Tourism and ethnodevelopment: Inclusion, empowerment and self determination – a case study of the Chatham Islands of New Zealand/Aotearoa.

Abstract

In the twenty-first century indigenous tourism development research has focused on projects aligned with planning destinations diversifying and regenerating using tourism as a lever. There is an obvious impact upon indigenous and imported destination culture and society because of the effect of increased economic and environmental activities (Moyle & Evans 2008; Brown, 2009; Gurung & Seeland 2008; Hinch & Butler, 2009). This research examines public and private sector responses to the diversification of a sub-Antarctic island community through tourism. In particular the research will examine the policy changes undertaken by local government in respect to the indigenous tourism offering on the Islands. Since a more public and efficient transportation opened the Chatham Islands up to visitors, public sector policy has reinforced bi-culturalism in the vernacular, idiosyncratic and contingent approach to tourism. The focus however remains on economic and environmental sustainability based upon the conservation of indigenous tracts of land and sea with marine reserves and scarce and sacred territorial ambitions reigned in by the Moriori and the later Maori invaders (King, and Morrison 1990). Concurrently the private sector response has been driven by new migrants with ideologically confrontational demands that have both irked long-term residents and cut across public policy.