Entering the European market for CBT tourism

Europeans are increasingly seeking authentic travel experiences that have a positive impact on the communities they visit. Community-led projects must also be sustainable and while luxury is not required, for homestays there are basic standards that must be met. In Europe, CBT experiences appeal to a wide range of demographics and the key sales channels include tour operators, online travel agents (OTAs) and direct sales. The number and range of CBT experiences is increasing throughout Asia, Africa and Latin America, and there are many associations working alongside communities to promote unique, authentic experiences to a broadening consumer base.

1. What requirements must CBT travel products comply with to be allowed on the European market?

There are strict regulations that European tour operators are bound to in order to ensure the safety of their customers when travelling overseas and to protect them financially. This means they will expect their foreign suppliers to adhere to their own codes of conduct and/or terms and conditions. If you will be selling your CBT travel product to them, it is important that you understand what they are.

What are the mandatory and additional requirements that buyers have?

The mandatory and other requirements for CBT tourism services are common across the sector. You should read the CBI study What requirements must tourism services comply with to be allowed on the European market and familiarise yourself with the various legal, non-legal and common requirements.

These cover:

• The European Package Travel Directive
• General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
• Liability Insurance and Insolvency Protection

Rebuilding CBT after Covid-19

The global pandemic caused by COVID-19 has caused severe long-term issues for the tourism industry around the world. Most European countries advise their nationals against any global travel. Once restrictions have been lifted, it is likely that European CBT travellers will travel cautiously and in fewer numbers than before the pandemic. How you communicate with potential travellers will be key to building relationships. You should not try to market your CBT project during this time of crisis but if you have a website, you can keep this regularly updated so your future customers are kept informed of the situation in your region.

What are the requirements for niche markets?

CBT Projects must be authentic, sustainable and directly involve the community

The trend for authentic travel experiences is growing among European tourists and CBT travellers are increasingly keen to ‘discover a different way of life’. This means that they are looking for immersive experiences in cultures that are different from their own through unique hands-on experiences. However, it is crucial to them that their tourism contribution has a measurable positive impact on the local community and does not negatively impact the environment or offend any local cultures or customs.

The infographic below clearly displays how CBT can have a positive impact on communities in several ways, including inspiring CBT travellers and fostering cross-cultural understanding, creating jobs and generating income, and safeguarding environmental initiatives.

Chart 1: CBT – A Great Experience Source: Fresh from the Field, Myanmar Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Hotels and Tourism

Therefore, CBT projects must be:

• Authentic and hands-on: experiences must be real and give an authentic insight into the daily lives of the community. Do not put on ‘staged’ activities and make sure experiences have a hands-on component. Activities that CBT travellers can get involved in give a more immersive experience and help them to bond with the community. Examples include cooking, working with animals, harvesting, enjoying communal meals and helping to craft handmade products. When deciding what activities might be suitable, remember that what is ordinary for a local community is likely to be a unique experience for a CBT traveller.
• Sustainable: CBT projects must be managed under sustainable principles and actions must be visible, measurable and transparent. Many CBT projects are located in rural destinations and taking positive action to protect the local landscape is a key concern for environmentally conscious European CBT travellers.
• Community-led: CBT projects should be managed directly by the local community. This way, the local community enjoys direct financial benefits and is empowered to strengthen self-governance and long-term economic development. It is important that the community takes responsibility for the project in a collective way so that rivalries and jealousies within the community can be avoided.
• Trained: communities offering CBT must have adequate tourism training to so they know how to offer the appropriate services to European CBT travellers and how best to communicate with them. Consider setting up workshops to train multiple community members at the same time or join forces with another community to provide suitable training. It is important that guides are knowledgeable about the community in order to be able to provide visitors with a deeper understanding.

