Community Involvement in Tourism

In this course, tourism professionals in management positions will learn to integrate local communities into their tourism business.

Who is this course for?

The course is intended for tourism professionals in management positions, and anyone interested in the topic.

What will you learn?

You will learn how to understand what it takes to involve local communities in tourism businesses
You will learn how to identify the stakeholders in community involvement in tourism
You will learn how to integrate local communities into your daily business activities
You will learn how to articulate why investing in local community linkages creates a win-win situation for locals and businesses

Keywords: Sustainability, tourism, management, local communities, participation

Why Do you Need Community Involvement in Tourism

Lesson 1: What is the meaning of Community Involvement in Tourism (CIT)?

Lesson from Africa

Lindile Mthiyo: There’s a saying we use here in our culture as Ubuntu.

Ubuntu is an ancient word which means “humanity to others”. No one has to suffer, so it’s helping each other. Ubuntu is a way of life.

As a community, we do believe that we have to protect our landscape and that is why our lodge here is owned and operated by us here as a community.

My clan has been here for more than 100 years. I felt very lucky that I’m the one of the first people who didn’t have to leave home and go to work in the mines. I started working here as a tour guide, running the activities and in 2008, I became one of the reception managers after I did a one-year course in hospitality reception. And from there I became a general manager of the lodge.

There are many challenges that we face in this remote area. Our nearest towns are about 3 hours drive away. We don’t have a quality education and no government high schools around here. So, education is a problem and bringing a job creation in the village. It’s a challenge to get the tourists here because of the road. When this lodge was established, many challenges were resolved. That was a good way to fight unemployment and poverty. That’s what this lodge is about. It’s about the tourists coming and learn about our traditions and share our traditions with them.

Anisa Zintoyinto: In Bulungula Lodge, I’m working as a receptionist, and I am also the manager. I was born here, and I grew up here. Most people from the community, they’re working here, so we all benefit. This is the way that we put bread on the table. The relationship between the lodge and the community is so good because the people from the community, they are so friendly with the tourists.

The tourists, when they come here, they spend their money at the lodge and then they lodge gives it to the community as the lodge is owned by the community.

The community involvement in tourism means to me that the community and the land and the businesses work together.

Kholekile Nhlanganiso: I had nothing when I came here. I have managed to improve my skills to the point that now I have my own home. So, Bulungula has helped me. My whole life is here. It makes me proud to be here.

Mercy Nqandeka: My childhood was just about being a village child. So, it was fetching firewood, fetching water and playing outside the yard until your mum calls you back home. It was planting, it was taking care of animals.

2019 happened. I came to volunteer at the lodge for three months and I felt like I’m needed more in the village than in the city. It’s a beautiful sense of community and that’s what I felt like I needed in my life, to come back and land and relieve my childhood in a way.

So Bulungula, it’s a very interesting place. People here have not changed their livelihoods trying to suit the tourists. Because what happens is that in other touristic villages, tourism comes with a lot of pollution. People here are just going about their lives and that means that the people are really just interwoven with the whole system that’s going on. So, people don’t bend to their backs trying to fit into pleasing tourists in a way. So, it’s a very sustainable situation. I think for me it’s beneficial for both, but it’s very authentic, integrated tourism where you come as a tourist, and you bring something into the village and I as a villager I teach you something that you didn’t know.

Community tourism is the future because people in the world are looking for authenticity. They’re not looking for some plastic magic life, but they’re looking into sustainable methods of living, and they want to go indigenous.

So, my advice to the rest of Africans is that we should keep our authenticity and not trying to bend or flow, but keeping ourselves, because that is our economy. That is what we sell and that is what we excel. In being ourselves, being African.

Be inspired. The Bulungula Lodge sustains local culture and the planet, and is 100% owned and managed by the vibrant, traditional Nqileni village, a Xhosa community. The Xhosa community is an integral part of daily life in and around the Lodge.

But first, let us explain the meaning of ‘Community Involvement in Tourism’.

The Meaning of Community Involvement in Tourism

You might be surprised but CIT is not limited to cultural tourism or visits to ethnic villages by tourists only. It actually includes mainstream tourism activities and service provision to tourists and the tourism industry — even in mass tourism destinations along the whole supply chain.

What does it mean? Which services and activities offer opportunities to integrate local communities into the tourism sector?

