Tourism and Community Development Issues Tazim Jamal Department of Recreation, Park and Tourism Sciences, Texas A&M University, USA tjamal@tamu.edu Dianne Dredge Department of Culture and Global Studies, Aalborg University, Denmark dredge@cgs.aau.dk Introduction Development is a challenging concept. Telfer and Sharpley (2008) observe that problems such as poverty, inequality, poor healthcare and a lack of educational opportunities are widely recognized and reflected in the goals of international development programs such as the UN Millennium Project. However, as these authors state, it is unclear as to what extent particular developmental vehicles such as tourism are effective in addressing these issues, especially as many of the problems facing developing countries may be the outcome rather than the cause of underdevelopment (see also Telfer, 2009). The notion of “community” is also problematic, and heterogeneity rather than homogeneity may be far more appropriate to describe communities that are encased with geographic (or virtual) boundaries (see Dicks, 1999). An alternative view of community, characterized by belonging to multiple networks over time and across spatial scales fits our contemporary understanding of a globalized world, but also makes “community” a slippery concept for the purposes of planning and policy. Hence, both the notion of “community” and “development” tend to be contested, adding to the challenge of understanding the meaning and contribution of “community-based tourism.” The recent critique of community participation in tourism by Butcher (2010) in the Research Probe section of Tourism Recreation Research, and responses by Singh (2010) and Weaver (2010), show that the debate around resident responsive tourism and community participation in tourism are far from over. This chapter continues to explore the challenges encapsulated in these debates and attempts to address the overall question: To what extent can tourism contribute to community development? Disadvantaged, low-income and minority populations generally tend to incur a high proportion of negative environmental and sociocultural impacts compared to other social groups, such as tourists, and local elites. How does community-based tourism address inequalities in the distribution of economic, environmental and sociocultural costs? And how do pro-poor and sustainable tourism agendas address pressing issues like climate change in the context of community development? The chapter will take up these questions of tourism’s contribution to community development, first by examining the key Published as: Jamal, T. and Dredge, D. (2014) Tourism and Community Development Issues in R. Sharpley and D. Telfer, Tourism and Development. (pp.178-204). Channel View. Go to: http://www.multilingual-matters.com/display.asp?K=9781845414726