Community tourism provides economic opportunities, an authentic experience and creates a new niche market for tour operators to access.

This is according to Diana McIntyre-Pike, President of International Institute for Peace through Tourism ( IIPT) Caribbean and Co-coordinator of IIPT International Community Tourism Network, based in Jamaica. McIntyre-Pike was presenting a workshop on community tourism at the IIPT World Symposium ‘Cultivating Sustainable and Peaceful Communities through Tourism’, held on Monday at Emperors Palace.

Community tourism was developed to assist communities in realising the direct benefits of tourism and to encourage participation and pride in villages and communities. “It is important to note that we are not creating tourism attractions, we are promoting the lifestyle of the people and creating business opportunities for them,” said McIntyre-Pike.

Community experiences can be designed according to the interests and budget of the tourist. Tours are flexible and interactive.

“If you have communities nearby, get hold of them, see what they have to offer and work with all the communities as a cluster. Do not develop a competitive attitude, tell people about other tours within the network,” she urged.

Community tours took visitors beyond mainstream attractions, said McIntyre-Pike. She added that these tours needed to be marketed responsibly and that visitors must be informed about the experience before the time. Tours are conducted by what she calls ‘community host guides,’ not tour guides. “By calling them community host guides, international visitors are going to expect someone from the community who will give them insight into the lifestyle, instead of a certified tour guide.”

McIntyre-Pike said community tourism was about connecting with people and utilising locals from the community. “You probably walk past the same man everyday sitting on the side of the road and think he drinks too much, but the amount of knowledge that man has about the heritage and culture of the area is far more than you know,” she said. “It’s about turning these resources into assets for your business.

“If you want this tourism to be successful it has to be authentic. People visiting a destination want to experience what the community experiences, how they live and what they eat. Food in the hotel restaurants is not a true indication of what the country is all about.”

She said markets interested in community tourism were highly educated people with lots of money and they wanted to be integrated into the communities. With this market, tours were normally based on special interests where tourists were seeking an escape from traditional tours. These travellers were environmentally and socially conscious and more inclined to bypass traditional booking channels and go direct.

McIntyre-Pike spoke of tours that moved from village to village. “Visitors have breakfast in one community, lunch in another and dinner in another. Already there you have three communities benefiting from one tour group.”

Finally, she noted that it was important for tour operators to build relationships with communities and to ask permission to enter these spaces and to engage with community leaders to avoid resentment. “If there is resentment from a community, it is my business. Whatever is going on in the community is my business. We have to stop this isolating approach,” she said.  “It’s a partnership approach and it has been very successful. The visitors are piling in because it is a natural tour, a natural lifestyle and that’s what visitors want.”