Accommodation (village lodge up to 5 Star Hotel)
Purchasing local food and beverage to restaurant and hotels
Hospitality employment
Excursions (villages, wildlife, horse riding, fishing with the fishermen, etc.)
Village guiding
Cultural Performances (dancing, singing, story-telling)
Craft making and cooking
Handicraft — sales of souvenirs
Handicraft and furniture — decoration in hotels and restaurants
Agrotourism (visiting local farms, buying products directly from the farmer)
Local transportation (cars, ox-carts, horses, boats etc.)

What is the meaning of ‘community’?

‘Community’ is a term that is constantly used by politicians, social commentators, religious leaders, academics and media reporters. However, it is rarely defined — rather it seems to be a given that we all know what is meant by the term. This is a problem, as communities can be defined in many ways.

The most common uses of the term in today’s culture tends to see communities defined geographically as in a valley, mountain range or water catchment, or politically as in towns, cities and countries. The expression, ‘local communities’ often refers to small towns or units of an urban centre or suburbs. But family groups can also form a particularly powerful type of ‘community’, especially in those cultures based on strong family ties, which for many tourists (especially from Western cultures where extended family ties are diminishing) is a fascinating concept that they wish to view, experience and understand.

In a nutshell, a community is an amalgamation of people who share an environment or an interaction, which can be realised in a number of ways, such as belief, resources, needs. Nevertheless, the definitive driver of community is that all individuals of this community have something in common (such as language or religious belief).

Lesson 2: Excursion: The link between CIT and CBT

As you have learnt in Lesson 1, there are plenty of opportunities to involve communities in the tourism sector.

We have given you 11 examples. Can you remember at least seven of them? Please write them down.

What is the link between CIT and CBT?

Community-based tourism (CBT) is part of the concept of CIT, but focuses mainly on the management of tourism activities in a village, supervised by a CBT committee. The community offers services such as lodging, meals, guiding, cultural performances, and sales of handicrafts on its village-level only.

CBT is “A tourism activity, community-owned and operated, and managed or coordinated at the community level, that contributes to the well-being of communities through supporting sustainable livelihoods and protecting valued socio-cultural traditions and natural and cultural heritage resources.”

ASEAN

Checklist for defining Community-based tourism

Step 1: Community owned and operated

Step 2: Managed, controlled and coordinated by community

Step 3: Benefits remain in the community

Step 4: Supports sustainable livelihoods

Step 5: Protects socio-cultural traditions

Step 6: Activities: lodging (community lodge or homestay), meals, guiding, cultural performances, sales of handicrafts, agro-tourism

Empowerment

At the core of the CBT is the empowerment of the local people. What does it mean?

“The process of becoming stronger and more confident, especially in controlling one’s life and claiming one’s right.”

In the context of tourism, it means that the community get empowered by being able to manage tourism by itself, such as:

Offering services and activities to tourists
Setting up its own tourism coordination team
Being part of the tourism planning process in its region in cooperation with local government and other stakeholders

Be aware: setting up of CBT is highly complex, as tourism is highly complex — we would need one full module to explain the implementation process — therefore we will focus in this module on CIT only.

Same, same, but different

CIT has a similar approach to CBT, but is still a bit different. CIT is “lighter” — CIT means to integrate your neighbouring community into tourism and hospitality services, such as procurement to hotels and restaurants located outside of its community (e.g. supply of agricultural products, handicraft and decoration to hotels and restaurants) or transport services. Another option is the creation of employment opportunities in the hospitality sector.

Whilst CBT means to manage tourism activities by the community, CIT focuses more on local entrepreneurship, joint-ventures with private tourism sector, or employment opportunities.

Community Involvement in Tourism (CIT) means offering business and employment opportunities for local communities in the tourism sector, while Community-based Tourism (CBT) means that tourism services are provided in the village and fully managed and coordinated by the villagers.

For CIT, the inclusive business model is important, as you as a tourism business interested in cooperating with your neighbouring communities should integrate them into your daily inclusive business activities.

Lesson 3: What is the meaning of inclusive business?

An inclusive business is a sustainable business that benefits low-income communities.

The common principle of inclusive business is to go beyond making donations or charity only, and invest in doing business differently for mutual benefit.

It means that your business needs to keep its for-profit nature but contributes at the same time to poverty reduction through the inclusion of low income communities in the value chain. In simple words, inclusive business is all about including disadvantaged people in the business process, ideally as producers or consumers.

Example

An inclusive business company, investing into innovative filtration systems that clean dirty water, builds a water kiosk in a community and offers a joint venture business to one family to sell the water to the community.

