Evaluating Community-Based Ecotourism in Scotland - Case of the North Harris Trust

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2020-08-19
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en
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In this thesis, the evaluation of community-based ecotourism (CBET) is investigated. Most of the research in this field is situated outside of Europe, which is the first reason why a European case study has been chosen for this dissertation, that case being the North Harris Trust (NHT). The second reason why such a case study in Europe is relevant is because Europe is the most visited region in the world. The NHT is an organisation that operates on the North Harris estate, part of one of the islands of the archipelago the Outer Hebrides, on the North-West of Scotland. The goal of this research is to discover the differences and similarities in the way of evaluating CBET between the European case and the non-European cases already researched in the literature. To be able to compare those two kinds of cases, theoretical scholarship, and literature in which the theory has been applied to case studies are analysed and compared to an analysis of the practices at the North Harris Trust. The focus in the analyses is on the criteria and methods used in evaluation of CBET. The comparison of the literature and the practical NHT sources such as the website, minutes, and interviews with NHT officials shows that the evaluation of CBET in non-European cases does not differ much from the evaluation of CBET in Europe. The main difference is that the North Harris Trust does not have specific criteria and methods to evaluate tourism and the scholarly literature does offer this. The differences found form a new motivation for extra research, to be able to refine the existing criteria and methods for evaluating community-based ecotourism.
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