nature of community based tourism

What Is Community-Based Tourism? Definition and Popular Destinations

CBT provides communities with the opportunity to play a lead role in their own tourism industries.

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Community-based tourism is a type of sustainable tourism where residents invite travelers to visit or stay in their communities with the intent to provide an authentic experience of the local culture and traditions. These communities are often rural, economically struggling, or living below the poverty line, and community-based tourism (CBT) gives them the opportunity to take full ownership of their area’s individualized tourist industry as entrepreneurs, managers, service providers, and employees. Most importantly, it ensures that the economic benefits go directly towards local families and stay within the community.

Community-Based Tourism Definition and Principles

In 2019, travel and tourism accounted for one in four new jobs created worldwide, while international visitor spending amounted to $1.7 trillion, or 6.8% of total imports, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council. Surveys show that travelers are becoming more interested in sustainable travel trends and supporting small businesses and unique communities. An American Express poll of travelers in Australia, Canada, India, Japan, Mexico, and the U.K. found that 68% plan to be more aware of sustainable travel companies, while 72% want to help boost tourism revenue in the local economies of the destinations they visit.

While CBT is a form of sustainable tourism, it differs slightly from ecotourism and voluntourism . Rather than focusing specifically on nature or charity, CBT is meant to benefit the community and its environments as a whole. From the traveler’s perspective, CBT offers the chance to immerse oneself in local culture and participate in a completely unique tourism experience.

Responsible Travel , a UK-based activism company that has fostered sustainable travel opportunities since 2001, says that CBT can enable tourists to discover cultures and wildlife they might not have experienced in traditional travel situations. “For many, there is nothing like bridging centuries of modern development and making a connection with people whose lives are so very different to our own,” the organization writes. “And those of us privileged enough to have visited, and listened properly, will have discovered that traditional communities often have far more to teach us about our society and our lives than we can teach them about our world.”

CBT is often developed by the destination’s local government but can also get assistance from nonprofits, other community members, private funding, or even partnerships with travel companies. Most of the time, community-based tourism projects are successful due to cooperation between the community and some kind of tourism expert.

For example, in Madi Valley, Nepal, the Shivadwar Village community reached out to the nonprofit World Wildlife Fund ( WWF Nepal ) for help in 2015. The wild animals living in the famous Chitwan National Park were causing issues for the surrounding villages by wandering into their agricultural lands and damaging crops, limiting income and employment opportunities for the residents living in the popular national park’s buffer zone . WWF Nepal was able to apply for funding through their Business Partnership Platform and partnered up with travel company Intrepid to help the village develop a community-based tourism project. Today, 13 out of the 34 homes in Shivadwar Village operate as homestays, with the income going directly to the families.

Pros and Cons

When community members see that tourists are spending money to experience their traditional ways of life, it can empower them to help keep mass exploitative tourism from entering their communities. However, each situation is unique, and there is always room for advantages and disadvantages.

Pro: CBT Stimulates the Economy

A successful CBT program distributes benefits equally to all participants and also diversifies the local job market . Even community members not directly involved with homestays may also act as guides, provide meals, supply goods, or perform other tourism-related jobs. Women in the community are often responsible for the homestay components of a tourism program, so CBT can help create new spaces for women to take on leadership positions and even run their own businesses in underdeveloped communities.

Con: There’s a Potential for Benefit Leaking

Economic leakage happens when money generated by a certain industry, in this case tourism, leaves the host country and ends up elsewhere. According to a study conducted in the Muen Ngoen Kong Community of Chiang Mai, Thailand, some community members felt that “profit from tourism often does not filter down to the local economy and the costs they incurred far outweigh the benefits.” In this case, locally owned small businesses were also operating against stronger international competitors.

Pro: Environmental Conservation

CBT can help create alternative income for communities and less economic dependence on industries that can harm the region’s biodiversity, such as illegal logging or poaching. Members of the Chi Phat Commune in Cambodia, for example, went from relying on logging within Cambodia’s Cardamom Mountains to generating income through sustainable family-run ecotourism businesses with help from the Wildlife Alliance .

Con: It’s Not Always Successful

If the CBT project doesn’t have a clear vision or management strategy from the start, it runs the risk of failing, which could be catastrophic for an underdeveloped community that has already invested time, money, or energy into the project. Successful CBT projects bring communities together with tourism experts who know how to operate in these unique situations.

Pro: CBT Can Help Preserve Cultures

Employment opportunities in CBT don't only provide members with valuable social skills and training, but also can prevent younger generations from leaving their own communities in search of work in larger cities. At the same time, the community will recognize the commercial and social values that tourism places on their natural heritage and cultural traditions, helping foster the conservation of these resources even further.

Community-Based Tourism Destinations

Thanks to the increasing popularity of sustainable tourism and greater accessibility to resources like the internet, small communities and travel experts are continuing to come together to create successful CBT programs.

Chalalan Ecolodge, Bolivia

The Chalalan Ecolodge is a joint indigenous community tourism initiative of the rainforest community of San José de Uchupiamonas and Conservation International (CI) in the Bolivian Amazon. Created in 1995 by a group of villagers and supported by CI through training in skills like management, housekeeping, and tour guiding, Chalalan is the oldest community-based enterprise in Bolivia. By February 2001, the indigenous community received full ownership of the property from CI and now directly supports 74 families.

Korzok, India

Known as the highest permanent civilization on Earth, Korzok village in Ladakh, India, rests at an altitude of 15,000 feet. Although the main source of income for most families here comes from pashmina, the village has developed a CBT model based on homestays with younger community members earning jobs as porters, cooks, and tour guides. During the tourist season from June to September, the occupancy rate for homestays is 80%, earning each family an average of $700 to $1,200 during those four months. For comparison, the average yearly income from pashmina ranges between $320 and $480, making CBT much more lucrative.

Tamchy, Kyrgyzstan

The Central Asian republic of Kyrgyzstan has fully embraced CBT as a tool for growth. The Kyrgyz Community Based Tourism Association has developed 15 different diverse CBT programs around the country, helping to organize and train remote mountain communities in tourism to help improve their economies and living conditions. One of the most successful is the tiny village of Tamchy, found right next to Issyk-Kul, the biggest lake in Kyrgyzstan and one of the largest mountain lakes in the world. The people of Tamchy welcome tourists to stay with them in traditional yurts and homestays while learning about the unique culture there.

Termas de Papallacta, Ecuador

Back in 1994, a group of six Ecuadorians from the small village of Papallacta village in Napo Province purchased a property that included natural thermal pools. The village is on the road to the Amazon from Quito, so it was a popular route but without much draw for tourism outside of that. The property started as a small spa and accommodation space for travelers but has since grown into the country’s most popular thermal wellness resort and one of the largest employers in the area. Termas de Papallacta also runs an independent foundation that helps train the local community in environmental issues and is certified by the Rainforest Alliance.

" Economic Impact Reports ." World Travel and Tourism Council .

Lo, Yu-Chih and Janta, Pidpong. " Resident's Perspective on Developing Community-Based Tourism- a Qualitative Study of Muen Ngoen Kong Community, Chiang Mai, Thailand ." Frontiers in Psychology , vol. 11, 2020, pp. 1493., doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01493

" Chalalan Eco-Lodge, Bolivia: Equator Initiative Case Study Series ." United Nations Development Programme .

Anand, Anupam, et al. " Homestays at Korzok: Supplementing Rural Livelihoods and Support Green Tourism in the Indian Himalayas ." Mountain Research and Development , vol. 32, no. 2, 2012, pp. 126-136., doi:10.1659/MRD-JOURNAL-D-11-00109.1

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Community-based tourism: how your trip can make a positive impact on local people

Community-based tourism can reap great rewards. Done well, it enables local organisations to protect precious habitats, preserve unique culture and empower grassroots employees.

In the mid-1990s, the remote community of Klemtu in Canada’s British Columbia had to make a choice. Hit hard by the collapse of the fishing and forestry industries, unemployment was rocketing, and options were running out. But they knew there were two things in the Great Bear Rainforest that you couldn’t get anywhere else: their own Indigenous culture and the rare, ghostly-white Kermode bear, also known as the Spirit Bear. And that’s how Spirit Bear Lodge was born: a showcase of the Kitasoo/Xai’xais First Nation, and an entry point for exploring the extraordinary wilderness of the largest temperate rainforest on Earth, with the added benefit of spotting those elusive bears, along with wolves, whales and brown bears. Today, the lodge is a blueprint for conservation-based, community-based tourism, with a string of successes under its belt: the surrounding rainforest is now protected from logging, bear hunting has been banned and the community has a steady income. It has also, they say, fuelled a cultural renaissance. “The lodge has created opportunities for young and old to thrive in their homelands, while educating people from around the world with our rich culture,” explains Roxanne Robinson, guest services manager at the lodge. Guests learn about Kitasoo/Xai’xais culture from the lodge staff and their guides on wildlife expeditions, kayaking tours and cultural visits, while younger community members drop by as part of the Súa Educational Foundation programme. “Súa means ‘thunder’ in our language, and they come to share stories, songs and dances with guests in our traditional big house,” says Robinson. Guests not only have an incredible experience, but they can also sleep easy knowing that their tourist dollars are doing good. Doing good, if reports are anything to go by, is something we all want to do more of. According to an American Express poll last year, 72% of travellers want to help boost tourism revenue in local economies. And the latest sustainability report by Booking.com showed that 73% of travellers would like to have authentic experiences that are representative of the local culture; 84% believe that preservation of cultural heritage is crucial; and 76% want to be sure that their economic impact is spread equally throughout society. So, being a responsible traveller is no longer just about protecting the environment or reducing our carbon footprints. It’s about how our tourist dollars can do good in the places we visit. It’s about communities. It’s taking the ‘buy local’ mantra — supporting your neighbourhood bookshop instead of buying on Amazon, say, or eating in a local restaurant instead of McDonald’s — and using it on your travels. When travelling, though, buying locally can be more nuanced. It could mean eating out in a local restaurant — but who owns the restaurant? Are the staff local but the profits going abroad? Does the restaurant support local producers and farmers, or are the ingredients imported? Is the attached gift shop a showcase of Indigenous craftsmanship, or are the souvenirs all made in China?  

It is, in other words, complicated. “Is it tourism that takes place in a community?” asks Dr Albert Kimbu, head of tourism and transport at the University of Surrey. “Or is it tourism that’s actively engaging and benefitting communities?” That’s the key. That’s the question we, as travellers, need to be asking. “My take on community-based tourism, or CBT,” explains Dr Kimbu, “is that it has to be by the community, for the community.” In other words, if a hotel or lodge takes guests to visit a local school, or to see a cultural dance in a local village, which might be taking place in the community — is the community genuinely benefitting? They might be getting paid, but it could also be straight-up cultural exploitation. Jamie Sweeting, CEO of Planeterra, the non-profit partner of G Adventures, which specialises in community tourism, agrees: “It needs to be owned, led and run by the communities themselves.” Why? “Because,” explains Dr Kimbu, “When communities become aware that what they have is a product that can be sold, then they have a stake in protecting it.” Take the Sabyinyo Silverback Lodge in Rwanda. The saleable product here is the mountain gorilla that inhabits Volcanoes National Park next door. Visitors will pay a high price to see them in the wild. Working with Sacola, a local non-profit, the idea of a lodge that’s 100%-owned and -run by the community was born, with all profits going back into social and economic projects, as well as conservation within the park. It’s worked a treat. Since opening in 2006, US$4m (£3m) has gone into community and conservation projects, while the gorilla population in the park now includes 10 different gorilla groups. So, the community recognised the financial benefits of their neighbouring gorillas and now benefit by protecting their environment. But CBT at its best goes way beyond employing locally. It means the community gets to decide how to protect the culture and environment on which it depends. So, the community benefits, the environment and local culture is safeguarded, and the resulting economic benefits stay within the community. Win-win-win. There are ripple effects, too. Spier, a wine estate in South Africa’s Stellenbosch region, has a Growing for Good programme, which includes mentoring and assisting local entrepreneurs to create businesses that can then be used by Spier. This has worked with a local laundry service, for example, as well as a taxi service used by its guests. And Fogo Island Inn in Newfoundland, Canada is all about the ripple effects, having been created entirely for the benefit of the local community. This 29-room luxury inn was built by local philanthropist Zita Cobb through her Shorefast Foundation, and 100% of operating surpluses are reinvested in the community — a community that was in dire straits just a decade ago, thanks to the collapse of the global cod market.  

Power in partnership

Sabyinyo, Spier and Fogo are examples of when it works. When it doesn’t work, community involvement is nothing short of exploitation. As Amanda Ho, the co-founder of Regenerative Travel, puts it: “In many cases, what we’ve seen is communities around the world angry that their health, wellbeing, and priorities are not being recognised or respected by tourism.” Jamie Sweeting tells me about a particular lodge in Botswana — he won’t name names — which was ‘talking the talk’ about working with the Indigenous San. “The website was shouting about empowering the local community,” he says. But when Planeterra did some digging, it found that while the San were used to put on cultural shows at the lodge, they were earning below the living wage and staying in poor accommodation with barely enough food. Planeterra worked with the local San people to promote and upskill the community-owned Dqae Qare San Lodge nearby, helping them gain direct access to the same markets the other lodge was benefitting from.  

“Community-based tourism can be especially beneficial in empowering women, who are often responsible for the homestay or dining components of a trip” Francisca Kellett

That lack of access to market — and the lack of the knowledge, skills and infrastructure needed to run a successful travel business — is key. As Justin Francis of Responsible Travel puts it: “Being able to access the distribution chains of the tourism industry — to get guests through the doors — is difficult without the partnership of an established tour operator.” When CBT first appeared around 20-25 years ago, he says, NGOs and donors would pitch up at communities, build beautiful ecolodges, but allow the communities very little say — and then fail to provide the training, infrastructure and business know-how to lead to any kind of success.  

Having a voice, Francis says, is key where elected community representatives participate in the decision making: “The driving force behind successful CBT projects is local people setting the terms. It’s about them making informed decisions around how tourism develops.” In the case of the Ccaccaccollo Women’s Weaving Cooperative in Peru’s Sacred Valley, it was three women that had that voice. “When they first came to us, only a handful could do traditional Inca weaving,” Sweeting says. Led by those women, Planeterra assisted with training, infrastructure and marketing, and the co-op has boomed, now owned and run by more than 65 individuals, with an attached homestay attracting overnight visitors. CBT can be especially beneficial in empowering women, who are often responsible for the homestay or dining components of a trip. Dreamcatchers, a tour operator in South Africa, recognised this over 30 years ago, and helped launch a range of CBT enterprises including ‘Kammama’, a selection of nationwide, women-run homestays and experiences, from cooking courses in Soweto to an overnight stay with a family in the Cape Winelands. In the case of Ccaccaccollo, the ripple effect has been a huge uptick in education in the community: all the women involved are now fully literate in Spanish, the first generation to achieve this locally, and most have children in tertiary education — another first. “And there has been an uplift in the pride in their culture. They’re embracing it. They can see that people from dozens of countries travel to visit them because they have something special to offer,” says Sweeting. That special offering is what’s in it for us. “For travellers, CBT offers a genuinely authentic experience and insight into local life,” says Zina Bencheikh, at Intrepid Travel. “Travellers are welcomed into a community and have the chance to immerse themselves.” Intrepid now aims to bring a degree of CBT into many of its sustainable, small-group adventure tours. “Our clients often talk about our CBT experiences as one of the unexpected highlights of their trip,” says Bencheikh. So how do we spot the good guys? How do we know whether a lodge or restaurant or experience that claims to benefit a community genuinely is?   “Ask questions,” says Dr Kimbu. “Have a discussion with those organising your trip.” Bencheikh agrees. “Do your research. Before you visit, ask questions about how the project is run and where the money goes from your visit.” Travelling with a trusted tour operator is also sensible, as is looking out for any certification programmes such as B Corp. Covid-19, of course, has had a dreadful impact on CBT. Planeterra recently launched the Global Community Tourism Network, providing online training, promotion and marketing, to help organisations prepare for when tourists come back. “Many communities don’t have internet or phone access,” explains Sweeting. “So, we also have 16 strategic partnerships, mostly local non-profits with their own network. Our reach is now more than 800 community tourism enterprises in 75 countries.” On the flipside, Covid-19 has also changed how we want to travel. “There’s been a definite shift, with more travellers wanting to find purpose in their trips,” says Sweeting. “We need to take advantage of that. When you’re able to experience something owned and run by a community, it’s much more rewarding, and a more equitable experience for the host and the guest.” As Dr Kimbu puts it, “CBT has a sense of fairness and justice.” It’s that sense of fairness and justice that’s been behind the success of Spirit Bear Lodge for more than 20 years and one that the community hopes will last for generations. “I do hope that my children and future children continue with Spirit Bear Lodge,” Robinson tells me. “Seeing the growth in this company has been amazing. It’s a great way to learn and grow and thrive in our homelands.” You can’t say fairer than that.  

Published in the   May 2022   issue of   National Geographic Traveller (UK)

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Open Access

Peer-reviewed

Research Article

Toward sustainable community-based tourism development: Perspectives from local people in Nhon Ly coastal community, Binh Dinh province, Vietnam

Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Writing – original draft

Affiliation Faculty of Tourism, Nguyen Tat Thanh University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Roles Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Resources

Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

* E-mail: [email protected]

Affiliation Faculty of Tourism and Hospitality Management, HUTECH University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Roles Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation

Affiliation Faculty of Economics – Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology and Education, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Roles Data curation, Formal analysis

• Tuyen Dai Quang, 
• Quynh Xuan Thi Nguyen, 
• Hoang Van Nguyen, 
• Vang Quang Dang, 
• Nhan Thong Tang

• Published: October 31, 2023
• https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0287522
• Peer Review
• Reader Comments

Community-based tourism (CBT) is no longer a new form in many countries, including Vietnam. However, the approach of CBT in a sustainable manner, especially in coastal villages, where tourism has recently emerged as an alternative livelihood, has received little attention. This study explores the impact of tourism on the lives of the local community, the level of people’s participation in tourism, and the challenges of tourism development in the coastal commune of Nhon Ly, Binh Dinh province. By utilizing a qualitative method such as observation and semi-structured interviews with 19 villagers engaged in tourism, the results show that tourism contributes significantly to the lives of the residents in Nhon Ly (e.g., improving income, changing livelihoods from fishing to tourism, improving environmental awareness). However, tourism development has obstacles related to local people’s skills and knowledge working in tourism and their limited participation in tourism policy and planning. Other issues were related to the negative impacts of tourism on cultural-social and environmental aspects in Nhon Ly. Therefore, there is a need for comprehensive coordination among all tourism stakeholders, building long-term strategies to overcome barriers toward sustainable CBT development in the future.

