Community Based Tourism
Finding the Euilibrium in the COMCEC Context
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This project was a United Nations Joint Project (bringing together UNESCO, UNWTO and
UNDP) and was conducted in collaboration with the Turkish Ministry of Culture and
Tourism as well as provincial authorities and NGOs of Kars - the focus city of the project.
With a budget of almost $3.8 million, is a broad capacity building program, mainly aimed at
mobilizing the tourism in Kars in order to reduce the poverty and make better the socio-
economic situation of the city’s population.
Achievements:
 Development of a strategic tourism development document for the region.
 Trainings delivered to the community in the fields of cultural heritage management,
entrepreneurship and business management skills in tourism-related areas of activity.
 Marketing and awareness activities related to local tourism as well as safeguarding
measures pertaining to tangible and intangible cultural heritage.
The project could be categorized as a more general pro-poor tourism approach rather than
specifically community-based tourism. The project covers a 3.5 year time span and a larger
population (approx. 300.000) and focuses on various forms of tourism (i.e. cultural, natural
and winter tourism) as well as sectors and networks that are relevant to tourism
development (intangible culture, agricultural production, and natural resources).
Therefore, in spite of the characteristics representing a pro-poor tourism approach, there
are certain elements of this project that are compatible with CBT principles:
1. Community as the main beneficiary for the activities: many of the capacity-building
initiatives (e.g. awareness raising and on-the-job training activities for tourism) are
targeted at the local community as the main beneficiaries.
2. Community participation and ownership: Community ownership of businesses and
involvement in the tourism workforce were enhanced via grants for business startups
and capacity building. Associations were formed which placed women as the main
workforce and the beneficiary for traditional production of local food, dolls, and carpet
weaving. Also, workshops and cultural centers were built and given to the service of
local artisans (i.e. minstrels, musical instrument makers) free of charge as venues to
perform their arts and market their art-related products. One other prominent example
relating to tourism is the training programs delivered by the Turkish Ministry of Culture
and Tourism to locals, particularly in the less densely populated villages, in order to
raise awareness and skills regarding bed and breakfast establishments. Locals interested
in converting their houses to bed and breakfasts were further subsidized by the program
for a fraction of their conversion costs.
Despite the high level of community focus, many initiatives within the project cannot be
said to have satisfied all of the community-based tourism principles. Most particularly, the
CASE 7 – Turkey: Alliances for Culture Tourism (ACT) in Eastern Anatolia –
A UNJP