Geog Essay Question

Intro
I do not agree that CBT is the best approach to sustainable tourism development. This is
because methods of sustainable tourism cannot be standardized to every single circumstance,
but rather must be analyzed and looked at on a case-by-case basis before finding out the “best”
approach to take on to ensure sustainable tourism.
CBT good
Community Based Tourism is a type of innovative small-scale tourism experience that is
managed by local communities. This includes home stays and agricultural tourism. This
maximizes local communities’ involvement in tourism and the benefits to them, ensuring
economic and social sustainability. Some strategies and initiatives include encouraging the local
community to participate in decision-making on tourism development in their community. This
allows them to have greater knowledge of their economic, social and environmental needs and
therefore their decisions can help to ensure these needs are met in a sustainable way. Locals
also put in place measures to increase economic and social benefits to local communities. They
are encouraged to innovate, set up businesses and offer tourism experiences to cater to the
needs of tourists, this therefore also provide employment opportunities to locals, minimizing
economic leakages. Revenue generated from tourism can then be directed to community
projects such as funding schools and clinics. This improves the social well-being of the local
community as they receive better education and healthcare. The last strategy that this approach
includes is educating and increasing tourists’ appreciation of local cultures and protection of the
environment. This promotes interactions between locals and tourists to develop respect for local
cultures and the environment. For example, through traditional homestays in the Binsar Wildlife
Sanctuary, tourists can live with a local host family, and participate in daily activities related to
local cultures and traditions. This helps them to appreciate their culture and environment more,
which thus ensures cultural and environmental sustainability.
ECO better
However, there are certain cases where ecotourism might be a better approach to ensuring
sustainable tourism than Community-Based Tourism. Ecotourism is an approach to tourism that
takes place in natural areas as its main tourist attraction and is more effective in conserving the
natural environment while benefiting the animals that inhabit the area. This approach ensures
that both the natural environment and the ecosystems that inhabit it benefit from the
environmental advantages of tourism, thus making the natural area more sustainable. One such
example is the Galapagos Islands in Ecuador that has a unique biodiversity that is protected by
the approach of ecotourism. Tourists are only allowed to explore a limited area on the island and
are required to pay a high entrance fee, profit from which is used to fund conservation projects
throughout the country, before being allowed to explore the island on a guided tour so as to
prevent the unhinged destruction of the natural environment there. In this situation, ecotourism
is much more effective than community-based tourism as it targets the precious biodiversity of
the island and is therefore managed by the government, rather than letting the small population
of locals who live on the island manage the tourism of the island with their limited resources.
This also reduces the risk of the island becoming commodified and the population of people
living there diluting their culture, thus preserving both the biodiversity of the island and the
unique culture of the people who live there, making ecotourism a better approach to sustainable
tourism than community-based tourism in situations that concern environmental biodiversity.
PPT better
In other cases, pro-poor tourism proves to be a better approach to sustainable tourism than
community-based tourism. This is because pro-poor tourism tends to focus more on the
economic sustainability of the communities who use this approach, something that
community-based tourism might not focus on as much and therefore may not be as effective in
providing sustainability. An example of pro-poor tourism is the villages around China’s Three
Parallel Rivers that set up businesses in order to support the tourism of the area, such as
homestays and restaurants. Some even put up cultural performances for tourists for a living. As
a result, the local community has experienced an increase in income and standard of living.
Whereas for community-based tourism it is focused more on preserving the cultural heritage of
the local community. While community based tourism is still able to make a revenue, pro-poor
tourism focuses more on improving poverty, therefore improving economic sustainablity through
tourism more effectively than a community-based tourism approach.
Summary/Conclusion
In conclusion, community-based tourism is not necessarily always the best approach to
sustainable development as different cases require different approaches based on their needs
and areas to work on. Community-based tourism has its own limitations that other approaches
can cover up, such as the loss of culture that may result from community-based tourism can be
made up for by adopting a government-managed ecotourism approach that limits the amount of
tourists that have access to the tourist attraction and will therefore not affect the local community
living there as much, which gives them more freedom to continue practising their traditions and
recover their cultural practices. Therefore there is no one most effective approach to achieving
sustainable tourism, but rather different approaches can be utilised depending on the different
areas that need to be focused on on a case-to-case basis.

Geog Essay Question

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Geog Essay Question

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Intro

You might also like