Citation: Quang TD, Nguyen QXT, Nguyen HV, Dang VQ, Tang NT (2023) Toward sustainable community-based tourism development: Perspectives from local people in Nhon Ly coastal community, Binh Dinh province, Vietnam. PLoS ONE 18(10): e0287522. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0287522

Editor: Sakul Kundra, Fiji National University, FIJI

Received: December 2, 2022; Accepted: June 7, 2023; Published: October 31, 2023

Copyright: © 2023 Quang et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Data Availability: All relevant data are within the paper.

Funding: The authors received no specific funding for this work.

Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

1. Introduction

Today, tourism is one of the most growing industries. Tourism plays a vital role in fostering a nation’s economy worldwide. It enhances opportunities, allowing policymakers with the skills and knowledge to formulate policies and effective tourism development strategies. Tourism can lead to the destination’s competitiveness and sustainability while benefiting local communities. Communities are the primary focus of goals as they play an essential role in the sustainable destination development [ 1 , 2 ].

Coastal tourism has been developed for a long time, known as the “3S tourism model” (Sun, Sea, and Sand) [ 3 ]. However, tourism in the coastal areas is a complicated phenomenon because it brings both positive and negative impacts on the environment, economics, and socio-culture. Hunter and Green [ 4 ] found that tourism in coastal areas leads to adverse environmental effects such as erosion from overuse of beaches, increased water pollution due to poor wastewater management, and loss of marine and coastal habitat [ 5 ]. Consequently, it affects tourists’ decisions [ 6 , 7 ]. Social and cultural activities are another major attraction for tourists but can also be irreversibly ruined by the impact of tourism. King & Stewart [ 8 ] argues that the increase in tourists and the power of money has turned the local environment and culture into goods. An integrated approach can be transformed into sustainable coastal tourism development to conserve and develop local destinations. At the same time, the various strategies, development plans, and policies need to be thoroughly researched before projects are implemented and monitored after implementation [ 9 , 10 ].

The adverse problems occurring due to the proliferation of conventional mass tourism activities have increased the interest of researchers and decision-makers. They often focus on new forms of sustainable tourism as it involves a lot of awareness, planning, local control, and conservation and development opportunities [ 11 , 12 ]. They argue that sustainable coastal tourism development and management with integrated measures can help resolve imminent conflicts of social needs. Properly implemented sustainable tourism development can provide long-term opportunities for long-term coastal tourism and enable effective environmental protection policies [ 5 , 13 ].

Vietnam is a country with territorial waters and a continental shelf under national sovereignty and jurisdiction, nearly 1 million square kilometer wide (3 times larger than the land area) in the East Sea (Biển Đông). It has a coastline of 3,260 kilometer and about 3,000 large and small islands near the shore and two archipelagos of Hoang Sa and Truong Sa, with 28 provinces and cities bordering the sea, accounting for 42% of the land area and 45% of the country’s population [ 14 ]. The coastal islands developed for CBT include Bach Long Vi, Ha Long, Cat Ba, Con Co, Cu Lao Cham, Ly Son, Con Dao, and Phu Quoc. The coastal fishing villages have many favorable conditions for developing community-based tourism, mainly in the Central region, from Quang Binh to Binh Thuan provinces.

Considered a rich tourism potential, Binh Dinh is gradually becoming a destination attracting the attention of both domestic and foreign tourists. The province has implemented policies to promote the potential of natural and cultural resources in coastal areas. Over the years, many investment projects have been approved to develop coastal areas, marine tourism, and ecotourism services throughout the coastal regions. Recently, CBT projects have been implemented in localities of the province, such as Quy Nhon, Nhon Hai, Nhon Ly, and Nhon Chau. However, the development of CBT in Binh Dinh is still not commensurate with the province’s potential, especially in the coastal area.

Moreover, the development of CBT in these localities has not brought economic benefits to the local community. This development requires research to identify the issues of sustainable CBT development in the locality. Therefore, this study explores the following three questions: (1). How has tourism impacted on socioeconomic of the community in Nhon Ly? (2). What are the forms and levels of participation of the local community in tourism activities in Nhon Ly? (3). What problems exist in tourism today and what are their causes?

While many coastal destinations are facing significant issues of environmental impacts, our case study shows that the Nhon Ly community is intensely aware of the importance of protecting marine resources to serve their community’s tourism. This study affirms the importance of community consciousness and self-governing community models to ensure sustainable tourism development for tourism destinations. This paper is structured as follows: Section 2 reviews the literature, including coastal tourism, sustainable tourism, and CBT, section 3 describes the methods, section 4 represents the research context, section 5 discusses the findings, and followed by the discussion and conclusion in the last section.

2. Literature review

Coastal tourism.

Coastal tourism involves local communities, visitors, and tourist destinations in a coastal environment and its natural and cultural resources [ 15 ]. It is a particular type of tourism due to the isolation, diversity of ecosystems, and specificity of sites, affecting the characteristics of residents [ 16 ]. Most coastal tourism occurs along the coast and in the water off the shoreline. Coastal tourism activities take place outdoors and indoors in sports and leisure, as well as leisure and business [ 17 ]. In addition, the unique ecology and folklore make coastal destinations more attractive and exciting [ 18 ]. Coastal areas have become one of the most popular tourist destinations [ 19 ]. According to Royle [ 16 ], as coastal areas and islands often have limited ecological diversity and different characteristics, most islands have unique flora and fauna, exotic coral reefs, and marine life, creating each fascinating surroundings and landscape. Therefore, it attracts many tourists to experience [ 20 , 21 ].

Many studies reveal that tourism in the coastal and islands is a double-edged sword that affects the local community [ 22 , 23 ]. Like other human efforts in coastal areas associated with development, tourism is viewed positively by some researchers for the opportunities it creates [ 24 ]. Others claimed that tourism in sensitive areas negatively impacted the local coastal destinations [ 23 , 25 ]. For example, in Ismail and Turner’s [ 26 ] study, tourism stimulates the development of basic infrastructure, contributes to the growth of local industries, and attracts foreign investment. In addition, environmental conservation and improvement are promoted, and regional diversity and culture are preserved. Therefore, tourism significantly influences destinations on ecological, economic, and socio-cultural issues [ 13 ]. However, due to the limited capacity of the coastal area and island in environmental, social, and economic aspects, these places develop unsuitably as tourism activities rely entirely on natural resources. It leads to severe environmental and social imbalances and destination economic specialization [ 25 , 27 ].

Furthermore, Shaw and Williams [ 21 ] argue that although tourism has a positive impact on coastal areas, it has the potential to hurt local communities. Similarly, Ap [ 28 ] also claims that tourism is vital in stimulating economic growth and sustaining development in the coastal area and small islands. Still, the rapid increase in tourist arrivals has put pressure on tourism and forced the local community to participate in that development. According to Macleod [ 29 ], although tourism is a more critical factor in an island’s economy, it also impacts the community’s socio-cultural structure because of its small size, and socio-cultural effects are higher through regular contact between local people and tourists.

In addition, the negative issues of coastal tourism are related to geographical and environmental features. Dodds, Graci, and Holmes [ 25 ] argue that while local people benefit from improved economic and well-being from tourism, they also suffer damaging environmental and social consequences. Such negative issues include environmental overgrowth and the dependence of the local community economy on tourism. In addition, the negative also comes from overuse of natural resources, congestion of infrastructure, leading to pollution and resource degradation and elimination of the natural environment, along with competition and pressure on the destination infrastructure [ 30 , 31 ].

Sustainable tourism

According to The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), sustainable tourism is defined as “tourism that takes full account of its current and future economic, social and environmental impacts, addressing the needs of visitors, the industry, the environment, and host communities.” Sustainable tourism development is required three crucial foundations of economic, socio-cultural, and environmental sustainability [ 32 – 34 ]. In addition, sustainable tourism is achieved if a destination can accommodate the number of visitors at a given time without damaging the aspects of economics, culture, and environment [ 35 ].

Presently, many coastal destinations are adopting solutions for sustainable tourism development. However, there is no standard formula for managing tourism’s negative and positive environmental impacts as some environments can be much more unique, fragile, finite, and irreversible than other environments [ 25 , 36 ]. Second, environmental impacts caused by tourism establishments are often difficult to distinguish from other factors, so one effect may cause another [ 18 , 20 ]. Sustainable tourism development is an ongoing process, and not a specific condition can be achieved; It requires continued research on the destination’s ecological, social-cultural, and economic systems [ 37 , 38 ]. Therefore, sustainable tourism is not about ensuring the financial viability of tourism businesses and not just “greening” the tourism industry. Instead, sustainable tourism can be seen as a model of economic development [ 24 , 39 ] to (1) Improve the quality of life of the host community, (2) provide a high-quality experience for visitors, (3) Maintain quality of the environment that both local people and tourists depend.

The relationship between tourism and community can be understood by a model consisting of four stakeholders: authorities, tourism business communities, local communities, and tourists [ 40 , 41 ]. Local communities play a vital role in determining the success of a community-based tourism program. However, this success is challenging to realize without external support [ 42 ]. Tourism development should also focus on collaboration between local authorities and local communities through their participation in the tourism planning [ 42 – 44 ].

Community based-tourism

Today, CBT has become a spearhead in support of rural development in both developing and developed countries. Generally speaking, CBT refers to the involvement of local communities in tourism activities by providing tourism services. It means they own, manage, and coordinate tourism activities while receiving direct economic benefits and protecting cultural and natural heritage [ 2 , 45 ]. CBT is a type of tourism that needs to consider social, environmental, and cultural sustainability. It is operated and owned for and by the people to raise visitors’ awareness and to teach them how to live locally and in the community [ 2 , 42 , 46 ].

Many studies confirm that CBT serves as a pathway to equal distribution of benefits to all individuals involved in tourism through a mutual agreement of self-determination and decision-making, co-subject responsible for development [ 41 , 43 , 47 , 48 ]. It is found that actual consensus and natural, local control over development are practically not possible or desirable by particular communities. CBT is a form of sustainable tourism development [ 49 ]. In addition, CBT includes the high level of participation of local communities in the practice and development of projects or initiatives on development issues [ 2 , 50 ].

Pearce, Moscardo, and Ross [ 51 ] argue that the lack of community capacity and tourism knowledge are obstacles to successful tourism development in emerging countries. Thus, enhancing the local people’s capacity to participate in tourism activities is very crucial. The prominent role of CBT is to give communities, individuals, and organizations opportunities to form their capacities for CBT development as they are interested in and desire to be involved.

Community plays an essential role in sustainable tourism development. The studies argue that community compliance helps to reduce conflicts and misunderstandings between host communities, local authorities, and tourists [ 2 , 51 ]. In addition, community participation can reduce opposition to tourism development, minimize negative impacts and enhance the livelihoods of host communities [ 41 , 51 , 52 ]. Another way to help reduce conflict is through improved cooperation between residents and destinations that contribute to understanding local issues and promote knowledge sharing [ 41 , 42 ]. Scholars argue that ignoring community input in tourism development can lead to conflicts between stakeholders, especially between communities and tourists, resulting in the decline of the destination tourism [ 2 , 53 ].

Furthermore, the role of community participation is neglected in decision-making in CBT development due to some barriers from within and outside the community. Cole [ 53 ] pointed out that community participation is limited by institutional factors such as centralized decision-making, unwillingness to include host community members in their work, and the lack of knowledge about how to engage between host communities. Similarly, Mbaiwa [ 54 ] highlights the ignorance and the lack of skills and expertise stemming from insufficient training and education opportunities for local communities. In addition, other studies also show a loss of revenue, a lack of transparency in benefit sharing, and a lack of an appropriate policy framework for developing community initiatives to have a rewarding impact, including community participation in the tourism industry [ 2 ]. On the other hand, Cole [ 53 ] identified the lack of ownership, capital, skills, knowledge, and resources as barriers to the active functioning of local communities. However, Tosun [ 55 ] introduces three significant types of limitations covering all challenges, including limitations in activities (concentration of power, lack of coordination, lack of information), limited structure (lack of expertise, excellence, lack of trained human resources), and cultural constraints (limited capacity, indifference and low awareness of local people).

In Vietnam, sustainable CBT development is recently becoming a topic of great research interest. Most studies evaluate the current situation and solutions for CBT development in a particular locality or province. For example, Thuy [ 56 ], Hong [ 57 ], and Van [ 58 ] show that CBT needs to bring benefits to the community to ensure long-term development. Some studies have shown that coordination among stakeholders plays a vital role in sustainable CBT development, but most of this collaboration has received little attention [ 59 , 60 ]. Meanwhile, Loi [ 61 ] argues that it is necessary to have specific policies and strategies to promote the development of community tourism. Without the State’s policies and management, some households develop spontaneously, which may lead to a negative tourism image in the eyes of tourists. However, recent research is also focusing on product development by exploiting the strengths of specific local products to attract tourists and improve the lives of the community by selling souvenirs for tourists [ 59 , 60 ]. At the same time, a factor that is currently being focused on is that most current models of community-based tourism cannot promote communication and marketing to attract tourists [ 61 ]. Thus, these studies are an essential foundation for identifying the common problem of sustainable CBT development. These are valuable studies to compare and contrast with the case of community tourism in Nhon Ly fishing villages of Binh Dinh province.

In sum, CBT is formed as a tool and solution to distribute equally benefits to all individuals engaged in tourism, adoption of a mutual agreement on decision-making, and the subjective community responsible for development. CBT includes a high level of community participation in the tourism project and development, the control of local communities over the development process, and the direct benefit for the local communities.

3. Study site and context

Located on the South Central Coast of Vietnam, Binh Dinh province has about 6,022 square kilometer and 1,486,465 people [ 62 ]. The area also owns a coastline of 134 km and is considered an excellent potential for coastal tourism. In recent years, Binh Dinh tourism has seen rapid development, becoming one of the most important economic sectors contributing to the province’s economic growth. According to General Statistics Office [ 62 ], the tourism industry of Binh Dinh province has dramatically contributed to the locality’s socio-economic development. The total contribution to tourism accounts for 20%.

Binh Dinh has become a safe, friendly destination, attracting many domestic and international tourists to visit and stay on an extended vacation. In June 2020, Quy Nhon was ranked in the top 20 destinations in the world 2020, organized by Hostelworld . According to General Statistics Office, there has been a considerable growth in provincial tourism from 2017 to 2019. Table 1 shows the number of tourists and revenue from tourism in Binh Dinh in 2016–2019.

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Nhon Ly, a coastal commune, is located in the eastern part of the Phuong Mai peninsula of Quy Nhon city, Binh Dinh province. It has an area of 12,13 square kilometer and a population of 7,709 people [ 62 ]. Nhon Ly commune is divided into four villages: Ly Chanh, Ly Hoa, Ly Luong, and Ly Hung. People in the commune still live in marine-related occupations such as fishing, seafood processing, and animal husbandry. This coastal commune still preserves many Champa cultural heritage. Besides, this locality also has much potential for developing coastal tourism and CBT. The landscape of the fishing village, traditional fishing, beautiful beaches, and Eo Gio have become attractive natural and human resources, attracting visitors to Nhon Ly ( Fig 1 ).

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Recently, many families in Nhon Ly have changed from fishing to participating in tourism services. Tourism development has helped a part of fishers get more jobs from tourism services. Nhon Ly is in the “involvement” stage of the tourism life cycle; thus, clearly identifying current tourism development problems will be essential to propose solutions to supplement the most suitable tourism development strategy for Binh Dinh province.

Binh Dinh province has implemented CBT programs in Nhon Ly to promote the cultural and ecological values for the development of CBT. In early April 2018, the Department of Tourism cooperated with the People’s Committee of Quy Nhon City to organize a symposium “Preservation of culture and architecture of coastal villages for CBT development in Nhon Ly commune” to discuss developing the CBT on this site. On November 2, 2020, the Provincial People’s Committee confirmed the deployment of the zoning plan of 1/2000 scale titled “Conservation and Development of sustainable tourism in the area of Nhon Ly fishing villages” to preserve and promote the traditional architectural, landscape, and cultural values of the fishing village and to build a model for sustainable tourism development.

Overall, thanks to tourism’s economic development orientation, Nhon Ly, a poor coastal commune, has made substantial changes. This shift shows that Nhon Ly commune has a solid capacity to develop tourism, especially CBT.

4. Research methodology

This study employed several methods, including secondary data, Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA), and interviews. Firstly, secondary data was collected based on reports, documents, policies, and resolutions related to Binh Dinh province’s economic and tourism development. At the same time, primary data was collected based on PRA and semi-structured interviews through fieldwork.

Participatory Rural Appraisal is used to record the local experiences and their daily life while participating in activities with local participants or key informants [ 63 ]. For us, the PRA method is considered a fundamental method in research to assess the current situation of tourism development in Nhon Ly-Binh Dinh in recent years. In this study, we observed daily life activities and specialized professional activities in the 12 months of 2022 to have an insight into people’s lives from the local perspective while maintaining an outsider’s view as a researcher. During the research process, the author also wrote daily field notes about any information, conversation, interactions, or events considered essential information for the study [ 64 ].