Ensure accommodation standards are suitable for market

CBT experiences that offer accommodation are quite common, including homestays, camps or other types of community-led accommodation establishments. Where they sleep at night is important to European CBT travellers. They do not need luxury, but the accommodation must be of a good simple standard, safe and secure, and a high level of cleanliness is essential. Basic facilities are acceptable but the following standards are key:

• Beds must have a mattress and pillows with clean bed linen and towels provided.
• For CBT travellers on all budgets, access to private and clean bathroom facilities is essential. Toilets must be in good working order.
• Provided they are clean, more basic sanitary facilities are acceptable such a ‘hole in the ground’ toilet and/or a bucket of water for a shower/washing.
• For CBT travellers who are travelling on high-end holidays, standards of accommodation and facilities may need to be higher. Accommodation may need to be purpose-built and bathroom facilities provided en-suite. Make sure you know which type of travellers your facilities are best suited to.
• Any food provided should be simple, locally produced/grown and safe to consume. Do not produce food that imitates European (or any other international) cuisine.

Establish partnerships

Within the CBT sector, partnerships are common and potential benefits to communities include applying for funding for infrastructure projects, training, marketing expertise and networking. Examples of potential partners in the CBT sector include community organisations, tourist boards, tour operators, development agencies and joint ventures between local communities themselves. The Vietnam Community-based Tourism Network (VCBT-N) is an example of an association that seeks to grow CBT on behalf of local communities. The website features a wide range of programmes that are open for visits.

Joining forces with another community means you may be able to market a ‘joint tour’ to both communities which may appeal to greater numbers of CBT travellers.

Combine CBT with adventure activities

Although a key feature of a CBT traveller’s trip is to visit your project, CBT travellers usually like to do a variety of activities on one trip. If you can offer or provide access to additional activities outside of your CBT project, it may add to increased satisfaction for the visitor. Examples could include:

• Guided trips to a local wildlife park or other animal encounters.
• Visits to local attractions such as historical and/or archaeological sites and museums
• Provide access to trekking routes and/or cycle trails in local parks or nature reserves.
• Visits to local festivals and/or markets, or other local CBT projects.
• Access to soft and hard adventure activities, either land-based or water-based depending upon where your project is located, such as bungee jumping, canoeing/kayaking activities, balloon safaris, sandboarding, rafting and cruising.
• Nature-based activities such as turtle watching, bird watching, trips to hot springs and fishing.

2. Through what channels can you get CBT travel products on the European market?

How is the end-market segmented?

CBT travellers share many characteristics with adventure tourists. A key motivation for CBT travel is the ‘feel good’ factor of an immersive cultural experience along with ‘making a difference’ to local lives. CBT travellers span the major consumer groups of Baby Boomers (born between 1946 and 1964), Gen X (born between 1965 and 1980) and the Millennials/Gen Y (born between 1981 and 2000). They can be further categorised by spending power and how much time they have to travel.

Table 2: Demographics and Travel Motivations of the CBT Traveller

Age Group	Personal Situation	Travel Motivation	Travel style
Age 50+	Time Rich, Cash Rich	Seeking a Unique Experience	Largest group. Well-educated, wealthy, moving into retirement, like to combine authenticity with luxury, prepared to pay for an experience.
Age 30-49	Cash Rich, Time Poor	Desire for authenticity and to give back to communities	Well-educated, well-travelled, family groups and couples, variable disposable income, authenticity and pricing key.
Age 18-29	Time Rich, Cash Poor	Personal fulfilment, supporting communities, volunteering	Young people taking time out to travel and/or volunteer, pre-family groups, limited budget to travel, keen to learn new things.

Source: Acorn Tourism Consulting

CBT travellers often travel independently (Fully Independent Travellers, or FIT), or as part of a small group package. FITs consult the Internet thoroughly before they decide where to travel. If you have a website, you should make sure you keep it up to date and add inspirational blogs, images and videos about your CBT project. If you have an Instagram account, make sure you regularly post inspirational images as the social media platform is a major travel resource for FITs.

Having a presence online can be of great advantage to CBT groups. See this example of how a local community, the Indian Creek Mayan Arts Women’s Group is using Facebook to reach potential visitors. A community group in Uganda, Kara-Tunga Arts & Tours, has launched virtual tours during the COVID-19 lockdown to showcase the work of the community.

