Why Community-Based Tourism and Rural Tourism in Developing and Developed Nations are Treated Differently? A Review

Abstract

Rural community tourism initiatives in developed nations share most positive and negative characteristics with community-based tourism (CBT) initiatives in developing nations. They also share many barriers and conditions for tourism development. What makes them different is the context in which they operate. This paper identifies the main conditions that explain these differences through a review of findings from 103 location-specific case studies and other available literature that provides empirical evidence. The paper also explores the usage of the concepts of CBT and rural tourism. The findings are discussed under seven categories: Definitions, socioeconomic and cultural factors, policy and governance, land ownership, community cohesiveness, assimilation of external stakeholders, and type of visitors. It is argued that it is the developing-/developed-nation context, and not objectively established criteria, which largely dictates authors’ narratives with corresponding takes on tourism development and subsequent recommendations. The paper engages in a discussion about case-study research, its weaknesses and tendencies, providing some recommendations on how to increase the contribution of case studies to knowledge, and calls for more research on externally assisted non-Indigenous community-tourism initiatives in developed nations.

Augmenting the Role of Tourism Governance in Addressing Destination Justice, Ethics, and Equity for Sustainable Community-Based Tourism

“…For example, Lo and Janta [116] present a chronology of CBT projects from 16 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Oceania (including Australia), and a reference from North America is missing (though the reason is not stated). Further, in a review of CBT and Rural Tourism, Zielinski, Jeong, Kim, and B Milanés [117] brought up 103 case studies from different parts of the world, where several case studies appeared from other developed nations such as Canada, Australia, and Spain, and just one case study appeared from the USA. This suggests that while CBT and/or rural tourism have remained in practice in the US for a long time, they have not drawn much attention in mainstream CBT discussions.…”

Housing tactics: Searching for community resilience in depopulated rural contexts (Huertas, South West Spain)

“…We understand that the results of our work, despite the limits inherent to any case‐study analysis, contribute to the development of a specific line of research on housing in rural areas affected by depopulation, an area that has not been widely studied thus far. Among other implications, such research could contribute to contextualising rural gentrification processes (Cañada & Gascón, 2016), deepening knowledge of community‐based tourism models in the rural settings of the Global North (Zielinski et al., 2020) or better understanding the meaning and significance of housing as an indicator of community resilience.…”

A Policy Framework for Sustainable Tourism Development Based on Participatory Approaches: A Case Study in the Kedung Ombo Tourism Area-Indonesia

“…A tourism policy is a set of discourses, decisions, and practices which are promoted by the government in collaboration with either the private or social executants to achieve a variety of goals (Velasco, 2020). Additionally, a tourism policy is an intentional action beyond the level of theoretical reflection and political intentions, which are realized into a concrete action that involves the use of public resources and the responsibility of public sector stakeholders (Zielinski et al, 2020). The government has to be a central actor, yet tourism policies do not have to be promoted and implemented exclusively by the public (Velasco, 2020).…”