Foreword: About This Guidebook
The Role of This Guidebook
For many of you reading this guidebook, the term "tourism based community development" may sound unfamiliar. This guidebook was written to communicate the new concept of tourism based community development to the broader public, in hopes that it would be incorporated into actual development practices.
The guidebook introduces the concept of tourism based community development. Actual examples of ongoing development efforts are used to discuss realistic goals for those who are about to take on this new endeavor. Checklists are also provided to serve as a starting point for development efforts in your community.
Of course, the guidebook does not offer quick and easy answers on what development plans are best for your community. Tourism based community development requires all members of the community to think, discuss and take action. The guidebook merely leads you to the doorsteps of such process.
How This Guidebook is Structured
The first half of the guidebook offers explanations on the basic concepts of tourism based community development, followed by discussions of practical methods in the latter half. Readers may choose to pick out certain sections of the book.
Chapters 1 and 2 focus on the basic concepts and directions of tourism based community development. If you want to know what tourism based community development is all about, please start here. Understanding of the underlying principles will allow you to better decide what measures are required and/or effective in your own community.
Chapter 3 contains checklists on specific goals for tourism based community development. If you wish to see how well your community is doing (or might do in the future), please start from Chapter 3.
Chapter 4 offer Perspectives and actual examples of tourism based community development. We hope the ideas presented in this chapter would prove helpful in your own community planning.
Examples of actual undertakings could only be explained briefly, due to the limited number of pages. If you are interested, please refer to websites or other reference materials pertaining to these projects. We have made every effort to include these information in the guidebook. Another suggestion is to talk directly to the promoters of community development projects, or members of the community involved in such development. It is both exciting and helpful to hear about the experiences of other localities.
