What is the role of community based tourism in avoiding overtourism?

Community development intends to flourish social, economic, environmental and cultural welfare and prosperity of communities, particularly made up of disadvantaged and marginalized people. Community based tourism development is one of the key factors to avoid that senseless anti-tourism sentiment and proceed to bring societies and cultures closer together through developing understanding and contact. Growing guest arrivals inflict an intense pressure on the environment and local community and their culture in a destination, thereby deteriorating both the quality of tourists’ experiences and the life quality of local people. Rapid growth in tourism and undesirable condensation disrupt the sustainability of a destination causing local community and other stakeholders no more show any interest in further tourism development and making them feel they suffer since their access to opportunities, comfort, and health etc. is inhibited. The underlying reason for the problem is mainly based on the decisions which were taken in a hurry, without proper evaluation, consideration of necessary matters, and often without active participation and inclusion of communities. It is significant that the technological revolution and intense usage of social media by tourists have been triggers to overtourism. However, COVID-19 Pandemic period may be an opportunity to invest both in technology and the further to help mitigate overtourism after COVID-19 when the crowd come back. Community based tourism development can help avoid overtourism by developing understanding and contact between societies and cultures. Considering community frustration is essential to avoid adverse effects of tourism, in particular overtourism.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the local community tourism as a solution to address overtourism and tourismophobia in unpopular and vulnerable tourist areas. The results show that the interviewees have definitely adopted a participatory approach and included locals in their CBET and ecotourism projects. At the management level, contributions should help tourism stakeholders to understand the need to adopt regulations and standards to facilitate and secure alternative tourism forms such as CBET to prevent overtourism and tourismophobia risks. Therefore, a comprehensive approach should be put in place for the benefit of local residents to minimise tourismophobia and anti-tourism movement in these vulnerable areas.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the local community tourism as a solution to address overtourism and tourismophobia in unpopular and vulnerable tourist areas. The results show that the interviewees have definitely adopted a participatory approach and included locals in their CBET and ecotourism projects. At the management level, contributions should help tourism stakeholders to understand the need to adopt regulations and standards to facilitate and secure alternative tourism forms such as CBET to prevent overtourism and tourismophobia risks. Community-based ecotourism for preventing overtourism and tourismophobia. Therefore, a comprehensive approach should be put in place for the benefit of local residents to minimise tourismophobia and anti-tourism movement in these vulnerable areas. Theoretically, this paper aims to fill the gap in the literature on overtourism in rural areas and vulnerable places.