ABSTRACT
Community tourism has grown significantly in popularity, often as part of community conservation strategies aiming to reduce poverty and increase biodiversity conservation. Indeed, the approach has been elevated to such an extent that it has become a ‘privileged solution’, in that debate about the merits and demerits of community tourism is limited in official discourses.There is a rising number of practitioners and academics, however, warning of a high failure rate and stressing the need for more rigorous analysis and accountability.This chapter introduces international developments, reviews critical appraisals and reflects on empirical findings in Zambia that are relevant elsewhere in the world where donors are funding community tourism projects.The author asserts that experiences in Zambia and other destinations have demonstrated that community tourism is challenging, complex and precarious to develop and that it will only be a useful development tool if lessons learnt are assimilated – particularly the need for a market orientation. It is also important to acknowledge that community tourism is likely to remain on the margins of the industry and therefore it has limited potential in terms of pro-poor tourism development. The challenge is to mainstream approaches to harness tourism for poverty reduction so practitioners must respond to emerging opportunities in policy with more dynamic approaches and demonstrated results.
