Project Proposal

Eco-tourism and Cultural Tourism in Rural Southern China

Proposals for integrated “new tourism” approaches

Mountain Community Based Pilot Projects

• Background and Justification

The background of this project is double: on one hand the difficult economic and social conditions of inhabitants of certain rural areas in China ( and elsewhere) , with particular regard to mountain village dwellers of the southern region. The need to mobilize resources, policies, programmes and partnerships in order to stop emigration and loss of cultural identity and heritage is identified as a priority in local and international documents.

On the other hand, the recent worldwide debate about the necessity to renew the concepts, cultures and practices of tourism highlighted the urgent need to prevent tourism’s damaging impacts on environmental and cultural assets, to guarantee sustainability and a more equitable redistribution of gains.

Seen from this perspective, tourism becomes a focal point of observation and intervention which might guarantee an integrated, holistic approach to issues traditionally tackled by development policies and socio-cultural research on local knowledge, cross-cultural interaction, local-global tensions.

New Tourism: Why and what it is.

“New Tourism” is the definition chosen, recently, to promote a “new dimension of Travel and Toursim” able to face the challenges coming on one hand from the deep worldwide crisis of travel and tourism and on the other from the challenges of sustainability (environmental, social and economic) (J.C. Baumgarten, Eecp Conference, 2004).

Any project relevant for tourism, no matter how limited its scope and area of intervention, should benefit from an approach which integrates as many aspects as possible. Cultural tourism and eco tourism more than other models, require such a holistic treatment which means that a project will cover, with different tools and activities, all the areas briefly summarized below as different aspects of tourism which always coexist and need strong organizational links.

Under each aspect, we only mention here some of the main issues and questions which should be beared in mind an to which find an answer, where possible, in the implementation of the project.

A:Tourism as cultural encounter

• Understanding and monitoring how communities represent themselves to/for tourists

• Observing how tourists contribute in shaping the features of a place, a landscape, a habitat which are offered to them by the host country/region.

• Recent surveys show a sharp increase in the demand for “authenticity” in all aspects of the tourist experience (dwellings, food, performing arts and even landscapes).What is the meaning of “authenticity” in different geographical and cultural contexts becomes a focus for research and discussion.

• In China and other Asian countries the market is now dominated by domestic tourists or nationals of neighbouring countries. This represents a new challenge in the analysis which were traditionally focused on “western tourists impacting upon Asian societies”.

B:Tourism as cultural challenge (Eco-tourism &cultural tourism^)

• Designing programmes for cultural and eco-tourism requires wide, in depth surveys of cultural, natural and human resources existing in any particular region.

• Feasibility studies, participatory and action researches, interviewing of all potential stakeholders, involvement of cultural institutions (schools, museums, libraries, historical archives) are all tools which will be employed in the planning and implementation of such programmes thus producing and expanding local knowledge and knowledge on the locality.

• Monitoring the impacts of cultural and eco-tourism projects requires careful identification of indicators and creation of monitoring protocols to measure complex phenomena such as community satisfaction, consistency of results with expected outputs, etc.

• Ethical issues will also be faced when it comes to discuss ownership and access, cultural representation of local,“indigenous” people, commodisation of cultural common goods and global value of cultural heritage.

• Eco-tourism requires new conceptualisations of the qualities of a “good life”, representations of “nature”, leisure, aesthetics.

• Typologies of cultural tourism include heritage, creative, rural, urban, arts tourism; knowing the range of possible choices seems necessary in order to identify one or several integrated models.

• “Ecotourism is a science and as such it must be carefully understood, modified, adapted, simplified, tought and improved” (Osvaldo Munoz Maggio, in 2^nd Pecc Eco Toursim Conference, 2004, & Shangri-la Common Understanding). Linking local and scientific knowledge is essential for promoting tourism that is sustainable to both the environment and to cultural values and beliefs

Communication components should be included at all levels of the organization and management of cultural eco-tourism programmes and projects (journalists, media staff, photographers, videos). New skills will be developed also in these areas.

C:Tourism as multi-sector Development Tool

If it is true that:

• Tourism, as the largest and fastest growing industry in the world, may offer enabling environments for micro and small enterprises and community based programmes as tools for local development,

• Eco-Sustainability, environmental protection creates economic incentives for conservation

• Eco tourism and cultural tourism enhance development of new knowledge and skills in communities and promotes job creation for both men and women.

Then, the issues to face are:

• How, by which means to guarantee 1.,2., and 3. How these themes will be addressed in the development of local planning and creating training opportunities. How will the public and private sectors be balanced in promoting access to credit and investment.

• How to implement access to financing resources (credit schemes, grants, loans, public/private sources, etc.)

