Community Development

Community Development

Introduction

This paper tests the applicability of sustainable tourism theory within the sustainable community development framework. Starting with a review of literature on sustainable tourism and sustainable development, the study focuses on a project called "Achas centre for sustainable community development" (ACSCD). Based in the tourist hot-spot of Buea in the South West region of Cameroon, ACSCD operates on a theoretical framework designed to orchestrate development in this mountainous (volcanic) town and the coastal city of Limbe.

The research employs a practical case study approach by exploring the conceptual base of this project that seeks to develop tourism as a springboard for sustainable community development. The operating model of ACSCD reveals that the sustainable community development centre is complemented by the training centre "Achas Higher Institute of Sustainable tourism, hospitality and business”. While the higher institute imparts the training that empowers community members with tourism and community development skills, the sustainable development centre channels these skills through identified focus areas into community development projects.

The significance of this study lies not only in its conceptualization of a new approach to sustainable community tourism development, but also its demonstration of the fact that sustainable community development is a result of both skills acquisition and the transmission of such skills into viable community development projects.

Travel and Tourism contribution to global gross domestic product (GDP) in 2011 is expected to stand at US$1,850.0 billion (2.8% of total GDP), increasing by 4.2 % per annum to US$2,860.5 billion in 2021. In the same vein, the industry's total employment contribution is forecast to rise by 2.3%» per annum from 258,592,000 jobs in 2011 to 323,826,000 jobs (9.7%) by 2021 (WTTC, 2011:2). While the economic gains emanating from this sustained growth in the tourism industry are evident and laudable, the translation of these benefits into visible developmental gains for poor communities has been the subject of much debate (Choi & Sirakaya, 2006:12740). Despite the plethora of literature on guidelines for the use of tourism to orchestrate sustainable community development, there are still few practical illustrations to showcase the successful implementation of these guidelines. This, in essence is the motivation for this experimental study that seeks to apply sustainable tourism theory to catalyze development in the mountain town of Buea in the South West region of Cameroon.

Description and Analysis

At the beginning of the present millennium, the United Nations General Assembly committed itself to "Spare no effort to free fellow men, women and children from the abject and dehumanizing conditions of extreme poverty, to which more than a billion of them are currently subjected" (UN, 2000:4). More than one decade after this commitment, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) reveals that there are still about 1.4 billion people living on less than US$ 1 .25 a day and close to one billion suffering from hunger, with 70 percent of these living in rural areas (IFAD, 2010: 16). IFAD further states that "Rural poverty results from lack of assets, limited economic opportunities and poor education and capabilities, as well ...