Community Based Tourism
Finding the Euilibrium in the COMCEC Context
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community woodlot, a local gin (waragi) brewing site, and a Batwa (pygmy) music and
performance site.
Benefits:
 Increased income for the local community (as owners, tour guides, and households).
 Increased individual capacities through regular training programs (tourism,
communication, technology).
 Intercultural exchange with different cultures.
 Local pride, sense of ownership and inclusion.
 Improved living standards for the locals (i.e. sanitation).
 Local awareness and willingness to conserve natural resources.
Lessons Learned:
 Importance of plurality in participation (local community, NGOs, private and public
sectors).
 Need for effective marketing and high service quality for economic sustainability.
 Importance of training for capacity building.
 Need for monitoring and support for good management of earnings.
Source: (FAO-Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2005)
Tumani Tenda Ecotourism Camp was started in 1999 as a grassroots initiative by the local
Jola people, which consist of Christian and Muslim families living together harmoniously.
Gambia satisfies community-based tourism principles in the sense that it is not only fully
initiated and managed by the locals, but the tourism returns go directly back to the locals.
The camp enables the eco-tourists to experience the authentic African cultural and natural
life.
CASE 9 - Gambia: Tumani Tenda Ecotourism Camp
Best Practice Point: Facilitation of all-inclusive participation by social structure
The egalitarian and participatory social structure of the village of Tumani Tenda
facilitates the actualization of a successful CBT program. The village council is inclusive
and run by a consensus-driven voting system. The camp is situated half a kilometer off
the village center and the traditional huts in the camp where the visitors are
accommodated are owned and managed by the locals. Participation in workforce is
based on a rotation system through which all segments have equal access to benefits. In
addition to the participatory nature of the initiative, the awareness among the locals
enables a realistic outlook towards tourism that recognizes the potential of negative as
well as positive impacts caused by tourism movement. While local pride and self-esteem
is seen as a protective shield to many adverse effects, an open forum is encouraged
amongst the locals as well in collaboration with external agencies and NGOs to discuss
and handle the impacts collectively.