What is Community Based Tourism (CBT)?
 

Community Based Tourism (CBT) refers to a travel experiences owned, led and run by local communities (often rural communities).  

Community based tourism is a type of sustainable tourism which local communities provide facilities for tourists to visit, explore and stay with their local communities while providing a super authentic experience of the local food / culture and traditions. CBT or Community Based Tourism is a great opportunity for travelers to explore the real local habitats / wildlife, and celebrates / respects traditional cultures, rituals. 

World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) defines Community Based Tourism CBT as “A form of tourism where the local community has substantial control over, and involvement in, its development and management, and a major proportion of the benefits remain within the community.”

Current Trends of Community Based Tourism 
Community based tourism is a new concept in modern tourism and most travelers especially millennials are seeking for more community based + experiential travel products.  This is the very reason for increasing demand for experiential holidays worldwide. 

Characteristics of Community Based Tourism 

• Local community governance – Community, undertakes the shared obligation for all features of stay of tourists, including accommodation / internal travel / local food and cultural activities 
• Sustainability integration – Local communities can only accommodate as many tourists as they are able, keeping in observance of long-term sustainability and avoiding unnecessary strain, on the local resources. 
• Cultural engagement – Tourist involved in community-based tourism, are able to experience the diversity and customs of another culture and traditions. 

Activities of Community Based Tourism 

• Practical experience with another culture – tourist can see, hear, touch, taste and do things that tourist might never experience before.  
• Interact directly with local people and gain firsthand knowledge and build deeper connection with host community. 
• Tourist can gain new perspective on culture, both personal and professional, and how it shapes lives of tourists and community through empathy and awareness on other culture. 
• Countless control over the tourist money by ensuring local communities are benefited out community-based tourism. 
• Promote community based tourism to wider market through various stakeholders.

Principles of community Based Tourism

Responsible Ecological Social Tours Project (REST) (Author Potjana Suansri, 2003) identified some principles through which host community can use tourism as a tool for community development. According to Suansri, CBT should:

• Recognize, support and promote community ownership of tourism;
• Involve community members from the start in every aspect;
• Promote community pride
• Improve the quality of life
• Ensure environmental sustainability
• Preserve the unique character and culture of the local area
• Foster cross-cultural learning
• Respect cultural differences and human dignity
• Distribute benefits fairly among community members
• Contribute a fixed percentage of income to community projects

Community Based Tourism Opportunities in in Sri Lanka 
Community based tourism is a key tourism component that giving a lot of benefits to the local community which help to enhance the socio / economic factors in any country. CBT provides the high possibility to generate new job opportunities and generate entrepreneurial opportunities for local communities from a difference of backgrounds, skills, and experiences. 

Being a middle income, agriculture based tropical island nation with centuries old culture / sandy beaches / highly diversified wildlife species, Sri Lanka provides wonderful community / volunteer based tourism opportunities.     

Why Community Based Tourism is important for Sri Lanka?
Sri Lanka as a middle-income country suffered from a 30 years political unrest and subsequently Covid pandemic and the economic crisis. Thus CBT – Community Based Tourism is a great option to enhance the community livelihood generating income, diversifying the local economy, preserving culture, conserving the environment, and providing educational opportunities. 

As well as provide the local community with alternative sources of income; it becomes a poverty reduction tool. Community Based Tourism is also considered as a community development tool that strengthens the ability of rural communities to manage tourism resources while ensuring the local community’s participation. 

Community Based Tourism Opportunities in Sri Lanka?

Volunteer Teaching in rural areas
If you are a fresh graduate, in the midst of your career, or a retired teacher, a volunteer teaching (English language or any other skill) program is an ideal way to teach and interact with primary school children during your volunteer / community-based family tour in Sri Lanka. Volunteer teaching program is just the way to interact and experience with a new culture while also enhancing the education of the trmote atra schools. English, computer literacy, sports are possible subjects that you could teach.