Social movements and tourism-related local action

•Social movements encourage consciousness-raising, networking, and self-efficacy.•Some tourism development organizations may nurture these characteristics as well.•We examine one development organization to look for these characteristics.•We found evidence of all three characteristics.•This is a model for tourism developers if they are interested in social change.

Social movements often emerge as a response to oppression generated from uncertain economic conditions. This study focuses on the role of HandMade in America, a regional economic development organization, in cultivating the change-agent components of social movements (consciousness-raising, networking, and self-efficacy) in seven tourism-reliant communities. Results from interviews, focus groups, and a review of archived publications indicate that HandMade’s distinctive approach cultivates social movement components via its Visioning and Charrettes, Clean, Green and Screen Projects, Project and Grants Cycles, Annual Cluster Meetings, and Ongoing Contact with HandMade. These important findings force a theoretical debate as to what constitutes a social movement organization and a practical debate for tourism developers to view their efforts in a different light.