Abstract

The notion that Indigenous tourism can advance reconciliation contrasts with prevailing ‘tourism as industry’ discourses. Commodification processes treat tourists as consumers, rather than as visitors to a place, or visitors to the people of a place. How can Indigenous tourism deliver sustainable benefits to the hosts and communities that receive visitors? This study adopts critical Indigenous methodology with constructivist grounded theory, as we source and validate theoretical constructs of sustainability in Indigenous tourism with Aboriginal tourism operators themselves. Three practices emerge, namely hosting, connecting, and sharing. Through hosting, operators set the scene for culturally safe interactions. Through connecting, hosts and tourists recognise their shared humanity. Through sharing, local identities, cultures, and histories are brought to the surface. These three practices of hosting, connecting, and sharing arise from the agency, and thereby reinforce the agency, of Aboriginal tourism operators. In order for Indigenous tourism operators and communities to derive sustainable benefits from receiving visitors, such engagements must be founded on recognition and respect for Indigenous agency. These practices imply reciprocity and point to local understandings of reconciliation, not as an endpoint, but as a practice in the here and now. We argue that this represents a strengths-based model of Indigenous tourism.

摘要

原住民旅游业可以促进和解的观念与流行的“旅游业即产业”话语形成鲜明对比。商品化过程将游客视为消费者，而不是一个地方的游客或人民的游客的一个地方。土著旅游业如何为接待游客的东道主和社区带来可持续的利益？本研究采用具有建构主义基础理论的批判性土著方法论，因为我们与土著旅游经营者本身一起寻找和验证土著旅游可持续性的理论结构。出现了三种实践，即托管、连接和共享。通过托管，运营商为文化安全的互动奠定了基础。通过联系，主人和游客认识到他们共同的人性。通过分享，当地的身份、文化和历史浮出水面。托管、连接和共享这三种做法源于代理机构，从而加强了土著旅游经营者的代理机构。为了让原住民旅游经营者和社区从接待游客中获得可持续利益，这种参与必须建立在对原住民机构的认可和尊重的基础上。这些实践意味着互惠，并指向当地对和解的理解，不是作为终点，而是作为此时此地的实践。我们认为这代表了一种基于优势的土著旅游模式。