Residents’ Motivations to Participate in Decision-Making for Cultural Heritage Tourism: Case Study of New Delhi

Abstract

While academic research has established the need and importance of community participation in decision-making for cultural heritage tourism (CHT), there is still a lacuna in our knowledge when it comes to understanding what are the perspectives and motivations of people to participate in collaborative governance; thus, policymaking suffers from a lack of knowledge on how to effectively motivate and engage communities in heritage tourism management. Participatory approaches often focus on the management of various stakeholders without emphasising enough the understanding of practical and ideological factors that affect their participation. This study seeks to fill this gap in knowledge by attempting to understand residents’ attitudes and motivation towards participating in collaborative decision-making for cultural heritage tourism in their area. The objective of the study is twofold: (1) to identify residents’ attitudes towards CHT in their area and (2) to understand residents’ motivation for participating in participatory governance of CHT. The attitudes and motivations of the residents are looked at from a Weberian lens of formal and substantive rationality and it is established that residents are affected by both economic and non-economic factors in their support for tourism activities in the areas as well as to participate in collaborative decision-making. The study adopts a qualitative approach to study two heritage precincts of New Delhi, India. While the findings are based on the case study areas, they can be used to understand communities of other developing nations as well.