Introduction

Tourism in developing countries has been seen as an industry that can provide much-needed

resources to take part in tourism development without external support. New development
paradigms created under the umbrella of sustainability introduced principles that support and
encourage self-help, self-reliance, and empowerment of communities. When sustainable
tourism was introduced as a new global standard to replace conventional tourism, many

participation, empowerment, transparency, fairness, equity, and equality were integrated into
national regulations and development strategies. However, these principles are not met purely
by a simple statement in a policy document. For a policy to be e ective, the objectives need
insurance in terms of mechanisms that facilitate or guarantee compliance with these
principles. The failure to provide them discredits the policy leading to its illegitimacy.
Despite the potential, in many instances, the policies, plans, or programs do not provide a
su cient basis for meaningful community involvement.

Objectives
The main objectives of the Community Based Tourism Policy are as follows:
To facilitate partnership
To restrict new accommodation
To develop policy in reducing import
To empower the community and ownership
To empower the community leaders
To optimize the potential of local products
Conversation of resources
Social and economic development
Quality visitor experience

Guiding Principles
This Policy adopts internationally recognized principles which serve to direct the
development of CBT in a manner which ensures that the community is the primary
beneficiary while allowing the visitor to enjoy meaningful participation in community based
activities.

The guiding principles, have been adopted from the Asian Community Based Tourism
Standard (2016) and Responsible Ecological Social Tour (REST, 2003). The CBT
development Society is committed to:
Ensure that community ownership is recognized, supported and promoted
Recognize the need for environmental preservation, protection and conservation and
therefore sustainability
Facilitate the preservation of and respect for the local culture;
 Enable education and awareness through meaningful interaction and cross-cultural
learning;
Distribute derived benefits fairly and transparently, particularly within the
community;
Enhance social well-being; and
Encourage and provide capacity building for entrepreneurship and other essentials
within the community.

Goals
The goals set for the development of the CBT are:
To engage and empower local communities in the planning and decision making
process for the development, management and ownership of tourism products and
services;
To support the preservation, protection and restoration of the natural assets and
resources within the community;
To support and facilitate an enabling environment that stimulates local investment in
tourism and sectorial linkages in the community;
To promote an environment for the health, safety and security of residents and
visitors; and
To support the development of strategic partnerships with the private sector, NGOs,
CBOs and funding agencies that support CBT.

Public policy
Public policy is made by governmental actions: what governments say and what they do in
relation to a problem or cont
policy to be considered public, it must have been shaped within a framework of procedures

however, the involvement of non-governmental stakeholders in the design of the policy or

that these problems are public. If policies, plans, or programs do not provide a su cient basis
for meaningful community participation, they can be considered ine ective, as the law alone
does not ensure legitimacy. The involvement that leads the governed people to understand,

legitimacy. After all, policies and legislation should be developed in a way that creates a real

tourism.

To date, despite increasing attention focusing on evaluating the outcomes and process of
tourism Policy-making, there has been very little systematic or detailed examination of policy
outputs, such as documents. There is an evident gap in terms of frameworks that propose
applicable universal criteria against which policy documents could be evaluated. In
consequence, studies evaluating and/or comparing the e ectiveness of tourism policy

Community Participation, CBT and Public Policy

people live and meet their daily needs trying to pursue their collective or individual agendas.

A community-based tourism initiative is a project or program, or collective action of a group

of people that belong to a community that decided to participate in, or develop together a

development.

It is a form of voluntary action in which individuals confront opportunities and

responsibilities of citizenship, such as self-governance, response to external decisions that

participation in tourism are equa

other stakeholders to decide on the development objectives of the community. In the weak
sense, participation is limited to taking part in planning and management activities but

e decisions or are just spectators of the process.

In this context, the CBT has been focused on strong participation that involves community
control over management and development of tourism, ownership and generation of direct

direct control or o -level

employment for local people (e.g.,). Therefore, the high level of participation originally
described by Arnstein is what separates CBT from participation in conventional tourism.
Tourism initiated and led by the communities is more likely to maximize the desired social
and economic outcomes.

It should be noted that CBT development is often not something that can be easily decided by
local people and then executed. It requires recognition from powerful, multi-dimensional, and
in many instances, anti-participatory stakeholders that dominate lives or local people. The
problem of power relations is central to the equitable and sustainable community-based
tourism development. Power relation is also an inseparable characteristic of policy design.

their authority, power and the way they deal with and control each other will a
outcome.

Despite the involvement of many actors representing various interests, all policy-making can
be considered political due to the overwhelming use of government authority. Therefore, for
communities to develop CBT a shift in balance between the powerful and the powerless is
required, not only in terms of economic, psychological, and social power but also political
power

involvement. The latter can be achieved through partnership arrangements with community
stakeholders. Although this sort of measures has some important disadvantages, the actors

negotiation of interests and communication of knowledge. In this way, a policy can be shaped
and even renegotiated with those a ected by it which, in turn, increases its legitimacy. It
should be further stressed that even after implementation, communication, and negotiation
may trigger new rounds of policy-making. The implication of these debates impacts the
subsequent shape of the network of the actors, encouraging strategic learning, and in some
cases a ecting the power balance among those involved.

Framework for Policy

1. Fundamentals of the principle of participation

community
Involvement of community stakeholders in the tourism planning stage
Creation of a forum/network to facilitate mutual understanding and communication
among stakeholders
Local representation in the management of protected areas
No excessive formality and bureaucracy in the processes of community involvement

2. Administrative governance
Political commitment to support community-based tourism
Non-Overlapping jurisdiction of di erent agencies
Regulation enforcement
Government interest in remote regions
Expertise among personnel
The roles and responsibilities of the community and partners are clearly
No corruption of government o cials

3. Capacity development and assessment

Technical cooperation
Provision of capacity-building
E ective individual leadership
Skills and expertise in areas required for tourism
Presence of management structure
Management skills
High level of participation in community organizations
Good management of funds
Consistent (non-fragmented) community organization
Marketing skills
Fostering relationships between local and national/international experiences
Tourism leadership from within the community
No reliance on external actors to start and lead the initiative
4. Protection of community rights
Independence in the decision making process
Healthy and equal relationship and coordination with institutions providing assistance
Clarity about tourism and its costs and
Dissemination of information about planned tourism development and related
opportunities
Primacy of local interests over private interests
Primacy of local interests over external interests
Tourism based on traditions and local customs that attract tourists and strengthen the
role of the community
Recognition of the importance of community participation
Strict community norms and rules that are enforced
Respect for local traditions, community leadership and traditional authorities
Community control over land and resources
High level of control over tourism activities in the area
Tourism is not the only economic activity, it complements other activities and does
them

the protected area

Lease of communal lands / contractual partnership with tour operators
Awareness of the importance of current tourism resources
Resistance to selling land to outsiders
Legal sustainable use of the natural resources in the area

5. Distribution of
Unity of the community and/or understanding of the importance of collective over
individual actions
Involvement of community stakeholders in the tourism planning stage
Involvement of community stakeholders in management / Co-management
Increased community pride due to foreign visits
Communal sense of ownership of the initiative
Noticeable improvement of quality of life in the community (health, education,
economy)
Financial support
Mechanism for distribution of
tourism
distribution
Awareness of the importance of nature conservation in the area
Low dependence on resource consumptive activities
Absence of external actors that compete for the resources
Lower pressure on natural resources because of employment in tourism