Development of Rural Territory under the Influence of Community-Based Tourism

Abstract

Introduction. The paper looks at the relevant issues related to the rural areas’ development under the community-based tourism activities. The study presents an overview of every field of knowledge on community-based tourism, including the organization, management, marketing, and economic aspects. The paper specifies who provides the services, what they offer, who they offer their services to, and how they plan their tourist development in rural settings. The most relevant issue for the locals is the presentation of potential positive, as well as negative impact of tourism development, from economic to socio-cultural and environmental prospective.Aims. The main aim of this research is to examine how tourist activities affect locals in typical rural surroundings. How do individual and/or community benefits correlate with the support for tourism development? How does the concern for tourism development correspond with the general opinion about tourism? And how do the impacts of tourism development match the community support for tourism? Therefore, the general aspects of tourism impact, as well as its effect on the rural residents, will be explained.The methods of theoretical research (systems analysis, coming from the abstract to the real, idealization, etc.), as well as the methods of empirical research (method of expert assessment, comparison, analogy, and generalization) are applied in the study.Results. Both positive and negative impacts of tourism development have been shown, according to the cognitive findings. Some economic impacts of community-based tourism development provide new employment opportunities, an increase of income and GNP, diversify the local economy, as well as result in possible inflation of land value, price rise on food and other products and frequent seasonal employment. On the other hand, results show that social-cultural impacts can be seen in developing favorite image of the countryside, providing opportunities for additional education and recreational facilities for the residents, preservation of the local cultural heritage, while, on the other hand, it can create resentment and antagonism related to dramatic differences in wealth, give rise to overcrowding, congestion and traffic jams, cause conflicts in traditional societies and values, or even create demonstration effect, whereby natives imitate tourists and relinquish cultural tradition. Together with these, the findings proved that the community-based tourism may contribute to the better environmental protection, such as conservation of wildlife, encouragement of education on ecological issues, as well as fostering water and air pollution and solid waste, trampling delicate soil or disrupting flora and fauna species.Conclusion. The development of rural territories is possible under well planned and organized community-based tourism. Together with these, the study came to the conclusion that the locals care of their rural surroundings, and they also may benefit from tourist activities in their area, and these benefits are potential for their environment as well. The obtained findings confirm previous results, which also proved that care about the local tourist development is in positive correlation with the benefits of tourism for the local community. With all these matters, our paper emphasizes the findings that the more positive the general opinion and attitude of individuals and the community on tourist development in their local surroundings are, the stronger the care about the community is.