Introduction
Mbaiwa (2005) describes enclave tourism as type of tourism that majorly focuses on maximizing the positive aspects of tourism within a given locale, geographical area or enclave while ensuring that limiting influences from the surrounding environment are dealt with or avoided.
In most instances, these enclaves come in form of coastal areas that offer touristic attractions such as golfing, horse-riding, tennis, and swimming, among many other amenities. Since enclaves are typically self-contained, tourists who stay in such areas are normally not obliged to get out of their residences to go searching for food or drinks as these are normally provided by their resorts.
Over the recent times, there have been an increased number of enclaves being created around the world with several cities and countries striving to ensure that their visitors get to enjoy themselves without having to necessarily move from one place to another or even travel long distances just to get the important amenities that they need. In essence, several factors contribute variably to the progress or advancement of enclave tourism.
Needless to state, enclave tourism, just like many other financially-oriented industry, has had its fair share of challenges and limitations including: terrorist attacks in countries, limited or total lack of cooperation amongst its stakeholders and shareholders, negative human activity on ecosystems (for example; over cultivation, poaching or even deforestation), internal and external wars in countries, and the unchecked growth of technologies and related facets like globalization.
As a result, a good number of regions, countries or cities have not been able to maximize their potentialities and achieve full efficacy in their enclave tourism endeavors.
Socio-economic Impacts of Enclave Tourism
Indeed, there are several socio-economic impacts of enclave tourism. Some of the main socio-economic impacts of enclave tourism are detailed below. Firstly, enclave tourism makes it easy for tourists to concentrate on enjoying themselves since the resorts that they stay in are self contained. Having many social amenities in one place also offers a myriad of enjoyment options. As a result, the tourists can engage in as many activities as they want depending on their preferences.
Secondly, enclave tourism encourages the maximization of tourism amenities and resources in the enclaves such as rainforest, coastal areas, mountains and rivers, among many others.
Thirdly, and very crucially, enclave tourism has been repeatedly said to provide a viable means for making money from the endeavor of tourism. For example, to locals, this form of tourism creates an opportunity for people to sell their products and services to visitors at the enclaves which, in effect, makes them some substantial amount of money. Others can also be employed as tour guides or even guards for some delicate touristic attractions. All these eventually total to some pay, which is a key way of sustaining tourism while ensuring that there is an overall economic uplift of the country/region where such people make their money.
Fourthly, enclave tourism provides a contextual learning forum for students and researchers. For example, by focusing on a specific enclave, these learners can discover ways in which our ecosystems can be conserved or even bettered Lindsay (2003) supports this by saying that “revenues from safari expeditions, for instance, may go to protecting the animals from poaching, while the entry fees from visiting a village may go to supporting education and health care for the local children.” In effect, this greatly helps in poverty alleviation while facilitating the continuity and sustainability of tourism in that particular enclave, and the world, at large.
Fifthly, enclave tourism acts as a source of pride for enclaves that are endowed with touristic attractions. This is very important in giving national or regional identities which not only boost the morale of the locals to preserve and be proud of their environment; but it also helps in ensuring good rankings in the international arena. As a matter of fact, most countries with good policies and systems of enclave tourism, more often than not, have relatively stable economic outputs compared to those with poor governance of their enclave tourism industries.
Sixthly, most enclaves, especially those that are in third world countries, are highly associated with the 4-S tourism (sex, sea, sand and sun). Good examples here include countries in the Caribbean like Cuba. On one hand, this is seen as a positive thing based on the self-contained nature of amenities.
On the other hand, it is viewed as some form of customization or manipulation of people to engage in certain endeavors. In some enclaves, the tourists are restricted from intermingling with other individuals or even bringing things like “outside” food in the resort promises. Even in the occasions that the amenities at the resort are not of your liking; you have no option but to accept.
In relation to the above point, Mbaiwa says that in enclave tourism, there is limited interaction between the visitors and hosts. Also, since most locals tend to get barred from reaching the enclave resorts; trading endeavors are limited. In effect, only the corporate owners in the enclaves get to profit hugely while the locals get the short end of the stick that has very little to offer to them.
Challenges of Enclave Tourism
To begin with, natural disasters have, for a very long time, been the primary challenge faced by tourism destination marketers. In the category of natural disasters, we have events such as typhoons, floods, droughts, famine and earthquakes among others.