Semi-structured interviews were used to collect data through interviews with various participants in Nhon Ly. Such information providers allowed the authors to understand their views on issues in the development of CBT [ 64 , 65 ]. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with local communities, including four main groups: canoe-tour services, homestay services, grocery stores, and restaurants ( Table 2 ). They were encouraged to talk freely about their perceptions and attitudes toward community-based tourism based on their experiences [ 65 ]. Each interview was spent 45–60 minutes at any convenient location at the participant’s homestay, restaurant, boat, home, and public cafe. To avoid misrepresentation, we used two digital devices to record during the interview. In addition, supplementary notes were used during and after the discussions to ensure the data triangulation [ 64 , 66 ].

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Interviews were recorded on two digital devices, and field notes were taken to enable comparison and avoid misrepresentation. We used a thematic approach to the data analysis (Stake, 2010). Those materials (field notes and interviews) were then transcribed and coded to identify the themes [ 64 , 65 ]. Finally, we highlighted and merged the sentences and critical terms to establish categories and descriptive statements, allowing us to identify data patterns, formulate meaning, and discover relationships among them.

Regarding the approval of the ethics committee of our study, so far in the case of Vietnam, to our best knowledge, there are no ethics committee practices in the majority of Vietnamese universities. This research is part of the author’s dissertation, carried out at Nguyen Tat Thanh University, Vietnam where there is no ethics committee. However, our research proposal and the research result were reviewed and approved by the Evaluation Committee Members of Nguyen Tat Thanh University. Moreover, during the field trip, before conducting the interviews with the potential participants, the authors asked permission from the participants, if they agree to be interviewed, the author would begin the conversation, otherwise, the author would ask the others. The interviewees freely withdraw from the interviews anytime. This meant, we obtained verbal consent from all interviewees in our study. To protect the interviewees’ privacy, we used the respondents’ codes to reference their statements in the findings.

5. Findings

The results are presented in four parts: the profile of interviewees, the impact of tourism on the local people’s lives, the level and type of community participation in tourism, and the critical challenges of the CBT development in Nhon Ly.

Profile of interviewees

Of the 19 interviewees, 13 were men (68.4%). Respondents’ mean age was 45.3 years, and their jobs were related to canoe-tour services (9), homestay services (4), grocery stores (4), and restaurants (2).

Impact of tourism on the local people’s lives

The results showed that, from 2016 to 2020, a strong tourism boom brought positive changes to the local economy. The local community’s life has improved; many fishing households have changed from fishing to tourism services. Previously, most of the villagers in Nhon Ly worked as fishers, their lives were still tricky, but the appearance of tourism has made their lives more prosperous and dynamic. One fisherman shared:

In the past, my family relied mainly on seafaring for a living. However, since tourism has developed in our area, I became interested in it and started operating fishing tours. This allowed me to earn money and have someone to share my seafaring experiences with (LOC001).

Similarly, a resident selling seafood to tourists also said:

Since many tourists have started coming here, my family’s income has changed positively. We sell seafood purchased from local fishers to tourists on a large scale. The seafood is always fresh since we buy it directly from the fishers, which the customers love. Moreover, the selling price is perfect compared to market sales. (LOC002).

Tourism development has also boosted families’ business in this sector for the better. Many households have set up their tourism businesses and organized experiential tourism activities to increase their income. Many local people believed that Nhon Ly had great natural and cultural resources for tourism development. A travel service business owner who is one of the green tour promoters mentioned:

Nhon Ly is an attractive destination that has great potential for the exploitation of its natural resources, combined with the cultural value of the fishing village. As a resident of Nhon Ly, I am eager for the development of my homeland and the preservation of the cultural values of the fishing village. Therefore, my friends and I decided to design a tour that prioritizes sustainable factors and environmental protection. Since then, tours associated with environmental protection have been introduced (LOC003).

It is clear that local people, including local business households, also pay attention to protecting their homeland’s natural resources and environment in the long term. A homestay owner pointed out:

When starting our tourism service in Nhon Ly commune, we also placed great emphasis on connecting with the local community for mutual development. Initially, we succeeded in attracting residents to participate in a joint campaign aimed at protecting the environment and the coastal coral reefs. The sense of community has had a positive impact on many tourists, who have shown a keen interest in our environmentally-friendly tours (LOC004).

Thus, the members of the local community here, especially tourism service businesses, have also focused on protecting nature, raising the general awareness of tourists and local people. It also connects members participating in local tourism activities with each other. Some respondents talked:

At first, my green tours focused on promoting a civilized code of conduct in tourism and raising awareness of environmental protection at the destinations among tourists. Later on, we started to actively involve our visitors in local environmental protection activities such as cleaning up the area, collecting plastic bottles, and exchanging gifts. They also had the opportunity to gather shells to make souvenir products by hand. Many tourists and residents have attended the workshops organized by several tourist service establishments (LOC003). In 2020, when the community group for the management of fisheries resources in Nhon Ly became officially operational, the green tours had more specific activities to protect aquatic resources, particularly the coral reefs on the seabed. We are aware that tourism activities can have an impact on the marine ecosystem. Therefore, when organizing scuba diving tours, we pay close attention to compliance with regulations to ensure that visitors have an enjoyable experience while also making sure that it does not adversely affect the marine ecosystem (LOC004).

The results also show that many families have invested in developing homestay services to bring more experiences to tourists ( Fig 2 ). This business not only generates income for family members but also promotes and stimulates local people’s general entrepreneurial spirit. As a result, homestays have also emerged, creating many job opportunities and improving the livelihoods of the community. Examples of these homestays include Homestay Thien Phu, Moc Homestay, La Beach House 1 and 2, Eden Home, Lan Anh Homestay, and Havas Homestay. A local homestay operator—who used to be a guest traveling to Nhon Ly but loves the life here, sharing about participating in local tourism activities:

I had a special connection with Nhon Ly and adored the peaceful beauty of the fishing village. That’s why I established a chain of green-friendly homestays that were in harmony with the architecture of the fishing village. The tranquil charm of Nhon Ly’s fishing village was a valuable resource, and it was precisely why I chose to stay there. When building homestays, my core objective was to create accommodation that blended in with the architecture and landscape of this beautiful fishing village (LOC004).

Some households’ bravely pioneering the booming tourism business has contributed to creating a positive change for many other people in Nhon Ly to invest, or associate to support in more canoes and restaurants, homestays to serve guests. A local restaurant businesswoman said:

Apart from focusing on the restaurant business in the Eo Gio area, my family also invested in 2 other canoes. In addition, I also cooperated with the homestay for guests to stay (LOC005).

A homestay owner shared:

Because my house was in a nice view—near the Eo Gio area, I have invested more than 1 billion VND (about 43,000 USD) to renovate and build a house from 1 floor to 3 floors with single rooms, a gym to serve guest (LOC004).

Based on the author’s observation, accommodation owners in Nhon Ly are much-paid attention to improving service quality and satisfying visitors. Many tourism businesses are engaged in CBT, and members of many households always try to keep the living room, garden, and area around the house clean to attract visitors. In addition, in Nhon Ly, fishers’ households who work as amateur tourism services are not rare but also attract tourists’ excitement for the sincerity of the anglers. The study also shows that fishing boats used by anglers for fishing have now been converted into ships carrying tourists for sightseeing and fishing. Besides, the number of tourist canoes in the commune is increasing significantly. These services have prevented fishers from going through turbulent sea trips to make a living, but now they are pretty gentle for tourists to fish and squid fishing. With intangible resources regarding marine life, the sincerity, gentleness, and the wild beauty of the coastal area, households in Nhon Ly are changing their lives based on tourism services.

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The results also showed that, since the beginning of 2015, because many tourists, entertainment, and resort areas appeared massively in Phuong Mai Peninsula, tourists started to flock to Nhon Ly for many beautiful and peaceful scenes. As realizing the opportunity for development, many households open a tour to take tourists to visit. According to some families:

Initially, we converted a fishing boat into a tourist boat to take guests to Eo Gio, Ky Co, and Hon Kho to enjoy fresh local seafood. However, the business was a bit unstable because not many people specialized in tourism, and we were afraid of customer complaints. However, guests appreciated our sincerity and continued to return here many times. They also recommended more friends to visit here, making our tours more popular and attracting many tourists to our hometown (LOC007). With the tourism boom in Nhon Ly, tourists from other regions started visiting the place frequently. As a result, people came together to borrow capital to convert boats, purchase canoes, and build more spacious restaurants to cater to tourists. Initially, many people were hesitant to invest in tourism services, and only a few family members took the plunge. However, as more people succeeded and expanded their operations, they began to hire more local workers and increase their scale of operations (LOC004).

In addition to being self-employed in tourism services, many young people actively participate in some activities of the Department of Tourism and Tourism Association of Binh Dinh province to promote tourism in Hanoi, Quang Ninh. One local tourism business owner shared:

People like me were interested in learning and promoting the tourism image of our locality. Therefore, I enjoyed participating in government authorities’ activities to promote tourism to other provinces. These trips outside the area helped me learn many valuable things about doing business from successful cases in different localities. By doing so, I was able to reflect on what I had done and what I had yet to achieve, so I could overcome challenges more effectively in the future (LOC006).

In general, tourism in Nhon Ly has developed and contributed significantly to the economic changes in the community; a part of fishers have changed from traditional jobs for generations to the provision of tourism services. In addition, the tourism business households have also consciously protected marine resources through many activities of preserving sea sanitation and opening green tours. This transformation not only improves fishers’ livelihoods but also opens opportunities for more households to have more confidence to participate in local CBT services.

Level and type of participation in tourism

Community participation in tourism plays a vital role in the success or failure of a sustainable CBT model [ 51 , 67 ]. The research shows that the local community in Nhon Ly has gradually participated in providing tourism services such as homestay business, catering, sightseeing, sales, and souvenirs. They enjoy a part of the benefits in the value chain of tourism. The community is active in tourism activities and plays a role as both “tourism resource” and “tourism resource developers” in their homeland. The research results show the main activities in tourism service provision that people participate in ( Table 3 ).

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Thus, due to the lack of specific CBT policies and plans, the community in Nhon Ly is not the organizer; therefore, the central values of CBT are not yet fully promoted. Most of the people doing CBT are spontaneous. Through our fieldwork, community participation of Nhon Ly is only at the level of service provision, not participating in the decision-making process and building implementation plans in CBT. Therefore, the community in Nhon Ly has tourism activities but only stops at the second level, “Tourism with community participation”.

With favorable traffic conditions, the number of tourists flocking to Nhon Ly tourism increased in size, from a poor fishing village now is changing positively. Most anglers used to depend on seafaring and fishery production, but now they practice tourism. Our fieldwork exploring the type of tourism service participation by local communities shows various sectors and forms of community participation in tourism ( Table 4 ).

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This research also showed that: (1). Most households produce and supply agricultural and aquatic products not only for tourists but also for restaurants and floating restaurants; (2). Some families engage in food and beverage business in a range from small restaurants to catering services on the floating restaurant; (3). Many households in the sea transportation business focus on renting boats or transporting canoes to serve tourists visiting the bay, diving and watching coral, and experiencing squid fishing; (4). Home-based business activities and community participation are mainly in Ly Luong village (i.e., one of the four villages in Nhon Ly); (5). Other activities include travel business, tour guide activities, or handicraft production with few participants.

The abovementioned findings showed an imbalance in the provision of tourism services and inequality regarding tourism development between villages, and the local workforce was not trained enough to meet the high demand of tourists.

Challenges of the CBT development in Nhon Ly community

The findings showed that the majority of tourism services provided by local people in Nhon Ly were still spontaneous. Many families worked in tourism, which led to inadequacies, such as causing difficulties in administrative management and negative impacts on society and the local environment. By approaching local community perspectives, the study results showed:

Firstly, in terms of tourism policy: policies related to the development of CBT were not issued and implemented in a specific way. Although local authorities proposed many programs and projects on CBT development, their implementation in local communities was quite limited. Most of the policies were on paper and had not been implemented yet. Hence, the community did not fully understand their role, the benefits of CBT development, capacity-building policies, and supporting funds. Therefore, the development of CBT was almost exclusively taking place below the spontaneous community level.

Secondly, with regard to administrative management, there was no consensus on establishing a destination management board, managing social security, residence, and direction management in Nhon Ly. The development of tourism has not concretized the support for the participants. In particular, the members of the management board, such as Nhon Ly Tourism—Fisheries Trade Service Cooperative, mainly belonged to the local government, not the local community. Additionally, the agency had its headquarters outside of Nhon Ly commune. Therefore, the community faced both geographical distances and reflected problems in tourism. Furthermore, the distribution of benefits between the parties and contributions to the environmental protection fund remained unclear, maintaining traditional activities. As a result, the management board’s role has not been entirely fulfilled in promoting the conditions for CBT in Nhon Ly.

Thirdly, concerning the environmental aspect, some local businesses have placed a strong emphasis on preserving natural resources and promoting ecological sanitation through various green tourism activities and awareness campaigns for the community and tourists. However, the rapid growth of tourism and lack of proper control has resulted in a significant decline in fisheries resources in the bay area. Additionally, the large number of operating canoes has contributed to water and air pollution. As a result, long-term utilization of natural resources should be prioritized when considering the environmental factors in Nhon Ly.

Fourthly, with regards to the socio-cultural aspect, the rapid tourism development in Nhon Ly has led to competition among local businesses, particularly in the restaurant sector, resulting in a decline in service quality and price disparities. Additionally, some residents have reported problems with rowdy and drunk young people in the area, causing disturbances and driving recklessly in residential areas, which raises concerns for the safety of both locals and tourists. The increase in land prices has also resulted in conflicts over land rights and disrupted the traditional social harmony of the coastal fishing village. However, the tourism industry of Binh Dinh province is promoting a green, clean, friendly, and safe image for the local tourism sector. Failure to address these socio-cultural issues may not only hinder the tourism development of Nhon Ly but also damage the province’s reputation as a safe and welcoming destination.

Overall, despite the limitations of spontaneous tourism development, the fishing village community of Nhon Ly in Binh Dinh province had certain advantages for development. Specifically, the community experienced an improvement in their quality of life through the new revenue source generated by tourism. The increase in cultural awareness among locals, as they enhance their professional expertise to meet visitors’ needs, was another advantage. Additionally, relevant departments of Binh Dinh province have initiated policies in planning and new urban development to meet the development needs of the local profession, including tourism.

6. Discussion

In general, this study showed that tourism positively impacts the economy, socio-culture, and environment of the Nhon Ly community. Similar to previous studies [ 41 , 48 ], this study demonstrated that tourism has contributed significantly to improving the lives of local people and promoting local engagement in tourism activities. However, several challenges have happened during the development process in Nhon Ly fishing villages. This study found that the causes of these shortcomings can be related to: (1). Awareness and capacity of community participation in tourism are limited; (2) Policies to encourage community participation in tourism have not been effectively implemented; (3) Qualified human resources for CBT are lacked; (4) The community has not equally benefited from tourism.

This research also showed that the organization of propaganda, mobilization, and training of locals to participate in tourism activities was still complex. Most local communities believed that investing in infrastructure, technical materials, and preserving and preserving traditional cultural values is the work of the government and tourism businesses. People were not consciously self-aware of participating in local tourism development. In particular, they have not yet recognized their role, position, and importance in exploiting and conserving local tourism resources. There was no consistent development link between the parties involved in tourism activities. The findings of this study are consistent with Lenao’s [ 68 ] study when it discusses the challenges of tourism development in Lekhubu, which include poor accessibility, limited income generation, over-reliance on funding from outside, inadequate marketing as well as unsatisfactory involvement, and limited capacity among board committee members.

Many previous researchers have discussed the role of the community in the decision-making process in tourism planning and the importance of CBT projects’ implements, especially the establishment of a local management board to support local communities in solving tourism issues [ 53 , 69 – 73 ]. However, our research demonstrates that the local government has not yet set up a management board in which people are directly involved in drafting the plan and defining the project’s goals and benefits. Although the province has a plan for the Nhon Ly area to develop CBT, it has not yet implemented it extensively and effectively for households doing tourism business. Moreover, the stated criteria have not been applied yet, so tourism is ineffective. Sometimes people still have to go back to fishing to stabilize their lives. In particular, when conducting tourism business, local households also encounter cumbersome legal administrative procedures, high taxes, and fees, causing significant obstacles for them. Studies have shown that government should play a fundamental and specific role by formulating, implementing, and monitoring policies and laws to foster a shift in the local direction [ 69 , 71 – 73 ]. More controlled tourism can enhance coastal self-reliance, redistribution and equality, and the well-being of communities and individuals [ 20 , 36 , 74 ].

Furthermore, the government and other organizations should, through funding pro-CBT initiatives, enable local disadvantaged communities to participate in the tourism sector [ 75 – 77 ]. Therefore, it is necessary to have appropriate mechanisms and policies to encourage and ensure CBT activities in Nhon Ly communities develop in the right direction and maximize efficiency. In addition, our research also shows that the overlapping of management groups has constrained and confused the ability to practice, control and supervise locals among government management boards. Thus, the community also becomes passive when asking for advice from such agencies. In particular, the overlap among the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism; Department of Tourism of Binh Dinh Province; People’s Committee of Quy Nhon city—People’s Committee of Nhon Ly commune; Community Tourism Management Board, and Residential Community. Thus, we argue that planning and building a management mechanism must ensure the proper management system, the linkage between the entity and the appropriate management capacity, and the management model must be decentralized to avoid overlapping these agencies.

