Best Practices for fostering social inclusion: strengthening communities through participative empowerment and promoting inclusive opportunities

Tourism and hospitality industries have been historically associated with driving local development and growth in European destinations, from the development of a diverse range of tourism activities in destinations such as commerce, tours, food and family-owned accommodation, to large-scale hotels and cruise ship employment. However, tourism development and its impact on local communities has been a topic of relevant debate in recent years. With ongoing discussion about the long-term viability of tourism activities in destinations, and its impacts on its residents, it is crucial to acknowledge how increased concerns from local communities is driving a shift towards more sustainable and responsible tourism practices. Understanding who is involved in decision-making when it comes to tourism planning, what are the benefits and shortcomings of developing tourism activities for local communities, and how tourism can positively impact communities, gives us insights on how to move towards adopting a more sustainable approach to tourism and community development.

Empowering communities: decision-making as a powerful agent of change

Empowering communities by including them in decision-making is essential to drive change. Community empowerment can be defined as the creation of conditions that allow people to have an active role in decisions about their well-being and livelihoods, thereby enhancing sustainable local development. Giving voice to local residents and including them in decision-making processes when planning tourism activities can help in producing a better engagement with visitors, allowing more connections between visitors and the local community.  Also, it can reduce tensions by providing opportunities to discuss more equitable distribution of opportunities, and building social cohesion, ensuring a more equal distribution of resources. Therefore, sustainable tourism development with society’s participation is considered crucial for communities to thrive and achieve long-term growth.

While empowering frameworks can enhance well being of individuals or communities, it is also important to recognise that achieving this requires broader transformative change in society to overturn unjust structures.  Community empowerment should drive more social inclusion, and develop a more equitable distribution of benefits, such as a fair distribution of revenue and strengthening governance on community based organisations. Embedded in the UNs Sustainable Development Goals and the European Pillars of Social Rights policies, social inclusion can be defined as the ability to improve participation in society for people who are disadvantaged, such as in age, sex, ethnicity, origin, or economic status, and to promote enhanced opportunities for them. However, social inclusion can be hindered when local communities don’t have access to income and employment. Developing new tourism activities with participative decision-making requires significant effort and meaningful engagement with  local stakeholders, fostering a sense of inclusion and creating opportunities for socially disadvantage groups. It requires developing initiatives to promote socio-economic inclusion through employment and training; developing strategies where economic growth can be invested in social development; and developing new opportunities to diversify local economies, aiming to decrease inequalities and boost development.

Social inclusion as both a driver and a response of tourism development

It is imperative to discuss how to tackle barriers to promote people’s full participation into society. The tourism industry can have an important role in driving community development, but it can also exacerbate inequalities. For this reason, there is a need to consider how the industry can develop growth and sustainability while also promoting fairness and social justice. Developing multi-stakeholders’ initiatives, and corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategies in a corporate context, have been important in contributing to social inclusion and creating more local involvement in tourism planning.  Many organisations have developed different approaches  to CSR  initiatives, such as career development opportunities, programmes for training in partnership with educational institutions, building infrastructure and supporting cultural activities. These multiple initiatives generate long-term positive social changes and comply with important regulations that aim to develop stronger communities. Developing a bottom-up approach and identifying community needs are also important to actively achieve social inclusion.

 

While social inclusion often emerges from CSR initiatives, it also acts as a significant force in driving tourism development. When social inclusion is prioritised, it can create conditions for future tourism growth, such as with the development of active participation in the economy of marginalised communities, as for example in entrepreneurship endeavours. It also leads to more employment and overall growth, providing the industry with the opportunity to have a more diverse and talented pool of employees. Lastly, it can promote mutual understanding and build social cohesion between visitors and local communities with the development of meaningful connections. As a result, it leads to improvements in well-being and quality of life in touristic communities.

 

Case-study in Promoting Social Inclusion with Participative Empowerment: TIPI’s Viajando al Futuro Initiative

TIPI is an organisation founded in 2012 in the Basque Country that seeks to promote sustainable tourism in underdeveloped Spanish regions. The organisation is piloting since 2024 a project in Valle de Laciana (Laciana Valley), located in the village of Villablino in the Leon province. The village has approximately 8,000 inhabitants where today its main economic activities are cattle farming and agriculture production. In the past, however, it was a village with over 16,000 inhabitants, which coal mining was the most prominent economic activity. As the development of mining activities decreased through the years, Villablino also saw a decrease and ageing of its population, with strong economic consequences, which were further aggravated by the 2008 recession.  In response to this situation, the city started to look for alternative economic activities. In 2003, the Laciana Valley was declared a Biosphere reserve by Unesco, and its unique local traditions and culture have also been considered an important element of tourism development in Spain. In 2024, TIPI started to design an initiative to promote sustainable tourism in the region. This competence building project, Viajando al Futuro (Travelling to the Future), empowers participants by providing skills development and knowledge to influence local policy and regulatory framework through co-creation workshops, ensuring tourism practices are aligned with local needs. The project’s collaborators are residents, local administrators and socio-economic agents, and its priority is to empower marginalised stakeholders and ensure their voices are integrated into the urban and tourism development processes.

