ABSTRACT One of the core elements of tourism development is to encoura ge local communities’ participa tion a s it is centra l to the su sta ina bility of tou rism industry. While the literatu re su ggests a nu mber o f roles loca l communities could take in tourism development, little emphasis has so far been given as to how local communities themselves feel a bou t this. As a resu lt, there ha s been little evidence, especia lly from the gra ssro ots, on wha t commu nities rea lly think of their role(s) in tourism development. Using a ca se study of Ba ra ba rani v illa ge in Ta nza nia , this pa per contribu tes to the understa nding of commu nity pa rticipation in tou rism developm ent by examining local communities’ views on their role in tourism development. The paper triangulates both quantitative and qu alita tive data to bring together perspectives from the gra ssroots based on household questionn aire su rvey with some members of the local community and a two-month period of field observations in the study a rea, coupled with the resea rcher ’s experience with the wider community. The findings revealed that local commu nit ies want to be involved when tourism policies are being made to enable policymakers to prepare a policy that meets stakeholders’ needs and addresses their concerns. T hey also wa nt to be part of tourism development decisions to en su re their needs are incorporated. Furthermore, local communities want to have a voice in development issues (not necessarily tourism development) to enable them to protect community interests, and increase transparency and accountability, a nd wipe ou t embezzlements and abuse of offices, which a re rampa nt a cts amongst decision-mak ers. Sim ilar to previ ou s stu d ies, the y reject ed the s ta tement ‘loca l p eople sh ou ld not pa rtici pa te by a ny mea n s’ in to u rism development. It is clear from the findings that people a re a ga inst the prevailing top-down a pproach in decision mak ing when it comes to tourism development in their areas. It a lso depicts the nature of the centra l government which controls all the forms of decision making when it comes to development and policy formulation. The study emphasizes on small scale methods in analysing and assessing the role of local communities views of participation from the communities themselves ra ther tha n wha t ha s been norma lly imposed on them.