It creates a win-win situation for all involved: clean water for the village, a new income source for at least one family and revenues for the inclusive business company. You can reinvest your profit into new innovative products and/or share this margin among your shareholders.

Benefits

Local recognition and social licence to operate

Local residents will be the first to see how a business contributes to the economy. This, in turn, reduces local risk and crime, opens new opportunities for local product development, and translates into constructive relations with local municipalities.

Enhanced staff morale

When local staff see the company delivering for their community, it increases staff morale, resulting in improved customer service and guest satisfaction.

Greater customer satisfaction

Customers can see that you care.

Stronger branding

A competitive advantage is gained from a more distinctive product. Companies that invest locally stand out from others.

Top reasons to invest in CIT

When we show up to the present moment with all of our senses, we invite the world to fill us with joy. The pains of the past are behind us. The future has yet to unfold. But the now is full of beauty simply waiting for our attention.

Lesson 4: Doing business differently — top reasons to invest in CIT

Doing business differently in your tourism business means adjusting your operating practice so that commercial goals are achieved, but at the same time more local impact is delivered — and it can be done along the whole tourism supply chain.

Interventions in inclusive business by the private tourism sector

1. Procurement

Procurement is often a missed opportunity to stimulate the local economy, as most tourism companies tend to deal with large, possibly distant, well-established suppliers. Procuring goods and services instead from businesses that are small and local can transform the local economy.

Many potential local suppliers are ‘survivalist’ — operating under such constraints that the entrepreneurs do not earn a decent living from them. But if they can secure new contracts, upgrade production, and invest in expansion, the businesses can thrive, which in turn creates further local linkages and growth. The potential for job creation is considerable.

2. Salary & Wages

As a rule, the greatest cash flow into a local community from a tourism business is in the form of wages of local staff, but the tourism and hospitality sector is known for paying low wages.

In many operations, the biggest single increase in community cash flow could be achieved by ensuring all employees receive a fair living wage, which is ideally above minimum wage.

3. Capacity building

Other ways of extending employment benefits to local communities include reviewing recruitment practices to increase opportunities for local applicants, and investing more heavily in appropriate training of semi-skilled local staff.

4. Activities at community sites

Excursions organised by hotels or tour operators are an excellent opportunity to offer business opportunities to local SMEs by using their transportation, learning more about local culture and visiting their local farms to buy local products (agrotourism).

You can also let the tourists even work for an hour in the field – they will love it and pay for it!

Examples

Procurement of drinking water

Hotels nearby get the opportunity, instead of buying expensive bottled water in environmentally unfriendly plastic bottles, to buy the water directly from the local entrepreneur.

A win-win situation for the environment and local entrepreneurs.

Strengthening agricultural linkages

A hotel sources all its fruit and vegetables locally and contracts out services to over 80 local suppliers.

This has led not only to good staff morale but also to a high quality of service

Improving food safety

A hotel has encouraged local farmers to invest in organic rice production. In the first two years, they bought the more expensive seeds but guaranteed the farmers that they would purchase the organic rice directly from them.

And again here we have several winners: the environment (using far fewer pesticides in that region) and the staff and clients being served healthy rice every day

Support of local artisans

In a hotel where guests are encouraged to visit local artists at work and local culture is showcased, occupancy has increased by 25% in three years. Customer satisfaction is cited as the most common business benefit by owners/managers of tourism businesses that are strongly committed to local connections.

Again, this creates a win-win situation for the local handicraft producers by selling a high number of local handicrafts to tourists and for the hotel by creating customer satisfaction.

Creating employment opportunities

During the construction of a new hotel, young people and disadvantaged people (e.g. divorced women, people with disabilities) from the neighbourhood were offered training opportunities for several months in the areas of housekeeping, food & beverage, reception and maintenance. At the end of the training, an average of 80 % were employed and have a good chance of climbing the career ladder within the hotel company.

Again, this creates a win-win situation: locals are trained and find qualified employment opportunities, while the company can rely on highly committed employees.

However, it is worth noting that not all communities benefit from tourism in the same way. To achieve positive impacts, collaborative partnerships and active stakeholder involvement, which often change over time, are critical for the success (or failure) and sustainability.

While there is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ solution, ‘Community Involvement in Tourism’ will need to be adjusted to each case, as well as evolve with time.