The first phase of this initiative focused on researching and engaging with local stakeholders to gather insights and generate ideas for the future tourism development. The second and third phase, which are currently taking place in Laciana valley, aims to transform the initial ideal into tangible results, by designing sustainable tourism strategies through collaboration with local institutions, social agents, residents and the private sector. These phases include identifying barriers within Laciana’s region for the development of tourism activities, defining the scope of collaboration, allocating resources, co-creating workshops with a team of potential service providers, local authorities and stakeholders, identifying opportunities for implementing sustainable tourism strategies in the region.

TIPI has highlighted that Viajando al Futuro is a model for other projects in rural areas, as it is a region that is developing new activities, has a strong sense of community and identity, benefits from ongoing social and cultural initiatives, and has an established social, economic and tourism infrastructure that provides a base for new strategies. The organisation faces a number of barriers commonly faced in rural areas of Spain, including population decline, ageing demographics, unemployment, and limited involvement of young people, all of which have led to generational gaps and labour shortages.

TIPI encourages the participation of community members in decision-making and policy-making processes through effective collaboration. This creates sustainable strategies for tourism in the region and provides sustainable solutions for effective social inclusion.

 

Case-study in Promoting Corporate Responsibility: MarSense’s Initiative of Social Inclusion through Employment

MarSenses is a hospitality brand that operates in the Balearic Islands in Spain with 4 hotels in Mallorca and 2 in Menorca, with a total of 450 employees. With over 40 years of experience, the organisation underwent a rebranding to develop and inspire change and introduced new corporate values focused on inclusion. These are being operationalised through the implementation of multiple initiatives in developing corporate social inclusion and corporate inclusive practices.

Besides the incorporation of a change plan in the organisation, MarSenses has launched a project to integrate individuals at risk of social exclusion, starting with the prison community. The company collaborated with the Employment Services of the Balearic Islands Vocational Guidance Service for Ex-prisoners and Alternative Measures and Special Difficulties in Finding Work agency, SOIB (Servicio de Empleo de las Illes Balears), which provided information to start a programme of inclusive hiring. The new employees had the opportunity to begin an internship, train in specific areas and after this period, were offered employment contracts with the hotel.

From SOIB, they were also put in contact with the Group of Educators of Work with minors (GREC- Grupo de Educadores de Calle Y Trabajo Con Menores), with whom they also began to collaborate, in a project in collaboration with Fundacion la Caixa. The participants of this project received training in different courses in culinary arts and were also offered employment in the hotels. With this initiative, MarSenses aims to attract and retain talent, while contributing to social development and inclusion in the Balearic Islands.

Rebranding was an empowering factor, which created a more inclusive culture. This has enabled teams to better understand and connect with other members, implement new practices among all employees, and has also reduced a gap in resistance to change. The organisation has been developing actions to foster collaboration, empathy and develop an understanding of others, looking to create a culture that embraces differences in the workplace. The greatest impact within the organisation has been the way employees have embraced several new initiatives in developing a culture of change, leading to increased cooperation, improved productivity and a higher employee satisfaction rate.

MarSenses group recognises that welcoming socially marginalised groups at risk of exclusion has enriched their employee’s community, while also helping to address challenges regarding staff shortages, social inclusion and growth in the tourism sector of the Balearic Islands.

Conclusion

By developing practices that prioritise the integration of socially disadvantage groups in training and employment, and promote the empowerment of communities, organisations provide an important pathway for individual and societal growth, aligning with UN Sustainable Goals and principles of CSR.

For more information on these case-studies and others compiled by the PANTOUR project, see: PANTOUR’s Best Practices Handbook in Tackling Inequalities and Promoting Diversity and Social Inclusion in Tourism and Hospitality.

About the author:  Fernanda Rabelo is a Postdoctoral Researcher at Technological University Dublin, working as a team and work package leader at the PANTOUR project, developing research related to sustainable skills and education especially focused on gender equality, diversity awareness and social inclusion. Fernanda and the TU Dublin team were responsible for the development of PANTOUR’s Best Practices Handbook in Tackling Inequalities and Promoting Diversity and Social Inclusion in Tourism and Hospitality.