Placing Community-Based Tourism in the Wider Tourism Context: Issues and Way Forward

The objective of this paper is to locate CBT within the wider tourism system, highlight its key principles, illustrate the structural and institutional conditions necessary to strengthen it at both the local and global levels and illuminate its potential contribution to tourism development for a just tourism sector. This paper is based on a traditional literature review, which enabled the identification of key themes constitutive of the proposed conceptual model. Contemporary tourism has evolved into a complex ‘ensemble’ of various components that incorporate technology to extend its world reach. CBT is ubiquitous worldwide. Its typical characteristics include local ownership by disadvantaged community members and its redistributive foci. As its contribution, the paper posits that CBT’s architecture depends on the local and global milieu, anchored on its unique principles and characteristics. The proposed model incorporates supply chains and distribution channels as key processes operating across these levels. The paper argues that communities provide the knowledge, resources, skills, culture and heritage that tourists seek. These resources are then transformed into products and services in a context where supply chains link service providers to suppliers while distribution ensures that the products reach visitors. Supportive legislation and policy frameworks are essential to formally recognize CBT in a context where power is omnipresent at all levels to identify decisionmakers at the local and global levels.