Community-based Tourism and Development in the Periphery/Semi-periphery Interface of Viet Nam

Abstract

Community-based tourism (CBT) is widely accepted as an effective facilitator of sustainable development that reduces exploitation and brings about benefits for local communities in the least developed and remote areas. However, whilst CBT can be a catalyst for local income and employment generation, its contribution to improving local development is often overestimated and inaccurately identified. This is in part because development and its measurement are mainly assessed by non-locals who do not adequately take into account the opinions of residents. There is increasing concern that most of the impetus and funding for CBT, and its ongoing product viability, is attributable to Western “experts” and development agencies, and that far too little attention has been paid to local perspectives, empowerment, and knowledge. With regard to a CBT context, there is presently no study that adequately explores the local community’s perception of “development”; how CBT contributes to achieving that development; what factors facilitate or inhibit CBT to this effect; and how CBT can be improved so that it serves more effectively to promote development. Additionally, most studies focus on destinations in the classic periphery and neglect the fact that many CBT projects are found in the dynamic interface between the periphery and the rapidly expanding semi-periphery regions that represent the frontier of contemporary economic development in emerging economies such as Viet Nam. Importantly, this interface functions as a gateway to large tourist numbers, indicating a potential relationship between CBT – traditionally considered a manifestation of alternative tourism – and mass tourism.