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Tourism to serve culture: the evolution of an Aboriginal tourism business model in Australia

Tourism to serve culture: the evolution of an Aboriginal tourism business model in Australia This paper aims to track the evolution of an innovative Aboriginal tourism business model with deliberate social and community enterprise objectives in a remote setting.Design/methodology/approachIt adopts an in-depth exploratory case study approach to discover key characteristics of an emerging tourism enterprise. The qualitative data sources include publically available planning, promotional and organizational materials, in-depth interviews with key informants and on-site observations. Yunus et al.’s (2010) social business model provides the framework for the case analysis.FindingsFindings highlight the gradual deepening of Indigenous engagement – from simply providing a place for a non-Indigenous tourism business – to running a fully Indigenous-controlled, staffed and themed on-country tourism business. Complementing existing non-Indigenous tourism experiences reduced the need for start-up infrastructure and market recognition, thus reducing business risk for the Traditional Owners. Despite substantial changes in the business structure in response to political and maturation factors, the core motivations seemed to remain strong. The business model facilitates value creation to stakeholders in varying ways.Research limitations/implicationsThe contextual nature of Indigenous tourism reflects limitations of qualitative case study methodology.Practical implicationsThe resulting business model provides a contextually appropriate structure to engage in tourism for achieving cultural and societal goals. It mitigates against the identified risk of low market demand for Indigenous tourism experiences by connecting with established non-Indigenous tourism products, while also allowing for product offering independent thereof.Social implicationsSocial benefits are high and have potential for replication in similar contexts elsewhere.Originality/valueThe paper contributes to the emerging research on culturally appropriate business models in Indigenous tourism contexts and validates a strategy to overcome low demand. It offers a model that for the tourist facilitates a sustainable experience which enables co-production while for the hosts fosters community resilience, intergenerational learning and improved livelihoods. The case highlights opportunities for further research into the interrelationship, dependencies and thresholds between the social and economic profit equations, particularly in the context of the culture conservation economy. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Tourism Review Emerald Publishing

Tourism to serve culture: the evolution of an Aboriginal tourism business model in Australia

Scherrer, Pascal
Tourism Review , Volume 75 (4): 18 – Sep 8, 2020
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References (29)

Publisher
Emerald Publishing
Copyright
© Emerald Publishing Limited
ISSN
1660-5373
DOI
10.1108/tr-09-2019-0364
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

This paper aims to track the evolution of an innovative Aboriginal tourism business model with deliberate social and community enterprise objectives in a remote setting.Design/methodology/approachIt adopts an in-depth exploratory case study approach to discover key characteristics of an emerging tourism enterprise. The qualitative data sources include publically available planning, promotional and organizational materials, in-depth interviews with key informants and on-site observations. Yunus et al.’s (2010) social business model provides the framework for the case analysis.FindingsFindings highlight the gradual deepening of Indigenous engagement – from simply providing a place for a non-Indigenous tourism business – to running a fully Indigenous-controlled, staffed and themed on-country tourism business. Complementing existing non-Indigenous tourism experiences reduced the need for start-up infrastructure and market recognition, thus reducing business risk for the Traditional Owners. Despite substantial changes in the business structure in response to political and maturation factors, the core motivations seemed to remain strong. The business model facilitates value creation to stakeholders in varying ways.Research limitations/implicationsThe contextual nature of Indigenous tourism reflects limitations of qualitative case study methodology.Practical implicationsThe resulting business model provides a contextually appropriate structure to engage in tourism for achieving cultural and societal goals. It mitigates against the identified risk of low market demand for Indigenous tourism experiences by connecting with established non-Indigenous tourism products, while also allowing for product offering independent thereof.Social implicationsSocial benefits are high and have potential for replication in similar contexts elsewhere.Originality/valueThe paper contributes to the emerging research on culturally appropriate business models in Indigenous tourism contexts and validates a strategy to overcome low demand. It offers a model that for the tourist facilitates a sustainable experience which enables co-production while for the hosts fosters community resilience, intergenerational learning and improved livelihoods. The case highlights opportunities for further research into the interrelationship, dependencies and thresholds between the social and economic profit equations, particularly in the context of the culture conservation economy.

Journal

Tourism Review – Emerald Publishing

Published: Sep 8, 2020

Keywords: Indigenous tourism; Co-production; Value creation; Kimberley region; Sustainable; Culture conservation economy; Social business; Social enterprise

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