• How to translate into a sound plan the statement that: “Tourism must be part of a broader concept of the mountain economy taking into account the sustainable exploitation of the resource base, the satisfaction of basic needs (self-sufficiency) and local management (as well as control and leadership)” (Barkin 1998).

• Marketing and trade supported by eco-tourism projects will encourage research into existing goods and produces, re-adjustment (in quality, quantitiy, packaging, etc.) or creation of new products within the framework of a tourist enterprise.

D:Toursim at a crossroad for a holistic, integrated approach to development planning

• All social, cultural and economic dimensions of tourism should be linked together when planning a programme.

• This means to develop skills to recognise the mutual linkages between: environmental conservation, cultural heritage, poverty alleviation, civil society’s agency, economic & infrastructural development, trade, trans-national and trans-cultural encounters.

• Full participation and management by the local community should be guaranteed and will , in turn, guarantee such and integrated approach.

• New methodologies and new skills will be required in order to perform real participatory local management of programmes.

E:Tourism as opportunity to build capacities in Institutional management: local, national, global/ public & private institutions

• Any programme designed to promote tourism, particularly eco and cultural tourism, touches upon the system of multi-level governance: from local municipalities, to districts, regions, national administrations and multilateral global institutions such as UNESCO and the World Tourism Organization.

• Civil societies are also involved through increasing numbers of specialised NGO’s organized locally or in more or less wide networks across local and national borders.

• Private sector enterprises, banks and all financial institutions (local and global (IDB) are involved in supporting such programmes through credit schemes and investments

• To design a clear structure for the management requires skills, in depth knowledge of the roles, missions and competences of all interested institutions. (from Regional Development Plans to Local Village Communities and Multilateral Agencies). Banks (national and international) and funding agencies will not support projects in tourism if the country government does not give priority to such investments

• Institutional strengthening including the improvement of the capacity of municipalities to manage tourism, (organization, legislation, statistics, land planning) and support of the competitiveness of local tourism Small Medium Enerprises might be recommendable.

F:Toursim means a necessary search for multiple Partnerships

• Building a partnerships doesn’t mean only to mobilise donors, but first of all to bring together an alliance of partner organizations to leverage the resources and expertise needed to broaden the reach of knowledge programs, to strengthen their impact and to promote multi-directional sharing of local and global knowledge.

• Networks of similar projects across one region will be necessary in order to share responsibility of investments and design meaningful medium term tourist routes

• Zonal approaches or Clusters of complementary projects might offer opportunities for overcoming constraints due to isolation

• Trans-regional and Trans-national partnership are obviously necessary in order to support offers to travellers coming from outside an area. In the case of eco-tourism.

• Partnerships projects design and implementation should encourage a network of exchanges at different levels for different purposes in all the above mentioned areas.

2. Scope and location of the project

Mountain villages : a partnership between China and Italy

• Mountain villages represent a typical location of eco and cultural tourism in many regions of the world. Different historical backgrounds have produced a range of different patterns of human settlements in mountain areas as well as a wide variety of habits and traditions in traveling across mountain areas and hosting visitors and tourists.

• Notwithstanding such differences, some commonalities are found across the world which allow fruitful comparisons and identification of risks and constraints.

• The proponents of the project can draw on the experience of different areas:

• the area of some specific sites around villages inhabitated by ethnic minorities in Yunnan Province ( Naxi, etc.) /the Alps, on the Italian side…..

• There are some aspects which are common and comparable between the Italian Alps and the Mountain village areas in Yunnan. For the Italian case, a rich literature has documented most aspects of the transition from traditional mountain livelihood to the establishment and development of policies and enterprises of different types of tourism. Italy’s experience of tourism in mountain areas goes back to the 18^th century and has developed a rich variety of historical research. Ongoing surveys and monitoring are now carried out by different institutions: university departments specialized in tourism and conservation ( economics, sociology, anthropology/ethnology, geography, architecture, etc.); national institutions (ministries of tourism and conservation); regional administrations, municipalities, consortiums of mountain village administrations; NGO’s; private and semiprivate enterprises and others. Access to this work is relatively easy, although it might require linguistic and cultural mediation.

• The trend towards emigration from mountain regions is , or was, a worldwide phenomenon. In mountain villages, people have a life of hard work, with little health security and education. Emigration means a loss of cultural traditions (traditional house style, cultivation, landscape, clothing, handicrafts and language). Tourism could be a way to give the peasants in those poor areas an extra income to improve their livelihood, and at the same time can be a way to preserve their cultural heritage.

• Constraints, risks and negative impacts have also been highlighted. For instance, the problem of how the resources coming from tourism are distributed; whether local people can manage these activities; how to maintain a balance between production for self-subsistence, for the market and for new tourist driven markets. Good practices in Italy could be found in some mountain areas, with family guesthouses, and so-called "agro-tourism" in many parts of the country; similar conditions can be found in some villages in Yunnan province and Guangxi region. Some bad examples should also be studied, in order to learn how to avoid risks of failure.

