| dc.description.abstract | Since the early 2000s, First American tribes in Oklahoma began establishing tribal tourism departments within their sovereign government structures to promote tribal businesses and tribal territories as travel and tourism destinations. The American Indian Alaska Native Tourism Association was incorporated in 2002 as a nonprofit to advance Indian Country tourism. Collectively and independently, AIANTA and Oklahoma tribes have been actively involved in instituting tribal tourism as a means of economic diversification and growth for sovereign nations. After more than a decade of evolution, tribal tourism departments within Oklahoma and across the United States continue to struggle in understanding how First American tribes define and achieve success in tourism.
In collaboration with AIANTA, a comparative case study was conducted, using interviews of four First American tribes in Oklahoma who had established tribal tourism departments with tenured leadership. Members of The Cherokee Nation, Chickasaw Nation, Choctaw Nation and Muscogee (Creek) Nation were interviewed to understand tribal tourism and its impact on surrounding communities.
For this study, a modified framework based on Yoon et al. (2001) was utilized as an integrated approach to identifying patterns and relationships using the economic, cultural and social impact factors. | en_US |
