Community-based tourism

Scroll down for posts that have been tagged with “com­munity-based tourism”.

Com­munity-based tour­ism is a respons­ible form of tour­ism that seeks to empower loc­al com­munit­ies by involving them in the devel­op­ment and man­age­ment of tour­ism activ­it­ies. It ensures that the host com­munity of a des­tin­a­tion has a stake and/or say in the devel­op­ment of tour­ism via con­sulta­tion, decision-mak­ing, employ­ment, and/or dir­ect ownership.

Accord­ing to the United Nations World Tour­ism Organ­iz­a­tion (UNWTO), com­munity-based tour­ism is defined as “tour­ism that is owned and man­aged by the loc­al com­munity, where tour­ists stay with loc­al fam­il­ies, learn loc­al tra­di­tions and par­ti­cip­ate in loc­al activities”.

Com­munity-based tour­ism is grow­ing in pop­ular­ity as more people become aware of the neg­at­ive impacts of mass tour­ism on the envir­on­ment and loc­al cul­tures. It is a way for trav­el­lers to con­nect with loc­al people, learn about their cus­toms and tra­di­tions, and exper­i­ence their way of life.

The bene­fits of com­munity-based tour­ism are numer­ous; offer­ing a more authen­t­ic and immers­ive exper­i­ence for tour­ists, while sup­port­ing loc­al jobs and busi­nesses, and (hope­fully) pre­serving the cul­tur­al and nat­ur­al her­it­age of the destination.

The­or­et­ic­ally, com­munity-based tour­ism can help to reduce the neg­at­ive impact of mass tour­ism. By involving loc­al people in the devel­op­ment and man­age­ment of tour­ism activ­it­ies, com­munity-based tour­ism is more likely to set and enforce lim­its to vis­it­or num­bers. Fur­ther­more, with stakes in both the industry and the des­tin­a­tion, loc­al people are more likely to ensure that the bene­fits of tour­ism are max­im­ised and/or dis­trib­uted equit­ably while mit­ig­at­ing the poten­tial down­sides of tourism.

Tags are inform­al. The “Good Tour­ism” Blog tries not to get bogged down with ter­min­o­logy and defin­i­tions. You may dis­agree with tags applied (or not applied) to a post. If so, feel free to com­ment on any post you think has been incor­rectly or insuf­fi­ciently tagged. “GT” encour­ages good-faith debate and discussion.