African Journal of Hospitality, Tourism and Leisure (Oct 2018)
Lessons learned from Successful Community-Based Tourism Case Studies from the Global South.
Abstract
Community-based tourism (CBT) has been promoted as a way of development whereby the sociocultural, environmental and economic needs of local communities are met through tourism product offerings. CBT is known to contribute to social and economic survival of the marginalised communities in developing countries and the preservation of natural resources in the affected areas. In developing countries tourism has often been observed as the spin around for small-scale enterprises and job creation, and therefore the uplifting of local community’s standard of living. Where CBT is practiced well, there is a potential to provide some exceptional opportunities for communities by offering not only better benefits but also enhancing their contribution in planning and management of tourism in their community. To progress towards sustainability, CBT must contribute to the empowerment of host communities. To achieve this, communities must be allowed to participate in decision-making where important information is needed, with the early stages of empowerment permitting the community to deciding their own development. Tourism development literature accepts that tourism can occur at the destination area, without dealing towards the development of the area. Additional measures must be undertaken to include locals, and the host community as direct beneficiaries of the tourism industry. CBT has emerged as a viable vehicle to achieve the aims of spreading the development benefits of tourism, biased towards the host community. There Global South which is dominated by developing countries have jumped on the tourism bandwagon, and there is a need to observe and document their experience with CBT. The paper uses case studies of successful CBT projects from the Global South to add to the limited body of knowledge. The lessons drawn from the successful community based projects can be used when planning future local CBT projects.
