Tourism in a rural Ugandan village: Impacts, local meaning and implications for development.

摘要

Uganda is an equatorial nation in East Africa. Over 80 percent of Ugandans are peasants. To develop rural areas, Uganda is heavily promoting tourism. The potential impact of tourism on peasants has not been studied. Uganda's tourism centers on national parks. National parks are a major source of strife for peasants, mainly because parks' wildlife destroys peasants' crops. Therefore, national parks may play a role in the dynamics between tourism and Uganda's peasants. Considering this, Bigodi village next to Kibale National Park was selected as the site for this research. Bigodi has been involved with tourism since 1992. The purpose of this study was to discover the impact of tourism in Bigodi through analyzing local voices. The basic question was, what does tourism mean to the residents of Bigodi?; Qualitative research methods were used. The researcher spent ten months in Uganda from 2002 until 2003. Six months were spent in Bigodi. Data were collected through formal interviews (50 residents of Bigodi and 15 national tourism officials), informal conversation and observation. All data were analyzed within a grounded theory framework using the method of constant comparison. Analysis elicited a local meaning for tourism firmly grounded in the words of Bigodi's residents.; Residents identified several benefits of tourism: money, improved agricultural markets, communal benefits and the idea that tourism's benefits can arrive by "chance." The major cost residents identified was crop raiding. A nearly homogenous meaning for tourism arose from the data: the conservation of nature in order to attract foreigners who provide the money and ideas necessary for development. This meaning indicates dependency. Dependency is the antithesis of self reliance and sustainable development. The findings of this study suggest this dependency is not a direct result of tourism but instead of a perceived external locus of control. In other words, residents believe they have little control over what happens in their lives. This perception is rooted in historical, political and economic forces and creates a social psychological environment in which tourism encourages dependency. Thus, in the future, locus of control should be considered an important variable for successful tourism-based development.