Examples here include the Tsunami in Japan (2011), Hurricane Katrina on the north central Gulf Coast of USA (2005), and Tsunami in Indian Ocean (2004) which affected the tourism industries in Thailand, Maldives, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, India and Indonesia thus causing significant decline in number of visitors to these places.
Natural disasters of these magnitudes normally lead to deaths (sometimes in the thousands), destruction of properties worth millions of dollars, and development of a negative image of various enclaves which, in turn, has a devastating impact on the affected enclave.
Another common challenge is destructions that result from man-made activities. Examples here include civil wars, terrorist attacks (like the 9/11 attack on America and the indigenous wars in Nepal between the Maoists and the government), and political crises in countries or regions (like the genocide in Rwanda or the post-election violence in Kenya) among others.
Just like the natural disasters, the man-made disasters also lead to destruction of property, deaths and negative image of the affected enclaves. On top of that, regional wars often lead to mistrust and enmity amongst the involved enclaves thus limiting progress of enclave tourism endeavors in those places.
Despite Branding being a major element on enclave tourism, it is a challenge in itself to make effective and popular brand inside the country and in foreign nations especially when the destination is not from top ten countries (Morgan et. al, 2004). The successful brand carries huge power of attracting people’s emotion to make them choose particular enclaves
With regards to communication, the major challenge faced is the limited scope of traditional methods of marketing, such as word-of-mouth, in reaching many people within a short duration of time. However, in the modern side, there are also some problems faced. In the growing market of online buyers, the use of Internet as a tool for enclave tourism has been increasing rapidly.
Since online service is quite fast, relatively cost effective and easily accessible from any corner across the world; many enclave tourism marketers have been reported to spend a substantial amount of budget for developing interactive websites of the places so as to delivers a myriad of opportunities to the targeted audiences. Again, internet marketing requires its administrators to constantly update it with relevant information or alternatively set up automated systems to do make these updates.
Again, it is quite challenging and costly for various enclaves to create their websites in a unique and efficient way that takes into account all the needs and wants of the targeted audiences. Finally, the increasing popularity of hackers who can break into websites, blogs and social sites poses a threat to the security of confidential information in these sites. This greatly discourages people from using such forums—especially after a site has had any instance of security breach. Another problem in the aspect of communication is high levels of illiteracy in certain areas like Africa. In effect, this makes it difficult for messages designed by marketers to reach them since they cannot read or understand the messages sent to them.
With regards to transport logistics, the major challenge faced is the limited availability of certain transport facilities in particular areas. For example, the limited number of airports in most third-world countries, based on their low finances and limited industrialization, makes it difficult for air travelers to visit such areas. In other instances, modes of transport and transportation forms are available but they are made/designed poorly such that they cannot serve their purposes effectively thus limiting travel.
Other logistical issues like congestion due to high immigrations into certain regions, lack of accommodation facilities like hotels and houses for visitors, and traffic jams due to the populous nature of certain areas are also challenges faced by marketers thus making it difficult for the tourists and other stakeholders to conduct their activities effectively.
Often, destination marketers are prevented from fully maximizing the potential of their marketing strategies based on geographical and political boundaries which bar them from conducting their marketing ventures in certain areas/enclaves. In most instances, these boundaries are created rightfully to regulate trade and macroeconomic events such tourism or even encourage security of tourists.
However, in other instances, these boundaries are simply placed to limit competition and stop the rise of certain strong markets. Examples here include the some of the macroeconomic policies put by U.S.A to prevent China from exploiting U.S.A markets or some of the regional regulations that limit free trade and visits between Russian and people in UK—which has resulted in few Russians visiting the UK.
In the world of enclave tourism, economic hiccups and financial challenges (like the 2008 global economic crisis) are a common challenge faced by many tourism industries across the world. Various economies are affected differently during such crises and thus calling for variant ways to deal with it.
For example, the 2008 global economic crisis had a huge impact on U.S since it is the world superpower and had not prepared well prior to the crisis. On the other hand, Canada was only glimpsed by the crisis based on their strong domestic markets. During such a crisis, issues like transport are affected based on the hiking of things like oil prices which, in turn, affect the price of travel fares in various enclaves.
The strong competition amongst various companies and regions has resulted in a situation whereby moral values are not so highly regarded. In other words, most competitors would rather cheat their way into becoming successful rather than sit back and accept honest failure.
As a result, there are very high levels of corruption across the globe which makes it difficult for honest people and companies to market themselves effectively. Their corrupt counterparts, however, tend to have it easy as they bribe their way into most influential positions. In effect, fairness is hugely impaired for the honest destination marketers.
