The local community development and the community-based tourism : a comparative conceptual analysis

According to the authors of this paper, mass tourism does not generate the development of local communities but rather their devitalization. This paper presents a cross-literature survey on community-based tourism and local community development. It proposes some links between these two approaches and asserts that community-based tourism can be a strategy to trigger local community development. It address the conditions under which the convergence of these two approaches may allow the launching of development initiatives liable to counter the devitalization and impoverishment process which characterizes certain mass tourism oriented places.