PROSPER was a project of the Sustainable Tourism Cooperative Research Centre based at the Centre for Regional Tourism Research. It was co-directed by Dean Carsen then of of Southern Cross University now of Charles Darwin University, Jim Macbeth of Murdoch University and Pramod Sharma of the University of Queensland.
The ultimate aim of the project was two-fold, first, to use the concepts of social and economic capital as a vehicle for making judgments about the role and/or potential role of tourism in a region. Second, we want these concepts to help stakeholders make decisions about the degree to which a community is 'ready' to move into tourism development in any significant way. This latter could be as simple as a local council trying to decide whether to invest money in a caravan park.
For
further information, go to http://www.regionaltourism.com.au/projects.html
The
main publications from this project is a book of case studies edited by
Dean Carson and Jim Macbeth: Regional tourism cases. Innovation in
regional tourism. Altona, Victoria: Common Ground Publishing (2005).
Also available through the Sustainable Tourism CRC (see next arrow point).
For other relevant publications, go to the Sustainable
Tourism cooperative Research Centre website