Introduction
Currently, tourism encompasses a wide range of products and destinations targeted at satisfying the demands of consumers, who occupy a variety of market segments. One of these segments is formed by tourists who avoid going to the usual overcrowded sun-and-sand destinations and instead prefer to travel to more exclusive and yet to be discovered places, that is destinations that are off the beaten track. Travelling to these destinations, which are normally thought of as being exotic and authentic, is often a difficult task, as they are located in small, out-of-the-way areas, far from large coastal towns.
While tourism of this kind can offer the traveller a variety of options, certain island destinations are more appropriate for tourists wishing to flee mass tourism enclaves due to their natural environment, relative isolation and the traditional culture of their inhabitants.
Moreover, it is possible to distinguish between two tourist profiles within this particular market segment:
a tourist elite with high purchasing power who seeks unique and differentiated destinations; and
a segment with lower buying power comprising trippers and backpackers who also want to travel to new and inaccessible places such as island destinations, but at a much lower cost.
In this sense, islands in various parts of the world, especially Latin America, are now becoming the preferred destination for these market segments. Despite the economic benefits to be gained from the revenues generated by tourism and the creation of direct and indirect employment, the negative effects of this type of tourism should not be overlooked, namely, environmental concerns (higher demands for water, creation of new infrastructure, increased waste, etc.) and impacts on the traditional culture of the island's inhabitants which can lead to the loss of traditional lifestyles.
For this reason, it is important to develop a community-based tourism (CBT) model for these destinations in which initiatives are planned in conjunction with members of the local community who participate in decision-making processes and benefit equally from the positive effects of tourism. A tourism model of this type should take into account the characteristics and idiosyncrasies of the island to prevent, insofar as possible, undesirable outcomes, while providing an avenue for sustainable development.
The aim of this paper is to examine the current situation of tourism on the island of Boa Vista in Cape Verde, Africa, from the point of view of both the supply side and the demand side of tourism services. To achieve this aim, this paper studies the point of view of tourism service providers on the island regarding its positioning as a tourist destination as well as the strategies that should be implemented to improve this positioning, with a view to developing CBT. On the demand side, it is determined the economic and socio-demographic characteristics of visitors toBoavista and analysed the use of community tourism services and the reasons that lead visitors to request them or not, as well as identifying tourists' perceptions about the features and attractions of the island. To end, the opinion of tourism service providers and users regarding the positioning of tourism services in Boa Vista are compared.
This article makes a novel contribution insofar as there are few studies on CBT in Africa, especially on islands. Relevant studies focusing specifically on Cape Verde have only been published recently, as will be seen later in the literature review. Moreover, these studies typically examine the perceptions of tourists or residents, whereas this paper makes a comparison of both tourism demand and supply in the island.
The tourism sector in Boa Vista is currently at an initial start-up and development stage where the main influx of tourists travel to the island's major tourist resorts that offer all-inclusive holiday packages. Following the introduction, the literature on community-based island tourism is reviewed in Section 2, whereas the geographical area under study is described in Section 3. The research methodology is then presented in the Section 4, and the main results are drawn and discussed in the Section 5. The conclusions are presented in Section 6.