3.3.2 Community-based Tourism (CBT) (Sustainable tourism)

Question 1

CBT

Answer 1

• CBT is a type of innovative small-scale tourism experience that is managed by local communities.
• This includes homestays and agricultural tourism.
• It aims to maximise local communities’ involvement in tourism and the benefits to them, ensuring economic and social sustainability.

Question 2

Strategies used for CBT

Answer 2

1. Encourage the local community to participate in decision-making on tourism development
2. Put in place measures to increase economic and social benefits to local communities.
3. Educate and increase tourists’ appreciation of local cultures and protection of the environment.

Question 3

Encourage local communities

Answer 3

• Local communities have greater knowledge of their economic, social, and environmental needs.
• Hence, their decisions can help to ensure these needs are met in a sustainable way.
• For example, local communities can suggest cultural and nature-based experiences that can be developed without disrespecting their heritage and damaging the local environment.
• This ensures that locals continue to support and be involved in the tourism industry, and the environment continues to thrive and attract tourists, ensuring sustainable tourism development.

Question 4

Measures to increase economic and social benefits

Answer 4

Economic benefits:
- Locals are encouraged to innovate, set up businesses and offer tourism experiences (e.g. homestays) to cater to the needs of tourists.
- These businesses and tourism experiences provide employment to locals, minimise leakages and benefit locals economically.
- In agricultural tourism, tourists visit local farms to purchase local produce, and to participate in activities for education and enjoyment purposes such as farming using local techniques, harvesting crops and cooking them.
- As such, local farmers benefit economically from higher incomes generated.
- As locals continue to support and be involved in the tourism industry, sustainable tourism development is ensured.
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Social benefits:
- Revenue generated from tourism can be directed to community projects such as funding schools and clinics.
- This improves the social well-being of the local community as they receive better education and healthcare.

Question 5

Educate and increase tourist’s appreciation

Answer 5

• Promote interactions between locals and tourists to develop respect for local cultures and the environment.
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  Example:
• Through traditional homestays in the Binsar Wildife Sanctuary, tourists can live with a local host family, and participate in daily activities related to local cultures and traditions.
• This helps them appreciate the local cutures and environment more, which motivates locals to preserve their heritage and environment.
• This ensures cultural and environmental sustainability.

Question 6

Limitation of CBT

Answer 6

1. Loss of culture.
2. Competition with large-scale tourism developments.

Question 7

Loss of culture

Answer 7

• without sufficient measures, when local communities offer tourism experiences out of their cultures, it may result in commodification, resulting in the loss of authenticity of their cultures.
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  Example:
• In CBT projects in Kyrgyzstan, the commodification of local traditions to suit tourists’ preferences has been observed.
• Traditional yurts have been modified, such as the inclusion of beds and modern furniture. This is meant to increase tourists’ comfort and meet the standards that they expect.

Question 8

Competition with large scale tourism development

Answer 8

• Often, local communities lack some of the necessary skills and finances to further develop the local tourism industry.
• Many face difficulties in communicating with tourists and are ill-equipped to undertake marketing campaigns in order to compete with other tourism developments, especially the large-scale ones.
• They may lack the finances to start new tourism experiences or tourism-related businesses.
• Large-scale tourism developments such as hotel resorts on the other hand, often have greater finances to undertake marketing campaigns (e.g. advertisements) and therefore attract more tourists.
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  Example:
• The Thanh Ha Pottery Village in Vietnam has been successful in attracting tourists who are keen to learn more about local culture and pottery practices.
• However, it faces competition from other more established pottery villages in Central Vietnam in attracting tourists, especially because they do not have enough highly-skilled pottery artisans.