Tibetan Community Tourism Principles

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Tibetan Community Tourism Principles

Contributor(s):

Religion

Acknowledge that religion, religious tradition and ritual are embedded in the social, cultural and natural fabric of the Kham Region.

  • Through a range of interpretive experiences communicate to the visitor the pervasive nature of religion in shaping community, both in terms of culture and natural systems.
  • Recognize religion as a crucial and dynamic repository of knowledge and tradition.
  • Recognize religion as a provider of formal and informal education. David?
  • Recognize religion as a principal means of communication.
  • Recognize the role of religion in community leadership. David?
  • Recognize that pilgrimage plays a key role in tourism.
  • External readers to edit and expand.

Cultural Preservation

Cultural Preservation embodies both tangible and intangible resources, embracing values, traditions and life ways which have evolved and will continue to evolve. In the Kham Region, this is defined by a number of livelihoods including those around agricultural practices, nomadic life ways , a hybrid of agricultural and nomadic practices and life ways, urban areas-including resettlement initiatives, merchant trading/trade routes and religious centers housing monastic communities and nunneries.

  • Cultural values should not be sacrificed for commercial considerations in tourism development.
  • Balance cultural resource protection and integrity with appropriate strategies, including recognizing limits to levels of visitation and tourism access.
  • Appropriate research and evaluation is required to support preservation, interpretation and engagement (in other words you need to know your resource well).
  • As domestic and international tourism are vehicles for cultural exchange, cultural preservation should provide responsible and well managed opportunities for members of the local community to interact positively with visitors.
  • Cultural preservation should provide responsible and well managed opportunities for the local community to experience and understand that community’s heritage and culture first hand.
  • Inherently in conflict, cultural preservation and tourism should be managed in an inclusive sustainable manner.
  • Activate profitable business models that serve to preserve and enhance cultural heritage.

Agriculture

  • Built forms
  • Natural Systems

Nomad

  • Built forms
  • Natural Systems

Agriculture/Nomad

  • Built forms
  • Natural Systems

Urban (includes resettlement areas)

  • Built forms
  • Natural Systems

Monastic/Nunnery

  • Built forms
  • Natural Systems

Merchant/trade routes

To be added by external readers:

  • Artisan traditions, household activities, religious activities, oral traditions, performative traditions, contemporary culture including contemporary literary traditions, life ways/livelihoods, family structure

Community Development:

In the Kham Region, tourism should support the sustainable development of community by integrating community interests in all tourism planning.

  • Growth of community should be considered in such a way that community resources are conserved and enhanced.
  • Infrastructure
  • Tourism integral to community
  • Education (community services)
  • NGO and FDN projects in area
  • Zoning and land use
  • Transportation
  • Urban design/conservation

Natural Systems Conservation:

In the Kham Region, natural systems conservation includes the appropriate use and management of grassland, forest, water and mountain resources. These elements play an inextricable role in shaping community values, sacred spaces and the tourism experience. Recognizing that these systems have evolved and will continue to evolve will be important to their protection.

  • Activate profitable business models which serve to sustain natural systems.
  • Recognize that though there is an inextricable link between Kham culture and the land, a segment of the visitor population will focus exclusively on natural systems values.
  • Balance resource protection and environmental health with appropriate strategies, including recognizing limits to levels of visitation and tourism access.
  • Appropriate research and evaluation is required to support natural resource conservation.
  • Natural systems conservation and tourism should be managed in a symbiotic way.
  • Locally and culturally appropriate management and uses of natural systems should be respected by the visitor?
  • Topographic features, includes mountains
    • Water
    • Grasslands
    • Forest
    • Wildlife

Education and Awareness:

Improving the knowledge base of both the visitor and the host community about the tourism resource such that each is empowered to effectively learn, experience and teach in order to positively shape tourism development in the Kham Region.

Education and awareness benefits both the visitor and the host community in that it should improve the knowledge base of both the visitor…

  • Engage in interactive interpretation where the visitor and the host each teach, learn and experience.
  • For both the visitor and the host, pride of place is enhanced through active engagement and education.
  • Recognizing appropriate levels of technology…..(Bill with David)
  • Tourism interests should develop an awareness of cultural preservation and natural systems conservation concepts and practices. Likewise, cultural preservationists and natural systems conservationists must also develop an understanding of what tourism is and how it works.
  • Improving awareness and exchange of knowledge between those responsible for and affected by tourism at the national, state and local levels.
  • Educate the host community about the benfits of tourism development.
    • Formal education systems
    • Informal education systems

Economic Development

In the Kham Region, recognize that the economies of tourism initiatives should benefit the host community.

  • Encourage local micro to medium size enterprises and tourism business strategies that emphasize economic and social benefits to involved communities.
  • Appropriate cultural heritage products should be created from cultural heritage assets.
  • Encourage large scale businesses and corporations to develop and undertake socially responsible business.
  • Enforce national anti-corruption laws at all levels of the tourism industry.
  • Employ local labor in the tourism industry.
  • Coordinate national tourism policies with local tourism strategies.
    • Tourism and hospitality
    • Infrastructure
    • Mining
    • Logging
    • Construction/roads-“going out for income”
    • Merchants-local, trans regional, migrant
    • Agricultural products-crops
    • Nomad products-Meat/dairy
    • Artisan traditions-specify
    • Seasonal gatherings-cordacyps, mushrooms

Visitor Experience

The Kham Region is home to incredible cultural and natural resources which serve to shape unique visitor experiences.

  • Provide a full range of visitor experiences in recognition of market diversity.
  • Recognize visitor diversity when addressing visitor satisfaction.
  • Develop appropriately controlled visitor experiences.
  • Enhance the management of tourism by requiring the participation of relevant government agencies, particularly at the local destination level.
  • Recognize the relationship between visitor expectation and capacity at local level.
    • Access-to/from, within/at
    • Interpretation
    • Infrastructure
    • Site
    • Services (heat, seasonal)
    • Safety and health
    • Tourism infrastructure
    • Visual quality

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