Rana Hoque :
As a concept, Community Based Tourism (CBT) is not a new phenomenon in the World. CBT has been used as a response to the negative impacts of the international mass tourism development model which is traced back in 1970s. Primarily, CBT programmes have included the participation of small rural communities and nature conservation through ecotourism. Later, this concept has been expanded with different tourism products like, local culture, folklore, traditional handicraft and foods etc. In Less Developed Countries (LDCs), CBT has been induced as a response to the potential of tourism for the macro-economic growth and as a part of a strategy to promote international trade, international institutions such as the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), the world Bank, World Trade Organization (WTO) and International Monetary Fund (IMF). These institutions developed some diverse development programmes, for instance, Sustainable Tourism for the Elimination of Poverty Programme to promote tourism as a development tool.
On the other hand, CBT concept is newly functioning in Bangladesh. Very few organizations are working on this concept since 2005 in Bangladesh. Nishorgo Program of Forest Department of Government of Bangladesh (GoB) is the key role player in the field of CBT.
What does CBT mean?
Community Based Tourism is a form of tourism which includes and benefits local communities, for examples, villagers, and indigenous people in developing countries. Simultaneously, this kind of tourism also benefits tourists. It will offer a great opportunity to tourists to know many things about communities, their history and cultures. According to the description of International Labour Organization (ILO) defining CBT as, ‘any business organisational form grounded on the property and self-management of the community’s patrimonial assets, according to democratic and solidarity practices; and on the distribution of the bene?ts generated by the supply of tourist services,with the aim at supporting intercultural quality meetings with the visitors’.
CBT has three main criteria-
CBT is located within a community
Owned by one or more community members
Managed by community members, for instances, community members could in?uence the decision making process of the enterprise
Except the mentioned criteria, it also has some other aspects-
Give a fair share of profits back to the local community.(Ideally this will include community projects (health centers, schools, cycle shelters etc)
Involve communities rather than individuals. (Working with individuals can disrupt social structures.)
Be environmentally sustainable. (Local people must be involved if conservation projects are to succeed.)
Respect traditional culture and social structures.
Have mechanisms to help communities cope with the impact of western tourists.
Keep groups small to minimise cultural / environmental impact.
Brief tourists before the trip on appropriate behaviour.
Not make local people perform inappropriate ceremonies, etc.
Leave communities alone if they don’t want tourism. (People should have the right to say ‘no’ to tourism.)
CBT Impacts in Community Development:
CBT has apparently been recognized in the context of sustainable tourism development. Therefore, CBT focuses on receiving communities in terms of planning and maintaining tourism development and providing an equitable flow of benefits to all beneficiaries by tourism through consensus based decision making and local control of development. There are three expected benefits of CBT:
Employment and income generation of the community people: CBT creates many enormous opportunities to the community inhabitants to generate new scope of employment (full-time and/or part-time basis) and income and contributes to rural development-this especially applies in remote areas.
Usages of valuable resources in sustainable way: the benefits derived from the use of valuable natural resources will stimulate the community to use these resources through sustainable process.Finally,
Addition of values to national tourism: CBT adds values to national tourism promoting diversification of tourism, increasing volume and economics of scale.
CBT is generated from community participation which has positive impacts upon the inhabitants of community. Some of the impacts are-
The strengthening of local knowledge, skills, information could be used for developing new capacities in the communities like, tourism related management, administration, and social skills.
CBT could play an important role to integrate women in labour market through income generating activities.
Community could directly utilize the profit from CBT building Clinic, Schools, and Infrastructure etc.
Enhancing the cultural strengths of community.
Environmental sustainability is major gains through the process of raising awareness regarding nature conservation and organic farming which can be promoted through Community Involvement.
CBT Development Models:
Here, I shortly brief about two CBT development models as- CBT Bottom-Up Model and CBT Top-Down Model. The first model presents to the community people promoting entrepreneurs at domestic markets and connecting people in culture and exploring potentiality. The development at the bottom level pushes to change the policy and flow of money at the upper level. On the other hand, in top-down approach the idea of tourism induced by external actors but decisions are taken and actions implemented under external control. It is a classical long practiced model in the development of tourism.
CBT initiatives in Bangladesh:
Nishorgo Program launched by Bangladesh Forest Department is a lifelong initiative for biodiversity conservation at the protected forest areas. Under this initiative CBT is a major tool for alternative income generation for the forest user groups. Although Bangladesh has identified 20 Protected Areas under the CBT programme. Initially it has been implementing at 5 protected areas, namely-
Lawachara national Park
Satchari National Park
Rema-Kalenga Wildlife Sanctuary
Chunoti Wildlife Sanctuary and
Teknaf Game Reserve
As part of initiative under CBT, Forest Department has developed individual Eco-Tourism Micro Plan for 5 protected areas. These micro-plans are the comprehensive guidelines for developing and implementing CBT at the protected areas. Therefore, there are some other endeavors such as building Eco Cottages, training skilled eco guides, elephant ride, engagement of Ethnic Communities and Costal and wetland biodiversity management project, to materialize the concept of CBT.
CBT initiatives have been induced in Bangladesh by the government attempt. But, the initiatives are not satisfactorily functioning with greater participation of communities and benefiting community people and tourists. Additionally, CBT should be introduced with diversification of attempting initiatives, for instances, Natural resources-Forests, Beaches, Hills & Mountains etc., Folklores, Cultural variations and so on segmented into different regions.
Conclusion:
According to the report of World Tourism Organisation in 2013, East Asia and the Pacific will by 2020 receive an estimated 397 million tourists annually with growth rates of over five per cent, compared to the world average of 4.1 per cent.This means tourism might be considered not just a reliable source of revenue but as an anchor to many other objectives within the Apec agenda.
Therefore, the CBT model is to support socio-economic development and poverty reduction. Bottom-Up approach of tourism development is now placed into the classical approach of Top-Down development model.
Bangladesh can extendedly promote this method of tourism development ensuring more participation of people and exploring its national, archeological, traditional folklore, handicraft and languages through improving managerial scheme and administrative capacities. It could definitely hope that the more entrepreneurship would grow, if the more opportunities through CBT could have been induced.
