ABSTRACT
Ideas within degrowth movement demand that we explore alternative forms of tourism, not only in terms of changing patterns of consumption or improving efficiency in the use of resources, but also developing other logics for tourism organisation. Community-based tourism (CBT) usually follows on from local reflection on the goals and expectations of tourism, seeking to retain local control over the activity and its social, economic and environmental effects. Key in the development of CBT is the local ability to link the capitalist logic underlying all tourism ventures (profit, growth, competitiveness) with a community logic that pursues reciprocity, commons, collective action and conviviality. This in turn entails implementing organisational interfaces that can help translate and adapt tourism to communitarian logics that are supposed to tie in with degrowth strategies and which could be understood as the ‘organisational dimension of degrowth’. This chapter reflects on the local-level organisational dimension of CBT as an important factor for degrowth. The empirical analysis is based on a longitudinal ethnographic case study conducted in the community of Agua Blanca (Ecuador) that shows us both the potentialities and the limitations of CBT as an inspiring strategy for degrowth in some tourist contexts.