Through what channels do CBT travel products end up on the end-market?

It is important to understand how CBT travel products are defined as there are several sales channels that cross over in some instances. Broadly, CBT travel products are categorised as CBT Experiences, CBT Experiences with Accommodation and Tours of Multi-CBT Experiences. The chart below indicates the typical duration and providers associated with each:

Table 3: Analysis of CBT Experiences by Provider Type

CBT Trip Type	Duration	Providers
CBT Experiences	2-3 hours; half or full day	Communities, villages, collectives, cooperatives, associations, NGOs, individuals
CBT Experiences with Accommodation	1-3 nights, sometimes longer	May be supported by local ground operators or NGOs; some homestays/lodges/camps manage their own businesses including booking
Tour of Multi-CBT Experiences	1-2 weeks	Holidays usually pre-arranged by inbound or in-country tour operators, supported by local operators/NGOs; communities or network of homes within a community

Source: Acorn Tourism Consulting

Each type offers a wide range of different activities and experiences for the visitor.

• CBT Experiences: CBT Experiences usually begin from an urban destination or tourism hub, or from hotels in rural locations. Typical experiences include visits to local plantations, culture walks around local villages or community settings, meeting local people over food/drink, following food or other produce trails, taking cooking and other local crafting workshops, enjoying meals with local families, attending local festivals and/or events, shopping in local markets or directly from local producers, and guided trips to view wildlife in local parks or reserves.
• CBT Experiences with Accommodation: Homestays usually involve an overnight trip to stay with one or more local communities for one or more nights. During the trip, participants get involved with community-led activities including cooking, crafting, animal welfare, harvesting, festivals and other celebrations/rituals. Visits to wildlife and nature conservancy projects such as in safari lodges/camps run by communities for nature/community-based tourism in private reserves and parks may also be included. Homestay accommodation is in a family home or in purpose-built accommodation within the community.
• Tour of Multi CBT Experiences: this type of CBT experience is usually pre-booked and may or may not be guided. They usually extend over one or two weeks and typically involve several elements of CBT within a wider trip. An example is a hiking holiday in Atlas Mountains in Morocco, staying overnight with a local family en route, enjoying traditional food and becoming immersed in the local culture. At either end of the holiday, it is likely that participants will stay in hotels and take part in other activities that are not considered to be CBT.

The main methods for selling CBT travel products to the European market are outlined in the chart below.

Chart 4: Sales Channels for CBT Products Source: Acorn Tourism Consulting

• Online Travel Agents (OTAs): are a major sales platform for all sorts of travel experiences. Well-known OTAs offering experiences include Airbnb Experiences and TripAdvisor Experiences (also Viator). All include a variety of experiences to visit local/rural places which include CBT.
• Specialist OTAs: offer more targeted travel experiences and there are a number that promote sustainable trips which are often linked to CBT projects. Examples include the UK’s Responsible Travel and US-based Lokal Travel which both sell to the European market. Keteka promotes sustainable tours in Latin America. i-likelocal promotes travel with locals and make an impact in destinations throughout Africa and Asia.
• Adventure Tour Operators: offer a wide range of holidays that include many different activities including one or more CBT experiences.

See the advice in next section to find out more about selling your tour to European adventure tour operators.

Selling your local tour to European adventure operators

If your business is a local tour operator that provides trips to CBT projects, it is important that you conduct your own detailed research before you market them. You should remember that tourism is usually an additional occupation for communities that offer CBT experiences, and that they also have important everyday tasks such as farming and harvesting. Therefore, you should aim to build a strong relationship with the community so that you can fully understand its needs. Here are some of the actions you will need to take to be fully informed about the communities you plan to work with:

