Projects

The Tourism Collaborative has undertaken a variety of projects over the last twenty years:

• In Managing Tourism Growth: Issues and Applications (co-authored with Fred Bosselman) it analyzed and evaluated methods by which communities can carefully control tourism in order to maximize its many positive aspects while minimizing its potential harmful effects, both for the long term benefit of host destinations as well as for visitors and the tourism industry.  The book includes scores of case studies.
• It studied and commented on hotel development of on-site tourism elements that serve both to expand opportunities for guests to learn about local culture and traditions and to increase the hotel’s attraction to potential guests. Case studies included several hotels in Bali and in Bangkok.
• It reported on the potential advantages of a "community model" of managing tourism resources with special reference to the prominent Canadian ski resort of Whistler, British Columbia. Its study included the roles of industry leaders and citizens in shaping and monitoring local goals for mutual success.
• It evaluated, in a United Nations publication, an innovative rural tourism program in Wales that combines historical, cultural and recreational attractions as a key component of a broader initiative to improve the economic and social life of the area.
• It analyzed and evaluated a number of governmental efforts in Oaxaca, Mexico to increase the economic benefits of tourism by promoting cultural tourism. Elements ranged from improving accessibility to local craft markets in outlying villages to developing hotels in historically significant structures within the city of Oaxaca.
• It analyzed strategies to generate desired tourism growth by enhancing those assets of the community that attract visitors; case studies were of the walled town of Alcudia in Mallorca and the royal capital of Luang Prabang in Laos.
• It studied and published articles on a number of initiatives of the Greek government to control and manage inappropriately oversaturated tourism and second home development.