ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the theoretical context of the study through a comprehensive review of the tourism and planning literatures. The emergence of ethnic tourism has been considered to be a mixed blessing for host populations due to the positive and negative consequences that result. The cultural impacts of ethnic tourism have been closely linked to issues regarding authenticity. Ethnic tourism has also been charged with causing social impacts, including increased social tension, socio-cultural breakdown and an erosion of the sense of identity and place. The development and promotion of ethnic tourism involves a number of socio-cultural issues or contradictions that should be addressed by a planning process. The tensions identified from the literature are among the main issues that should be addressed by the planning process. The literature review leads to the conclusion that neither the tourism nor the planning literatures have paid much attention to ethnic tourism planning.