• The most important lesson learnt worldwide, is that “…tourism growth will cease when negative environmental effects diminish the tourism experience.” This simple concept applies to the social and cultural environment as well.For this reason communities are important in the development of tourism . (John Mock and Kimberley O’Neil (1997))Where tourism spread without proper anticipation of community needs, causing increased economic gaps and social disharmony within communities the growth stopped after a short time (Bezruchka 1998). Therefore, only a community orientation in identifying and designing a tourism base and complementary enterprises can work to bring economic benefits to many community members and balance the distribution of benefits. 

• Joint seminars, literature review, identification of lists of issues to be researched and shared definitions of key concepts will cover these themes in the first phase of the project with reference to the specific area/s identified for the implementation of the first, pilot experience.

C.Objectives of the proposed project

C.1 Overall objective

• The overall objective of the project is the improvement of the life standards of mountain villagers in areas at risk of loss of population, cultural heritage and traditions. To stop emigration from these areas, the project aims at the creation of an integrated model for the development of sustainable eco and cultural tourism based in rural communities. Sustainability is here meant as the capacity to link the improvement of the living conditions and life standards of the inhabitants of small villages to the conservation of tangible and intangibile cultural and environmental goods balancing conservation and development. The Project aims at integrating economic, cultural and social aspects of the life of these communities with eco and cultural tourism identifying conditions for success, indicators of impact and replicability under similar conditions.

All the items overviewed in the “Background” chapter of this document constitute the grid of the system to be built (See. above)

C.2 Specific objectives

Specific objectives of the project are

- To protect the cultural heritage, the “authenticity” of the architectural and environmental characteristics of an area of mountain villages as assets which could attract sustainable, “soft” tourist circuits.

- To develop a programme of economic, social and cultural local development integrated with , but not entirely dependent upon tourism enterprises.

- To establish a system of resource management which will guarantee a balanced and equitable distribution of gains, avoiding concentration of capitals and resources. To guarantee economic and environmental sustainability in the medium and long term.

- To introduce new tools and technologies for the development of local productive activitities.

- To introduce new tools and technologies for architecture and urban conservation and for the improvement of hosting capacities avoiding damage to the cultural and aesthetic identity of the area.

D. Activities

These specific objectives refer to particular areas of intervention which require clusters of activities summarized as follows :(a detailed description of the activities will be given in a separate chapter below after discussion of this proposal with stakeholders) :

1. Surveys and research activities on 1) general literature, conferences proceedings, field researches,( architecture, history, anthropology, tourism studies, etc.) and 2) local field surveys ; 3) survey of good practices and case studies

2. Creation of tools for the design of a pilot project for community based “cultural, eco-toursim”. (i.e.:plan of implementation, indicators of performance and impact, time frame, budgeting, etc.)

3. Establishment of a scientific technical committee for coordination of activities in a) and b) and ongoing monitoring

4. Creation of a consortium for the management of the pilot project ;to establish and develop satisfactory partnership among different stakeholders

In detail, specific objectives under a) refer to:

• the sharing of common knowledge among the stakeholders through exchanges (review of relevant literature, both local and international on identified issues, international seminars, exchanges of visits, students & scholars, discussing and acquiring tools in comparative research methodologies) .

• Collection of relevant data already available/ creation of a data base

• Survey of existing resources: natural, cultural, human, economic, productive resources.

• Survey of Architectural and urban resources

• In depth knowledge and discussion of National and Regional Plans / Trans-national comparisons, when possible, with Italian national and local plans)

• Creation of a “bank of local knowledge and time use” through participatory discussions and focus groups discussion. (“who knows what” , “how is time used by which social groups”)

• A participatory needs assessment survey ( public meetings, focus group discussions, individual interviews) aimed at portraying perceived needs, self-image: collective and individual, levels of aspirations, etc.)

• Identifying indicators of the life standards and quality to be used throughout the project’s life cycle until the final measurement of results.

Specific objectives under b)

• Defining and enhancing at different levels the “value” of traditional activities; i.e. economic value for subsistence, cultural value of skills, architecture,arts, handcrafts, tools making, row materials collection and processing, food, medicine, procedures and schemes of activities (as brought up in “bank of knowledge and time use”), knowledge related to different productive processes; identity value (memory, continuity, relationship with habitat); market value: local marketing value of the same; possible market value in a tourist circuit. Possible market value in the global market (fair trade, alternative marketing routes)

• Description of the villages as eco-systems: developing tools to forecast their capacity to absorb visitors and new marketing opportunities; avoiding negative environmental impacts and the vicious circle of “tourist driven self-representation/loss of authenticity” as well as the “museum driven, freezing effect”.