• Before you visit, find out as much as possible about the community and region in advance so you are clear on where it is located and what other attractions may be situated en route.
• Make sure you understand what the project’s key objectives, such as income generation, empowerment of women, conservation, language learning or promoting youth culture.
• Assess the main CBT activities that are offered, how long do they take and are there any seasonality issues, such as tides or season.
• Ensure that the guides are suitably trained and find out what languages can they speak. Ask them to take you on a tour so you can see what your customer will be experiencing.
• Visit the accommodations to ensure they will meet your European customers’ expectations.
• Try out the food and ask for assurances that it is locally produced, seasonal and safe to eat. If the traditional food of the region is very spicy, the community may be encouraged to add fewer spices for the European palate.
• Check out the local transport to ensure safety and reliability if travellers will need to use it.
• Confirm capacity for tours and accommodation.
• Ask about dos and don’ts for every community so you can pass this on to your customers.

What is the most interesting channel for you?

The most interesting channels for you to explore are adventure tour operators, local tour operators and OTAs. Consider approaching local tour operators first to make sure they know about your CBT product. Then do your research to find a suitable OTA. Working with adventure tour operators should be a longer-term aim.

Signing up with an OTA offers a relatively quick and easy way to get your product on the market, particularly if you do not have a website. However, it is important that you also develop strong business relationship with inbound and local tour operators so that you have other sales outlets. Consult the CBI’s Tips for Doing Business with European Tourism Buyers and CBI’s Tips for Organising your Tourism Exports to Europe for more information.

3. What competition do you face on the European CBT tourism market?

Which countries are you competing with?

There are many thousands of communities and organisations in developing countries around the world seeking new ways to generate income, empower their own communities and become self-sufficient. The market for CBT is slowly increasing across all the major continents of Asia, South and Central America and Africa. However, the sector remains undeveloped and there are no dominant countries although the close link between CBT, nature and ecotourism means that Costa Rica has emerged as the world’s leading CBET destination. In Costa Rica, CBT is commonly referred to as rural community tourism.

The most successful CBT products tend to be managed by organisations that support villages and communities through skill development, training and development, networking and marketing. International collaboration with non-governmental organisations is also becoming more visible.

Examples of successful CBT products can be found in Vietnam and Kyrgyzstan (Asia), Ethiopia and Kenya (Africa), and Colombia and Costa Rica (Central/South America). Communities in these destinations have understood the need to diversify their activities to include projects that generate income and empower local communities. Profiles of organisations and projects are provided below. Other destinations with successful CBT products that you should consider as competing include Bhutan, Cambodia, Chile, Guyana, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, Palau, Peru, South Africa and Tanzania.

Which companies are you competing with?

Companies in Costa Rica

The Sarapiqui Conservation Learning Center (SCLC) promotes a range of CBT activities at various communities in Costa Rica, such as cooking and dance classes, conversations with local people, visits to farms and schools, along with long and short term volunteering opportunities at community service projects. The aim is to help visitors learn about the local culture through direct interaction with the community.

Community-run ecolodges are common in Costa Rica. Many of them use tour operators to market their CBT offer. One example is The Juanilama Community and Ecolodge, which has been in existence since 2000 and hosts small groups and operates with minimal impact to the environment. Read the Juanillama Community: Rural Tourism in Costa Rica by UK-based tour operator Sumak Travel, which promotes sustainable tourism destinations in Latin America.

Companies in Colombia

Palenque Tours supports a number of communities in Colombia, including the Chocó Community Tourism Alliance located in one of the country’s most biodiverse regions, as well as urban regeneration projects in neighbourhoods such as Comuna 13, once the most dangerous neighbourhood in the city of Medellín. Its CBT experiences last from 7 to 21 days and include a variety of experiences such visits to cocoa plantations, animal sanctuaries, graffiti tours, and jungle trips. The operator is committed to sustainable tourism and is certified by Tour Cert. It is also a member of various Colombian tourism organisations, including Acotur, Colombia’s Association of Responsible Tourism (website in Spanish only).

Ecodestinos supports former coca farmers who are now moving into CBT to provide food and farming tours and operate canoeing trips. It also works with local communities to develop pharmaceutical products from local plans.

