Community Based Tourism
Finding the Euilibrium in the COMCEC Context
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3. COMMUNITY-BASED TOURISM: WORLD CASES
Several cases from around the world were analyzed for this book as listed in Appendix C
and mapped in Figure 4. As was mentioned in Section 2, the CBT development steps,
strategies, and activities depend on the locality and its characteristics including the
geographic, social and cultural context, economic development stage, tourism development
stage, besides a plethora of other factors. Therefore, cases of CBT development projects
applied and reported from around the world are unique in the steps of development,
participant stakeholders, products, and the outcomes of the development in terms of
benefits and costs of CBT.
However, based on the development stages of the countries, each case can be placed on
Butler’s (1980) “Tourism Area Life Cycle (TALC) Model” seen in Figure 1 in Section 2.
Generally, CBT cases from less developed countries reflect examples of CBT development
for destinations during its exploration stage (e.g. Xai/ Xai/ in Botswana) where the
destination is developed from scratch with a CBT development approach. On the other
hand, cases from developed countries (e.g. Baffin Region, Chemainus, St. Jacobs, and
Kyuquot Sound area in Canada) reflect examples of destinations using CBT at the
stagnation stage. The implementation of CBT at this stage is used to understand the causes
of stagnation, usually through analysis of stakeholder opinions related to problems rooted
in the socio-cultural structure of the destination. Once the problems and causes are
unveiled the knowledge gained from implementation of a CBT program is used to try and
rejuvenate the destination.
Figure 4. The map of cases analyzed for this book (blue from COMCEC member countries)
Besides, some cases are about development of a group (CBT organization) rather than a
destination. As CBT gained importance and recognition globally, organization of CBT