Between World Views: Nascent Pacific Tourism Enterprise in New Zealand

Abstract

This thesis considers the dynamics of entrepreneurship at the 'pre-tourism' stage of tourism development. It is written from the point of view of potential tourism hosts, diasporan Pacific peoples resident in New Zealand.

The central question is 'that societal marginality can be a positive position from which to develop tourism enterprise and cultural product'. The author used a collaborative action approach (Lopez Potter, 2001) to respond to a community, rather than an academic agenda. The research question reflects the aspirations of the Waitakere Pacific Board (WPB), an organisation which advocates for and undertakes projects to move towards economic, social and cultural equality with the mainstream western population, on behalf of nine diasporan Pacific communities. It tacitly assumes that the nine 'Pacific' communities share common views and values and are all at a similar stage of integration or hegemony and that the WPB speaks on their behalf. It further assumes that Pacific ethnic communities in Waitakere are in fact marginalised and that they all wish to and are capable of initiating commercial enterprise and tourism product. Also, there is an expectation that non-Pacific peoples consume products and services that are based upon Pacific cultural knowledge and resources. But most importantly, assumes that tourism can be as viable in a diasporan New Zealand non-indigenous context as it is in the Islands today.

The core thesis is underpinned by three other questions. Specifically, what are the diasporan Pacific community's aspirations for tourism and cultural enterprise to support tourism? What factors enable or inhibit interaction at the interface between diasporan Pacific communities and tourism product/cultural enterprise? What happens at the interface between diasporan communities and consumers? Contemporary non-instrument navigation is used as a metaphor for the research voyage, the structure of the thesis, and each community's journey in diasporan social worlds.