Community-Based Tourism

Community-Based Tourism
Communities are destinations for development for within them, they hold the destiny of the country. Every citizen is a potential business partner to be trained in small business management, environmental awareness, product development and marketing. In addition to this, they should understand how to value their community assets: their culture, heritage, cuisine and lifestyle which will assist them in increasing their income.

Community is a word which draws on several important elements of nation building - probably the most central characteristic of the word ‘community’ is the scenario of bringing people together for a purpose. It is structuring a collective mind-set, which involves sharing and using resources in an equitable and sustainable way..

Community building should involve a 4P formula of POTENTIAL, PASSION, PURPOSE and PARTNERSHIP – one P builds on the other.

Community development begins with the recognition of what resources are present and how these resources can be sustain ably used. Passion speaks about the creative enterprise of the human spirit and is the bridge that links potential to purpose. Passion creates a vision that builds on the potentialities of people and/or area. At all stages individual efforts must unite and form consensus or individual efforts must be at least complimentary.

Community purpose involves the mobilization of community leadership and a division of labour to address key areas of development. A key component is full participation by all stakeholders, with intense interactivity to clarify the strategy forward towards the ‘community vision’.

The 4th P of Partnership is at the point where all linkages are formalized between the public and private sector, where the community as a unit can begin to receive assistance from other communities with the nation and overseas. Prominently evident is that community means relationships, at all levels.

(Originally posted by "CountrystyleTourism" as a discussion thread. Thank you!)