The Social Impacts of Tourism in the UNESCO Champlain Adirondack Biosphere Reserve (USA)

In its most benign form, tourism is able to protect the cultural and ecological integrity of a region and to promote economic development in line with sustainability principles. Additionally, sustainable forms of tourism have the potential to improve the quality of life within the host community by promoting intergenerational equity. However, sustainable models of tourism are extremely challenging to design, implement, and manage at the community level because of competing stakeholder interests. There are significant power dynamics associated with sustainable tourism planning and management that often fail to incorporate all citizens’ voices, particularly those belonging to underprivileged backgrounds. Due to the growth of international tourism (prior to the COVID-19 pandemic) and its related impacts, multinational organizations such as the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) continue to collaborate with member states and affiliates to identify methods to improve existing sustainable tourism strategies, discover new ones, and to address the social impacts of tourism globally. This study examines the social impacts of tourism in UNESCO’s Champlain-Adirondack Biosphere Reserve and the stakeholders’ dynamics that influence tourism planning in the region. Through an exploratory case study, this research uses media analyses, document review, focus groups, and semi-structured interviews to gain a deeper understanding of the social impacts of tourism and the stakeholders’ dynamics related to tourism management. Stakeholder theory, responsible leadership, and ecosystem services are used as a theoretical framework to ground the inquiry and to provide insight into how the social impacts of tourism are related to tourism planning dynamics. The findings revealed significant new knowledge about social impacts of tourism in the Adirondack High Peaks Wilderness and a mapping of complex competing stakeholder interests related to tourism management. A conceptual model is offered to assess the social impacts of tourism in international UNESCO Biosphere Reserves. This dissertation is available in open access at AURA (https://aura.antioch.edu/) and OhioLINK ETD Center (https://etd.ohiolink.edu/)