Community-based ecotourism and the transformative learning of homestay hosts in Cambodia

Abstract

ABSTRACT Ecotourism seldom places humans within the natural environments which serve as ecotourism attractions. Scholarship on learning and education in ecotourism has accordingly focused mostly on visitor learning about wildlife, biodiversity and adventure experiences in ‘pristine’ natural ecosystems. By contrast, community-based ecotourism (CBE) involves local and Indigenous communities living within natural environments. CBE aims not only to preserve natural environments, but also to conserve the traditional cultures of the peoples living within them. CBE involves visitors in longer term village homestays, local guides, and environmental, livelihood and cultural learning. It has also recently become an important area of study. However, while learning by CBE homestay hosts and guides is equally important, it is mostly unstudied to date. This paper reports on an empirical, interpretive case study of the transformative learning of CBE hosts in a rainforest-based CBE project in Chambok, Cambodia. Findings show that CBE hosts experienced transformations in their worldviews and self-identities in relation to three areas of transformative learning: environmental conservation, gender roles and local culture. These are three areas of learning beneficial to both hosts and communities, and key to the success of CBE. As such, they might well be encouraged in other CBE projects.