Community participation in the tourism planning process is advocated as a way of
implementing sustainable tourism. There are, however, few studies that detail tangible
and practical ways to promote or measure participation. This paper reviews the
principal theories used to discuss community participation, including the ‘ladder of
citizen participation’, power redistribution, collaboration processes and social capital
creation. These theories form the basis for defining a community-based tourism
(CBT) model. The paper shows how this model can be used to assess participation
levels in a study site, and suggests further actions required. The model is applied in a
case study in Palawan, the Philippines, where an indigenous community previously
initiated a community-based ecotourism project. The project resulted in a number of
problems, including conflicts with non-indigenous stakeholders. The model identifies
the current situation of the project and provides suggestions for improvement