Different Opportunities for Business Linkages in CIT

Lesson 1: Engagement of tourism business run by outsiders

Opportunities for hotels

There are plenty of opportunities for a tourism company run by an outsider to integrate local communities into its business — there are especially a lot of opportunities for hotels of different standards.

1. Employment of staff

2. Purchasing goods and services such as building materials, handicrafts for decoration and sale

3. Purchasing local food

4. Offering excursions to local communities, organised by the locals

Opportunities for Tour Operators

So far, we have been mentioning only the examples of hotels. But there are also plenty of opportunities for Tour Operators to engage local communities, e.g:

Booking overnight stays at hotels which support the local community
Reserving lunch or dinner in restaurants that offer local, preferable organic, food
Supporting CBT projects (overnight stays in a local community)
Offer training opportunities to local guides
Engaging local transport entrepreneurs (boats, taxis, bike rental, horse riding, etc.)
Supporting local handicraft initiatives

Opportunities for local souvenir shops

Instead of offering cheaply manufactured souvenirs, souvenir shops should promote local handicrafts and may even offer training courses for local handicraft producers to scale up their craft knowledge. Again a win-win situation is created as both the shop and the crafts men and women can sell more crafts by offering higher quality goods to tourists.

Lesson 2: Supporting community enterprises

Community members should be encouraged to start their own small and medium enterprises or to act as investors or even joint-venture partners with the public and private sector.

There are great opportunities for community enterprises, such as offering accommodation (lodges, campsites), excursions, village guiding, cultural performances (e.g. dancing, singing, story-telling) and cultural demonstrations such as weaving, agricultural practices, music, craft-making and cooking, organised and managed by the villagers in a village.

Stakeholders of the enterprise should be ideally the whole community, the management can be undertaken by a few selected individuals.

However, it is important to stress that community tourism enterprises must be based on:

Sound business planning
Underpinned ideally by appropriate market research and analysis.

These tasks should be undertaken by professionals. Therefore, we highly recommend community enterprises invest in consultants who are qualified to formulate business plans and undertake market research.

Not investing in such plans and analysis can easily lead to a failure of these community businesses — and failed business ventures not only damage community confidence in tourism, but may also harm the reputation of the industry and the destinations.

Another important aspect is the need to operate not only in tourism niche markets, but also to cooperate within the mainstream tourism industry. And of course, community enterprises are required to pay tax.

As communities are often not in favour of investing in business planning, market analysis, marketing plans, etc., it is recommended that they discuss the opportunity of joint ventures in CIT between the local community and a business outsider, as done in the next lesson.

Lesson 3: An interesting match — joint venture opportunities

Joint ventures (JV) are partnerships between tourism companies and local communities in which both entities usually hold equity.

A defining feature of partnerships is that both partners share risks and benefits.

The community brings their assets to such a joint venture and the private sector brings its capital and know-how.

What is the deal? Agreement options

Once both partners have settled on a concept, think long and hard about what type of JV options are proposed under the agreement. Challenges in this type of relationship usually start with the signing of an inappropriate and ill-thought-out agreement. This is now the stage where you have to seriously consider seeking the advice of a lawyer who is competent and experienced in JV business transactions, preferable with local communities.

Drafting the agreement

The main content of the agreement can be drafted by the private sector and/or community members, but the final document should be reviewed by a lawyer. This will ensure the document is legally binding should there be serious disagreement at a later stage.

Before signing the agreement, discuss again with the community, if the following topics have been taken into consideration:

Does the agreement clarify the contribution or equity of the local community to the deal (because that will determine the benefit-sharing arrangements)?
Is it a lease agreement in the case of a lodge? At some lodges, the community can receive a lease fee in its position as a landlord, and also have an equity share in the lodge operation.
Are the equity shares fair and impartially distributed among the involved community members?
Are the clauses in the agreement sufficient to protect the investment of the private sector and community (members)?
Are the expectations of the community mentioned in the agreement (e.g. Training and capacity building)?
Are the roles and responsibilities of the shareholders clearly defined?

However, it is extremely important to point out again that it is highly recommended to sign a joint-venture contract before starting the JV business.

Getting Involved in Tourism – Benefits and Challenges

Lesson: Socio-economic benefits in CIT

Communities play a vital role in the development of responsible tourism all over the world. They should actually become the main beneficiaries of tourism, especially poor communities in rural areas. Furthermore, the communities should be closely integrated into tourism development and investment activities from both the public and the private sector.