During our research, we found that the lack of professional skills has significantly limited the ability of the locals to serve visitors [ 53 , 72 ]. Although understanding geography, culture, and environment in the locality, the locals do not have good social knowledge, understand tourist culture, and limited language proficiency, causing significant obstacles to serving tourists. In addition, CBT in this area has only been formed in the past few years, so the locals have not well enhanced their capacity to organize tourism activities and member cohesion. Furthermore, people have not received support from the authorities in building models for CBT, and loan support for tourism purposes is also limited. Therefore, locals still have to do tourism business in poor conditions, and homestays sometimes lack equipment, lighting systems, clean water sources, and sanitation around the environment that are not guaranteed for tourists. With active support, these CBTs will promote the great value and benefit all parties [ 41 , 59 , 78 ].

The only way to overcome the above obstacles is when planning for CBT development; it is necessary to consider community participation’s operational, structural and cultural limits [ 72 , 76 ]. Participation at the local level is essential to achieving the global goal of sustainable development [ 79 ]. However, such participation often involves a power shift from local government to local actors. Moreover, real consensus and absolute local control are not always possible. Planners need to understand the complex networks of power shift relationships and how different stakeholders envision CBT [ 78 ]. Primary education and training are required for the target communities to accompany tourism development. Local communities must develop strategies for receiving and interacting with tourists and expressing themselves and their tangible culture [ 80 ]. This solution involves finding the right balance between economic benefits and cultural integrity.

Finally, our research demonstrates that tourism has not brought jobs and stable and synchronous income because many fishers are used to sticking with the sea profession; tourism has only developed in recent years. Therefore, capital sources for tourism investment are mostly the people’s self-owned capital; there is no policy to support prosperity from other sources (e.g., governments, banks, businesses). Therefore, some households are participating in tourism as hired labor and seasonal. Families participating in certain activities in the tourism business are not sure about the profits the company gets from tourists and are only paid for completing the assigned tasks [ 73 ]. In addition, some households associate with travel agencies; the company only pays a small commission for the connection points, and the rest has other costs that people have to spend on their own without receiving the sharing. As a result, tourism income has not yet reached all households. Therefore, equitable benefit-sharing between the participating parties is critically needed [ 43 , 74 , 81 ].

In summary, the CBT is gradually taking shape in coastal localities and is giving visitors some exciting experiences. Community-based tourism is a suitable direction so that coastal localities can find economic benefits and contribute to preserving traditional cultural values. Under fishers’ uncertain natural living conditions, creating new forms of sustainable livelihood has become a top concern. Therefore, CBT development can be considered an appropriate way. Through this tourism development, the coastal communities will benefit in many ways, thereby improving the quality of life with opportunities involved in CBT.

7. Conclusion

This study explores the impact of tourism on the lives of the local community, the level of people’s participation in tourism, and the challenges of tourism development in the coastal commune of Nhon Ly, Vietnam. This study has shown that tourism positively impacts various aspects of the local community. In addition, communities are strongly aware of the importance of marine resources for ensuring their livelihoods in tourism development. Therefore, most community members actively participate in conservation activities to protect the marine environment. This study contributes to understanding a different perspective of coastal fishers in Vietnam. While in many places, the environmental impacts on beaches and islands are alarming [ 9 , 82 ] in Nhon Ly destination, the community is aware of the importance of marine resources for the security of their livelihoods in tourism development. Therefore, most community members have a positive attitude towards conserving the marine environment. This study affirms the importance of a sense of community along with their self-governing activities. The community is considered an essential factor in sustainable tourism development in terms of environmental protection and in ensuring the community’s sustainable livelihoods.

Another contribution of this study is to bring a more positive perspective on the formation of tourism business groups on the local community’s land. In the past, the State and tourism business groups implemented several projects, and the locals protested extremely strongly because they thought their land area was shrinking. Their living space was also negatively affected. Previous studies have shown positive and negative aspects of tourism investment projects [ 83 – 86 ]. In some cases, the locals see positive tourism changes, but they feel ambivalent about tourism’s impact [ 87 , 88 ]. However, our research findings show that after more than ten years of implementing a tourism project in Nhon Ly, tourism has boomed and created positive changes in the economy and socio-culture of the community and become a significant driving force to stimulate the development of the locality. If the tourism development projects of the State and investment groups cause damage to the economy, culture, society, and environment of the community, indeed tourism development activities here will not be sustainable. Thus, the community’s attitude will become increasingly fierce in opposition to such development. However, in this study, we affirm that the formation of resorts by tourism business groups and the development of CBT can develop in parallel to create various products and options for tourists in a destination.

This research involved small samples of host communities in the Nhon Ly community, which may not be truly indicative of the perspectives of all communities in emerging tourist countries. Despite carefully selected samples based on considerations, they might not represent the complete image of local communities. In addition, it is vital to refer that the limitations of our research are due to the Covid-19 constraints, which have prevented us from taking more samples and conducting other approaches such as mix-methods or quantitative approaches. Thus, it is noted that, as this is a convenience sample, it may not be generalized to the more significant population in different areas and peoples. Another limitation of this study is that it only approaches local perspectives. Therefore, the perspective may not reflect the different dimensions of community tourism and the participation of stakeholders such as the State, tourism businesses, and especially investment groups. Future studies may consider additional aspects of the barriers to stakeholder coordination or co-creation of tourism destination value.

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• Published: 31 March 2023

The benefits of tourism for rural community development

• Yung-Lun Liu 1 ,
• Jui-Te Chiang 2 &
• Pen-Fa Ko 2  

Humanities and Social Sciences Communications volume  10 , Article number:  137 ( 2023 ) Cite this article

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• Business and management
• Development studies

While the main benefits of rural tourism have been studied extensively, most of these studies have focused on the development of sustainable rural tourism. The role of tourism contributions to rural community development remains unexplored. Little is known about what tourism contribution dimensions are available for policy-makers and how these dimensions affect rural tourism contributions. Without a clear picture and indication of what benefits rural tourism can provide for rural communities, policy-makers might not invest limited resources in such projects. The objectives of this study are threefold. First, we outline a rural tourism contribution model that policy-makers can use to support tourism-based rural community development. Second, we address several methodological limitations that undermine current sustainability model development and recommend feasible methodological solutions. Third, we propose a six-step theoretical procedure as a guideline for constructing a valid contribution model. We find four primary attributes of rural tourism contributions to rural community development; economic, sociocultural, environmental, and leisure and educational, and 32 subattributes. Ultimately, we confirm that economic benefits are the most significant contribution. Our findings have several practical and methodological implications and could be used as policy-making guidelines for rural community development.

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Introduction

In many countries, rural areas are less developed than urban areas. They are often perceived as having many problems, such as low productivity, low education, and low income. Other issues include population shifts from rural to urban areas, low economic growth, declining employment opportunities, the loss of farms, impacts on historical and cultural heritage, sharp demographic changes, and low quality of life. These issues indicate that maintaining agricultural activities without change might create deeper social problems in rural regions. Li et al. ( 2019 ) analyzed why some rural areas decline while others do not. They emphasized that it is necessary to improve rural communities’ resilience by developing new tourism activities in response to potential urban demands. In addition, to overcome the inevitability of rural decline, Markey et al. ( 2008 ) pointed out that reversing rural recession requires investment orientation and policy support reform, for example, regarding tourism. Therefore, adopting rural tourism as an alternative development approach has become a preferred strategy in efforts to balance economic, social, cultural, and environmental regeneration.

Why should rural regions devote themselves to tourism-based development? What benefits can rural tourism bring to a rural community, particularly during and after the COVID pandemic? Without a clear picture and answers to these questions, policy-makers might not invest limited resources in such projects. Understanding the contributions of rural tourism to rural community development is critical for helping government and community planners realize whether rural tourism development is beneficial. Policy-makers are aware that reducing rural vulnerability and enhancing rural resilience is a necessary but challenging task; therefore, it is important to consider the equilibrium between rural development and potential negative impacts. For example, economic growth may improve the quality of life and enhance the well-being index. However, it may worsen income inequality, increase the demand for green landscapes, and intensify environmental pollution, and these changes may impede natural preservation in rural regions and make local residents’ lives more stressful. This might lead policy-makers to question whether they should support tourism-based rural development. Thus, the provision of specific information on the contributions of rural tourism is crucial for policy-makers.

Recently, most research has focused on rural sustainable tourism development (Asmelash and Kumar, 2019 ; Polukhina et al., 2021 ), and few studies have considered the contributions of rural tourism. Sustainability refers to the ability of a destination to maintain production over time in the face of long-term constraints and pressures (Altieri et al., 2018 ). In this study, we focus on rural tourism contributions, meaning what rural tourism contributes or does to help produce something or make it better or more successful. More specifically, we focus on rural tourism’s contributions, not its sustainability, as these goals and directions differ. Today, rural tourism has responded to the new demand trends of short-term tourists, directly providing visitors with unique services and opportunities to contact other business channels. The impact on the countryside is multifaceted, but many potential factors have not been explored (Arroyo et al., 2013 ; Tew and Barbieri, 2012 ). For example, the demand for remote nature-based destinations has increased due to the fear of COVID-19 infection, the perceived risk of crowding, and a desire for low tourist density. Juschten and Hössinger ( 2020 ) showed that the impact of COVID-19 led to a surge in demand for natural parks, forests, and rural areas. Vaishar and Šťastná ( 2022 ) demonstrated that the countryside is gaining more domestic tourists due to natural, gastronomic, and local attractions. Thus, they contended that the COVID-19 pandemic created rural tourism opportunities.

Following this change in tourism demand, rural regions are no longer associated merely with agricultural commodity production. Instead, they are seen as fruitful locations for stimulating new socioeconomic activities and mitigating public mental health issues (Kabadayi et al., 2020 ). Despite such new opportunities in rural areas, there is still a lack of research that provides policy-makers with information about tourism development in rural communities (Petrovi’c et al., 2018 ; Vaishar and Šťastná, 2022 ). Although there are many novel benefits that tourism can bring to rural communities, these have not been considered in the rural community development literature. For example, Ram et al. ( 2022 ) showed that the presence of people with mental health issues, such as nonclinical depression, is negatively correlated with domestic tourism, such as rural tourism. Yang et al. ( 2021 ) found that the contribution of rural tourism to employment is significant; they indicated that the proportion of nonagricultural jobs had increased by 99.57%, and tourism in rural communities had become the leading industry at their research site in China, with a value ten times higher than that of agricultural output. Therefore, rural tourism is vital in counteracting public mental health issues and can potentially advance regional resilience, identity, and well-being (López-Sanz et al., 2021 ).

Since the government plays a critical role in rural tourism development, providing valuable insights, perspectives, and recommendations to policy-makers to foster sustainable policies and practices in rural destinations is essential (Liu et al., 2020 ). Despite the variables developed over time to address particular aspects of rural tourism development, there is still a lack of specific variables and an overall measurement framework for understanding the contributions of rural tourism. Therefore, more evidence is needed to understand how rural tourism influences rural communities from various structural perspectives and to prompt policy-makers to accept rural tourism as an effective development policy or strategy for rural community development. In this paper, we aim to fill this gap.

The remainder of this paper is organized as follows: the section “Literature review” presents the literature review. Our methodology is described in the section “Methodology”, and our results are presented in the section “Results”. Our discussion in the section “Discussion/implications” places our findings in perspective by describing their theoretical and practical implications, and we provide concluding remarks in the section “Conclusion”.

Literature review

The role of rural tourism.

The UNWTO ( 2021 ) defined rural tourism as a type of tourism in which a visitor’s experience is related to a wide range of products generally linked to nature-based activity, agriculture, rural lifestyle/culture, angling, and sightseeing. Rural tourism has been used as a valid developmental strategy in rural areas in many developed and developing countries. This developmental strategy aims to enable a rural community to grow while preserving its traditional culture (Kaptan et al., 2020 ). In rural areas, ongoing encounters and interactions between humans and nature occur, as well as mutual transformations. These phenomena take place across a wide range of practices that are spatially and temporally bound, including agriculture, forestry, fishing, hunting, farm tourism, cultural heritage preservation, and country life (Hegarty and Przezbórska, 2005 ). To date, rural tourism in many places has become an important new element of the regional rural economy; it is increasing in importance as both a strategic sector and a way to boost the development of rural regions (Polukhina et al., 2021 ). Urban visitors’ demand for short-term leisure activities has increased because of the COVID-19 pandemic (Slater, 2020 ). Furthermore, as tourists shifted their preferences from exotic to local rural tourism amid COVID-19, Marques et al. ( 2022 ) suggested that this trend is a new opportunity that should be seized, as rural development no longer relies on agriculture alone. Instead, other practices, such as rural tourism, have become opportunities for rural areas. Ironically, urbanization has both caused severe problems in rural areas and stimulated rural tourism development as an alternative means of economic revitalization (Lewis and Delisle, 2004 ). Rural tourism provides many unique events and activities that people who live in urban areas are interested in, such as agricultural festivals, crafts, historical buildings, natural preservation, nostalgia, cuisine, and opportunities for family togetherness and relaxation (Christou, 2020 ; Getz, 2008 ). As rural tourism provides visitors from urban areas with various kinds of psychological, educational, social, esthetic, and physical satisfaction, it has brought unprecedented numbers of tourists to rural communities, stimulated economic growth, improved the viability of these communities, and enhanced their living standards (Nicholson and Pearce, 2001 ). For example, rural tourism practitioners have obtained significant economic effects, including more income, more direct sales, better profit margins, and more opportunities to sell agricultural products or craft items (Everett and Slocum, 2013 ). Local residents can participate in the development of rural tourism, and it does not necessarily depend on external resources. Hence, it provides entrepreneurial opportunities (Lee et al., 2006 ). From an environmental perspective, rural tourism is rooted in a contemporary theoretical shift from cherishing local agricultural resources to restoring the balance between people and ecosystems. Thus, rural land is preserved, natural landscapes are maintained, and green consumerism drives farmers to focus on organic products, green chemistry, and value-added products, such as land ethics (Higham and Ritchie, 2001 ). Therefore, the potential contributions of rural tourism are significant and profound (Marques, 2006 ; Phillip et al., 2010 ). Understanding its contributions to rural community development could encourage greater policy-maker investment and resident support (Yang et al., 2010 ).

Contributions of rural tourism to rural community development

Maintaining active local communities while preventing the depopulation and degradation of rural areas requires a holistic approach and processes that support sustainability. What can rural tourism contribute to rural development? In the literature, rural tourism has been shown to bring benefits such as stimulating economic growth (Oh, 2005 ), strengthening rural and regional economies (Lankford, 1994 ), alleviating poverty (Zhao et al., 2007 ), and improving living standards in local communities (Uysal et al., 2016 ). In addition to these economic contributions, what other elements have not been identified and discussed (Su et al., 2020 )? To answer these questions, additional evidence is a prerequisite. Thus, this study examines the following four aspects. (1) The economic perspective: The clustering of activities offered by rural tourism stimulates cooperation and partnerships between local communities and serves as a vehicle for creating various economic benefits. For example, rural tourism improves employment opportunities and stability, local residents’ income, investment, entrepreneurial opportunities, agricultural production value-added, capital formation, economic resilience, business viability, and local tax revenue (Atun et al., 2019 ; Cheng and Zhang, 2020 ; Choi and Sirakaya, 2006 ; Chong and Balasingam, 2019 ; Cunha et al., 2020 ). (2) The sociocultural perspective: Rural tourism no longer refers solely to the benefits of agricultural production; through economic improvement, it represents a greater diversity of activities. It is important to take advantage of the novel social and cultural alternatives offered by rural tourism, which contribute to the countryside. For example, rural tourism can be a vehicle for introducing farmers to potential new markets through more interactions with consumers and other value chain members. Under such circumstances, the sociocultural benefits of rural tourism are multifaceted. These include improved rural area depopulation prevention (López-Sanz et al., 2021 ), cultural and heritage preservation, and enhanced social stability compared to farms that do not engage in the tourism business (Ma et al., 2021 ; Yang et al., 2021 ). Additional benefits are improved quality of life; revitalization of local crafts, customs, and cultures; restoration of historical buildings and community identities; and increased opportunities for social contact and exchange, which enhance community visibility, pride, and cultural integrity (Kelliher et al., 2018 ; López-Sanz et al., 2021 ; Ryu et al., 2020 ; Silva and Leal, 2015 ). (3) The environmental perspective: Many farms in rural areas have been rendered noncompetitive due to a shortage of labor, poor managerial skills, and a lack of financial support (Coria and Calfucura, 2012 ). Although there can be immense pressure to maintain a farm in a family and to continue using land for agriculture, these problems could cause families to sell or abandon their farms or lands (Tew and Barbieri, 2012 ). In addition, unless new income pours into rural areas, farm owners cannot preserve their land and its natural aspects; thus, they tend to allow their land to become derelict or sell it. In the improved economic conditions after farms diversify into rural tourism, rural communities have more money to provide environmental care for their natural scenic areas, pastoral resources, forests, wetlands, biodiversity, pesticide mitigation, and unique landscapes (Theodori, 2001 ; Vail and Hultkrantz, 2000 ). Ultimately, the entire image of a rural community is affected; the community is imbued with vitality, and farms that participate in rural tourism instill more togetherness among families and rural communities. In this study, the environmental benefits induced by rural tourism led to improved natural environmental conservation, biodiversity, environmental awareness, infrastructure, green chemistry, unspoiled land, and family land (Di and Laura, 2021 ; Lane, 1994 ; Ryu et al., 2020 ; Yang et al., 2021 ). (4) The leisure and educational perspective: Rural tourism is a diverse strategy associated with an ongoing flow of development models that commercialize a wide range of farming practices for residents and visitors. Rural territories often present a rich set of unique resources that, if well managed, allow multiple appealing, authentic, and memorable tourist experiences. Tourists frequently comment that the rural tourism experience positively contrasts with the stress and other negatively perceived conditions of daily urban life. This is reflected in opposing, compelling images of home and a visited rural destination (Kastenholz et al., 2012 ). In other words, tourists’ positive experiences result from the attractions and activities of rural tourism destinations that may be deemed sensorially, symbolically, or socially opposed to urban life (Kastenholz et al. 2018 ). These experiences are associated with the “search for authenticity” in the context of the tension between the nostalgic images of an idealized past and the demands of stressful modern times. Although visitors search for the psychological fulfillment of hedonic, self-actualization, challenge, accomplishment, exploration, and discovery goals, some authors have uncovered the effects of rural tourism in a different context. For example, Otto and Ritchie ( 1996 ) revealed that the quality of a rural tourism service provides a tourist experience in four dimensions—hedonic, peace of mind, involvement, and recognition. Quadri-Felitti and Fiore ( 2013 ) identified the relevant impact of education, particularly esthetics, versus memory on satisfaction in wine tourism. At present, an increasing number of people and families are seeking esthetic places for relaxation and family reunions, particularly amid COVID-19. Rural tourism possesses such functions; it remains a novel phenomenon for visitors who live in urban areas and provides leisure and educational benefits when visitors to a rural site contemplate the landscape or participate in an agricultural process for leisure purposes (WTO, 2020 ). Tourists can obtain leisure and educational benefits, including ecological knowledge, information about green consumerism, leisure and recreational opportunities, health and food security, reduced mental health issues, and nostalgia nurturing (Alford and Jones, 2020 ; Ambelu et al., 2018 ; Christou, 2020 ; Lane, 1994 ; Li et al., 2021 ). These four perspectives possess a potential synergy, and their effects could strengthen the relationship between rural families and rural areas and stimulate new regional resilience. Therefore, rural tourism should be understood as an enabler of rural community development that will eventually attract policy-makers and stakeholders to invest more money in developing or advancing it.

