What is Community Tourism?

A Global Movement

“I realized that if we kill all the animals and cut down all the trees, there’d be nothing left to see. No traveler would want to come here. We’re the owners of all of this rainforest, can you imagine if we destroyed it?”

Jhonson is one of many examples of how individual entrepreneurs and small communities around the world have started to embrace a new kind of locally-led tourism that gives travelers access to little visited places and connects with people they otherwise might not meet. Instead of developing their land to build mega hotels or other big tourism attractions, these communities have chosen to use their existing properties – often hundreds, or even thousands of acres of private land – to offer travelers an exciting and unique vacation.

Successful community tourism projects include: families in Thailand inviting travelers to stay in 150-year-old traditional homes to share a home-cooked meal; local indigenous guides in Costa Rica offering canoe rides into their remote villages for an overnight immersive experience, and cooperatives of farmers in Peru taking visitors on their daily rounds picking mountain-grown coffee.

Perhaps the most important aspect of the community tourism movement is the way it empowers local people to maintain ownership of their land and keep control over how to share their culture. The money travelers spend in these destinations goes directly toward supporting locals and gets re-invested within the community, like Cambodian Living Arts’ efforts to support traditional artists or La Leona Lodge’s work to preserve 500 acres of prime rainforest.