Therefore, communities should actively engage and acquire awareness of the impacts of tourism on their local economy, environment and culture that could be positive or negative — and sometimes both.

The tourism sector needs to ensure that economic development generated through tourism will be sustainable by investing in local people. Tourism can create a lot of income opportunities for low-income community members.

Access to finance

In designing investment incentives and facilitating soft loans for tourism SMEs (e.g. from banks or donors), the specific needs of the small-scale community and informal sector enterprises should be taken into account.

A long-term goal is to enable community members to move out of the informal sector, thus gaining access to loans from the formal banking sector.

Governments all over the world are encouraged to create favourable conditions to work with communities by giving them market power and by allowing the private sector higher investment security and greater incentives for partnerships.

Decent work

Tourism offers one of the most labour intensive employment opportunities. However, all CIT activities are incorporated into the approach of Decent Work.

In addition to providing income, work can pave the way for a broader social and economic advancement, strengthening individuals, their families and communities. Such progress, however, hinges on work that is decent. Decent Work is the availability of employment, in conditions of freedom, equity, human security and dignity.

Economic instability

Due to economic instability at a particular destination, there are chances that may make the communities vulnerable to fluctuations in the tourism demand.

If natural disasters, pandemics or political crises cause tourism arrivals to drop, then communities can lose their income. Therefore, it is important to state that tourism should be rather an additional and not the main income for community members. in order to make them resilient in cases of crises.

Social impacts of CIT

The impacts of tourism on the societal structure of communities are diverse. Here are just a few issues:

1. Capacity building in hospitality training with different ethnic groups/religions

There are exceptional examples from around the world of providing hospitality training to youth from poor families. By putting trainees from different ethnic groups and religious backgrounds in one classroom, they can experience the value of diversity.

2. Local community participation

Prior to any involvement in tourism, local communities must be provided with sufficient information about the tourism industry to be able to make informed decisions regarding how their future might be impacted. Local people should be willing to participate in tourism and be aware of the potential impacts as well as learn about mechanisms to manage the impacts from the beginning.

3. Gender responsibilities

Gender roles, i.e. different roles of women and men, are often strictly demarcated in various ethnic cultures — to the point of exclusivity with regard to certain knowledge, ceremonies or access.

Gender aspects may affect all stages of tourism development, from initial negotiations to the end producer — and should always be taken into consideration when planning the involvement of local communities.

Specifically, tourism should not foster gender-specific discrimination but should apply an equally respectful approach to all persons in a society.

4. Respect relationship to land and land ownership

Ethnic communities are inextricably linked to their culture and their environment. While the relationship of people to their country is a valuable tourism asset, there will be places with tourism potential that — for reasons of cultural significance or ownership — cannot be visited or utilised in a manner that would produce the highest tourism interest.

Connection between gender equality, water and tourism

In many destinations, the increase of tourism arrivals has caused an enormous increase in water consumption by the hotels (swimming pools, tourists taking a shower at least twice a day) and other tourism facilities.

As a consequence, less water is available for local households. Because of that, women can not take any other job, as they have to always stand-by to get enough water for the whole family, which means not only less income for the family but also a financial dependency on the husband’s income.

Lesson 2: Respect local culture

Tourism can have both a positive and negative effect on local culture. The discussion is always linked to commodification of a culture, which means the transformation of culture into an object of trade.Tourism offers the opportunity to meet people from a different culture and gain more insight into their daily life.

Tourists, as well as the private sector, need to respect the cultural heritage, traditions and beliefs of the host in a tourist destination.

In order to avoid any negative impact, it is recommended that Dos and Don’ts are developed for tourists in a destination — especially if you as a tour operator favour cultural exchange between hosts and guests — such as visits at local villages or even homestay at a local family. Here are two examples from Myanmar:

Do not kiss and touch in public while visiting a community
Never give cash money to children while visiting a community

Another important aspect is traditional crafts, including traditional clothes, songs, stories and foods. Many of these traditions have already, or will soon disappear, if nothing is done to preserve traditions and customs.

Placed in a new context, and transformed to suit the needs and expectations of international visitors, these objects can help to revive local economies and contribute to job creation, such as supporting local weaving workshops or traditional cultural performances while visiting a village.

It is important to support local handicrafts and cultural exchange between tourists and hosts by creating awareness with tourists about the cultural taboos.

