July 2008: Tourism for Latin America's marginalised groups

One of the main areas of focus for the COPLA programme is how socially marginalised groups can benefit from increased regional and global trade flows in Latin America. In 2003, the region hosted 45 million international tourists, who generated nearly $30 billion – the equivalent of around $56 a year for every person living in the region. And so the tourism sector cannot be overlooked as a key source of income for these traditionally excluded groups.

There are, however, competing views within the development community as to how best to tap into these vast resources. One approach that has dominated development practice for the past several decades is community-based tourism, or CBT. The idea has been to empower communities to engage with tourist flows on their own terms so that their cultures, values and resources are neither usurped nor destroyed by an influx of tourists. Community-based tourism also strives to distribute resources more equitably and give voice to non-traditional members of the community in decision-making processes. And there have been some well-publicised success stories. For example, the Nam Ha Ecotourism CBT Project in Lao PDR generated $474,000 in 2006 for some of the poorest rural people in South East Asia.

As highlighted in a recent publication by the ODI, a growing body of international evidence indicates that the community-based approach is highly problematic. From a financial perspective, CBT projects are often shocking failures. Governance structures can also be extremely ineffective at managing projects.

Instead of trying to develop alternative systems, the authors suggest that tapping into mainstream tourism, and doing so more strategically, is a more reasonable solution. Citing previous research from ODI, they note that ‘as little as one-tenth to as much as one-quarter of tourist spending reaches the poor through wages, tips, small business sales and locally integrated business’. The focus of development practitioners should be on making sure marginalised groups are well-placed to capture a larger proportion of this income.

Of course, the debate between community-based tourism and mainstream tourism is far from over. And a closer understanding of what each of these approaches would mean for Latin America is necessary – and an issue that further COPLA studies will explore.