Sustainable Community-Based Tourism in Cambodia and Tourists’ Willingness to Pay
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14764/10.ASEAS-0030Keywords:
Cambodia, Community-Based Tourism, SDGs, Sustainable Tourism, Willingness to PayAbstract
Community-Based Tourism (CBT) sites are often seen as a tool for poverty alleviation and eradication, especially in Least Developed Countries like Cambodia. CBT as a development tool has been critically examined in recent years in a development cooperation context, but also in academic literature. Two of the major discussion points are the approaches used both to establish, and ensure the financial sustainability CBT sites. This paper seeks to contribute to these discussions by examining the viability of the classical top-down CBT model in comparison to the bottom up approach to promote sustainable tourism development in Cambodia in consideration of the Sustainable Development Goals. The often-missing financial sustainability frequently happens due to a lack of management skills and a lack of knowledge of pricing in the communities. Based on this notion, this paper also contributes to the discussion by examining the willingness to pay of different target groups (i.e., locals, expatriates, and international tourists), and presents two argu- ments in support of a stronger emphasis of the local and, especially, the expatriate mar- ket. Firstly, expatriates display significantly higher willingness to pay than international tourists, and, secondly, expatriate support allows CBT sites to build an understanding of potential customers’ needs, thereby supporting a more organic and sustainable growth.
References
Alam, M. S., & Paramati, S. R. (2016). The impact of tourism on income inequality in developing econo- mies: Does Kuznets curve hypothesis exist? Annals of Tourism Research, 61, 111–126.
Amendah, E., & Park, J. (2008). Consumer Involvement and psychological antecedents on eco-friendly destinations: Willingness to pay more. Journal of Hospitality & Leisure Marketing, 17(3-4), 262–283.
Aref, F. (2011). Barriers to community capacity building for tourism development in communities in Shiraz, Iran. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 19(3), 347–359.
Beeton, S. (2006). Community development through tourism. Melbourne: CSIRO Publishing. Retrieved from http://gbv.eblib.com/patron/FullRecord.aspx?p=273930
Boukas, N., & Ziakas, V. (2016). Tourism policy and residents' well-being in Cyprus: Opportunities and challenges for developing an inside-out destination management approach. Journal of Destination Marketing & Management, 5(1), 44–54.
Bramwell, B. (2010). Participative planning and governance for sustainable tourism. Tourism Recreation Research, 35(3), 239–249.
Breidert, C. (2006). Estimation of willingness-to-pay: Theory, measurement, application. Gabler Edition Wissenschaft. Wiesbaden: Deutscher Universitäts-Verlag.
Bruner, A., Kessy, B., Jesse, M., James, W., & Jorge, M. (September, 2015). Tourists’ willingness to pay to visit tourists’ willingness to pay to visit Tanzania’s national parks: A contingent valuation study (No. 9).
Brunt, P., & Courtney, P. (1999). Host perceptions of sociocultural impacts. Annals of Tourism Research, 26(3), 493–515.
Buccus, I., Hemson, D., Hicks, J., & Piper, L. (2008). Community development and engagement with local governance in South Africa. Community Development Journal, 43(3), 297–311.
Carlsson, F., & Johansson-Stenman, O. (2000). Willingness to pay for improved air quality in Sweden. Applied Economics, 32(6), 661–669.
Carter, R. W., Thok, S., O’Rourke, V., & Pearce, T. (2015). Sustainable tourism and its use as a development strategy in Cambodia: a systematic literature review. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 23(5), 797–818.
Cheung, L. T. O., & Jim, C. Y. (2014). Expectations and willingness-to-pay for ecotourism services in Hong Kong’s conservation areas. International Journal of Sustainable Development & World Ecology, 21(2), 149–159.
Choi, H. C., & Murray, I. (2010). Resident attitudes toward sustainable community tourism. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 18(4), 575–594.
Colomer Matutano, J. (2012). The effects of community-based tourism on socio-cultural values: The case study of Namibia (Neue Ausg). Saarbrücken: AV Akademikerverlag.
Davidson, L., & Sahli, M. (2015). Foreign direct investment in tourism, poverty alleviation, and sustainable development: A review of the Gambian hotel sector. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 23(2), 167–187.
Dixey, L. (2008). The unsustainability of community tourism donor projects: Lessons from Zambia. In A. Spenceley (Ed.), Responsible tourism: Critical issues for conservation and development (pp. 323–341). London: Earthscan.
