COMMUNITY - BASED TOURISM IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES A CASE STUDY.docVIP

TOURISMOS: AN INTERNATIONAL MULTIDISCIPLINARY JOURNAL OF TOURISM Volume 6, Number 1, Spring 2011, pp. 69-84 UDC: 338.48+640(050) COMMUNITY - BASED TOURISM IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: A CASE STUDY Tomás López-Guzmán1 University of Córdoba Sandra Sánchez-Ca?izares University of Córdoba Víctor Pavón University of Córdoba Community-based Tourism is gaining prestige all over the world as an alternative to mass tourism. This new type of tourism favours a contact with the local community and the experimentation of different sensations. In this paper we show a study carried out in El Salvador about the opinions that residents have in order to develop a tourist destination based on the hospitality of hosts, on the remarkable ecologic resources of the area, and in the important of the role of the residents. The methodology is based on an empirical study realized in a rural area from September to November 2008. Most outstanding result is the local community perception that tourist development can create jobs and generate wealth, although it is necessary previous technical training from private and public institutions to fulfil these objectives. Keywords: Community-Based Tourism, Local Development, Rural Areas, El Salvador JEL Classification: L83, M1, O1 INTRODUCTION At the beginning of the 21 century, a change was observed the tastes st of tourists, who moved towards other forms of tourism. This could have been due to knowledge of new destinations, up until that point unexplored by tourists, and the search for a destination with greater focus on local customs, history, ethics and the particular culture of the destination. In this sense, cultural diversity is looked upon as a means of enriching the ? University of the Aegean. Print ISSN: 1790-8418, Online ISSN: 1792-6521 69  Tomás López-Guzmán, Sandra Sánchez-Ca?izares Víctor Pavón experience of increasingly active to