The limitations of community-based tourism as an instrument of development cooperation: the value of the Social Vocation of the Territory concept

This paper contributes to the debate over the validity of community-based tourism (CBT) as a development and poverty-reduction strategy in the rural-peasant world. In this debate, researchers tend to compare and contrast specific experiences on which they have conducted field work. This implies limitations in the analysis: conclusions may be biased, leading to circular unresolved discussions. This paper introduces a structural analysis, to discover whether CBT has intrinsic characteristics which mean that as an instrument of development cooperation it increases the risks typically involved in social intervention. It applies the concept of the Social Vocation of the Territory (SVT), adapted from Land Suitability concepts used in geography and environmental studies. SVT is a historical process in which land and local society adapt over time to reach equilibrium in specific uses of natural and social resources. Employing this concept on South American case studies, this paper concludes that CBT can have limitations as an instrument of development cooperation and poverty reduction, because of increasing peasant differentiation, social unrest, problems with local decision-making, lack of local tourism business knowledge and training, pseudo-participation, and work and time restructuring. Use of the SVT concept can help CBT in certain very specific circumstances.