Community-based tourism: Between shared governance and local autonomy. What role for public authorities?.

Supported by local civil society organisations, community-based tourism aims to strengthen the economic, social and cultural autonomy of local communities. As it gains international visibility, it raises a central question: What support can public authorities offer these initiatives?

On 20 May 2025, the round table organised by the ‘Community and Fair Tourism’ Working Group of the International Social Tourism Organisation (ISTO) brought to light a number of different perspectives on this subject. Two ISTO members shared their experiences:

• Alix Zavariz Romero, from the Secretaría de Turismo del Estado de Baja California (Mexico),
• Coralie Marti, from the Association pour le Tourisme Equitable et Solidaire (ATES), (France) and coordinator of this Working Group.

Specific expectations regarding public authorities

The support of the public authorities is expected at several levels. Firstly, in terms of infrastructure: many rural areas lack roads, drinking water, electricity or Internet connection, all of which are major obstacles to the development of tourism. Investment support from the public authorities is therefore seen as an essential condition for the viability of projects.

The challenge of professionalising the civil society organisations involved in tourism projects is also often highlighted: training needs, strengthening local capacities, support with legal or fiscal formalisation, etc. Community organisations are asking for public support that respects their pace and cultural specificities, and that is not limited to a top-down or standardised approach.

Finally, communities expect the State to guarantee sustainability. In regions under pressure from tourism or land speculation, public intervention is crucial to protect natural resources and ensure that the benefits of tourism accrue to the local population.

Shared governance still under construction

The relationship between communities and public authorities remains complex. Some experiences, such as in Baja California (Mexico), show a willingness to integrate indigenous communities into tourism policies. But these examples are still rare. In many contexts, public authorities still favour individual private entrepreneurship, deemed more profitable, to the detriment of collective forms of management.

Community organisations are asking to be involved in decision-making, not in an advisory capacity, but as genuine co-managers of tourism policies. This presupposes the creation of forums for dialogue at regional level: multi-stakeholder committees, inter-institutional platforms, shared action plans, etc.

Some regions are trying to link different levels of intervention around common objectives - sustainability, gender equality, cultural enhancement. But these initiatives are often hampered by rigid administrative logics, a lack of political continuity or an underestimation of the role of local knowledge.

Between cooperation and independence: A delicate balance

The relationship between community initiatives and institutions is often ambivalent. On the one hand, fair tourism stakeholders recognise that public support can raise their profile, facilitate access to funding and enable them to be better integrated into sectoral policies. On the other, they denounce the risks of instrumentalisation: Projects used for institutional communication purposes, with no real recognition of their objectives or their social roots.

This tension has led many organisations to seek flexible forms of partnership. They choose public collaborations on condition that these guarantee the participation of local residents and respect collective modes of governance. They engage in critical dialogue with the authorities, accept occasional cooperation, but avoid long-term dependency.

This position remains difficult to maintain in certain contexts where the authorities are not very open to consultation or are influenced by commercial considerations. Conversely, the economic fragility of some projects makes them vulnerable to over-dependence on public funding.

A political project for emancipation

Community-based tourism defends the sovereignty of local populations over their territories. It is a political vision of development, based on local self-determination. Rather than being subjected to external investment, communities opt for endogenous development based on their own priorities.

This approach is in line with other struggles, such as those for food sovereignty. In many rural areas, tourism that respects local lifestyles can help to keep people on the land, diversify their income and strengthen their resilience.

Collective decision-making mechanisms already exist in several regions. In Mexico, for example, ejidal assemblies enable indigenous communities to collectively debate the hosting of tourism projects. This type of local regulation, backed by institutional recognition, ensures that development does not take place to the detriment of local populations.

Dialogue between regions

Community-based tourism takes different forms in different contexts. In France, for example, initiatives led by associations, cooperatives or groups of residents are part of the same approach, even if they are not always identified as such.

It is essential to strengthen dialogue between territories, whether South-South, South-North or North-North. These exchanges nurture a shared culture of fair tourism, based on local sovereignty, cultural respect, environmental sustainability and the fair redistribution of benefits. Multi-stakeholder dialogues such as those that exist within ISTO are therefore essential for collective learning and the collective development of practices in favour of the social sustainability of tourism.

For an alliance that respects communities

The roundtable served as a reminder: Community-based tourism is not a succession of projects, but a lever for social change. It is based on the idea that communities should be in control of their own development. In this context, the role of the public authorities can only be supportive. It must respect local initiatives, without seeking to replace community dynamics.

Fair tourism professionals, NGOs, institutions and local authorities have a collective responsibility: To invent new forms of cooperation that are fairer and more balanced, in which the priorities of local people take precedence over the logic of short-term profitability. This is the only way that community-based tourism can become a real driver of emancipation.

From this perspective, community-based tourism can become a powerful lever for social change, provided that it is recognised as such in public policies at all levels.

Article written by Coralie Marti (ATES).