Dodds, R., Ali, A., & Galaski, K. (2018). Mobilizing knowledge: Determining key elements for success and pitfalls in developing community-based tourism. Current Issues in Tourism, 21(13), 1547–1568.
Dolezal, C. (2015). The tourism encounter in community-based tourism in Northern Thailand: Empty meeting ground or space for change? Austrian Journal of South-East Asian Studies, 8(2), 165-186.
Dutt, C. S., Harvey, W. S., & Shaw, G. (2018). The missing voices in the perceptions of tourism: The neglect of expatriates. Tourism Management Perspectives, 26, 193–202.
Edwards, M. (1989). The irrelevance of development studies. Third World Quarterly, 11(1), 116–135.
Garrod, B. (2003). Local participation in the planning and management of ecotourism: A revised model ap- proach. Journal of Ecotourism, 2(1), 33–53.
Garroud, B., & Fyall, A. (2000). Managing heritage tourism. Annals of Tourism Research, 27(3), 682–708. George, B. P., & Henthorne, T. L. (2007). Tourism and the general agreement on trade in services. International Journal of Social Economics, 34(3), 136–146.
Goodwin, H., & Font, X. (Eds.) (2014). Progress in responsible tourism (3rd ed.). Woodeaton, Oxford: Goodfellow Publishers Limited.
Gössling, S. (2002). Market integration and ecosystem degredation: Is sustainable tourism development in rural communities a contradiction in terms? Environment, Development and Sustainability, 5(3-4), 383–400.
Hall, C. M. (2007). Scaling ecotourism: The role of scale in understanding the impacts of ecotourism. In
J. Higham (Ed.), Critical issues in ecotourism: Understanding a complex tourism phenomenon (pp. 243–255). Oxford: Elsevier.
Harrison, D., & Schipani, S. (2007). Lao tourism and poverty alleviation: Community-based tourism and the private sector. Current Issues in Tourism, 10(2-3), 194–230.
Hatipoglu, B., Alvarez, M. D., & Ertuna, B. (2016). Barriers to stakeholder involvement in the planning of sustainable tourism: The case of the Thrace region in Turkey. Journal of Cleaner Production, 111, 306–317.
Howitt, R. (2002). Rethinking resource management: Justice, sustainability and indigenous peoples. London: Routledge.
Hultman, M., Kazeminia, A., & Ghasemi, V. (2015). Intention to visit and willingness to pay premium for ecotourism: The impact of attitude, materialism, and motivation. Journal of Business Research, 68(9), 1854–1861.
Hummel, J., Gujadhur, T., & Ritsma, N. (2013). Evolution of tourism approaches for poverty reduction impact in SNV Asia: Cases from Lao PDR, Bhutan and Vietnam. Asia Pacific Journal of Tourism Research, 18(4), 369–384.
Independent Group of Scientists appointed by the Secretary-General (2019). Global sustainable development report 2019: The future is now – science for achieving sustainable development. Washington D.C.: United Nations.
Isakovic, A., & Forseth Whitman, M. (2013). Self-initiated expatriate adjustment in the United Arab Emirates: A study of academics. Journal of Global Mobility: The Home of Expatriate Management Research, 1(2), 161– 186.
Jiang, M., DeLacy, T., Mkiramweni, N. P., & Harrison, D. (2011). Some evidence for tourism alleviating poverty. Annals of Tourism Research, 38(3), 1181–1184.
Jones, T. E., Yang, Y., & Yamamoto, K. (2016). Inbound, expat, and domestic climbers: A segment-based expenditure analysis of Mount Fuji's summer season. Tourism Review International, 20(2), 155–163.
Jong, R. de (2016). Sustainable energy through SCP in Cambodia. In P. Schroeder, K. Anggraeni, S. Sartori, & U. Weber (Eds.), Sustainable Asia: Supporting the transition to sustainable consumption and production in Asian developing countries (pp. 183–212). Singapore: World Scientific.
Kalish, S., & Nelson, P. (1991). A comparison of ranking, rating and reservation price measurement in conjoint analysis. Marketing Letters, 2(4), 327–335.
