Community-based ecotourism to meet the new tourist's expectations: an exploratory study

 
[Table 1: The main features of community-based ecotourism] 
As we can see in this table, the first four cases show common features such as the origin and the 
management of the tourism project, which are internal to the communities, even if some external 
forces are involved at the beginning of the project. These cases are also similar in that they offer 
the kind of activities which are essentially nature-based, discovery of the natural environment and 
participation in environmental protection; culture-based, discovery of the culture and the 
traditions; and sometimes recreational, bathing in a sulphurous lagoon. The emphasis is put on 
conservation of the environment and empowerment of communities. The tourists are pro-active; 

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for a few days, they can experience a complete immersion within the communities, sharing their 
lifestyle. They can stay with families in traditional dwelling, taste local meals and sometimes 
engage in the daily and traditional activities of the community such as participation in indigenous 
ceremonies with the Malekus, or activities dealing with environmental conservation such as 
protection of the marine turtle in the Zapotec community case.
Case 5 is unique because environmental conservation is not a priority and it shows that even with 
a good governance, the social link of the host community tend to be loosen up due to 
globalization and growing individualism. It means that even with an empowered community, 
tourism cannot always avoid negative impacts on host communities’ social link. 
In the first five cases, CBET provides economic empowerment in that it offers jobs opportunities 
and the benefits go to the community in a fair way, with the exception of the fifth case where 
some artisans and families earn more than the rest of the community. The cases also demonstrate 
that CBET provides psychological empowerment because it allows communities to be 
autonomous, to promote their culture, and to share their traditions. Hence, they gain pride from 
the experience. CBET promotes social empowerment on the basis that it relies on engagement by 
everyone in the community in the governance of the project, which thereby reinforces cohesion. 
It preserves the social capital by providing job opportunities and thereby preventing the exodus of 
the youth toward urban centers to find opportunities. But the fifth case shows that the affect of 
CBET on community social equilibrium is unpredictable. Even with features that are supposed to 
ensure wealth to host communities, individualism and inequalities can arise with negative 
consequences. Political empowerment is a common feature of the first five cases because 
institutional arrangements were made to make tourism projects work and to ensure a transparent 
and democratic decision-making process.