New Study: Community Based Tourism Doomed To Fail?

There are success stories – like the community based eco-tourism in Luang Namtha, Laos. On the whole though, its extremely difficult to get the right balance between attracting enough tourists to sustain the operation and getting too many, which overwhelms the entire community.

I tend to think that all these labels are a real hinderance and this study seems to suggest that too. There are “a number of initiatives which are not CBT which have demonstrated very considerable employment, local economic development and collective community benefits”. Maybe part of the problem here lies in academics trying too hard to assess and classify projects, perhaps they should be casting a wider net to understand what really works and not present such a negative outlook.

I think a massive problem also lies in the fact that there’s a great deal of support for the creation of these types of initiatives, but very little thought and assistance given to establising a sustainable route to market for them – something that whl.travel and whlconsulting have quite admirably been working hard to address.

I had read this study a while ago but pleasantly surprised to see it crop up on here for discussion, nice one Christine. Good to know we agree on a few things

The problem with most CBT projects is that they are developed by academics/consultants who have very little practical experience of owning or operating a tourism enterprise. They themselves are funder reliant, therefore it is no wonder that they carry this mind set into the projects. CBT, like all forms of tourism must be based on sound business principles and therefore the “bottom Line” counts.The projects cannot achieve their stated community goals if they are not viable, in fact they will foster discontent within the communities because the results will not match the communities expectations. I believe there are success stories but they have not been classified as CBT projects and therefore don’t appear on the screen. A farm which offers accommodation and food to travelers in a rural community and provides jobs, an therefore income, within that community would not normally be classified as a CBT initiative. It however meets the needs of the owner and the community but is simply not recognized as fulfilling these goals.

Am embarking on a Doctoral study on Applied Research in Community Based Tourism in selected coastal areas of Tanzania. Would like to learn from everyone and everybody as well as find future partners where together with a chosen community we can establish Community Based Projects which are generating themselves daily in my head.

Happy New Year to you all there,

Sammy

We might think that we know CBT initiatives in Tanzania, how many do we have so far? can they all be categorised as CBT projects? how can we point out the ones which are not, using what criteria? Do we even have a policy, regulations which mainly focuses on CBT initiatives in Tanzania or the one aligned to the Tanzanian Tourism policy? Is it the incapability to think outside the box or its just an academic fever trying to use communities in a wrong way? am also looking for success stories…most of these fails after the cut down of donor funding …. if the communities are not aware, then who is managing the projects? who decide what should or should not be done, if not the communities who are not aware?
Am also from Tanzania and need to know much about these projects!!!!
Good observation Christine