Methodology

The literature on rural tourism provides no generally accepted method for measuring its contributions or sustainability intensity. Although many statistical methods are available, several limitations remain, particularly in terms of the item generation stage and common method bias (CMB). For example, Marzo-Navar et al. ( 2015 ) used the mean and SD values to obtain their items. However, the use of the mean has been criticized because it is susceptible to extreme values or outliers. In addition, they did not examine omitted variables and CMB. Asmelash and Kumar ( 2019 ) used the Delphi method with a mean value for deleting items. Although they asked experts to suggest the inclusion of any missed variables, they did not discuss these results. Moreover, they did not assess CMB. Islam et al. ( 2021 ) used a sixteen-step process to formulate sustainability indicators but did not consider omitted variables, a source of endogeneity bias. They also did not designate a priority for each indicator. Although a methodologically sound systematic review is commonly used, little attention has been given to reporting interexpert reliability when multiple experts are used to making decisions at various points in the screening and data extraction stages (Belur et al., 2021 ). Due to the limitations of the current methods for assessing sustainable tourism development, we aim to provide new methodological insights. Specifically, we suggest a six-stage procedure, as shown in Fig. 1 .

Steps required in developing the model for analysis after obtaining the data.

Many sources of data collection can be used, including literature reviews, inferences about the theoretical definition of the construct, previous theoretical and empirical research on the focal construct, advice from experts in the field, interviews, and focus groups. In this study, the first step was to retrieve data from a critical literature review. The second step was the assessment of omitted variables to produce items that fully captured all essential aspects of the focal construct domain. In this case, researchers must not omit a necessary measure or fail to include all of the critical dimensions of the construct. In addition, the stimuli of CMB, for example, double-barreled items, items containing ambiguous or unfamiliar terms, and items with a complicated syntax, should be simplified and made specific and concise. That is, researchers should delete items contaminated by CMB. The third step was the examination of construct-irrelevant variance to retain the variances relevant to the construct of interest and minimize the extent to which the items tapped concepts outside the focal construct domain. Variances irrelevant to the targeted construct should be deleted. The fourth step was to examine intergroup consistency to ensure that there was no outlier impact underlying the ratings. The fifth step was to examine interexpert reliability to ensure rating conformity. Finally, we prioritized the importance of each variable with the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (AHP), which is a multicriteria decision-making approach. All methods used in this study are expert-based approaches.

Selection of experts

Because this study explores the contributions of rural tourism to rural community development, it involves phenomena in the postdevelopment stage; therefore, a few characteristics are essential for determining the choice of experts. The elements used to identify the experts in this study were (1) the number of experts, (2) expertise, (3) knowledge, (4) diversity, (5) years working in this field, and 5) commitment to participation. Regarding the number of experts, Murphy-Black et al. ( 1998 ) suggested that the more participants there are, the better, as a higher number reduces the effects of expert attrition and rater bias. Taylor-Powell ( 2002 ) pointed out that the number of participants in an expert-based study depends not only on the purpose of the research but also on the diversity of the target population. Okoli and Pawlowski ( 2004 ) recommended a target number of 10–18 experts for such a purpose. Therefore, we recruited a group of 18 experts based on their stated interest in the topic and asked them to comment on our rationale concerning the rating priorities among the items. We asked them to express a degree of agreement or disagreement with each item we provided. We adopted a heterogeneous and anonymous arrangement to ensure that rater bias did not affect this study. The 18 experts had different backgrounds, which might have made it easier for them to reach a consensus objectively. We divided the eighteen experts into three subgroups: (1) at least six top managers from rural tourism businesses, all of whom had been in the rural tourism business for over 10 years; (2) at least six academics who taught subjects related to tourism at three different universities in Taiwan; and (3) at least six government officials involved in rural development issues in Taiwan.

Generating items to represent the construct

Step 1: data collection.

Data collection provides evidence for investigation and reflects the construct of interest. While there is a need to know what rural tourism contributes, previous studies have provided no evidence for policy-makers to establish a rural community strategy; thus, it is essential to use a second source to achieve this aim. We used a literature review for specific topics; the data we used were based on the findings being presented in papers on rural tourism indexed in the SSCI (Social Sciences Citation Index) and SCIE (Science Citation Index Expanded). In this study, we intended to explore the role of rural tourism and its contributions to rural development. Therefore, we explored the secondary literature on the state of the questions of rural development, sustainable development, sustainability indicators, regional resilience, farm tourism, rural tourism, COVID-19, tourist preferences, and ecotourism using terms such as land ethics, ecology, biodiversity, green consumerism, environmentalism, green chemistry, community identity, community integration, community visibility, and development goals in an ad hoc review of previous studies via Google Scholar. Based on the outcomes of this first data collection step, we generated thirty-three subattributes and classified them into four domains.

Step 2: Examine the face validity of omitted variables and CMB

Face validity is defined as assessing whether a measurement scale or questionnaire includes all the necessary items (Dempsey and Dempsey, 1992 ). Based on the first step, we generated data subattributes from our literature review. However, there might have been other valuable attributes or subattributes that were not considered or excluded. Therefore, our purposes for examining face validity were twofold. First, we assessed the omitted variables, defined as the occurrence of crucial aspects or facets that were omitted (Messick, 1995 ). These comprise a threat to construct validity that, if ignored by researchers, might result in unreliable findings. In other words, face validity is used to distinguish whether the researchers have adequately captured the full dimensions of the construct of interest. If not, the evaluation instrument or model is deficient. However, the authors found that most rural tourism studies have not assessed the issue of omitted variables (An and Alarcon, 2020 ; Lin, 2022 ). Second, we mitigated the CMB effect. In a self-report survey, it is necessary to provide a questionnaire without CMB to the targeted respondents, as CMB affects respondent comprehension. Therefore, we assessed item characteristic effects, item context effects, and question response process effects. These three effects are related to the respondents’ understanding, retrieval, mood, affectivity, motivation, judgment, response selection, and response reporting (Podsakoff et al., 2003 ). Specifically, items containing flaws from these three groups in a questionnaire can seriously influence an empirical investigation and potentially result in misleading conclusions. We assessed face validity by asking all the experts to scrutinize the content items that we collected from the literature review and the questionnaire that we drafted. The experts could then add any attribute or subattribute they thought was essential that had been omitted. They could also revise the questionnaire if CMB were embedded. We added the new attributes or subattributes identified by the experts to those collected from the literature review.

Step 3: Examine interexpert consensus for construct-irrelevant variances

After examining face validity, we needed to rule out items irrelevant to the construct of interest; otherwise, the findings would be invalid. We examined the interexpert consensus to achieve this aim. The purpose was to estimate the experts’ ratings of each item. In other words, interexpert consensus assesses the extent to which experts make the same ratings (Kozlowski and Hattrup, 1992 ; Northcote et al., 2008 ). In prior studies, descriptive statistics have often been used to capture the variability among individual characteristics, responses, or contributions to the subject group (Landeta, 2006 ; Roberson et al., 2007 ). Many expert-based studies have applied descriptive statistics to determine consensus and quantify its degree (Paraskevas and Saunders, 2012 ; Stewart et al., 2016 ). Two main groups of descriptive statistics, central tendencies (mode, mean, and median) and level of dispersion (standard deviation, interquartile, and coefficient of variation), are commonly used when determining consensus (Mukherjee et al., 2015 ). Choosing the cutoff point of interexpert consensus was critical because we used it as a yardstick for item retention and its value can also be altered by a number on the Likert scale (Förster and von der Gracht, 2014 ). In the case of a 5-point Likert scale, the coefficient of variation (CV) is used to measure interexpert consensus. Hence, CV ≤ 0.3 indicated high consensus (Zinn et al., 2001 ). In addition, based on the feedback obtained from the expert panel, we used standard deviation (SD) as another measurement to assess the variation in our population. Henning and Jordaan ( 2016 ) indicate that SD ≤ 1 represents a high level of consensus, meaning that it can act as a guideline for cutoff points. In addition, following Vergani et al. ( 2022 ), we used the percentage agreement (% AGR) to examine interexpert consensus. If the responses reached ≧ 70% 4 and 5 in the case of a 5-point Likert scale, it indicated that the item had interexpert consensus; thus, we could retain it. Moreover, to avoid the impact of outliers, we used the median instead of the mean as another measurement. Items had a high consensus if their median value was ≥4.00 (Rice, 2009 ). Considering these points, we adopted % AGR, median, SD, and CV to examine interexpert consensus.

Step 4: Examine intergroup consistency

In this expert-based study, the sample size was small. Any rater bias could have caused inconsistency among the subgroups of experts; therefore, we needed to examine the effect of rater bias on intergroup consistency. When the intergroup ratings showed substantially different distributions, the aggregated data were groundless. Dajani et al. ( 1979 ) remarked that interexpert consensus is meaningless if the consistency of responses in a study is not reached, as it means that any rater bias could distort the median, SD, or CV. Most studies have used one-way ANOVA to determine whether there is a significant difference between the expected and observed frequency in three or more categories. However, this method is based on large sample size and normal distribution. In the case of expert-based studies, the expert sample size is small, and the assessment distribution tends to be skewed. Thus, we used the nonparametric test instead of one-way ANOVA for consistency measurement (Potvin and Roff, 1993 ). We used the Kruskal‒Wallis test (K–W) to test the intergroup consistency among the three subgroups of experts. The purpose of the K–W test is to determine whether there are significant differences among three or more subgroups regarding the ratings of the domains (Huck, 2004 ). The judgment criteria in the K-W test depended on the level of significance, and we set the significance level at p  < 0.05 (Love and Irani, 2004 ), with no significant differences among groups set at p  > 0.05 (Loftus et al., 2000 ; Rice, 2009 ). We used SPSS to conduct the K–W test to assess intergroup consistency in this study.

Step 5: Examine interexpert reliability

Interexpert reliability, on the one hand, is usually defined as the proportion of systematic variance to the total variance in ratings (James et al., 1984 ). On the other hand, interexpert reliability estimation is not concerned with the exact or absolute value of ratings. Rather, it measures the relative ordering or ranking of rated objects. Thus, interexpert reliability estimation concerns the consistency of ratings (Tinsley and Weiss, 1975 ). If an expert-based study did not achieve interexpert reliability, we could not trust its analysis (Singletary, 1994 ). Thus, we examined interexpert reliability in this expert-based study. Many methods are available in the literature for measuring interexpert reliability, but there seems to be little consensus on a standard method. We used Kendall’s W to assess the reliability among the experts for each sample group (Goetz et al., 1994 ) because it was available for any sample size or ordinal number. If W was 1, all the experts were unanimous, and each had assigned the same order to the list of objects or concerns. As Spector et al. ( 2002 ) and Schilling ( 2002 ) suggested, reliabilities well above the recommended value of .70 indicate sufficient internal reliability. In this study, there was a strong consensus when W  > 0.7. W  > 0.5 represented a moderate consensus; and W  < 0.3 indicated weak interexpert agreement (Schmidt et al., 2001 ). To measure Kendall’s W , we used SPSS 23 to assess interexpert reliability.

Step 6: Examine the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process

After examining face validity, interexpert consensus, intergroup consistency, and interexpert reliability, we found that the aggregated items were relevant, authentic, and reliable in relation to the construct of interest. To provide policy-makers with a clear direction regarding which contributions are more or less important, we scored each attribute and subattribute using a multicriteria decision-making technique. Fuzzy AHP is a well-known decision-making tool for modeling unstructured problems. It enables decision-makers to model a complex issue in a hierarchical structure that indicates the relationships between the goal, criteria, and subcriteria on the basis of scores (Park and Yoon, 2011 ). The fuzzy AHP method tolerates vagueness and ambiguity (Mikhailov and Tsvetinov, 2004 ). In other words, fuzzy AHP can capture a human’s appraisal of ambiguity when considering complex, multicriteria decision-making problems (Erensal et al., 2006 ). In this study, we used Power Choice 2.5 software to run fuzzy AHP, determine weights, and develop the impact structure of rural tourism on sustainable rural development.

Face validity

To determine whether we had omitted variables, we asked all 18 experts to scrutinize our list of four attributes and 33 subattributes for omitted variables and determine whether the questionnaire contained any underlying CMB. We explained the meaning of omitted variables, the stimuli of CMB, and the two purposes of examining face validity to all the experts. In their feedback, the eighteen experts added one item as an omitted variable: business viability. The experts suggested no revisions to the questionnaire we had drafted. These results indicated that one omitted variable was revealed and that our prepared questionnaire was clear, straightforward, and understandable. The initially pooled 34 subattributes represented the construct of interest, and all questionnaires used for measurement were defendable in terms of CMB. The biasing effects of method variance did not exist, indicating that the threat of CMB was minor.

Interexpert consensus

In this step, we rejected any items irrelevant to the construct of interest. Consensus measurement played an essential role in aggregating the experts’ judgments. This study measured the AGR, median, SD, and CV. Two items, strategic alliance (AGR = 50%) and carbon neutrality (AGR = 56%) were rated < 70%, and we rejected them accordingly. These results are shown in Table 1 . The AGR, median, SD, and CV values were all greater than the cutoff points, thus indicating that the majority of experts in this study consistently recognized high values and reached a consensus for the rest of the 32 subattributes. Consequently, the four attributes and 32 subattributes remained and were initially identified as determinants for further analysis.

Intergroup consistency and interexpert reliability

In this study, with scores based on a 5-point Likert scale, we conducted the K–W test to assess intergroup differences for each subattribute. Based on the outcomes, the K–W test yielded significant results for all 32 subattributes; all three groups of experts reached consistency at p  > 0.05. This result indicated that no outlier or extreme value underlay the ratings, and therefore, intergroup consistency was reached. Finally, we measured interexpert reliability with Kendall’s W . The economic perspective was W  = 0.73, the sociocultural perspective was W  = 0.71, the environmental perspective was W  = 0.71, and the leisure and educational perspective was W  = 0.72. These four groups of W were all ≧ 0.7, indicating high reliability for the ranking order and convergence judged by all subgroup experts. These results are shown in Table 2 .

The hierarchical framework

The results of this study indicate that rural tourism contributions to rural community development comprise four attributes and thirty-two subattributes. The economic perspective encompasses nine subattributes and is weighted at w  = 0.387. In addition, rural tourism has long been considered a possible means of sociocultural development and regeneration of rural areas, particularly those affected by the decline in traditional rural

activities, agricultural festivals, and historical buildings. According to the desired benefits, the sociocultural perspective encompasses nine subattributes and is weighted at w  = 0.183. Moreover, as rural tourism can develop on farms and locally, its contribution to maintaining and enhancing environmental regeneration and protection is significant. Therefore, an environmental perspective can determine rural tourism’s impact on pursuing environmental objectives. Our results indicate that the environmental perspective encompasses seven subattributes and that its weight is w  = 0.237. Furthermore, the leisure and educational perspective indicates the attractiveness of rural tourism from visitors’ viewpoint and their perception of a destination’s value and contributions. These results show that this perspective encompasses seven subattributes and is weighted at w  = 0.193. This specific contribution model demonstrates a 3-level hierarchical structure, as shown in Fig. 2 . The scores for each criterion could indicate each attribute’s importance and explain the priority order of the groups. Briefly, the critical sequence of each measure in the model at Level 2 is as follows: economic perspective > environmental perspective > leisure and educational perspective > sociocultural perspective. Since scoring and ranking were provided by 18 experts from three different backgrounds and calculated using fuzzy AHP, our rural tourism contribution model is established. It can provide policy-makers with information on the long-term benefits and advantages following the completion of excellent community development in rural areas.

The priority index of each attribute and sub-attribute.

