Community Based Tourism
Finding the Euilibrium in the COMCEC Context
78
Activities and Attractions:
 History talk; an instructive introduction to local Jola culture.
 Traditional ceremonies, such as naming ceremony, marriage ceremony and initiation
for boys and girls.
 Local cuisine cooking lessons.
 Farming our; including educational information on agricultural practices - hands-on
experience from planting to cultivation of crops.
 Horticultural garden tour, community forest tour, village tour.
 Home-stays with local families.
 Canoe trips on the river; including fishing and bird-watching in mangroves.
 Cow cart safari; exploration of forest and surrounding rural areas.
 Tree planting.
 Oyster collection.
 Bird-watching and wildlife trips.
 Salt making, soap making batik/tye and dye workshops.
 Jola dancing and singing.
Benefits:
 Separate income streams from local performances, craft sales, and tourist
contributions.
 Employment of local families in the camp.
 Training programs delivered to the locals.
 Fencing of vegetable gardens.
 Payment of school fees.
 Sponsoring of students.
 Support for village development (through the funds supported by tourism proceeds).
Challenges:
The main challenge for the development of the camp as a community based ecotourism site
was the trade-off between environmental priorities versus the tourism priorities. Some of
the developments necessary for the desired level of touristic experience were at the
expense of the environment (e.g. the increased dairy production and tight budgets resulted
in increase in energy consumption in non-sustainable ways; the possibility for purchase of
vehicles for the camp)
Lesson learned:
High level of social capital (the degree of connectedness and the quality and quantity of
social relations in a given population) facilitates successful application of CBT principles.
Sources: (Betz, 2013; Jones, 2005; Tumani Tenda, 2013)