Community Based Tourism
Finding the Euilibrium in the COMCEC Context
33
Since tourism product consumption is highly labor intensive with high levels of social
interaction, intense skill development is needed. Particular attention needs to be given to
training of those with daily face-to-face interaction with tourists such as, servers, guides,
front office workers, and cab drivers. Continuous education and training for sustaining the
skills is critical for sustaining the success. Box 6 displays potential areas of education and
training campaigns and programs for human and social capacity building.
Box 6. Potential Areas of Education and Training Programs for Human and Social Capacity
Building
 Raising community awareness and sensitizing about tourism benefits and costs to acquire participation
 Building social capital- partnership and networks with creativity, motivation, initiative, management and
marketing skills.
 Building a community that is enterprise and business savvy- human capital development in skills,
knowledge, experience and willingness to learn and improve
 Individual and institutional capacity building in:
o Appropriate business conduct-managerial/supervisory/operative level
 Ethics and social responsibility
 Leadership
 Planning and different types of plans (business plan, marketing plan, strategic plan)
 Tourism and hospitality marketing
 Book-keeping
 Managing people
 Specific skills (tour guiding, front office operations, housekeeping, f&b services, service delivery,
service recovery, customer satisfaction, interpersonal skills)
 Cross-cultural communication (personal space, eye contact, mimics and gestures)
 Language skills
o Managing sustainability
 Maximizing benefits of tourism (how to use additional income)
 Minimizing costs of tourism (how to avoid littering in the neighborhood)
 Coping with change that comes with tourism
 Dealing with outsiders
Source: Authors’ compilation from diverse information sources
2.3.4. Identifying Policy Framework Needs
CBT endeavors can be waste of scarce resources if not supported by a government with a
solid policy promoting CBT. The government has to have a responsible leadership role and
provide continuous psychological, financial, technical and educational support in all steps
of CBT development.
The government is the key in local governance, which needs organizing and building
partnerships within the community and between the community and external agencies
with continuous communication. It can ensure collaboration and coordination of all