Community-based tourism and entrepreneurship: towards a model for poverty alleviation and sustainable development

Resumo

This article portrays the relationship between CBT and entrepreneurship and unpacks them in context where culture and capacity building are important. It develops a model that serves to facilitate entrepreneurship for CBT development taking into account concepts of sustainability and entrepreneurship. This article was written using secondary data sources only from extant literature on community-based tourism, entrepreneurship, innovation and capacity building. It is a conceptual paper. It argues that sustainable development could be a viable pathway for inclusive development in which entrepreneurs innovate in their collective groups or cooperatives. The article suggests that entrepreneurship has no boundaries, does not discriminate and can be practiced anywhere and anytime. To achieve that, the role of institutions is fundamental for capacity building in CBT development of government, Non-governmental organizations, the private sector and universities must prioritize capacity building as a sine qua non for sustainable tourism development. The article posits that within discourses of entrepreneurship, sustainable development and local culture, the university is situated in a reciprocal relationship with CBT ventures and communities to undertake directed and focused capacity building that facilitates CBT development and holistic community development.