Vanuatu will host Tourism, Cultural Landscapes & Livelihoods in the South Pacific Symposium

The Australia & International Tourism Research Unit (AITRU) at Monash University in conjunction with the Vanuatu Department of Tourism, University of the South Pacific, Massey University and tourism industry partners is pleased to present the inaugural Symposium on Tourism, Cultural Landscapes & Livelihoods in the South Pacific June 28 & 29, 2012.

The aim of this 'invitation only' Symposium is to assemble practitioners, researchers, policy makers, donors and tourism industry stakeholders to analyze the extent to which positive net benefits are accruing to islanders. The convergence of tourism, cultural landscapes and livelihoods is the key concern of this symposium.

Unless future tourism development is driven by informed policy, based on sound longitudinal research it is difficult to know whether tourism is indeed of net-benefit to Pacific islanders.

Day 1 will be opened by Australian High Commission to Vanuatu Charge D'Affaires Ms Charlene Watego.

Day 2 will be opened by New Zealand's High Commissioner to Vanuatu, H.E William Dobbie.

This Symposium seeks to harmonize and strengthen linkages between research, policy and practice in the interest of establishing research partnerships and a long-term framework to track and substantiate tourismís impacts and inform tourism policy accordingly.

The opening keynote address of the symposium will be delivered by Professor David Harrison, Professor and Head of the School of Tourism and Hospitality Management of the University of the South Pacific.  A sociologist of development, with specific reference to tourism, since the mid-1980s his research has focused on the economic, social and cultural aspects of tourism in less developed countries.

He has carried out research and written on tourism in the Eastern Caribbean, Southern Africa, Eastern Europe, South-east Asia and the South Pacific. David has written many papers in major tourism journals, most recently focusing on pro-poor tourism.

Among his books is the single-authored text The Sociology of Modernization and Development (1988), and he has edited others on Tourism and the Less Developed Countries (1992), Sustainable Tourism in Islands and Small States: Case Studies, Tourism and the Less Developed World: Issues and Case Studies (2001), Pacific Island Tourism (2003).

David will discuss what he considers to be a change in the way tourism and culture is manifest in Pacific island countries.