿望，并实现真正的改变。本文最后总结了该分析对社区赋权和可持续旅游发展的影响。使用他们的内在力量——一种重要的力量，他们可以利用它来实现他们在旅游业中的愿望，并实现真正的改变。本文最后总结了该分析对社区赋权和可持续旅游发展的影响。