An Investigation of Establishing the Indigenous Subjectivity Ecotourism of Atayal People in Taiwan
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An Investigation of Establishing the Indigenous Subjectivity Ecotourism of Atayal People in Taiwan Dr. Yin-Jen Chen, Associate Professor, Graduate Institute of Earth Science, Chinese Culture University, Taiwan Yen-Yu Chen, Ph.D. student, National Taipei University of Technology, Graduate Institute of Technological and Vocational Education, Taiwan Lecturer, St. Mary's Junior College of Medicine, Nursing and Management, Taiwan Dr. Su-Hsin Lee, Professor, Department of Geography, National Taiwan Normal University, Taiwan ABSTRACT In the development of tourism for indigenous peoples, ecotourism tends to be used to relive nature, natural, cultural, and environmental education, and create the opportunity to activate economic development of homelands. Although ecotourism provides a more proactive and positive tourism pattern to tribes, what academics and practitioners care about is that tribal communities develop tourism activities and develop autonomy during the promotion process. How to inherit and extend the spirit, value, and living system of the traditional culture of indigenous peoples, and put them into practice in subjective ecotourism of tribes, is an issue worthy of discussion and reflection. Therefore, this study used multidimensional Scaling to analysis and assesses the perceived status of seven common activity types of tribal ecotourism. This study used nine indices: community empowerment, subjectivity, traditional culture, participation, self-identity, communication, nature-based, conservation, and commerce to perform cluster analysis, benchmark analysis, and assessment on the competitive situation, and further develop appropriate subjective ecotourism mechanisms for indigenous peoples. Multidimensional Scaling and cluster analysis showed that, from the perspective of Atayal people, the community empowerment and subjectivity of “Indigenous Culture Interpretation” were better than other types of ecotourism. Although “Hunter School” and “Ecological Interpretation” are in the same cluster, the community empowerment and subjectivity of “hunter school” got more recognition from Atayal people. Although “Indigenous Jaw’s Harp” and “Atayal Weaving Culture” are in the same cluster, the community empowerment, subjectivity, and traditional culture of “Atayal Weaving Culture” were better. The community participation of “Tribe Kitchen” was the highest, and conversation was the lowest. The self-identity of “Organic Farming” was slightly insufficient. This study attempts to develop the attributes of subjective ecotourism of the Atayal people, and use them as the basis for promoting the subjectivity ecotourism model of the homeland. Keywords: Indigenous Tourism, Ecotourism, Subjectivity, Indigenous Subjectivity Ecotourism, Multidimensional scaling analysis/MDS The Journal of Human Resource and Adult Learning, Vol. 11, Num. 2, December, 2015 45 INTRODUCTION Motivation As there are abundant natural landscapes and traditional customs in areas of indigenous peoples, many tribes of indigenous peoples can use tourism activities and cultural resources to develop their economy and promote economic prosperity. The economic interests from tourism include; increasing regional production, reaching a balance between regional financial revenues and expenditures, increasing the employment rate, and improving infrastructures and living environments. The profits can also be used to preserve and maintain cultural and natural heritage. Increased tourism and consumption can earn the funds required for supporting cultural preservation (Tsou, 2006). Tourism development creates opportunities of economic development for homelands. In addition to positive influences, such as the promotion of tribal cultural and the awakening consciousness of indigenous peoples, tourism helps indigenous people regain confidence in traditional culture, and further speeds up the development of the tourism industry of tribal communities of indigenous peoples (Altman, 1989; Guo, 1998; Song, 2002; Chuang, 2002; Tsartas, 1992; Zeppel, 1998a; Berghe & Ochoa, 2000; Liao, 2004). Since 1980, the tourism pattern started to change from mass tourism to natural environments and experiencing the traditional culture of indigenous peoples. Studies of indigenous community development schemes found that, in terms of the industries in which indigenous peoples were willing to engage, the proportion of tourism (40.5%) was in second place (Chang, et al., 1996). Ecotourism has gradually become a strong power for homelands to promote their industries, such as natural landscapes and ecology conversations, cultural activities, forest tourism, tourism farms, and B&Bs. Moreover, the operators of tourism industries advocate