Kayat, K., Ramli, R., Mat-Kasim, M., & Abdul-Razak, R. (2014). Community-based rural tourism as a sustainable development alternative: An analysis with special reference to the community-based rural homestay programmes in Malaysia. In S. M. Radzi, M. F. S. Bakhtiar, Z. Mohi, M. S. M. Zahari, N. Sumarjan,
C. T. Chik, & F. Izwan Anuar (Eds.), Theory and practice in hospitality and tourism research. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis.
Kazeminia, A., Hultman, M., & Mostaghel, R. (2016). Why pay more for sustainable services? The case of ecotourism. Journal of Business Research, 69(11), 4992–4997.
Khan, A., Bibi, S., Lorenzo, A., Lyu, J., & Babar, Z. U. (2020). Tourism and development in developing economies: A policy implication perspective. Sustainability, 12(4), 1618.
Kiss, A. (2004). Is community-based ecotourism a good use of biodiversity conservation funds? Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 19(5), 232–237.
Kubickova, M., & Campbell, J. M. (2020). The role of government in agro-tourism development: A top- down bottom-up approach. Current Issues in Tourism, 23(5), 587–604
Kunjuraman, V., & Hussin, R. (2017). Challenges of community-based homestay programme in Sabah, Malaysia: Hopeful or hopeless? Tourism Management Perspectives, 21, 1–9.
Kyle, G., Graefe, A., & Manning, R. (2005). Testing the dimensionality of place attachment in recreational settings. Environment and Behavior, 37(2), 153–177.
Lapeyre, R. (2010). Community-based tourism as a sustainable solution to maximise impacts locally? The Tsiseb Conservancy case, Namibia. Development Southern Africa, 27(5), 757–772.
Lauring, J., Selmer, J., & Jacobsen, J. K. S. (2014). Business or pleasure? Blurring relocation categories and motivation patterns among expatriates. Scandinavian Journal of Hospitality and Tourism, 14(2), 170–186.
Lee, C. K., Lee, J. H., Kim, T. K., & Mjelde, J. W. (2010). Preferences and willingness to pay for bird-watching tour and interpretive services using a choice experiment. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 18(5), 695–708.
Lonn, P., Mizoue, N., Ota, T., Kajisa, T., & Yoshida, S. (2018). Evaluating the contribution of community- based ecotourism (CBET) to household income and livelihood changes: A case study of the Chambok CBET program in Cambodia. Ecological Economics, 151, 62–69.
Manyara, G., & Jones, E. (2007). Community-based tourism enterprises development in Kenya: An explora- tion of their potential as avenues of poverty reduction. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 15(6), 628–644.
Mbaiwa, J. E. (2004). The socio-economic benefits and challenges of a community-based safari hunting tourism in the Okavango Delta, Botswana. Journal of Tourism Studies, 15(2), 37–50.
Meleddu, M., & Pulina, M. (2016). Evaluation of individuals’ intention to pay a premium price for ecotourism: An exploratory study. Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics, 65, 67–78.
Michael, I., Armstrong, A., Badran, B., & King, B. (2011). Dubai outbound tourism: An exploratory study of Emiratis and expatriates. Journal of Vacation Marketing, 17(1), 83–91.
Morey, E. R., Buchanan, T., & Waldman, D. M. (2002). Estimating the benefits and costs to mountain bikers of changes in trail characteristics, access fees, and site closures: Choice experiments and benefits transfer. Journal of Environmental Management, 64(4), 411–422.
Morrison, A. M. (2013). Marketing and managing tourism destinations. New York: Routledge.
Mueller, S., Markova, J., & Ponnapureddy, S. (2020). Community-based Ecotourism Development and Destination Governance in Cambodia: A Comparative Analysis. In C. Dolezal, A. Trupp, & H. T. Bui (Eds.), Tourism and development in Southeast Asia. Routledge.
Muhanna, E. (2007). Tourism development strategies and poverty elimination. Problems and Perspectives in Management, 5(1), 37-49.
Mvula, C. D. (2001). Fair trade in tourism to protected areas: A micro case study of wildlife tourism to South Luangwa National Park, Zambia. International Journal of Tourism Research, 3(5), 393–405.
O’Reilly, D. J. W. (2014). Heritage and development: Lessons from Cambodia. Public Archaeology, 13(1-3), 200–212.
Pawson, S., D'Arcy, P., & Richardson, S. (2017). The value of community-based tourism in Banteay Chhmar, Cambodia. Tourism Geographies, 19(3), 378–397.
