Community Based Tourism
Finding the Euilibrium in the COMCEC Context
4
During the 1950s and 1960s, the community became at the center of development of rural
and underdeveloped areas. Subsequently, in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the World
Bank and the United Nations (UN) promoted community participation in development
programs (Sebele, 2010). As focal point of development turned to community participation,
global concerns about socio-cultural, economic and environmental issues emerged. It has
resulted in organization of several international conferences and preparations of reports,
declarations and action plans to accelerate awareness and actions about sustainability at
the international level. (See the Summary List of the Activities Related to Sustainable
Development, Sustainable Tourism and the LDCs, in Appendix A.)
Table 1. Social, Environmental and Economic Benefits and Costs of Tourism
Social Benefits
 Brings in outside dollars to support community facilities
and services that otherwise might not be developed.
 Encourages civic involvement and pride.
 Provides cultural exchange between hosts and guests.
 Encourages the preservation and celebration of local
festivals and cultural events.
 Facilities and infrastructure developed for tourism can
also benefit residents.
 Enhances community’s collective ego.
 Improves quality of life.
 Re-populates by keeping or attracting emigrants and
driving labor force from outside.
 Capacity building- encourages the learning of new
languages and skills.
 Tourism related funds have contributed towards schools
being built in some areas.
 Builds human capital and social capital.
Social Costs
 May attract visitors whose lifestyles and ideas conflict with the
community's. An example may be the visitors' use of drugs and
alcohol.
 May change individual behavior and family relationships.
 May lead to an increase in sexually transmitted diseases.
 Loss of traditional values and culture through imitation of visitor
behavior or cultural diffusion resulting from normal, everyday
interaction.
 May create crowding and congestion.
 May compete with residents for available services, facilities, and
existing recreation opportunities.
 May result in harassment of visitors perceived to be wealthy and an
increase in crime.
 Can involve violations of human rights. People have been displaced
from their land and beaches have been reserved for hotel guests
while access is barred to local people.
Environmental Benefits
 Fosters conservation and preservation of natural, cultural
and historical resources.
 Encourages community beautification and revitalization.
 Could be considered a clean industry.
Environmental Costs
 May threaten specific natural resources such as beaches and coral
reefs or historical sites.
 May increase litter, noise, and pollution.
 Brings increased competition for limited resources such as water
and land, resulting in land degradation, loss of wildlife habitats and
deterioration of scenery.
 Directly contributes to sewage and solid waste pollution.
 Emissions generated by forms of transport are one of the main
environmental problems of tourism.
Economic Benefits
 Helps diversify and stabilize the local economy.
 Provides governments with extra tax revenues
each year through accommodation and restaurant taxes,
airport taxes, sales taxes, park entrance fees, employee
income tax etc.
 Creates local jobs and business opportunities. These
include those jobs directly related to tourism (hotel and
tour services) and those that indirectly support tourism
(such as food production and housing construction).
 The multiplier effect:
 Brings new money into the economy. Tourist money is
Economic Costs
 Tourism development of infrastructure (airports, roads, etc.) can
cost the local government a great deal of money.
 May inflate property values and prices of goods and services.
 Leakages: If outside interests own the tourism development, most
of the economic benefits will leave the community. Considerable
amount of foreign exchange revenues leaks back out of the
destination countries for tourism-related imports.
 Employment tends to be seasonal. Workers may be laid off in the
winter season.
 Many jobs in the tourism industry are poorly paid. This is a
particular problem in the LDCs where the local workforce lacks the
1.2. Paradigm Shift in Resource Management: Sustainability