Community-Based Tourism: The ‘Marriage’ between tourism company and the community
The local community’s active participation and involvement in developing a tourist destination is essential. According to (Wiwin, n.d.), Community Based Tourism emphasises the involvement of the local community in the management, operation, and organization of the tourist destination being done by the local community
Moreover, the CBT approach aims to create a balance between the stakeholders.
However, there are some challenges encountered in this concept. The challenges are the ignorance of the market, service connection, and tourist distributors resulting in a poor performance of the tourism destination(What Is Community Based Tourism?, n.d.)
According to the research conducted in 2009 in Guyana by Justin Francis from Responsibletravel.com, stated that the average occupancy across 28 projects that were surveyed, was only five percent who presented their contact details for the reservation process (What Is Community Based Tourism?, n.d.).
Responsibletravel.com suggests that in the implementation of community-based tourism, there should be active participation between the community where it sits and a tourism company. In this case, the tourism company will have the responsibility to market and manage the finances while the community will be the owner as well as the operator who provides the service.
Furthermore, another strategy such as tailoring the community-based tourism project into the itinerary of the company. Getting the project to be a part of the itinerary, tourists can live in the local community’s lodge for example. This will bring financial benefits to the community.
To summarise, the purpose of this community-based tourism is to increase the community’s welfare. Therefore, a specific, relevant, and beneficial strategy such as the marriage between a tourism company functioning as finance and marketing operator and the community as the owner and manager of the business is compulsory for the business to thrive.
References
- https://www.responsibletravel.com/holidays/community-based-tourism/travel-guide
- Wiwin, I. W. (n.d.). Community Based Tourism Dalam Pengembangan Pariwisata Bali.
| Disclaimer: This article was written with the assistance of AI technology. The author utilized his own experience and knowledge to construct the content, while the AI provided support in ensuring clear writing and proper grammar. All ideas presented in this article are the sole property of the author. |
Author :
Junior Tutor
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