Reimer, J. K., & Walter, P. (2013). How do you know it when you see it? Community-based ecotourism in the Cardamom Mountains of southwestern Cambodia. Tourism Management, 34, 122–132.
Reynisdottir, M., Song, H., & Agrusa, J. (2008). Willingness to pay entrance fees to natural attractions: An Icelandic case study. Tourism Management, 29(6), 1076–1083.
Rogerson, C. M. (2007). Tourism routes as vehicles for local economic development in South Africa: The example of the Magaliesberg Meander. Urban Forum, 18(2), 49–68.
Ruiz-Ballesteros, E. (2011). Social-ecological resilience and community-based tourism. Tourism Management, 32(3), 655–666.
Scheyvens, R., & Momsen, J. H. (2008). Tourism and poverty reduction: Issues for small island states.
Tourism Geographies, 10(1), 22–41.
Spenceley, A. (2010). Responsible tourism: Critical issues for conservation and development. London: Earthscan.
Stoeckl, N. (2008). Enhancing the economic benefits of tourism at the local level. In G. Moscardo (Ed.), Build- ing community capacity for tourism development (pp. 16–28). Wallingford, UK, Cambridge, Mass: CABI.
Switch Asia (2015). Sustainable tourism in Asia. Retrieved from https://www.switch-asia.eu/fileadmin/user_upload/Publications/2015/FINAL_Sustainable_Tourism_ED.pdf
Theerapappisit, P. (2012). The bottom-up approach of community-based ethnic tourism: A case study in Chiang Rai. In M. Kasimoglu (Ed.), World heritage listing and implications for tourism - the case of Hue, Vietnam. INTECH Open Access Publisher.
United Nations (2017). Global indicator framework for the Sustainable Development Goals and targets of the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development. Retrieved from https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/indicators/Global%20Indicator%20Framework%20after%202020%20review_Eng.pdf
Valek, N. S. (2017). The role of expats, local residents and tourists in defining a destination: A branding case study for Abu Dhabi tourism. International Journal of Sustainable Society, 9(1), 76.
Ven, S. (2016). Residents’ participation, perceived impacts, and support for community-based ecotourism in Cambodia: A latent profile analysis. Asia Pacific Journal of Tourism Research, 21(8), 836–861.
Vielhaber, C., Husa, K., Jöstl, J., Veress, K., & Wieser, B. (2014). Paradise found? Lifeworld experiences of farang retirement migrants in Hua Hin and Cha-am. In K. Husa, A. Trupp, & H. Wohlschlägl (Eds.), Southeast Asian mobility transitions. Recent trends in tourism and migration (pp. 168–195). Vienna: Institut für Geographie und Regionalforschung.
Walter, P. G., & Reimer, J. K. (2012). The “ecotourism curriculum” and visitor learning in community-based ecotourism: Case studies from Thailand and Cambodia. Asia Pacific Journal of Tourism Research, 17(5), 551–561.
World Tourism Organization (2017). UNWTO Annual Report 2016. Retrieved from https://www.e-unwto. org/doi/pdf/10.18111/9789284418725
WTTC (2020). Cambodia 2020 Annual research: Key highlights. Retrieved from https://wttc.org/en- gb/Research/Economic-Impact/moduleId/704/itemId/83/controller/DownloadRequest/action/ QuickDownload
Yanes, A., Zielinski, S., Diaz Cano, M., & Kim, S.-I. (2019). Community-based tourism in developing countries: A framework for policy evaluation. Sustainability, 11(9), 2506.
Zapata, M. J., Hall, C. M., Lindo, P., & Vanderschaeghe, M. (2011). Can community-based tourism contribute to development and poverty alleviation? Lessons from Nicaragua. Current Issues in Tourism, 14(8), 725–749.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2020 Society for South-East Asian Studies (SEAS)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
For all articles published in ASEAS before December 2014 and after July 2022, copyright is retained by the authors. For articles published between January 2015 and June 2022, the Society for South-East Asian Studies (SEAS) is the copyright holder. Articles published in ASEAS before December 2019 are licensed under the following Creative Commons License: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported. Articles published after that date are licensed under the following Creative Commons License: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International. In both cases, this means that everybody is free to share (to copy, to distribute, and to transmit the work) under the following conditions:
-
Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
-
NonCommercial — You may not use the material for commercial purposes.
-
NoDerivatives — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you may not distribute the modified material.
