Community-based tourism: the perspectives of three stakeholder groups

This research focuses on 'the perspectives of participants on community-based tourism (CBT) , based on the stakeholder theory. The research examined the groups of decision-maker, operator, and visitor. A Seven-page self- administered questionnaire was distributed to them in three representative developing countries: Thailand, Indonesia, and Malaysia. The techniques consisted of the assessment of scenarios, open-ended and close-ended questions, rating scales, and rankings of importance. The three main research objectives of the study were to find the overall perspectives of the three main stakeholders towards CBT, their expectations for future CBT development, and the factors which influence their perspectives. The results show similarities and differences among the three groups. Decision maker and visitor groups prefer to have highly regulated small scale tourism forms whereas operators prefer to have controlled carrying capacity but high intensity forms. All groups suggested that the best and most successful CBT should involve the community and maintain the community's benefits and life style. The visitor group emphasised cultural exchange and friendly communities. The shared management form is the most preferred although the community group should take most responsibility for CBT. Each group had a different emphasis concerning the first step to develop CBT. Factors which most influenced the decision makers and the visitors were their aesthetic and moral values while the operators' were more driven by moral and economic values. This study attempted to find a stakeholders' point of accommodation to successfully progress CBT. It is anticipated that the results from this study could guide the future research on CBT in general and could aid the practice of successful CBT