that ecotourism creates more business opportunities (Pforr, 2001). In addition, government sectors promote ecotourism, and focus on increasing potential work opportunities and income as a means of community development. Although the development of tourism and ecotourism enable homelands and tribes to thrive, many cultural conflicts are also created, including the popularization of ceremonies and performances, commercialization of culture, the imitation and mass production of Indigenous works of art, damage to natural resources, security problems, various pollution problems, and social problems (Zeppel, 1998). Recent studies have found that, during the implementation of ecotourism in homelands, the originally expected objective is seldom fully achieved, and unpleasant social, cultural, and economic impacts may even be created. When ecotourism gradually develops an industrial scale and an atmosphere of profitability, it may impact local traditional culture and values, which is unfavorable to tribal development (Foucat, 2002;Ross and Wall, 1999;Stem, et al., 2003). Therefore, there is a need to develop tourism schemes that consider tribal communities, as well as the needs and welfare of the communities. Study Purpose Therefore, this study used seven activity types of ecotourism in Atayal tribes in Taiwan: community empowerment, subjectivity, traditional culture, participation, self-identity, communication, nature-based, conservation, and commerce, enrolled the Atayal people in the Wulai District of New Taipei City as the subjects, and performed multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis. The purposes of this study are 1. To develop the attributes of subjective ecotourism of Atayal people, and use them as the basis for promoting a subjectivity homeland ecotourism model. 2. To understand the separation of the ecotourism activities of Atayal people, this study investigated the status of 7 major types of ecotourism, with Atayal people as the subjects. This study also developed the attributes of Atayal subjectivity ecotourism. 3. This study investigated and analyzed the status of these seven types of Indigenous ecotourism. 46 The Journal of Human Resource and Adult Learning, Vol. 11, Num. 2, December, 2015 Research area The venue, that has changed as a result of tourism in the long term and is the site where this study is carried out, is the Wulai Indigenous community in New Taipei City. Wulai is a famous tourist scenic spot in Taiwan, with an area of 321 square kilometers, and is the Indigenous sightseeing attraction that is the closest to the metropolitan area in Taiwan. Since the 1950s Wulai, originally a pristine semi-enclosed Indigenous village became an attraction with its natural resources and indigenous peoples. With the long-term development, it gradually abandoned its previous status as an undeveloped land and became a commercialized tourist area. The local economy has suffered severe restrictions after Wulai became mainly a sightseeing spot, and it is also bound by its status as an important water resource for Taipei. In the 1990s, the government planned a series of hot spring industrial projects as the driving force of economic development, hoping to use ethnic groups as an attraction to create an image of hot spring combined with interaction with local Indigenous residents to cater to the mainstream imagery. But with the crowded Wulai streets and the constructions of large hot spring sites, the degradation of the natural environment and habitat is inevitable, and the changes of architectural styles and cultural patterns are all evidences of how the sightseeing business model is leading to the decline of the landscape quality of the environment (both natural and human). The daily lives of Wulai residents have already become part of the tourism industry. When there are countless tourists for this tourist attraction, the local residents face the dilemma of choosing between the accelerating step to stop the degradation of the development of their home and the returning to their original state of living. LITERATURE REVIEW Developmental Process of Indigenous Tourism Communities of indigenous peoples can generally be divided into narrow and broad senses. In the narrow sense, a homeland is a place where indigenous peoples are born and grow up, and is the main living space of Indigenous tribes in mountains and at the seaside. In a broad sense, a homeland is the imaginative scope of the traditional space of Indigenous culture and history, and generally refers to the land where the ancestors and peoples of indigenous tribes inherit their traditions, meaning the traditional fields and spaces perceived by indigenous peoples (Lu, 2011). Under the context of globalization, the tourism development of Indigenous townships follows a specific trend. Due to the flow of space compression, as