• Identification of existing and new small scale enterprises which could support the project

• Training needs assessment in all relevant idenfitied areas

• Create Training opportunities tailored on the basis of the above assessments

• Identify impacts indicators and monitoring rules and systems which can be managed, at different levels, by all the active population as well as by the project managing team.

• Identification of models for conservation of architecture and urban habitat. Design low cost projects integrating traditional and new technologies.

• Development of simple, basic architectural modules for hosting of tourists

• Survey aimed at identifying possibile low cost, energy saving, eco-compatible, sustainable technologies for energy supply and sanitary equipments

• Collection and discussion of Good practices and case studies. One lead partner of the project is the NGO CBIK ( center for biodiversity and indigenous culture). The project implemented by this Ngo can be a starting point on which to build a “case study” and learn lessons

c) Establishment of a Scientific Technical Committee.

• Collection of CVs and references of Participants

• Writing a Job description and action plan of the Committee members and as a whole

• Writing a Chart or memorandum of understanding to set rules and Terms of Reference of the committee members

d) Establishment of a Project Management Committee including all stakeholders involved in the local design and implementation of the Tourism Projcet (with assistance of STC above).

• Patterns of partnership to be established for the management of local activities, including village groups, zonal networks, content partnerships (linking with projects which have similar objectives and conditions), marketing networks and partnerships (fair trade, “soft tourism” circuits, etc.) . Activities aimed at creation and maintenance of networks will be described in detail.

• Development of Communication skills might be recommendable in this phase

• WEB tools development will be of crucial importance under these specific objectives

E. Expected results and potential impact

To be filled with a list of observable, measurable results referring to

• number of villages involved/

• research papers produced/ number of students P.H.D. candidates involved

• number and quality of architectural interventions of houses and buildings,

• number of trainings held, on which issues, by whom, for how many participants with which effects (learning/teaching objectives)

• quantity and quality of communication/ media …..

• impact indicators developed

• life quality and standards to be improved (indicators developed and tested)

• environent-landscape-wiew conservation

G. Project management : Scientifc Technical Committee and Management Consortium

See above D.c),d). A detailed diagram of the organization will be designed and agreed upon by all partners.

Partner at the initial phase (February 2006)

Universities & Academic Institutions:

Italy: IULM(Milano, Tourism Studies) ref. Prof. Roberto Lavarini ; Bologna University (Economics , ref. Prof. Luca Zan), Anthropology & Education (Prof. Matilde Callari Galli Proposal to be presented ??i); Ferrara University (Communication studies).

China: Yunnan University……; CASS(China Academy of Sciences); CoSSoCH (Centre for ScientificStudies of Cultural Heritage)

Experts:

Italy: Michele Miegge, Architect (C.V.)

Local Governments

China : Yunnan

Italy: Regione Emilia Romagna (?), Trentino (?)

NGOs

CBIK Center for biodiversity and indigenous culture, China

ASIA (?)

Multilateral Institutions

UNESCO

……………………….

E. Project monitoring and evaluation

An inbuilt system of monitoring and evaluating all the process will be created.

Participatory evaluation, self evaluation methodologies will be used

H. Project Implementation plan

Time frame to be developed .

.

I.Budget

Feasibility study

Terms of reference of the Feasibility Study

(April- Giune 2006)

Phase 1

A Feasibility study will be carried out for the duration of three months to test this draft project proposal.

1. Identify participants, their resources and attitudes towards involvement in the project. Meetings and interviews in the areas of north west Yunnan..

2.Identify villages (or possibile networks of villages) using the following grid of criteria

• Critical socio-cultural- economic conditions

• High value of cultural, environmental and landscape resources

• Existing opportunities and conducive environment for tourism development as shown by:

  1. policies of local governments (municipalities, village governments, disctrict,

  2. attitudes of local communities (associations, groups, enterprises, etc.)

  3. accessibility of individual villages and whole areas

  4. existing regional development programmes relating to infrasctructures, tourism, rural productive activities, high impact projects like highways, dams, etc.)

  5. viability of networking among villages to create trekking routes , etc.

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3. Identification on broad scale of villages heritage (tangibile and intangibile with particolar attention for architecture manufacts)

4. Identification of main ongoing trends and changes potentially threatening the conservation of traditional life styles and historical, cultural and architectural heritage.

5. Inventory of products already suitable for export or for development aimed at fair trade circuits.

Phase 2

1. Tourism project

-Training proposals in the fields of a)management ,b) impact monitoring, c) hosting ; d) communication, promotion

2. Architecture project

6. Proposal of models of conservation of architecture and urban habitat: low cost technologies integrating traditional and new modules

7. Development of architectural models for touristic hosting (mainly homestays, and basic sanitary services)

3. BUDGET PROPOSAL based on the above feasibility study (phase 1) and draft proposals of activities of phase 2 as discussed with want be partners.