Assessing the Value of Community-Based Tourism Approach in Community Development in the Surrounding area of the Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda
Abstract
Community based-tourism (CBT) is both an integrated approach and a collaborative tool for socio-economic empowerment of communities through the development and marketing of natural and cultural community resources to add value to the experience of local and foreign visitors and simultaneously improve the level of the community. But there is lack of clear approaches to measure performances of CBTs, thus meaning that how they enhance socio-economic livelihoods of local communities and conserve protected areas is difficult to measure in both quantitative and qualitative terms. This study assessed the performance of Community Based Tourism on the socio-economic lives of local community around Volcanoes National Park, and it specifically 1) profiled and examined the performance of existing CBT ventures, 2) the factors affecting community-based tourism development around Volcanoes National Park and 3) the contribution of CBTs on social and economic lives of the local community. The methods used for data collection were sampling, key informant interviews, surveys, focus group discussions, observation and use of secondary data. Data was analysed using SPSS to generate descriptive information and further strata analysis was used. The study recommends that for Rwanda to achieve its goal of harnessing tourism for its vision 2050 the local communities around Volcanoes National Park should be empowered to embrace community-based tourism as an alternative to farming and fishing to improve their livelihood income.
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Introduction
Community-Based Tourism (CBT) has been used to describe abroad range of different tourism models but usually refers to tourism that involves community participation and aims to generate benefits for local communities in the developing world by allowing tourists to visit these communities and learn about their culture and the local environment. Community participation in the tourism initiative is central to all the definitions, ranging from cooperative or individually owned and managed businesses to joint ventures between the community and the private sector (Zielinski et al., 2020). These ventures are characterized by high environmental consideration, increased control and involvement of the local residents, as well as significant benefits for the host community and coined the term community-based ecotourism (Hussin & Kunjuraman, 2014). This is used to describe any CBTs ventures that are characterized by high environmental and social considerations, increased control and involvement of the local residents, as well as significant benefits for the host community (Phuong et al., 2020). Tourism Development Master Plan of 2010 noted that Rwanda has a growing community-based tourism sector providing visitors with an insight into how local Rwanda communities live and work. These are located mostly along the tourism routes and provide products and services such as home stays, village walks and interaction with village personalities (Safari, 2017). As described by Njenji (2020), these CBTs are managed and governed to pursue the economic and social goals of the communities in the country in a manner that yield sustainable individual and group benefits over the short-and long-term. However, the data on the economic activity of CBTs or indigenous entrepreneurs is still scarce (Gohori & van der Merwe, 2020). According to Mayaka et al., (2020), CBT was born as an alternative approach to the excesses of mainstream or mass tourism, such as repatriation of profits from developing economies by multinational companies and the negative impact on destinations. It is consistent with alternative development and sustainable livelihood approaches, which focus on grassroots development and embrace participation, equity and empowerment ideas. Its interest resides in the fact that CBT projects are small or medium sized ventures that have the potential to generate a range of positive economic and social development impacts in rural areas, where other types of development may be inadequate (Pemayun & Maheswari, 2017). Through local control of tourism businesses and activities, CBT is thought to contribute to cultural and environmental conservation and to the redistribution of economic benefits among the most vulnerable groups, such as indigenous communities. A range of studies about CBT initiatives have confirmed its potential benefits to communities, especially „commercially grounded‟ initiatives (Kaur et al., 2016). In Rwanda, the government‟spolicy framework prioritized Northern Province, which accommodates the Volcanoes National Park,a habitat of the rare endangered mountain gorillas as a great tourist destination where, Community Based Tourism (CBT) needs to be sustainably developed (Aboniyo & Mourad, 2017). A number of public and private sector investments have been encouraged by the Rwandan Government to provide tourist infrastructure and accommodation facilities. But, to engage the local communities in tourism in the province, SNV in the period of 2005-2012 initiated pro-poor tourism (PPT) projects in the country to encourage local participation and achieve local community economic diversification and alternative household income generation. Since these initiatives of CBT through PPT, the values to realizing socio-economic benefits and conserve wildlife have not been assessed incase of Volcanoes National Parkin Rwanda. This creates a gap to understand whether CBT approach is effective or not (Njenji, 2020). Therefore, this study was conducted to fill this gap where, it assessed the value of community-based tourism approach in community development in the surrounding area of the Volcanoes National Parkin Rwanda.
Conclusion
The study noted the following as key conclusions. 1. Four types of CBT initiatives have emerged in Volcanoes National Park area: businesses that employed local residents, family-ran enterprises, joint venture with private sector and community-based social enterprises. 2. Majority of local residents who participated in tourism are in the age bracket 30 – 40 and completed either secondary or tertiary education showing that CBT only attracted educated people. 3. Operational and marketing factors influenced by policy and technical supports acted as critical success factors to facilitate CBT approach. 4. Tourism development for communities living around protected areas is still low determined by TPI. This supports previous findings on low tourism development in a number of small communities due to limited local initiatives.