Discussion/Implications

In the era of sustainable rural development, it is vital to consider the role of rural tourism and how research in this area shapes access to knowledge on rural community development. This study provides four findings based on the increasing tendency of policy-makers to use such information to shape their policy-making priorities. It first shows that the demand for rural tourism has soared, particularly during COVID-19. Second, it lists four significant perspectives regarding the specific contributions of rural tourism to rural community development and delineates how these four perspectives affect rural tourism development. Our findings are consistent with those of prior studies. For example, geography has been particularly important in the rural or peripheral tourism literature (Carson, 2018 ). In terms of the local geographical context, two contributions could be made by rural tourism. The first stems from the environmental perspective. When a rural community develops rural tourism, environmental protection awareness is increased, and the responsible utilization of natural resources is promoted. This finding aligns with Lee and Jan ( 2019 ). The second stems from the leisure and educational perspective. The geographical context of a rural community, which provides tourists with geographical uniqueness, advances naturally calming, sensory-rich, and emotion-generating experiences for tourists. These results suggest that rural tourism will likely positively impact tourists’ experience. This finding is consistent with Kastenhoz et al. ( 2020 ). Third, although expert-based approaches have considerable benefits in developing and testing underlying phenomena, evidence derived from interexpert consensus, intergroup consistency, and interexpert reliability has been sparse. This study provides such evidence. Fourth, this research shows that rural tourism makes four main contributions, economic, sociocultural, environmental, leisure, and educational, to rural community development. Our results show four key indicators at Level 2. The economic perspective is strongly regarded as the most important indicator, followed by the environmental perspective, leisure and educational perspective, and sociocultural perspective, which is weighted as the least important. The secondary determinants of contributions have 32 subindicators at Level 3: each was identified and assigned a different weight. These results imply that the attributes or subattributes with high weights have more essential roles in understanding the contributions of rural tourism to rural community development. Policy-makers can use these 32 subindicators to formulate rural tourism development policies or strategies.

This study offers the following five practical implications for policymakers and rural communities:

First, we argue that developing rural tourism within a rural community is an excellent strategy for revitalization and countering the effects of urbanization, depopulation, deforestation, and unemployment.

Second, our analytical results indicate that rural tourism’s postdevelopment contribution is significant from the economic, sociocultural, environmental, leisure, and educational perspectives, which is consistent with Lee and Jan ( 2019 ).

Third, there is an excellent opportunity to build or invest more in rural tourism during COVID-19, not only because of the functions of rural tourism but also because of its timing. Many prior studies have echoed this recommendation. For example, Yang et al. ( 2021 ) defined rural tourism as the leading industry in rural areas, offering an output value ten times higher than that of agriculture in China. In addition, rural tourism has become more attractive to urban tourists amid COVID-19. Vaishar and Šťastná ( 2022 ) suggested that the COVID-19 pandemic created a strong demand for rural tourism, which can mitigate threats to public mental health, such as anxiety, depression, loneliness, isolation, and insomnia. Marques et al. ( 2022 ) showed that tourists’ preference for tourism in rural areas increased substantially during COVID-19.

Fourth, the contributions of this study to policy development are substantial. The more focused rural tourism in rural areas is, the more effective revitalization becomes. This finding highlights the importance of such features in developing rural tourism to enhance rural community development from multiple perspectives. This finding echoes Zawadka et al. ( 2022 ); i.e., policy-makers should develop rural tourism to provide tourists with a safe and relaxed environment and should not ignore the value of this model for rural tourism.

Fifth, our developed model could drive emerging policy issues from a supporting perspective and provide policy-makers with a more comprehensive overview of the development of the rural tourism sector, thus enabling them to create better policies and programs as needed. For example, amid COVID-19, rural tourism created a safe environment for tourists, mainly by reducing their fears of contamination (Dennis et al., 2021 ). This novel contribution that rural tourism destinations can provide to residents and visitors from other places should be considered and built into any rural community development policy.

This study also has the following four methodological implications for researchers:

First, it addresses methodological limitations that still impede tourism sustainability model development. Specifically, we suggest a six-stage procedure as the guideline; it is imperative that rural tourism researchers or model developers follow this procedure. If they do not, their findings tend to be flawed.

Second, to ensure that collected data are without extraneous interference or differences via subgroups of experts, the assessment of intergroup consistency with the K–W test instead of one-way ANOVA is proposed, especially in small samples and distribution-free studies.

Third, providing interexpert reliability evidence within expert-based research is critical; we used Kendall’s W to assess the reliability among experts for each sample group because it applies to any sample size and ordinal number.

Finally, we recommend using fuzzy AHP to establish a model with appropriate indicators for decision-making or selection. This study offers novel methodological insights by estimating a theoretically grounded and empirically validated rural tourism contribution model.

There are two limitations to this study. First, we examine all subattributes by interexpert consensus to delete construct-irrelevant variances that might receive criticism for their lack of statistical rigor. Future studies can use other rigorous methods, such as AD M( j ) or rWG ( j ) , interexpert agreement indices to assess and eliminate construct-irrelevant variances. Second, we recommend maximizing rural tourism contributions to rural community development by using the general population as a sample to identify any differences. More specifically, we recommend using Cronbach’s alpha, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and structural equation modeling (SEM) to test the overall reliability and validity of the data and results. It is also necessary to provide results for goodness-of-fit measures—e.g., the goodness-of-fit index (GFI), adjusted goodness-of-fit index (AGFI), comparative fit index (CFI), normed fit index (NFI), Tucker–Lewis Index (TLI), standardized root mean square residual (SRMR), or root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA).

Numerous empirical studies have illustrated how rural tourism can positively and negatively affect the contexts in rural areas where it is present. This study reveals the positive contributions of rural tourism to rural community development. The findings show that using rural tourism as a revitalization strategy is beneficial to nonurban communities in terms of their economic, sociocultural, environmental, and leisure and educational development. The contribution from the economic perspective is particularly important. These findings suggest that national, regional, and local governments or community developers should make tourism a strategic pillar in their policies for rural development and implement tourism-related development projects to gain 32 benefits, as indicated in Fig. 2 . More importantly, rural tourism was advocated and proved effective for tourists and residents to reduce anxiety, depression, or insomnia during the COVID-19 pandemic. With this emerging contribution, rural tourism is becoming more critical to tourists from urban areas and residents involved in rural community development. With this model, policy-makers should not hesitate to develop or invest more in rural communities to create additional tourism-based activities and facilities. As they could simultaneously advance rural community development and public mental health, policy-makers should include these activities among their regional resilience considerations and treat them as enablers of sustainable rural development. We conclude that amid COVID-19, developing rural tourism is an excellent strategy for promoting rural community development and an excellent alternative that could counteract the negative impacts of urbanization and provide stakeholders with more positive interests. The proposed rural tourism contribution model also suggests an unfolding research plan.

Data availability

The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Community-Based Tourism: Empowering Local Champions for Sustainable Tourism in Thailand

November 6, 2022.

Pattamon Rungchavalnont

Head of Solutions Mapping, Accelerator Lab, Thailand

Thailand is among the world's top tourist destinations. The country’s diverse geographical settings and rich cultural capital provide a vast variety of tourism experiences from relaxing by beautiful sandy beaches of the South to exploring lush green forests of the mountainous North and enjoying local cultures in the Northeast. In 2019, Thailand welcomed a record high of 40 million visitors. For this reason, tourism is a major driver of Thailand’s economic development, providing around 20% of the national GDP and employing over 4.2 million people (11% of total employment). However, Thailand’s tourism industry is not without negative side effects. Unsustainable management of tourism has proven to cause environmental degradation and biodiversity loss as well as fuel uneven economic development. Oftentimes, economic benefits from tourism fall into the hands of large tour operators and investors from the outside while local communities gain minimum economic benefit and are left to suffer many social and environmental drawbacks.  

While the COVID-19 pandemic has caused a major setback to the tourism industry, it also provides an opportunity for Thailand to rethink its tourism. Sustainable and resilient tourism has become a key theme for the country and is now one of UNDP Thailand’s focus areas. UNDP Accelerator Lab Thailand seized this opportunity to embark on a journey to support the growing momentum for sustainable tourism by contributing innovative approaches to the redefinition of the country’s tourism industry, specifically from the angle of community-based tourism.

Why community-based tourism?

Emerged in Thailand in the 1990s, ‘community-based tourism (CBT)’ proposes the idea of ‘tourism by the local people for the local people’ . It is one of the solutions for sustainable tourism because, under this framework, local people are the key decision-makers of their tourism development and the ones to fully benefit from it. Being long-term residents of the areas, local communities are more incentivised to balance economic growth and socio-cultural and environmental impacts caused by tourism activities. At the end of the day, it is their home. However, it is crucial to clear the misconception that CBT refers to ‘village tourism,’ limited only to certain styles of tourism that take place in rural areas. CBT is a tourism management model that puts local communities at the center of the process and can encompass diverse tourism styles from rural tourism to urban tourism, nature tourism, or even luxury tourism. Essentially, CBT is about community empowerment as it is a process in which local people are empowered to uplift their own livelihood.

The pandemic has posed both challenges and opportunities for CBT. International travel restrictions caused a major drop in foreign visitors which used to make up a significant portion of visitors for CBT. Local communities needed to adjust themselves to the domestic tourism market and diversify their offers e.g. community products beyond tourism activities. On the other hand, the pandemic has shaped new tourist behaviours- traveling in smaller groups, choosing less crowded destinations, escaping to nature, and searching for unique experiences and activities for well-being, among others. Many of these new preferences match very well with what CBT can offer and can potentially pave way for a golden age of CBT. Moreover, pandemic-induced lockdowns in major cities led to a reverse in rural-urban migration. Many people working in the cities returned to their hometowns during the lockdown and some sought to find livelihood options at home. CBT provides an alternative and in turn benefits from increased human resources- the skilled workforce who have gained skills and exposure from their time working in the cities. All in all, it is an important time for CBT to take the next step to ensure its thrivability in this rapidly changing world.

Making sense of CBT and contemplating on the way forward

            As a starting point, national-level workshops were co-organized by UNDP Accelerator Lab Thailand, Thailand Policy Lab, the Designated Areas for Sustainable Tourism Administration (DASTA) , and Local Alike (one of Thailand’s leading social enterprises working on CBT). Representatives from local communities, relevant governmental agencies, the private sector, civil society organizations, and academia exchanged views on trends and weak signals affecting CBT as well as discussed the desirable future and way forward. A few interesting points from the exercise include:

• CBT can go beyond leisure tourism and provide learning experiences for visitors, for example community-based environmental conservation and waste management and tap into opportunities from the rise of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and Thailand’s Bio-Circular-Green (BCG) Economy Model of the government.
• Communities need to build the next generation of CBT leaders. Involvement and incentives for the new generation are key for successful engagement and transition.
• Planning and decision-making should be a bottom-up and collaborative process between the government and local communities to avoid projects which do not fit local contexts or serve the real needs of stakeholders. For instance, many tourism applications were created but abandoned.
• Multisectoral support is crucial for CBT development e.g. support from the private sector on digital transformation, academia on CBT-related curriculum for young leaders, etc.
• Funding mechanisms must be further developed e.g. shifting from an informal arrangement to a social enterprise, setting up CBT development funds, etc.

While the discussion revealed multiple areas for development, capacity building for local communities stood out as one of the prerequisites for success. Since local communities are the main drivers of CBT, they must be equipped with frameworks and tools that will enable them to flourish in the rapidly changing world. Existing capacity-building initiatives have been fairly successful in supporting local communities to begin their CBT journey, often focusing on building the foundation and taking a short/medium-term view. While such emphasis is essential, it might not be sufficient any longer. Especially once local communities manage to set up the basics of their CBT, they also need to start thinking about sustainability and being anticipatory. As a result, the Lab identified this as our area of work: how local communities can make their CBT become more sustainable.

Learnings with the locals

            UNDP Accelerator Lab Thailand in collaboration with Local Alike joined hands with two pilot communities to start our learning journey. Social innovation tools were applied to invite local stakeholders to reflect on the becoming of their CBT and look forward through the lens of sustainability. Given the different nature of each community, the discussions and sustainability initiatives took on different directions. However, one commonality revealed itself. Community is never homogeneous; CBT development is an area of convergence for different groups to interact and build momentum toward sustainability. To elaborate, let’s take a closer look at each of the pilot communities…

Chulabhorn Pattana 9 community: A case of nature-based tourism from the South

As a neighbour of the world-famous Hala-Bala Wildlife Sanctuary, Chulabhorn Pattana 9 community of Yala province in Southern Thailand has attracted many nature lovers; some visited the village just to enjoy the serenity and beauty of the natural environment while others were excited by the rich biodiversity of the Hala-Bala Forest, not to mention the village’s charming cultural heritage from their Community Malaya time. The village is familiar with receiving visitors as they have been welcoming relatives and friends from Malaysia and Singapore (legacy of Community Malaya time) for decades. Eight years ago, the concept of CBT was introduced, and the new generation stepped up to lead CBT management. The intergenerational difference is reflected in the different views on tourism management- one hoping to increase the number of visitors while another seeking to keep the delicate balance. The new generation realizes that their main target group is nature lovers. Thus, nature is the main capital for their CBT and its conservation is of paramount importance. Hence, the discussion about limiting the number of visitors with consideration of the area’s carrying capacity was very well received by the CBT management team.

CBT at Chulabhorn Pattana 9 does not only aim to mitigate the negative effects of tourism activities but also inspires positive changes in the local community. In many cases, tourism may have resulted in waste management problems. On the contrary, for Chulabhorn Pattana 9 community, the visitors are the ones demanding that waste in the village needs to be better managed. Hearing these comments, the CBT management team was eager to start a waste management initiative with support from the Lab and Local Alike. Waste separation and organic compost-making have been pioneered by the CBT group and will be shared with fellow villagers to inspire more people to join the effort.

In addition, the CBT management team sought to further develop tourism activities that highlight the value of biodiversity and incentivize conservation. Birdwatching was identified as a viable option. Interestingly, apart from our support, birdwatching was born out of collaboration with a visitor who happens to be a bird expert, an ex-member of the Bird Conservation Society of Thailand. Feeling that Chulabhorn Pattana 9 is more than a touristic destination to him, this bird expert saw the potential and was more than willing to help provide training on birdwatching to local guides. Chulabhorn Pattana 9 is able to shift from selling their services to ‘tourists’ to building relationships with ‘visitors’, some of whom have become ‘friends’ to co-create a sustainable future for their CBT.

Nong San community: Local life and craft in the Northeast

Nong San community of Sakon Nakhon province in the Northeast of Thailand is famous for its indigo dye handicrafts. Traditional knowledge on indigo dye has been passed on from generation to generation at Nong San village. When combined with the skills of a new generation artist, Pornpimon Mingmitmee, this cultural capital becomes the starting point of Nong San CBT. Visitors, both craft lovers and chillax tourists, enjoy the simple slow life and recharge themselves with natural dye crafts, organic agriculture, and the beauty in the local lifestyle. However, the early days of Nong San CBT were not all easy. The community did not believe that CBT was viable at first, so Pornpimon had to start small and gradually showed other people the success to inspire more support from within the village and nearby community. Furthermore, with the COVID-19-induced lockdown, villagers who used to work in other cities returned to the village and joined force to expand Nong San CBT. However, unlike Chulabhorn Pattana 9 case, Nong San CBT opts for a more decentralized model where each member acts as an independent micro-entrepreneur and loosely connects to provide tour packages for visitors. Therefore, the work here was about business incubation for female micro-entrepreneurs to enhance the distribution of benefits from CBT among the local people. Entrepreneurial skills, including digital marketing, were provided to interested locals.

Circularity is another theme as Pornpimon has been trying to manage waste materials from textile crafts production e.g. left-over threads and fabric scraps. Drawing inspiration from India, the initial idea was to turn textile waste into paper. Local knowledge in Thailand provides a technique for turning natural fibers into handmade paper. Yet, from the prototyping phase, cotton textile waste has proven to be more difficult to handle than other fibers. An alternative was presented as Pornpimon connected with a company working on recycled textiles. The idea is to compile textile waste from the local community, turn it into recycled fabrics, and send it back to the community as raw materials for new products. At the time of writing, the discussion is still ongoing to develop a suitable model of collaboration. This case demonstrates the power of cross-sectoral collaboration in driving CBT toward sustainability.

Sharing our experiences

    Through the working process with our partners, UNDP Accelerator Lab Thailand was able to learn about CBT development as well as share our social innovation tools with key change agents like Local Alike and relevant governmental agencies. Realizing the value of these tools in facilitating processes towards sustainability and resilience, the Lab together with Local Alike co-produced the Community-Based Tourism Social Innovation Playbook to share with others the experience of Thailand. The Playbook emphasized that social innovation process is not linear. While the tools are categorized into three groups (making sense of the past and present; looking forward to the future; and taking actions), users can always jump back and forth between each category of tools to fill the gaps of knowledge as they surface. Case studies from our work with Chulabhorn Pattana 9 and Nong San communities demonstrate this non-linear journey as well as the fact that no two communities are alike; thus, the social innovation tools must be ultilized in consideration of specific local contexts.

In addition to the publication, the Accelerator Lab Thailand will be working with the Accelerator Lab Bangladesh on CBT development in their context. Follow our next blog to see how Thailand’s experiences can be adapted and what lessons we will learn on the journey to transform tourism into a vehicle for sustainable development.

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This research explores local drivers regarding the principles of Community-Based Tourism (CBT) as well as analyzes their role in participatory CBT development from local community’s perspective. The study is based on applied research; however, the descriptive-analytical research methodology is used accordingly. An integrated qualitative-quantitative method using Delphi technique with three rounds duration is undertaken to identify and analyze the CBT development drivers. Based on the preliminary researcher’s presence in the study area and with regard to the capacity building as well as empowerment issue, local community’s characteristics including gender, education level and the capability of the key and influential rural trustees and their corresponding influence on decision-taking need particular attention as far as CBT development issue is concerned. This study suggests that from the local community stand point, the economic drivers ranked as the most important ones as opposed to socio-cultural drivers from CBT development point of view and sustainable livelihood consideration. It further indicates that more educated village fellow would better be able to respond to CBT development. Moreover, in terms of gender, women and men have an almost identical understanding of the CBT development drivers. Last but not the least, it is argued that key influential trustees are more capable of smoothing the CBT development path.

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Ghasemi, M., Javdan, M., Tavalaee, S. et al. Local drivers in community-based tourism development: an analytical study of Bonlar village, Iran. Environ Dev Sustain (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-023-03682-3

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Home » How Tourism Benefits Nature and Wildlife

How Tourism Benefits Nature and Wildlife

The Great Barrier Reef. Yellowstone. The Amazon Rainforest. One of the top reasons that tourists are drawn to destinations such as these is because of their rich biodiversity and unique landscapes.

