Browsing by Author "Scheyvens R"

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
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    Enhanced wellbeing of Pacific Island peoples during the pandemic? A qualitative analysis using the Advanced Frangipani Framework
    (Open Polytechnic of New Zealand, 2023-02-28) Scheyvens R; Movono A; Auckram J
    COVID-19 isolated island states from international tourism, which is a primary provider of employment and driver of economic development for the Pacific region. Most governments lacked the finances to provide sustained assistance to tourism businesses and workers, thus one might assume that these people’s wellbeing was very low during the pandemic: in fact, this research found the opposite. Utilising the Frangipani Framework of Wellbeing, a survey was utilised to investigate 6 dimensions of wellbeing in tourism-dependent communities in Samoa, Fiji, Vanuatu and Cook Islands during periods of border closures. Results found that while people faced financial struggles, their mental, social, physical, spiritual and environmental wellbeing had improved in many cases. Respondents indicated that they felt more connected to one another and their spiritual beliefs, were able to utilise communal resources to support their livelihoods, and that the pandemic provided a well-needed break for both themselves and the environment. This research demonstrates that people can successfully adapt and show resilience in the face of significant shocks and financial challenges if they have access to a range of cultural knowledge and systems, strong social connections and natural resources.
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    International development and tourism geographies
    (Taylor and Francis Group, 2024-03-19) Scheyvens R
    This commentary reviews the state of tourism and international development scholarship with special attention to publications from this journal, Tourism Geographies. Rather than assuming that tourism is the end game, or goal, as a body of researchers tourism geographers have often identified concerns about the exploitative impacts of tourism development on low income communities and countries, and negative environmental implications, especially when tourism is externally-driven. However, many of us have also asked, ‘can tourism contribute effectively to international development, and if so, how?’. The articles resulting from this line of research focus on a range of approaches, from sustainable tourism through to inclusive and regenerative tourism, which show that there are ways in which tourism can facilitate rather than impede development. In a neoliberal-dominant world facing significant challenges including climate change, structural inequalities and complex conflicts, it is more important than ever that we keep this question–can tourism contribute to development and if so, how? - central to our research. After providing a concise history of research in this field, this article will discuss the value of some recent trends in tourism scholarship, as well as identifying research gaps and pointing to future directions for research by tourism geographers.
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    Pacific approaches to fundraising in the digital age: COVID-19, resilience and community relational economic practices
    (John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 2023-08-01) de la Torre Parra L; Movono A; Scheyvens R; Auckram S
    The aim of this paper is to discuss how community relational economic practices in virtual spaces are effective in building resilience because they are borne of and sustained by familiar traditional Fijian values of collective work and social interdependence. The researchers adopted a pandemic-induced methodology, conducting online-based talanoa (fluid conversations between two or more people) with a number of people leading, or involved in, these initiatives. We also engaged with online community groups behind a number of initiatives. Examples are provided of online crowdfunding, livestreaming of concerts to solicit donations, and bartering facilitated by social media sites. To conclude, we stress the enduring nature of communal bonds and traditional systems which Pacific people readily adapt and translate into different forums and forms in the face of challenges such as the restrictions and financial hardships caused by COVID-19. The findings highlight that solesolevaki – a tradition of working together for a common cause – can also occur in the digital era: this demonstrates the deep connection of Fijian peoples and their sense of obligation to one another and to their culture, regardless of where they are in the world.
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    Silver linings around dark clouds: Tourism, Covid-19 and a return to traditional values, villages and the vanua
    (Victoria University of Wellington and John Wiley and Sons Australia Ltd., 2022-08) Movono A; Scheyvens R; Auckram S
    The global pandemic has adversely affected tourism globally, particularly in small island states heavily dependent on tourism. The closure of borders to regular flights for over a year in places such as Fiji, Samoa, Cook Islands and Vanuatu, where this research was undertaken, has resulted in massive job losses. Many tourism employees have left the once-bustling tourist hubs, returning to villages and family settlements. Such clear urban to rural migration behaviours do not dominate movement patterns in the Pacific, but are an important and enduring strategy when shocks strike. In the case of the pandemic-induced migration to villages, former tourism workers have had to engage in a complicated process of adapting to the communal setting, employing new – as well as traditional – strategies to sustain a livelihood. Thus, this paper will discuss how the pandemic has influenced return migration patterns in the Pacific, and the implications of this shift. Findings suggest that, despite their financial struggles, people have adapted to life in their ancestral homes by rekindling their relationships with kin and increasing their engagement on their customary land. They have relearned about traditional Indigenous knowledge, diversified their skills and reconnected with their social and ecological systems. This spiritual homecoming observed in the Pacific ultimately shows that there can be silver linings to the dark clouds of the current disorder.
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    Spiritual and environmental well-being: Factors supporting adaptation of Pacific peoples during pandemic times
    (Victoria University of Wellington and John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd, 2024-08-01) Scheyvens R; Movono A; Auckram J; Faaiuaso L
    Most Western models of well-being focus only on social, mental, financial and physical well-being. Collecting data on how tourism-dependent communities in the South Pacific had adapted to the dramatic impacts of the pandemic, we became aware of the significance of spiritual and environmental dimensions of well-being. We also identified several Pacific well-being models that incorporate these dimensions. This article thus examines how COVID-19 lockdowns influenced the spiritual and environmental well-being of Pacific peoples living in tourism-dependent areas. It demonstrates that many people were able to adapt well despite dramatic changes in their financial situation and restrictions on their mobility. They often showed deep appreciation about having more time for religious practices and to care for others in their communities, and they enjoyed working more with nature, on the land or in the ocean, and looking after the environment. We conclude that if the tourism industry can rebuild in ways that support spiritual and environmental well-being, this could mean tourism will be appreciated more by resident communities as something which compliments – rather than competes with – their culture and way of life.
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    Tourism, empowerment and sustainable development: A new framework for analysis
    (MDPI (Basel, Switzerland), 2021-11) Scheyvens R; van der Watt H
    For over twenty years, tourism researchers have examined how to determine whether destination communities are being empowered through tourism: there is much we can learn through analysis of that work. We outline and critique the most commonly used empowerment framework in this field as was first published by Scheyvens in 1999, which has four dimensions (psychological, social, economic and political) but which has been adapted and extended in a variety of ways. We also consider two other frameworks, and the application of a revised model in the South African context, before proposing that the Scheyvens framework would be strengthened through the addition of environmental and cultural dimensions. We draw theoretical inspiration from nested circle approaches to sustainable development to embed the dimensions of community empowerment within a series of ‘enabling factors’ that might support possibilities for community empowerment to occur, and, in turn, the empowerment dimensions and enabling factors are situated within a wider circle of the natural environment. We have structured this all into a new Empowerment and Sustainable Development Framework.