Principles, Benefits, and Barriers to Community-Based Tourism

Though CBT is an attractive model for the attainment of both community development and environmental conservation, its implementation is fraught with challenges. This chapter examines the principles, forms, barriers, and challenges to CBT. The chapter further proposes a model for the achievement of sustainable CBT and draws implications from the barriers and benefits for the management of CBT. The chapter begins with an explanation of the community concept which is defined in the context of community-based tourism. It continues with a review of some models of community participation. The chapter further assesses the rationale for community participation and examines the forms of CBT. Though community participation remains a good model for tourism development at the community level, there are several limitations that make the benefits unachievable, especially in developing countries. The chapter ends by proposing a model of sustainable CBT by drawing implications for the management of CBT projects.