تمرکز زدایی متمرکز توسعه صنعت گردشگری : چشم انداز شبکه

While there is increasing recognition of the positive impacts of tourism on economic development in Sub-Saharan Africa, existing relationships between tourism industry stakeholders is fraught with challenges that constrain its development. Drawing on social network theory and stakeholder theory and through a series of key informant semi-structured interviews with tourism industry stakeholders, the paper explores the nature of participation by destination stakeholders in formulating and implementing tourism policy in Cameroon. It then explores a model of tourism development built around a centrally coordinated but decentralized tourism network that reaches out to all representative stakeholders when formulating and implementing tourism policies. The challenges involved in mobilizing destination stakeholders into such a system to allow for effective tourism development are critically examined.

One of the main goals of tourism development is to formulate and implement policies that provide high-quality tourist experiences that can maximize the benefits to destination stakeholders without compromising the short and long term environmental, social, and cultural integrity of destinations (Godfrey, 1998 and Miller and Twinning-Ward, 2005). Achieving this goal has become crucial for sub-Saharan Africa countries as tourism has emerged as an important tool for local economic development (Dieke, 2000). An increasing shift away from the formerly state-centric towards some form of (pro)active involvement of local communities and economic (private) operators in tourism development has been observed in a number of sub-Saharan African destinations (Mbaiwa, 2005a and Mbaiwa, 2005b). This raises the two key questions that are investigated in this article: In what ways does the structure and organization of the national tourism industry shape the nature of stakeholder participation in tourism development? What are the challenges involved in mobilizing destination stakeholders into a system that allows for effective tourism development? The above questions are especially relevant for sub-Saharan African countries such as Cameroon, that recently (2010) satisfied the World Tourism Organization’s (UNWTO) criteria for being classed as a tourism destination even though efforts at developing its tourism industry began more than thirty years ago (Kendemeh, 2010 and World Tourism Organization, 2010). Although, the government has never exclusively developed a tourism policy per se, a Commonwealth sponsored Cameroon Tourism Marketing Plan (Expansion Strategies, 2002) and Cameroon Destination Branding Report (Emerging Markets Group, 2008) provided directives that were expected to be used by the National Tourism Council (NTC) to develop and implement national tourism policies. As an autonomous agency, the NTC was required to better engage both state and non-state actors in this process. However, the structure and operations of the tourism industry are centralized around the Ministry of Tourism and Leisure (MINTOUR) not the NTC. This obviously has implications for tourism development, in terms of the functional roles of the NTC vis-a-vis those of the MINTOUR when engaging destination stakeholders (public agencies, private operators and agents, local communities, national and international non-governmental agencies) in the process of tourism development.

This article has explored how the structure and operations of the national tourism industry shapes the nature of participation by destination stakeholders in tourism development in Cameroon using a theoretical framework that integrates concepts from stakeholder theory and social network theory. The framework suggests that tourism development requires the creation and mobilization of the existing tourism network into a system of action (Coleman, 1988; Lin, 2001) that ensures effective participation by all stakeholders in formulating and implementing tourism policies (Timur and Getz, 2008 and Tosun, 2006). Such a system is seen as crucial for tourism development in African countries such as Cameroon (Barrosa and Dieke, 2008 and Dieke, 2000). However, the empirical analysis suggests that, recent structural reforms aimed at decentralizing key responsibilities and functional roles away from the MINTOUR have not successfully created such a system. What we see is the creation of institutions and tourism-related projects and initiatives with competing and conflicting power relations and functional roles all of which constrain effective tourism development. In relation to the theoretical framework developed in this article (as presented in Table 1) and the empirical analysis, it can be argued that mobilizing the tourism network into a system that enhances tourism development presents two major challenges: 1) incorporating overlapping functional roles of government ministries associated with tourism development and integrating overlapping tourism-related initiatives that are operated by private actors and international agencies into a centrally coordinated network, and 2) the mobilization of social capital (e.g. financial, technical and operational resources) to empower private economic operators and local community groups to actively participate in policy making and implementation.