According to Brand USA,  2 of the top 5 motivators  for selecting vacation spots are ecotourism and nature. Wanderlusters are seeking experiences that reflect the  true  essence of the places they are visiting. In other words, they want to visit places with unspoiled environments and thriving native wildlife.

We often hear about all of the ways that humans are destroying wild places and jeopardizing the health of the planet – and rightfully so. Over  75%  of land environments have been severely altered by humans and species are facing extinction at up to  1000x  the natural rate. While there’s no denying that irresponsible tourism contributes to this devastation, we shouldn’t overlook the important role that sustainable and well-managed tourism plays in advancing conservation and protecting our world’s treasured ecosystems. These benefits have only been further evidenced by the current COVID-19 crisis and the resulting halt in tourism.

In this blog post we’ve highlighted just a handful of the different ways that tourism benefits nature and wildlife. Read on to learn more!

Increasing Community Support for Conservation

Over the last decade, nature-based tourism has become increasingly popular.  In total, wildlife tourism now supports nearly  22 million jobs  around the world and contributes more than $120 billion to global GDP.

This growing interest in wildlife tourism, and the economic benefits that come along with it, can change community attitudes towards conservation. Without tourism, local communities may merely view wild animals as a danger to their farms and families, and only value natural resources for consumption. But when animals and natural areas bring tourism dollars and jobs to their community, it can help residents see the importance of keeping their natural assets intact and healthy.

In Cambodia, for instance, ecotourism is motivating communities to conserve critically endangered bird species, such as the giant ibis and white-shouldered ibis. Thousands of tourists come from across the world to see these rare and iconic species. The birding operator Sam Veasna Conservation Tours incentivizes community-based conservation in the region by training and employing locals as guides and ecotourism providers, and requiring visitors to donate to village development projects. In return for this income and employment, community members agree to not hunt or cut down trees. To date, Sam Veasna’s visitors have contributed over  $500,000  to local communities, making a strong case for the importance of protecting their unique birdlife.

Creating Sustainable Livelihoods

Beyond changing mindsets, tourism can prevent ecosystem degradation by creating more sustainable livelihoods for local communities. Jobs as guides, cooks, or housekeepers offer alternative income sources to environmentally-destructive activities such as logging, slash-and-burn agriculture, quarrying, or illegal hunting.

In Rewa, Guyana, poor job security led villagers to illegally harvest and trade wild animals. As a result, wildlife species such as arapaimas, giant river turtles, and giant otters were beginning to disappear. In 2005, the village opened a community-run eco lodge to improve livelihoods while protecting its ecological diversity.  By employing community members as sport fishing guides and boat captains, the lodge allows villagers to maintain rainforest-based livelihoods without causing damage to the ecosystem. Thanks to tourism, arapaimas, turtles, and otters are now common in the Rewa River. Not to mention, visitors contribute far more money to the local economy than wildlife exploitation did. In fact, research shows that globally wildlife tourism is  5x  more lucrative than illegal wildlife trade!

Raising Environmental Awareness of Tourists

Tourism not only bears the capacity to shift local mindsets and behavior, it can also raise environmental awareness among tourists. From camping to beach lounging, tourism provides countless opportunities for individuals to learn about the natural world and experience it firsthand.

When people connect with nature during their travels, it can lead them to appreciate it more and become invested in protecting it. Tours, parks, and other travel experiences often facilitate this type of environmental learning through interpretive techniques such as educational brochures, exhibits, or guided excursions. Whale watching, for instance,  has been shown  to raise visitors’ knowledge of aquatic mammals and increase their support for whale conservation. And on the Great Barrier Reef, guided boat tours and marine biology talks  have been found  to influence visitor behavior and minimize the damage that they cause to the reef.

In Chilean Patagonia, interpretive panels have been installed along one of the world’s most iconic trekking circuits in Torres del Paine National Park. The panels, which were designed by the  Torres del Paine Legacy Fund , educate visitors about the wetland ecosystem they’re traversing, and provide information about the plants and animals found there.

A hiker reads about the types of wildlife that reside in Torres del Paine National Park. Photo: Torres del Paine Legacy Fund.

Prompting Conservation Policies & Protected Areas

Tourism can also provide a compelling incentive for governments and organizations to institute environmental policies and conservation measures. This includes the creation of national parks, nature reserves, and other protected areas to preserve their biodiversity and correspondingly boost their tourism appeal.

Due to the popularity of coastal tourism in particular, reef-based activities such as scuba diving, snorkeling, boat trips and whale watching are a particularly important source of economic revenues. In fact, it is estimated that coral reefs generate  $36 billion  in global tourism value per year. Many countries rely on the income that comes from marine-based tourism and see the importance of protecting their coastlines, coral reefs, and beaches.

In the Galapagos, for instance, marine-based tourism is worth over  $178 million  per year, and supports over a third of all jobs.  The islands are a hotspot for large and rare marine life, including the  highest abundance  of sharks on the planet. Thanks to spending by divers and other marine tourists, a single shark in the Galapagos is worth about $5.4 million over its lifetime, while a dead shark only brings in $200 to fishermen. Realizing the economic importance of its life below water, the government introduced no-fishing zones in 2016 to prevent the extraction of sharks and safeguard the island’s marine tourism value.

Mountain gorillas are another species that has benefited from tourism-motivated conservation policies. These endangered apes can only be found in Uganda, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In Uganda, gorilla trekking permits start at  $600  and the economic value of gorilla tourism is estimated to be as much as  $34.3 million . This has led to policies and strategies that support conservation, such as veterinary interventions, intensive law enforcement, community conservation projects, regulated ecotourism, and transboundary collaboration among government institutions and NGOs. Thanks to these efforts, the number of gorillas within the Virunga Mountain region rose from  240 in the 1980s to 604 in 2016 . Now they are the  only wild ape population whose numbers are increasing !

Financing Conservation

But simply establishing protected areas isn’t enough on its own. Ensuring the conservation of the sensitive environments and vulnerable species that these areas aim to protect requires effective management and conservation measures.

However, this is easier said than done. Around the world, many protected areas are under-funded. In fact, the global funding gap for effectively managing these sites is estimated to be up to  $440 billion  dollars per year. Tourism plays an essential role in bridging this gap by providing an additional source of funding. Proceeds from visitor entrance fees, operating permits, accommodations, and guiding services can help pay the salaries of park rangers and guards, and fund necessary management activities such as ecosystem monitoring, anti-poaching patrols, invasive species eradication, and environmental educational programs.

In Africa, tourism is an important source of funding for land and wildlife conservation. SANParks, the public entity responsible for managing South Africa’s national parks, raises more than  80%  of its funding from tourism.  Chumbe Island Coral Park,  a marine protected area off the coast of Zanzibar, takes this model a step further and is funded  entirely  by ecotourism income. Thanks to effective management, Chumbe Island is home to one of the most pristine coral reefs in the region.

In addition to financing protected areas, tourists and tourism businesses may also contribute directly to local conservation initiatives. In St. Kitts, local tourism businesses donated  $18,500  to fund the planting of fruit trees to protect coastal areas. At Vail Resorts, guests are invited to donate $1 when they purchase a season pass, lift ticket, hotel stay, or shuttle ride. In 2019, Vail’s program raised over  $975,000  for on-the-ground conservation efforts that help restore habitat, improve forest access, and preserve land.

Carbon offsetting is another way that individuals and businesses can contribute to environmental conservation projects, while also mitigating their own emissions. Luxury tour operator TCS World Travel, for instance, partners with Sustainable Travel International to  offset  the carbon emissions generated by their jet trips. Through this partnership, TCS supports the  Madre de Dios project  which protects critical rainforest habitat and endangered species in the Peruvian Amazon.

Aiding Ecosystem Monitoring

While park rangers and guards play a critical role in patrolling sensitive environments, tracking ecosystem health, and warding off threats, it is often impossible for them to monitor such vast areas by themselves. The mere presence of tourists in natural areas can protect wildlife by providing an extra set of eyes on the ground.

In Africa, safari vehicles and guests deter poachers from wildlife conservancies, helping to safeguard highly targeted species such rhinos. The COVID-19 pandemic has further highlighted the critical role that tourism plays in deterring poachers and creating safe havens for wildlife. As visitation has come to a halt, rhino poaching has  reportedly increased  in tourism hotspots.

The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority’s “Eye on the Reef” program is an even more intentional effort to engage tourists and operators in ecosystem monitoring. The program engages divers and marine tourism providers in watching over the Great Barrier Reef by reporting the coral, fish, pollution, and invasive species they see via a citizen science app. Sustainable Travel International is currently developing NEMO, a similar reef monitoring program for use on the  Mesoamerican Reef.

There are countless other citizen science programs that aim to fill different research gaps, and that visitors can participate in during their trip. Whale watchers, for example, can contribute to whale identification and tracking by submitting their photographs of humpback whales via the HappyWhale website. To date, more than  260,000  photos have been submitted to HappyWhale, and more than 38,000 individual whales identified.

Tourism businesses may also aid researchers in collecting environmental data. In Nevis, the Four Seasons Resort helps researchers study the migration patterns of critically endangered hawksbill sea turtles that nest on the island’s beaches. Resort guests help look for nesting sea turtles which are then fitted with a satellite transmitter and released into the sea. To date,  21  turtles have been released through this program.

Supporting Habitat & Ecosystem Restoration

Along with putting on their scientist cap, visitors and tourism businesses can support conservation by participating in ecosystem restoration.  

In Bonaire, local dive operators are lending a hand in restoring the island’s coral reefs by training tourists and divers on basic reef restoration techniques. Once they are trained, visitors can help maintain coral nurseries and outplant coral fragments onto degraded reef sites. To date, more than over  22,000  corals have been outplanted onto Bonaire’s reefs.

Visitors and tourism businesses can also participate in the removal and eradication of non-native species which devastate local habitats. In Mexico, divers and guides lend a hand in  hunting invasive lionfish  which are a serious threat to the Mesoamerican Reef. After they are captured, the fish are grilled up and served to tourists as a special local dish.

Visitors and tour guides can also help restore ecosystem health by cleaning up the environments they visit. For example, more than  86,000  scuba divers have removed litter from the oceans as part of Project Aware’s “Dive Against Debris” program.

Advancing Green Technologies & Fueling Innovation

Because of its economic importance and influence, tourism can trigger environmental innovation through the advancement of green infrastructure, processes, and technologies. For instance, tourism can lead the way in the development of renewable energy infrastructure, like wind and solar farms, on remote islands or rural areas that would not usually be exposed to clean energy.

In Aruba, tourism is the primary economic activity, representing  73%  of GDP. Realizing that the future of its tourism industry depends on environmental sustainability, Aruba’s public and private sector have invested in innovative solutions. Aruba’s Bucuti & Tara Beach Resort, for instance, is considered an eco-pioneer in the  Caribbean  due to the novel sustainability initiatives that it not only implements, but also develops. Among its achievements, the property heats its water via solar panels, installed exercise equipment that produces electricity, utilizes water saving devices in its bathrooms, and reuses greywater to irrigate its gardens. The resort aids the sustainability transition on the island by offering tours of their grounds and sharing their practices with others.

In Oregon, tourism supported the expansion of electric vehicle infrastructure along the state’s rural roads and scenic highways. The state’s tourism commission,  Travel Oregon , helped facilitate the installation of electric vehicle charging stations near tourism businesses and developed Electric Byway itineraries. Now, Oregon is home to one of the largest networks of electric vehicle fast charging stations in the country!

Still Progress To Be Made

But of course, all of the benefits above will only occur when tourism happens in a well-managed and sustainable way. As we’ve gained a better understanding of how humans impact the natural world, there have definitely been great strides towards making tourism more eco-friendly. However, our work is far from done. There’s still a lot of room for improvement by everyone involved in tourism – businesses, governments, communities, and tourists – to maximize tourism’s benefits for the planet.

To learn more about how we are helping to amplify the environmental benefits of tourism and ensure that tourism safeguards local ecosystems through our work, click  here .

• June 26, 2020
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Museum of Wander

Travel With Purpose: 15 Eco and Community Based Tourism Spots in Southeast Asia

Go in search of clouded leopards in Borneo, homestays in Vietnam, restoring temples in rural Cambodia and much more. Check out these 15 incredible eco and community based tourism trips in Southeast Asia for a truly meaningful travel experience.

Ecotourism and community-based tourism (CBT) are more than just buzz words doing the rounds among enlightened travellers these days. Community-based ecotourism might just be the new way that we travel in the future. Those looking for this unique and immersive type of travel experience will love community-based tourism in Southeast Asia.

Pristine nature, friendly people and incredible food are just some reasons to come to Southeast Asia. Whether you’re a country or a city mouse, this region has something for every kind of traveller who wants something more than just laying on the beach.

While there are many places to chill in Southeast Asia , people are also coming for an authentic taste of local life. Trekking from one homestay to the next in Vietnam, taking a cooking class in Thailand or helping a community restore an ancient temple in Cambodia are just some of the meaningful travel experiences you can have in Southeast Asia.

Please note: This post may contain affiliate links. This means I may earn a commission if you make a purchase by clicking a link (at no extra cost to you).

Why We Love Eco Travel & Community Based Tourism

We have been on eco and CBT experiences for years, without even planning it. That’s just who we are . We find nature fascinating and rejuvenating. Connecting with different cultures gives us a glimpse into a world so different from ours. All of this is extremely rewarding and insightful.

Growing up in northern Namibia, I’ve been extremely #blessed (cringe) to be exposed to nature conservation and the role of local communities in conservation from the day that I was born. In Namibia, the community and the environment are inseparable. So I have grown up with community-based tourism before it was even a thing.

In Africa we also have Ubuntu. 

The philosophy of Ubuntu translates to I am because we are . Ubuntu is the belief in a universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity.

And THAT’S COMMUNITY-BASED TOURISM at its simplest. Spend some time in someone’s house, share a meal or listen to their stories and you WILL share a bond and connect with another human being, even if you have nothing else in common.

In South Korea where Jin comes from, the Confucian culture places extremely high value on community. Knowing your place in the community, where you fit in, and your role in the community will influence all relations.

It’s only natural then that we are drawn to eco destinations with a strong emphasis on both nature and community.

What is Community-Based Tourism?

You don’t have to wear vegan boots or have a dreamcatcher in your living room to enjoy CBT. Many think that community tourism is boring and that you need to be a Mother Teresa to enjoy it.

Can we also please stop this holier-than-thou attitude amongst some travellers, who think that you are saving the locals, need to eat tofu and grass for weeks while staying in a bamboo hut and carry water for miles to have an authentic and meaningful travel experience. Community tourism should be an enjoyable and enriching experience, not hard work.

It is also not charity. CBT directly involves the local community and supports cultural or environmental conservation. While the community directly benefits financially, we expect to pay a fair price for a unique and immersive experience. Please stop thinking of community-based travel as charity. It’s mutually beneficial for both the hosting community and visitors alike.

And you don’t have to give up your beach holiday either. We think that combining a regular holiday with something more meaningful will give you the best of both worlds.

Community-based ecotourism comes in many forms. At its core, it’s a responsible and sustainable form of tourism that focuses on conservation and educating travellers about the area they are visiting.

This low-impact style of travelling will often take you to rural areas where you can immerse yourself in local life and nature, far away from mass tourism.

It’s not about how much you spend, but where you spend it.

Examples of Community-Based Ecotourism

• Staying at homestays.
• Observe nature or wildlife, guided by members of the local community.
• See how the culture, traditions and food of a community are linked to nature.
• Learning about the culture of your destination, such as how to cook a local dish.
• Buying souvenirs directly from source.
• Travelling to off-the-beaten-path destinations.
• Using local guides to show you the local spots.

Is This How We Will Travel in the Future?

Covid has changed the world we live in, seemingly, forever. It will also change the way we choose to travel in the future. Once the masks come off, borders reopen and planes start flying again, experts believe that we will travel in a new way. They predict that we will travel in search of meaningful and sustainable experiences.

After months of living under lockdown, we feel lonely and less connected. We will travel in search to connect with other people. We miss freedom, and so we will go in search of beautiful wild places in nature.

So in the future, we will consciously go out in search of these wild places and people to reconnect with. In the process, we will learn as much about them as we’ll learn about ourselves. I’m pretty sure that many of us don’t ever want to travel the way we did before. This will be the new normal – and it’s going to be great!

Enough fluff!

Let’s show you the best spots for ecotravel and community-based tourism in Southeast Asia.

Homestays, Minority Markets & Floating Adventures in Vietnam

DA BAC | TRANG AN | COC LY | CAN THO

Trekking and Homestays in Da Bac

By Emily from Wander-Lush

Homestays are one of the most popular accommodation options in rural Vietnam, with many travellers seeking to spend the night with a local family at some point during their travels. The popularity of homestays has created opportunities for people across the country – from Sapa to the Mekong Delta – to earn an extra income by hosting tourists. In northern Vietnam’s Da Bac, this model has been taken to a new level.

Da Bac is located in rural Hoa Binh province, roughly two hours west of Hanoi by road. Villages scattered amongst a network of lakes and waterways created by the Da river, with green valleys and verdant rice fields in between, are home to families from the Red Dao ethnic minority group. Co-run by NGO Action on Poverty, the  Da Bac community-based tourism initiative  supports people with training and grants to establish guesthouses in their homes. The program also employs locals who work as chefs, drivers and guides, creating job opportunities for people of every age and background.

Visiting Da Bac is an all-inclusive experience, with accommodation, meals and activities provided. Cultural exchange is encouraged through performances, demonstrations and cooking classes, while guests can take in the area’s natural beauty by trekking in the hills or kayaking on the lake. Families involved in the CBT earn a fair wage and have complete control over the growth and development of tourism. Part of the proceeds is reinvested into a shared trust, helping to fund infrastructure projects that benefit the entire community.

