Towards culturally sustainable scuba diving tourism: an integration of Indigenous knowledge

• Nurdina Prasetyo ^[1] ; Sebastian Filep ^[2] ; Anna Carr ^[1]
  1. [1] University of Otago

     University of Otago

     Nueva Zelanda

     
  2. [2] The Hong Kong PolytechnicUniversity, Kowloon, Hong Kong
• Localización: Tourism recreation research, ISSN 0250-8281, Vol. 48, Nº. 3, 2023, págs. 319-332
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Whilst there is an increasing literature about managing local Indigenous values in land-basedsettings for visitor experiences there is limited knowledge around how Indigenous valuescontribute to tourism development in marine environments. This paper explores howIndigenous knowledge and practices are integrated into scuba diving tourism development. In-depth face-to-face conversations with 49 Indigenous tourism stakeholders in Misool, RajaAmpat, Indonesia were conducted. Following narrative analysis,findings revealedfive featuresof Misoolese knowledge and practices of the local communities: locating and attracting marinespecies, reading the signs of nature, respecting sacred sites,fish taboo, andmarine sasi, a formof traditional marine resource management. Thefindings make a theoretical contribution asthey explain how integrating Indigenous knowledge into successful tourism development canbe achieved. It is argued that these Indigenous practices are instrumental for culturallysustainable tourism development in marine environments.