Trust, traditions and indigenous women’s leadership in sustainable tourism management

Abstract

This paper examines contextual dynamics shaping the development of trust in the management of indigenous tourism. It focuses in particular on the role of women’s leadership in fostering community autonomy and a sense of community, which is argued to be key to building trusting relations essential to sustaining the tourism enterprise. Based on empirical fieldwork with the Pataxó Jaqueira community of Porto Seguro, Brazil involving document analysis, participant observation and interviews, the paper shows how trust, tradition and culturally embedded indigenous leadership capacities interact when seeking to develop and deliver tourism that meets community needs. The data show how investing in cultural resources builds social capital and reinforces the credibility women’s leadership, which is then leveraged to challenge patriarchal gender norms. Moreover, it identifies mechanisms of trust development and maintenance between entrepreneurial indigenous women and other community stakeholders, stressing the impacts of the women’s capacity for openness, solidarity and risk taking. The article thus provides contextualised and historically-informed, socio-cultural insights regarding the intersections of gender, trust and traditions in shaping sustainable indigenous tourism.