Star struck fisherfolk: Perceived social benefits of tourism development in remote fishing communities

Participation in the tourism industry often entails frequent social interactions between the hosts and the visitors. While many of these social exchanges are obvious, it may be the lesser or indirect social exchanges that are... [ view full abstract ]

Participation in the tourism industry often entails frequent social interactions between the hosts and the visitors. While many of these social exchanges are obvious, it may be the lesser or indirect social exchanges that are desired by some host communities. In remote coastal communities where visitors are rare, new faces are often a welcome and noteworthy event. Past research has shown an associated value, through social status, of meeting a foreigner and, thus, gaining a foreign ‘friend.’ Beyond ‘friendship’, there are other social benefits from tourism development. For example, with increased exposure to tourism and tourists, a noted effect is the acquisition of additional language skills. Additionally, community members recruited into the industry may develop new recreational skills such as surfing or diving. Semi-structured interviews with 52 fisherfolk in three fishing barangays, or communities, from the Luzon region of the Philippines focused on the social, economic and environmental costs and benefits of a potential livelihood shift towards tourism. Thematic analysis was used for coding of the qualitative data set. Though overall levels of tourism awareness were notably low, the majority of participants asserted a positive association with visitors. One participant reminisced about the excitement of seeing foreigners as a child, comparing it to being star struck. Many participants commented on the idea of being able to ‘look’ at or ‘see’ a new face. Some such responses were representative of a desired voyeuristic or passive participation in the tourism industry. Overall the findings from this research demonstrated that perceived social benefits took precedence over economic benefits in the context of development through tourism. In the majority of development schemes, livelihood improvement through increased economic benefits remains the goal. However, these results indicate that, in the case of remote fishing communities, the role of social benefits requires further attention.