Go on a Trang An Boat Tour

By Cecilie from Worldwide Walkers

The Trang An boat tour in Ninh Binh Province is one of the most beautiful and eco-friendly things you can do in northern Vietnam.

Trang An is a nature area full of limestone cliffs, rivers, caves, and you can even spot wildlife if you’re lucky. The scenery in Trang An is so breathtaking that it was deemed a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2014.

The best way to experience this beautiful nature area is to hop on a boat tour. The  Trang An boat tour  is eco-friendly because you can only visit the area in rowboats, which means that you don’t even leave footprints behind. Many people from the area row these boats which means you directly support the local community by going on this tour.

The boat tour in Trang An is a great alternative to Halong Bay. In Halong, the sheer amount of boats and tourists contribute to a lot of water pollution. In comparison, the rivers of Trang An are still pristine.

The Trang An boat tour is the perfect eco-friendly experience for those looking to support the local community and appreciate the beautiful nature of Southeast Asia at the same time.

Meet the Hill Tribes at Coc Ly Market

Who doesn’t like a good old hill tribe market? For an authentic glimpse into the lives of the ethnic minorities of northern Vietnam, head to the hamlet of Coc Ly on a Tuesday morning.

Coc Ly, situated right on the border with China , holds one of the most colourful hill tribe markets in Vietnam. Every Tuesday morning, members of the Flower Hmong, Black Zao, Phu La, Nung and Tay minorities gather to buy and sell their produce, products and buffaloes. It is also the social event of the week.

If you’re not in the market for a strong buffalo ox to plough your fields or a kilogram of turnips, you can also buy some very unique embroidered hill tribe textiles or silver jewellery. Try some fresh fruit, sugar cane, rice wine, rice cooked in bamboo and other hill tribe food while walking around the market.

Coc Ly market is an incredibly interesting place to observe local life in this part of Vietnam. As it is the social event of the week, you’ll see teenage girls trying to impress the boys in their newest hill tribe fashion, barbers cutting hair, men smoking bamboo bongs and women bartering for groceries.

It takes just over 2 hours to reach Coc Ly from Sapa. Find a driver in Sapa to take you to Coc Ly, or visit Sapa and Coc Ly by train from Hanoi.

Eat Your Way Through the Can Tho Floating Market

By Lavina from Continent Hop

South of Saigon(Vietnam’s largest city but not the capital – which is Hanoi ), lies the Mekong Delta. The Mekong Delta is noted for its floating markets, and you’ll find the best floating market in the Mekong Delta in the city of Can Tho.

The Cai Rang floating market consists of over 300 boats and, as the name suggests, is an actual market on the water. These boats sell tropical fruits, vegetables, crafts and other locally produced goods from the Mekong Delta.

Get a local guide to row you around the market. You’ll get to buy juicy fruit such as pomelo, jackfruit, mangosteen, rambutan, mango, guava and boring bananas depending on the season, directly from the boats. You can even get a Vietnamese coffee with condensed milk here.

In addition to the floating markets, you can explore the Mekong Delta by visiting fruit farms, walking or cycling to craft villages, learn how to make rice noodles and, of course, eat more amazing Vietnamese food.

Nature-Based Ecotourism in Malaysia

DERAMAKOT FOREST RESERVE | PERHENTIAN ISLANDS | LANGKAWI

Search for Sunda Clouded Leopards in Borneo

By Margarita from The Wildlife Diaries

One of Borneo’s best-kept secrets, Deramakot Forest Reserve is one of the finest wildlife-watching destinations in South East Asia. It is the only place in the world where you have a decent chance of spotting the elusive  Sunda Clouded leopard in the wild .

It seems counter-intuitive that a logged forest would be a good place for finding some of the region’s rarest wildlife species. Yet in Deramakot, the Sabah Forestry Department attained a good balance between sustainable logging practices and wildlife conservation – an achievement recognized by the international Forest Stewardship Council and a great variety of wildlife species that live there. 

Deramakot is home to Borneo Orangutans, Pygmy elephants, marbled cats, otter civets and a plethora of more common Borneo animals. Although, just because the animals are there, doesn’t mean that they are easy to find.

A visit to Deramakot is an adventure that can only be done as part of an organized expedition that would include a guide, a driver, and a cook. There are no shops, no petrol stations in the forest and the roads demand a high-clearance 4WD.

Adventure Alternative Borneo was the first commercial outfit to bring tourists to Deramakot and remains the best option on the market. 

Dive & Snorkel for a Good Cause in the Perhentians

By Teja from Teja On The Horizon

Not many realise that the Perhentian Islands, a popular island destination in Southeast Asia, is also a marine park of Malaysia. The beaches are amazing, and every beach has a different vibe .

A unique way to experience the Perhentian islands is through the Fuze Ecoteer volunteer program. This homegrown social enterprise focuses on conservation and works alongside the local community and the Marine Park authorities. 

There are 3 programs that you can join. All three directly support marine conservation and environmental education on the islands. It also raises funds for long-term programs for the community’s youth.

The Perhentian Turtle Project is about protecting local nesting beaches and studying the local turtle population. You will kayak and snorkel to photograph turtles to help identify and record turtles. If you find an unidentified turtle, it will be named after you!

The Perhentian Eco-Education Project is about community education. You’ll be involved in education about plastic waste and upcycling of plastic waste. You don’t want to miss the weekly Perhentian Islands Ladies Association meeting where the ladies share their kuih (traditional Malay dessert).

Joining the Perhentian Marine Research Station gets you directly involved with coral reef surveys and research that help monitors coral health. New divers can get their PADI certification while experienced divers…can dive right in. This project will allow you to improve your diving skills while helping with conservation and reef restoration.

Being an Ecoteer volunteer allows you to experience local Malay village life, as you would be based in the fisherman’s village. It’s a side of the Perhentians very few tourists get to experience.

Check out Ecoteer for more information on this incredible experience.

Go on a Langkawi Mangroves Tour

By Victoria of Guide Your Travel

The Kilim Karst Geoforest Park in Langkawi is a fantastic eco-tourism destination and an absolute must-see if you’re visiting the island. Langkawi is known as the island of eagles and has a lot of native wildlife.

The Geoforest Park is part of the UNESCO Network of Global Geoparks and spans over 100 square kilometres. The best way to see the Langkawi mangroves is by boat tour, which you can get from somewhere close to Tanjung Rhu Beach or Kuah Town. You can customise your boat tour to include nearby beaches, caves and of course the mangroves.

Make sure to go with an animal-friendly provider which won’t take you to the fish farms that are popular among tourists. With some of the more renowned boat companies, you can experience the mangroves and the local wildlife without disturbing it in any way.

You’ll get to see limestone cliffs, beaches and the iconic Kilim Geoforest Park sign. Keep an eye out for animals like eagles, otters and many types of fish. This is one of the few places in the world that combines cliffs and mangrove forests.

Don’t forget to go snorkelling or swimming at Tanjung Rhu beach after your boat tour and end the evening with drinks at a beach bar to finish off your day in Langkawi.

Food in Thailand

Learn to cook lanna food in chiang mai.

By Alice of Adventures of Alice

For centuries, the Lanna Kingdom (Kingdom of a Million Rice Fields) has been serving up some of Thailand’s most delicious dishes. It is difficult to find these mouth-watering recipes anywhere else in the country and it is one of the best ecotourism activities in Thailand.

Learning to cook Lanna food in Chiang Mai is one of the best things to add to your  Thailand itinerary .

The cooking classes are a whole day of learning how to cook this traditional food. The best place for these lessons is the rural areas just outside the city. Here you’ll find plenty of good, fresh ingredients; all sorts of vegetables, fruits, poultry and other protein needed when cooking scrumptious meals – even herbs have their own handy part here as well.

At the beginning of this cooking class, you can select dishes that interest you and then pick ingredients from the farm. Each participant will be provided with necessary kitchenware including woks, spatulas and chopping boards.

The instructor will demonstrate how to make these delicious recipes step by step: when it’s time to put vegetables in the pan or how much seasoning to add so that everyone can have their own success story of making homemade Lanna cuisine.

After finishing all the dishes, you and your fellow cooks can sit around a table with fresh food to share amongst one another. This hands-on cooking course will introduce participants to this delicious cuisine while also encouraging Chiang Mai’s traditional culinary heritage.

Conservation & Crafts in Laos

SAYABOURY | BAN LUE

Support the Elephant Conservation Center in Sayaboury

By Sarah of Away With The Steiners

Centuries ago, the country of Laos was referred to as the kingdom of Lan Xang.  The name  Lang Xang  translates to ‘Land of A Million Elephants’.  However, the sad reality is that an estimated less than 800 elephants are remaining in Laos today – 400 left in the wild, and 400 in captivity.

The Elephant Conservation Center (ECC) in Sayaboury has been thoughtfully established to save elephants in Laos from diminishing entirely.  The centre also educates visitors about elephants in a way that is very different from any other ‘sanctuaries’ in Southeast Asia. 

At the ECC there is no elephant riding.  Rather the entire conservation centre has been set up to prepare the elephants to be released back into the wild.  The centre provides 6000 hectares of elephant pastures.

With over 30 years of partnership with local NGO’s, international organisations and the support of the best mahouts in Laos, the ECC has developed a successful and sustainable model of elephant conservation.

Visiting as a tourist is a very memorable experience of ecotourism where you can volunteer and really contribute to the elephant crisis in Laos.  Stay in traditional bamboo huts and learn all about the conservation of these beautiful Asian elephants.

Dye and Weave Lao Textiles in Banlue

By Marie of A Life Without Borders

Banlue Handicrafts and Community Learning Centre is an exciting community-based enterprise located in the village of Ban Nayang Nua, around three hours from  Luang Prabang , in northern Laos.

Immersive workshops and hands-on activities are centred around traditional Lao handicrafts – especially the organic cotton and indigo dyes that the Tai Leu village is renowned for. You’ll not only have the opportunity to participate in a range of cotton picking, spinning, dyeing and weaving workshops, but also enjoy enriching interactions with the little-visited Tai Leu community.

By providing an uplifting, sustainable income to the remote ethnic minority village, Banlue aims to help revitalise and preserve the regional handicraft traditions – all while providing an authentic cultural experience for travellers.

The Banlue Handicraft Centre itself consists of a traditional Tai Leu wooden house, under which is a shady, covered area filled with cotton spinning wheels, and weaving looms. The whole compound is enclosed by lush, green plants, many of which are used directly in the natural dyeing process.

With the help of the English-speaking owner, Mr Somdeth, immerse yourself in the vibrant local community with experiences ranging from half-day, full-day, overnight and multi-day workshops.

Surrounded by rolling mountains and idyllic rice paddies, get a taste of rural village life after your workshop by exploring the authentic Tai Leu village and ethnic living style. Or stay overnight in a traditional wooden, stilted Tai Leu house and enjoy the tasty local cuisine of the village.

Looking for the best community-based trip in South Africa? Can’t beat the five-day Wild Coast hike from one Xhosa village to the next in rural Transkei.

Salt Farms & Hidden Temples in Cambodia

KAMPOT | BANTEAY CHMAR

Meet the Salt of the Earth at the Kampot Salt Fields

By Marya of The BeauTraveler

While many associate Kampot with pepper, it also produces the best salt in Cambodia. There are over a thousand hectares of salt fields scattered throughout the Kampot and Kep areas.

Salt production in Kampot strongly relies on the weather, requiring hot, dry conditions. The best time to visit the Kampot salt fields is from the beginning of December to April when the weather is hot and it doesn’t rain too much.  

Situated close to the sea,  salt fields in Kampot use water directly from the sea. Salt farmers channel seawater into the salt fields and then wait for the sun to do its work. The water evaporates after about 40 days leaving dazzling white salt crystals behind.

Kampot sea salt, 100% natural with no added chemicals and preservatives, goes through a natural process from the beginning to the end and the whole process is un-mechanized.

There are about 200 families around Kampot who rely on salt production for their primary income. These hardworking people are the salt of the earth, and they welcome visitors to see and learn about the way they make salt. Ask your hotel about local guides who can show you the salt fields and introduce you to the salt farmers.

While visiting the salt fields, also buy some salt directly from the community to take home with you. The unrefined, artisanal salt makes great gifts with a good backstory.

Banteay Chhmar Homestays & Temples in Rural Cambodia

By Soumya from Stories by Soumya

Banteay Chhmar is a tiny, relatively unknown, commune located in the far-off province of Banteay Meanchey in northwest Cambodia. In this small village lies the massive  temple complex of Banteay Chhmar . It truly is a hidden treasure of Cambodia, and well off the beaten path.

Not very long ago, the Banteay Chhmar temple was just a huge pile of stones. In 2007, Global Heritage Fund jumped in to restore this heritage site and decided to get the local community involved. That gave rise to the concept of Banteay Chhmar Community Based Tourism.

Locals are not just part of the restoration team that is trying hard to put together this 12 th -century Buddhist-Hindu temple complex, they also take care of tourist accommodation, food, local transport, and special experiences.

You can stay with locals in traditional wooden homestays, take a temple tour with a local tour guide, discover rural life on a bicycle or Kuyon, join a cooking class, and feast on a delicious spread of home-cooked food under the stars along with traditional Khmer music.

It is heartening to learn that 100% of tourist income in Banteay Chhmar is shared with villagers. As a result, annual incomes in the region have increased by 15-20%. To support this incredible project and experience rural Cambodia, book directly on the CBT’s  official website . The community will take care of all your needs from the moment that you arrive there. 

Jungles, Dragons & Friendliness in Indonesia

ALOR | KOMODO | BUKIT LAWANG

Reset Yourself on Little Kepa Island, Alor

The Alor archipelago in eastern Indonesia is where you’ll find some of the best diving, snorkelling, traditional villages and double ikat in the world. Located in the heart of the Coral Triangle, the water is like liquid glass and the marine life is out of this world.

Alor is also home to one of the most magical eco-friendly places to stay.

La P’tite Kepa on Kepa island is where the best of community-based tourism and ecotourism come together. French family Cedric, Anne and their daughters have been working with the local Menglolong people of Alor for almost 20 years.

Since setting up camp on Kepa island, Cedric and Anne have helped to establish seaweed farming for the local community to help generate income and give an alternative to destructive fishing practices.

La P’tite Kepa embodies everything about sustainability and community-based tourism. Ten bungalows were built in the local style using locally sourced materials and using only traditional methods and tools.

The mattresses are stuffed with kapok, a local tree fibre, and there are no fans or AC. Solar electricity is available 24/7. The plates in the kitchen are clay pottery made in a nearby village. Three hearty, home-cooked meals use only the freshest locally sourced ingredients. Food is whatever is in season, or what fish was caught that day. Guests enjoy meals family-style with everyone sitting around one table sharing food.

Today 17 families are living on Kepa island, and they are all directly involved in La P’tite Kepa.

The diving, snorkelling, mountain villages and friendliness of Alor are one of kind and those who know about the magic of Kepa return year after year. It truly is a spectacular place to get away from it all and reconnect with yourself and nature.

Snorkelling & Dragon Spotting in Komodo

Flores island has become one of Indonesia’s hottest destinations in recent years for one reason only: Komodo National Park. The town of Labuan Bajo is the centre of tourism activity, and almost everyone in town is in some way involved in tourism.

Komodo National Park, half marine reserve half Jurassic Park needs no introduction. With prehistoric-looking dragons, pink beaches, surreal landscapes and incredible diving and snorkelling, Komodo is an epic adventure.

For a truly unique experience, go down to the harbour and charter a boat to take you on your own private island-hopping adventure into Komodo National Park. Hiring your own private boat is quite affordable and you know that your money is going directly to the locals of Labuan Bajo. In addition to renting the boat, the crew will also buy food and other supplies for your trip, which further supports the local economy.

While there are many tours available in town and online, we think it’s much more fun finding your own boat. Talking to the captains about routes, snorkelling spots and what to expect also empowers them to take initiative and share their expertise of the area. Read more here about how to charter your own boat to Komodo on a budget .

We spent two days island hopping and snorkelling on board our boat, the Dede Putra. It was a fantastic experience, and the company we shared with captain Bien and first-hand DD was just as special as the underwater wonders and dragons of Komodo.

Jungle Trekking in Bukit Lawang to See Orangutans

There are two kinds of people in Bukit Lawang : those who work in the palm oil industry and those who don’t. Those not working on the palm oil plantations are more often than not involved in tourism.

Bukit Lawang is a small jungle town in northern Sumatra and is one of the best places to see semi-wild orangutans in the jungle. Gunung Leusser National Park is home to many rescued orangutans that have been reintroduced to the wild. There are also wild orangutans in the park, but visitors are unlikely to spot them.

Going on a jungle trek with a local guide is the best (and only) way to see the orangutans in Bukit Lawang. Visitors can choose anything from a half-day jungle trek to a multi-day expedition into the jungle.

Other than orangutans, your guides will point out other primates such as Thomas Leaf monkeys, hornbills, medicinal plants and their uses as well as other jungle critters and sounds.

A jungle trek is usually followed by an exciting tube raft on the Bohorok river back to Bukit Lawang.

It doesn’t take long to see that the people of Bukit Lawang genuinely value the jungle and the animals that live in it. They realise that the jungle is their livelihood and that the tourists will continue to come as long as the jungle and its orangutans are there.

When you visit Bukit Lawang you are not merely going on a jungle trek. You are also indirectly supporting the whole community and the conservation efforts in the area. Locals are aware of international trends, and as a result, are promoting low-impact tourism activities.

Is Community-Based Tourism for You?

You will never know unless you give it a try!

This exciting way to travel is so broad that you’re sure to find something to match your personality. If you haven’t tried it, we suggest you give it a go. If you have any recommendations for other unique travel experiences in Southeast Asia, do let us know in the comments below.

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