Lesson 3: Tourism and the environment — a double-edged sword

The quality of the environment, both natural and man-made, is essential to tourism. However, there are plenty of negative examples of adverse environmental effects, such as the construction of golf courses and marinas, waste and water mismanagement. The negative impacts of tourism development can gradually destroy the environmental resources on which it depends.

On the other hand, tourism has the potential to create beneficial effects on the environment by contributing to environmental protection and conservation for the community.

Tourism can even be a tool to raise awareness of environmental values — the question is how?

CIT should be always linked to awareness programs of environmental issues, such as waste and water management. Make sure that communities get a proper environmental training by experts (NGOs, CSOs) before starting any CIT initiative.

Especially in Africa, tourism can serve as a tool to finance protection of natural areas and increase their economic importance.

How to Manage Tourism Business Partnerships with Locals

Lesson 1: Core principles for companies investing in business with communities

As outlined earlier in this module, we encourage the private tourism sector to work closely with local communities.

However, there are many reasons for failed partnerships between the private tourism sector and communities.

Reasons for failed partnerships

Requirements:

An agreement is made but it is not clear or written down.
The community doesn’t understand the tourism industry and what is required to operate in a competitive environment.
Partnerships start well but, without any review or adjustment, they falter.

Expectations:

Expectations differ
Expectations of what the partners can deliver are too high.
A company seeks a particular type of partnership because it looks or sounds good, and not because it fulfils the needs of the community or the business.

Recommendations

Be prepared to invest time and commitment into implementing local connections.
Put local connections on your business agenda and make them a priority. Just doing this casually, especially at the beginning, might lead easily to failures.
Combine innovation with protection of the core business, which means keep these new CIT products as an optional add-on until quality is assured. Set clear terms for suppliers, excursions or equity partners.
Identify a champion in your company, supporting you in this process. A champion in your company needs to drive the process — liaising with local partners and working it through with your own staff. The champion needs time, resources, and management authority to work across departments.

Business concept of tourism

In traditional ethnic cultures, there is often a limited understanding of tourism and business concepts, as few people from remote areas will have first-hand experience of commercial tourism. Thus, communities may lack the capacity to decide whether tourism should play a role in their future.

Therefore, it is important to give communities sufficient time and space to understand the business concept of tourism before they make the decision whether they want to be involved in this economic sector. This aspect is directly linked to decision-making processes.

The course of a negotiation and decision-making within local communities is generally a lengthy one. Decisions often require broader consultation processes within the communities and with other traditional owners.

As you have realised in this lesson: it is advisable to leave space for the community to make mistakes and learn from experiences.

Lesson 2: So important — the aspects of skills and education

Tourism is based, as any other economic sector, on skilled and educated staff. Integrating local communities as staff members into your inclusive business, you are likely to face challenges at the beginning.

Challenges

(Potential) employees have little prior experience or education in the tourism sector.
Living in poverty means they lack tourism experience as customers.
A lack of language skills is common.
Those who are educated often find their training does not match reality. Teaching methods are often outdated (e.g., memorising facts and including little practice)

Solutions

How can you overcome these challenges? Here are some recommended solutions linked to capacity building:

Improve vocational training

Improve the quantity and quality of vocational training by offering a lot of practical training opportunities to enrolled trainees.

Engage in dialogue

Engage in dialogue with the local government to better match government training institutes’ curriculum to the realities of tourism.

Undertake compensation

Promise and undertake performance-based compensation and career-development opportunities.

Lesson 3: How to secure quality, quantity and continuity

It sounds so easy — just buy local vegetables from your neighbouring farmer — but as an experienced business in the hospitality sector, you know that this might include some challenges such as:

The quality and quantity of local products, whether activities, crafts or agricultural products, may not match international standards, which are expected by your clients
Suppliers may go out of business or switch to other products if demand drops for a period of time
Choosing multiple (local) suppliers can result in high bookkeeping and turnover costs, making it financially and logistically unattractive to procure locally
Continuity of production may be disrupted by seasonal conditions or logistical challenges

Solutions — supplier development

We would like to suggest some solutions to overcome these challenges:

Lesson 4: 5 easy steps — ways to participate

Tourism can be complicated. We promise you, if you decide to engage in CIT as an inclusive business, it is challenging and interesting at the same time. And do not forget the benefits for your business — let’s remember again — your business will gain:

Local recognition and social licence to operate
Enhanced staff morale
Greater customer satisfaction
Stronger branding

5 steps to a successful joint-venture with local community tourism ventures

Step 1: Start to get to know the people you want to work with as early as possible.