In light of the above challenges, it is utterly important that relevant measures are put in place. It is based on this need that the propositions below are formulated.
Proposed Solutions to These Challenges
Some of the solutions that have been proposed by Mbaiwa (2005), Cave (2002) and Freitag (1994) include:
- Increased educative programs on the relevance of enclave tourism principles and practices being followed
- Increasing interagency and stakeholder cooperation
- The establishment of a enclave tourism branch that specifically oversees enclave tourism activities across the globe
- Establishment of stringent laws to punish violators of enclave tourism principles.
- Encouraging more investments by both public and private individuals into enclave tourism
- Designing the appropriate mix of community features, products and services to cater for various needs in the enclaves
- Setting up attractive incentives for buyers and users (both current and potential) users of goods and services in a particular area/enclave
- Promoting an enclave’s values like experiences, image, infrastructure and people so that the targeted markets are fully aware of the place’s advantages.
- Properly planning, designing and organizing an efficient way in which all tourism shareholders are able to operate effectively without overstepping their boundaries while they play their roles vibrantly.
- Involving local in the endeavors of enclave marketing while using part of the proceeds from the tourism resources to help further the goals and dreams of the immediate community you are working in. This helps in buying favor and goodwill from that community thus encouraging progress in your marketing ventures.
- Conducting periodic audits and assessment of enclave tourism activities so as to know whether or not you are making progress.
Conclusion: Mediating the Impacts of Enclave Tourism through Planning
In order to mediate the impacts of enclave tourism, the following planning endeavors can be facilitated. According to Freitag, the enclave tourism can be further propelled regionally into greater heights especially now that globalization has done away with some barriers that could have limited tourists from going to some places. Freitag further says that based on the importance of planning and coordination to the tourism industry; tourism planners should ensure that they regularly meet so as to adequately plan for their activities.
Again, Ganderton and Chary recommend that there should be an increased coordination between local governance, national governance and regional governance by the tourism bigwigs since so as to ensure smooth planning of tourism. In addition, says that today’s tourists and event planners are becoming increasingly sophisticated in their travel needs” and therefore require proper coordination of activities so as to ensure that everything goes as required. Ganderton and Chary further say that planners should ascertain the “accessibility, attractions, accommodation, amenities and ancillary services” of their enclaves before making any plans.
Finally, recommends that planners should take into consideration factors like climatic conditions when planning for varied destinations. For example, the summer holidays should be planned differently from winter, autumn and spring based on the difference in weather patterns.
More importantly, enclave tourism planners should deviate from the tendency of not planning for eventualities and losses—which are part and parcel of any business-oriented industry. As a last noteworthy recommendation, enclave tourism companies should ensure that their planners are well trained and vastly knowledgeable with the intrinsic of planning, to be specific, and tourism, in general.
Bibliography
Anderson, Wineaster. “Enclave tourism and its socioeconomic impact in emerging destinations.” Anatolia – An International Journal of Tourism and Hospitality Research, 22 no. 3 (2011): 361-377.
Archer, Brian. ‘Sustainable tourism: Do economists really care?’ Progress in Tourism & Hospitality Research, 2, no. 3&4 (1996): 217-222.
Beirman, David. ‘Marketing of tourism destinations during a period of prolonged crisis: Israel and the Middle East’, Journal of Vacation Marketing, 8, no. 2 (2002): 167-176.
Cave, Damien. “Tourism apartheid in Cuba.” Salon, (2002). Web.
Fyall, Alan, Christine Callod, & Brenda Edwards. “Relationship marketing: the challenge for destinations.” Annals of Tourism Research, 30 (2003): 644-659.
Freitag, Tilman G. “Enclave tourism development for whom the benefits roll?” Annals of Tourism Research, 21 no. 3 (1994): 538-554.
Ganderton, Philip T., & Chary Swaroop. “Regional and resort destination marketing options for the greater Albuquerque area’, BMS , (2008). Web.
Lindsay, Heather E. “Ecotourism: the promise and perils of environmentally-oriented travel.” ProQuest, (2003). Web.
Mbaiwa, Joseph E. “Enclave tourism and its socio-economic impacts in the Okavango Delta, Botswana.” Tourism Management, 26 (2005): 157–172.
Ulrich, Dave. “Human Resource Roles: Creating Value, Not Rhetoric.” Human Resource Planning, (2006). Web.