Bauer, Irmgard (2009) Designing an sssessment tool for tourism's health impacts in developing countries. Step 1: listening to local voices – an example from Peru. In: Posters from the 11th Conference of the International Society of Travel Medicine. From: 11th Conference of the International Society of Travel Medicine, 24-28 May 2009, Budapest, Hungary.

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Abstract

Objectives: It is widely acknowledged that tourism has an impact on visited people and places, especially in developing countries. Furthermore, there is a shift from the sole focus on economic benefits of an entrepreneur to the consideration of the needs of local people who have to live with the consequences of tourism at their doorsteps. The lack of a health assessment tool for current and prospective tourism developments that can be used by any stakeholder, but most importantly, by affected communities, and that is comprehensive, location-specific and easy to interpret, has been pointed out before. To date, no such tool exists. To ensure that locals' concerns, values and interests are considered, community-validated indicators must be developed. The objective of this study was to demonstrate how the content for locally meaningful indicators can be obtained based on people's perceptions of a healthy community.

Methods: Thirty-five residents from two villages close to the Cordillera Huayhuash trekking circuit in Northern Peru took part in both interviews and ranking procedures, aimed at understanding the factors most important for a healthy community and, therefore, in need of protection or conservation in relation to tourism enterprises.

Results: Out of 10 items, both villages ranked a combination of 'health', 'education', 'work' and 'family' as the most important aspects of a healthy community. The findings of the interviews emphasised different concepts, including 'environment' and 'harmony'. Each village had its own set of concerns linked to its specific ethnographic make-up.

Conclusions: The method of obtaining local concerns was successful not only in yielding actual factors of interest but also in identifying village-specific differences. The results are useful for designing local-specific indicators to be added to indicators of generic health impact assessments. This meets the requirement of giving local people control over tourist developments and their prospective implications. The next step in the tool design will be to formulate appropriate questions per indicator and a range of degree of acceptability which can be used to assess and predict impacts on a community's well-being.

Item ID:	22357
Item Type:	Conference Item (Poster)
Related URLs:	Organisation
Date Deposited:	08 Aug 2012 04:54
FoR Codes:	11 MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES > 1117 Public Health and Health Services > 111799 Public Health and Health Services not elsewhere classified @ 25% 15 COMMERCE, MANAGEMENT, TOURISM AND SERVICES > 1506 Tourism > 150601 Impacts of Tourism @ 75%
SEO Codes:	90 COMMERCIAL SERVICES AND TOURISM > 9003 Tourism > 900301 Economic Issues in Tourism @ 30% 90 COMMERCIAL SERVICES AND TOURISM > 9003 Tourism > 900302 Socio-Cultural Issues in Tourism @ 30% 92 HEALTH > 9204 Public Health (excl. Specific Population Health) > 920407 Health Protection and/or Disaster Response @ 40%
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