The Local Turn in Tourism: Empowering Communities

In a world that is subject to rapid change and cascading crises this book considers the vital importance of local communities to grounded, just and sustainable tourism futures. Embracing local tourism as relational, the contributors examine how tourism can be reoriented to better connect people, place and planet. This local turn starts by centring local communities at the heart of tourism and identifies ways to ensure local community rights and benefits in tourism. Presenting concepts, case studies and practitioner insights, the chapters explore what putting locals first might mean; the constraints of markets and the promise of alternatives; ‘tours’ and ‘turns’ offering possibilities for circles, cycles and connections; approaches for democratising tourism; and building an ethos of relatedness through a relational imperative to face the future together.

The introduction and Chapter 1 are free to download as open access publications under a CC BY NC ND licence. You can access them here:
Freya Higgins-Desbiolles and Bobbie Chew Bigby: Introduction: Embracing the Local Turn in Tourism to Empower Communities: https://zenodo.org/record/7234710#.Y1Kd8nbMLcs 
Chapter 1. Bobbie Chew Bigby, Joseph Edgar and Freya Higgins-Desbiolles: Place-based Governance in Tourism: Placing Local Communities at the Centre of Tourism: https://zenodo.org/record/7234717#.Y1KpinbMLcs

Freya Higgins-Desbiolles is Adjunct, Business Unit, Adelaide University, Australia and Adjunct Professor, Taylor's University, Malaysia.

Bobbie Chew Bigby is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Waterloo (Canada), an Adjunct Research Fellow at Nulungu Research Institute (Australia) and a Lecturer at NYU Tulsa (United States). Bobbie’s research explores the ways that tourism can be a tool for cultural resurgence among Indigenous and post-conflict communities. Bobbie looks beyond tourism’s economic potential alone and seeks to understand how tourism can help people (re)connect with culture, community and Country (living lands and waters).