Community Based Tourism (CBT) is a unique type of tourism with characteristics quite different from mass tourism. Those who intend to put CBT into practice need to fully understand the underlying ideas, principles and components behind CBT.
CBT is not simply a tourism business that aims at maximizing profits for investors. Rather, it is more concerned with the impact of tourism on the community and environmental resources. CBT emerges from a community development strategy, using tourism as a tool to strengthen the ability of rural community organizations that manage tourism resources with the participation of the local people. However, CBT is far from a perfect, prepackaged solution to community problems. Nor is it a miracle cure or a knight in shining armor that will come to save the community. In fact, if carelessly applied, CBT can cause problems and bring disaster.