Step 2: Seek advice from or collaborate with NGOs or other experts that already have insight into community dynamics.

Step 3: Create-long term partnerships that are mutually beneficial, keeping channels for community dialogue open in order to detect issues early and react to them.

Step 4: Raise awareness of organisations providing microcredit and start-up support.

Step 5: Support promising start-ups by giving them business opportunities.

The core question of this topic was ‘How to manage local partnerships with local communities?’ We hope you have understood that it is worthwhile to create this kind of CIT partnership. Yes, there are barriers, but there are also solutions.

The next, final topic summarises the role of the different stakeholders, supporting the concept of inclusive business and the involvement of local communities in tourism.

Get Everyone on Board!

Lesson 1: The major players — private tourism sector and the community

The private tourism sector is the guiding vehicle for responsible tourism promotion and development, including community involvement, as discussed in this module. However, it needs to be interested in applying the model of inclusive business.

Together our journey can change lives as tourism can create positive impacts for the destination, its people, for my business and for the clients. Fatima from Fatima’s Photo Safari Adventures

Communities play a vital role in the development of responsible tourism all over the world. They should actually become the main beneficiaries of tourism, especially disadvantaged communities in rural areas.

Furthermore, the communities should be closely integrated with tourism development and investment activities from both the public and the private sector. Communities should actively engage and acquire awareness of the positive and negative impacts of tourism on their local economy, environment and culture.

Opportunities

What kind of opportunities are getting missed, if local communities do not get involved in tourism activities?

Local employment
Entrepreneurship skills
Opportunities for capacity building
Income for education, development and conservation
Being involved in local tourism planning and community consultation

Barriers

There are often barriers created for community involvement in tourism. Be aware of these barriers and help communities to overcome them!

Centralisation of public administration

–

Centralisation of public administration (community representatives are not able to speak to the right persons as they can not afford to travel to main/capital cities)

Lack of coordination

Lack of coordination between government and local communities (top-down decisions are taken without integrating local community into tourism planning)

Lack of information

Lack of information provided by public or private sector

Elite domination

Elite domination within the community (benefits reach only a few)

Lack of appropriate legal system

Lack of appropriate legal system which encourages community participation

Lesson 2: The role of government, NGOs and CSOs

The public sector at the national level should ensure that implementation mechanisms for CIT are in place — and that CIT is effective and participatory.

This task includes the preparation of suitable frameworks for community tourism development, such as

Creating investment opportunities for SMEs in tourism
Training opportunities (especially for local consultants, public administration, private sector, SMEs and communities)
Implementation and monitoring of licences and standardised systems for CIT
Marketing of community-related tourism activities.

Overall, the public sector at the national level has the responsibility to regulate and facilitate the CIT process. Based on such conditions, it is much easier for local communities to get access to tourism business.

The role of NGOs and CSOs: Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and Civil Society Organisation (CSOs) are able to support and assist in preparing and implementing community tourism projects, ranging from tourism and environmental awareness programmes and the implementation of community-benefit/based tourism initiatives by providing financial and/or technical support.

Often they can also act as mediators between public and private sectors and communities to generate more community involvement in the tourism industry.

For example, it is recommended to approach NGOs or CSOs in the context of CIT, if

Financial or technical support is needed for CIT initiatives
A facilitator is requested to promote CIT among different stakeholders

The role of local administration

The local administration, including state and regional administration, also plays a crucial role in CIT at local level — as they often take a leading role in environmental planning, land-use planning and rural development initiatives. This task also includes the facilitation of the participation of local communities in tourism planning and licensing businesses in accordance with the national framework.

What are the main tasks of local government for CIT?

Task 1: Creating investment opportunities for SMEs

Task 2: Building fire stations in all villages

Task 3: Offering training opportunities

Task 4: Undertaking construction work at a community hall for beautification

Task 5: Marketing of CIT activities

Task 6: Easy access to licences and loans for SMSs in tourism

Task 7: Facilitation of participatory involvement in tourism planning

For the community and the business owners, it is important to always engage actively with the government, such as inviting them to training workshops as observers or asking them to launch the JV business such as a lodge opening. Government staff will understand and support CIT, if they themselves will get a deeper understanding about the benefits of CIT — and they can only benefit if they are in contact with the key actors.

Now that you have successfully completed this unit, you are well prepared to involve the community in your own project.