Ref.: PTDC/AFR/69094/2006

Funding institution(s): FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia

Keywords: tourism, community development, insularity, sustainability

Abstract

It is proposed a comparative study in African insular context, in the sense of analyzing the tourism impacts in the development of the local populations, being considered the resulting benefits of the sector increase as well as the perverse effects that result negatively for the all or part of the community groups.

The comparative analysis is based on two Small Insular States that gather a group of common traits in spite of the own particularities that differentiate them. The countries in study are Cape Verde and Sao Tome and Principe, two Small Island States of Subsaharan Africa, geographically localized in Atlantic Ocean, feeling the effects of the insularity, the archipelagic nature, the small dimension, the distance and the isolation. Both are marked by a common historical past, of Portuguese influence, with recent political independences, being denominated as young democracies. Of the sociocultural point of view, the two cases are characterized by the prevalence of creole and mixed societies, with reduced and young population, enhancing mobility, living in poverty and vulnerability situation.

In presence of the geographical position, the environmental, landscape and sociocultural particularities, the tourism can be considered as an important strategic option to pursue the poverty reduction and to promote the community development. However, the investment in the sector, the projects implementation and the produced effects reveals significant differences.

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The general objective of the Project is to compare the produced impacts at community level, identifying the accomplished improvements in the local population conditions of life as well as the main generated, or worsened, negative effects in the two insular realities.

In order to implement the research, and by the prosecution of the Project, it is intended to create conditions for the opening of a new research line in the extent of the Centro de Estudos Africanos (CEA/ISCTE), for the accomplishment of studies and consultancies in the related areas of the Tourism and Development, involving other african experiences, such as the continentals.

The study is framed by conceptual principles and lines of theoretical and methodological orientation that value the capacities and local potentialities in the sense of the recognition and the reinforcement of the community identities, by motivating the deepening of the belongs feeling, the local solidarity nets, the self-esteem and the autonomy, through the adoption of proactive attitudes with real involvement.

The analysis fall upon the national strategic options for the tourism implementation, considered as a priority sector in the development promotion, privileging the dimensions of the poverty alleviation, the cultural valorization and the social and environmental sustainability integration principles.

 

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