In the realm of poverty alleviation, much effort has been dedicated to increasing the
efficacy of advocated solutions. However, poverty alleviation faces considerable challenges
in the modern world, as the financial distribution gap continues to widen, and
environmental concerns increase the pressures on the standard of living of millions
worldwide.
Community development is now a key focus of supranational agencies and NonGovernment
Organisations (NGOs) invested in poverty alleviation. In the twenty first
century, tourism has emerged as a potential vehicle for community development in Least
Developed Countries (LDCs), representing the most disadvantaged countries worldwide.
However, there is a need to ensure that where tourism is being utilised for development in
LDCs, that there is also sustainability of both tourism as an industry and of the setting in
which it exists. Only through this, can we be sure of long term positive effects on community
development and poverty alleviation via tourism.
This research looks at sustainable tourism as a tool for development in LDCs, as its use
becomes increasingly popular. In particular, this research will focus on Community Based
Tourism (CBT) as a tool for implementing sustainable tourism projects in LDCs.
This initial chapter establishes the theoretical framework of this research by exploring the
historical foundations of sustainable tourism development, and its new found role as a tool
for community development in LDCs. However, the role of sustainable tourism development
as a tool faces many challenges in its practical implementation. The following review
highlights the difficulties of practically implementing the models of sustainable tourism
development, revealing the need to address these challenges in order to improve practical
efficacy.
An Historical Overview of Sustainable Development
The foundations for sustainable tourism development have emerged from a need to
encourage a more sustainable industry practices from an environmental perspective. This
has steadily become a key consideration in a diverse range of contexts. Environmental
awareness has become increasingly visible during the second half of the twentieth century,
and also in the twenty first century. Though evidence shows that environmental awareness
emerged in 1949, in the works by Aldo Leopold (1949, cited Weaver & Lawton, 2010), the
emphasis in tourism literature focuses intensely on the outcomes from the World
Commission on Environment Development Report (1987). Most frequently quoted is the
aforementioned report definition of sustainable development: “development meeting the
needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their
own needs” (World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987, p. 54). The
presentation of this report in 1987 by the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED), and reaffirmation of this definition in ‘Agenda 21’ presented at the
Earth Summit in 1992, has firmly grounded the ‘sustainable’ in sustainable development as
pertaining to the sustainability of natural resources (United Nations Department for
Economic and Social Affairs, 1992).