The limitations of community-based tourism as an instrument of development cooperation: the value of the Social Vocation of the Territory concept

This paper contributes to the debate over the validity of community-based tourism (CBT) as a development and poverty-reduction strategy in the rural-peasant world. In this debate, researchers tend to compare and contrast specific experiences on which they have conducted field work. This implies limi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Journal of sustainable tourism 2013-06, Vol.21 (5), p.716-731
Main Author:	GASCON, Jordi
Format:	Article
Language:	eng
Subjects:	Animal, plant and microbial ecology Antipoverty Programs Applied ecology Biological and medical sciences Business Case studies community participation community-based tourism Comparative analysis Cooperation Decision-making development cooperation Development Strategies Environment and sustainable development Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology Geography Intervention Land Land use peasant differentiation Peasants Poverty Poverty relief Risk rural development Social Values social vocation of the territory Tourism Training Validation studies 农民不同性发展合作社区为基准的旅游社区参与贫穷减低领土的社会天职
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Summary:	This paper contributes to the debate over the validity of community-based tourism (CBT) as a development and poverty-reduction strategy in the rural-peasant world. In this debate, researchers tend to compare and contrast specific experiences on which they have conducted field work. This implies limitations in the analysis: conclusions may be biased, leading to circular unresolved discussions. This paper introduces a structural analysis, to discover whether CBT has intrinsic characteristics which mean that as an instrument of development cooperation it increases the risks typically involved in social intervention. It applies the concept of the Social Vocation of the Territory (SVT), adapted from Land Suitability concepts used in geography and environmental studies. SVT is a historical process in which land and local society adapt over time to reach equilibrium in specific uses of natural and social resources. Employing this concept on South American case studies, this paper concludes that CBT can have limitations as an instrument of development cooperation and poverty reduction, because of increasing peasant differentiation, social unrest, problems with local decision-making, lack of local tourism business knowledge and training, pseudo-participation, and work and time restructuring. Use of the SVT concept can help CBT in certain very specific circumstances.
ISSN:	0966-9582 1747-7646