Developing tourism products and new partnerships through participatory action research in rural Cameroon

At present, several obstacles to tourism development have been identified in developing countries. These include: poor infrastructure; shortage of facilities; a weak tourist image; a lack of know-how with regard to how to welcome visitors and market tourism services; and the scarcity of available capital. In the research reported on in this paper, we explore the involvement of microcredit institutions to alleviate these issues. Because tourism is not yet developed in our study area of West Cameroon, action research was considered the only way to validate (by action) the recommendations of both the actors and the researchers. Action research permits the researchers to study the complex issues that typify the management of tourist destinations, including, for example, governance problems. It allows for networking and capacity to change the ways in which actions are carried out. The paper explores possible synergies between microfinance institutions (MFIs) and small and medium tourism businesses in an African rural community. First, we emphasise the obstacles to the formation of partnerships between MFIs and tourism businesses and we suggest ways to minimise them. Second, we describe how we facilitated networking between tourism actors and MFIs, which enabled the development of tourism products through new partnerships. As a result, four businesses are currently operating. From a research perspective, we point out the strengths and weaknesses of different types of associations and list the challenges. The results indicate that asymmetry of information and a lack of entrepreneurial spirit emerge as key concerns. The action research has promoted place and community based development. However, we underline that proper tourism development also requires the participation of stakeholders acting at different spatial scales.