Deborah Duperly-Pinks is an Independent Consultant in Participation, Participatory Action Research, Facilitation and Community Development. She has also spent 13 years working in the tourism industry in Jamaica. Her academic background is in Psychology and Sociology with Social Psychology being her area of specialisation. She has a particular interest in conducting research that can utilise the participatory approach with the employment of PLA tools and a variety of visual and creative methodologies. She is presently undertaking her PhD in Governance at the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies at the University of the West Indies, Mona.

Title of Paper: Tourism as Relationships
Abstract:
This paper is based on research carried out in 1999 on ‘Community Tourism and Development’ in Jamaica and from arguments contained in the book chapter Community Tourism: "Style and Fashion" or Facilitating Empowerment? included in the book Tourism and change in the Caribbean and Latin America (Boxill et al 2002).

This paper is particularly concerned with the human and relational environment of tourism. We look at the Jamaican self (concept) as developed from its socio-historical environment, which in turn produced a particular perspective on tourism and the importantly linked concept of service. This perspective is explored within the personal interactions that take place between locals and tourists in both the Mass Tourism and Community Tourism models.
The paper highlights three key areas
1. The concept of service in Jamaica linked to the Jamaican self-concept as set against the socio-historical and psychological environment in which it developed
2. The importance of community tourism as a model that promotes development of the Jamaican self (concept)
3. The main challenges of that model and what is needed for it to work

Abstract: People Centered Tourism