After many trials and errors, they have succeeded in involving other groups and individuals in launching a community development project that maximizes local resources. As a result, the satisfaction rate has increased both for visitors and residents, and deterioration of resources has been kept to a minimum.
For the purposes of this guidebook, Tourism Based Community Development is defined as "activities by the local community to promote exchange and to create a community filled with energy, giving full play to nature, culture, history, industry and other local resources. "
How is it different from other tourism development?
Traditional tourism development has placed priority on increasing visitors and advancing the industry, with less consideration for local color or impact on the living environment for local residents. As tourism grew, conflict arose between the tourism industry focusing on market expansion and the local residents focusing on maintaining community resources and living environment.
In some ancient capitals, too much emphasis was placed on resource conservation. For residents, this meant limited access to conveniences and amenities; for people interested in seeing the ancient capital, this meant limited opportunities.
Even when there are good resources, they do not appeal to visitors if they are not presented effectively, or if residents do not fully appreciate their value. To make full use of the resources in community revitalization, development must consider visitor satisfaction.
Sustainable development of the entire community, maintaining the balance of resources, the environment and visitor satisfaction, can be attained through integrated community development, in which the community serves as the key player in tourism promotion.
With the spread of the tourism based community development concept, communities across the nation can focus on tourism promotion as part of their community development efforts.
Increase of attractive and sustainable tourist destinations will eventually lead to the development of a network of tourist destinations.
As we enter the era of leisure, we are faced with the challenge of creating attractive and sustainable tourist destinations, expanding our nation's capacity to respond to increasing tourism demands.
