Community-Based Rural Tourism: A Proposed Sustainability Framework

Abstract

Many tourism projects run by community in the rural areas are labelledas Community-based Rural Tourism (CBRT), a type of a more `responsible'tourism that contributes to sustainable development. However, aframework is needed to enable planners and managers to understand itscriteria thus ensuring that the CBRTs fulfil the sustainabilityrequirement. This paper presents findings from a literature review onprevious writings in this topic. Findings from an analysis on thecriteria of a sustainable CBRT product are discussed. It is found thatin order for it to play a role in sustainable development, a CBRTproduct must focus on competitive management, resource conservation, andbenefit creation to the community. The three elements need to besupported, in turn, by community involvement and commitment. As theproposed conceptual framework of sustainable CBRT product can be a basisfor further research in CBRT, it offers producing theoretical andpractical implications.