Using examples from long-term anthropological fieldwork in Tanzania, this paper critically
analyzes how well generally accepted community-based tourism discourses resonate
with the reality on the ground. It focuses on how local guides handle their role as
ambassadors of communal cultural heritage and how community members react to their
narratives and practices. It pays special attention to the time-limited, project-based development
method, the need for an effective exit strategy, for quality control, tour guide
training and long-term tour guide retention. The study is based on a program funded by
the Netherlands-based development agency, Stichting Nederlandse Vrijwilligers (SNV),
from 1995 to 2001, and on post-program experiences. Findings reveal multiple complex
issues of power and resistance that illustrate many community-based tourism conflicts.
The encounter with the “Other” is shown to be central and that the role of professional
intermediaries in facilitating this experience of cultural contact is crucial. Tour guides
are often the only “locals” with whom tourists spend considerable time: they have
considerable agency in the image-building process of the peoples and places visited,
(re)shaping tourist destination images and indirectly influencing the self-image of those
visited too. The paper provides ideas for overcoming the issues and problems described.