Companies in Ethiopia

Tesfa Tours was established in 2010 to promote community tourism and works closely with 20 communities in the Lalibela and Tigray areas. The operator promotes five different Community Trekking tours using local, trained guides and travellers stay overnight in simple guesthouses owned and managed by the communities themselves. Communities benefit directly from the treks and the infographic below shows where the money goes:

The operator’s homepage features its blog, reviews from TripAdvisor, links to features in the international travel press and partners which include Village Ways (a UK operator that specialises in rural tourism) and UK OTA Responsible Travel. Some of the communities also host their own websites including Wofwasha Community Lodges which helps the community to increase its exposure to the market.

Companies in Kenya

CBT in Kenya has been in development for many years and there are a number of associations working with communities, including The Kenya Community Based Tourism Network (KECOBAT). Ecotourism Kenya has been involved in CBT development in Kenya for many years, supporting the integration of CBT into mainstream tourism and helping communities build capacity and explore ideas for tourism within their local areas.

In operation for 25 years, Il Ngwesi is wholly community-owned by the local Maasai community and all profits from the lodge help to protect the environment and the animals that live there. In addition, the lodge supports a range of community projects and there has been considerable acclaim for how successful it has been in engaging with local communities in remote places.

Companies in Kyrgyzstan

Nomadic destinations such as Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia and Tajikistan have all adopted CBT as a means of generating income and promoting tourism in rural communities. The key objective of the Kyrgyz Community Based Tourism Association is to improve living conditions for communities living in remote mountainous regions through tourism initiatives and it works with 15 communities, referred to as CBT groups. Besides CBT, the organisation also offers activities and tours to other major attractions and destinations in the country. One of the groups, CBT Kochkor, has subsequently set up its own website to promote its CBT activities. The website makes good use of images and video, the blog section is regularly updated and the various ways of contacting the group are prominently displayed.

Companies in Vietnam

CBT in Vietnam has become more developed in the past decade as aid agencies, government bodies and tourism stakeholders have supported the creation of several hundred projects. It is more developed in the northern regions where hill tribes and mountain villages are well-placed to develop CBT.

The homestay and village retreat of Yen Duc in the Halong Bay region of Vietnam was established as a CBT project, and offers guests a way to experience authentic village life and culture. The project is Travelife certified and has built partnerships with a number of national and international organisations. This has helped generate a strong profile.

Da Bac CBT in north west Vietnam offers homestays at three local villages, trekking and other activities, and it is supported by international NGO Action on Poverty. It also sells tours through the Intrepid Travel adventure tours operator.

CBT Vietnam offers homestays in the Sapa region of northern Vietnam. Since the project began, the three villages have become self-sufficient and the initiative has won a number of awards including finalist in the Wild Asia Responsible Tourism Awards for the Most Inspiring Responsible Tourism Initiative. The organisation is supported by the PATA Foundation, which helps provide skills training and capacity building.

Which products are you competing with?

The major competitor for CBT is adventure tourism along with nature and ecotourism trips. They are heavily interlinked and European tour operators strive to create packages that offer a variety of experiences for their customers. If you are able to offer adventures and activities that make the most of the natural environment with eco-credentials, you are more likely to appeal to European buyers.

Therefore, you will have to work hard to differentiate your CBT experiences from others on the market by identifying Unique Selling Points. To find out more about creating USPs, you can read CBI’s Tips for Doing Business with European Tourism Buyers and How to determine your Unique Value Proposition.

Deciding how to package your project could help you stand out from the competition. If there are several CBT experiences in your area, think about including additional sustainability elements so you can promote it as ‘CBET’ to help create a different product.

4. What are the prices for CBT travel products on the European market?

Prices for CBT travel products vary from country to country and there are no standard pricing structures. Tours of Multi-CBT experiences are the most expensive, while CBT experiences with or without homestays/accommodation often offer good value, as you can see in the table below.

Table 6: Examples of CBT Experiences on the market

CBT Trips and Experiences	Country	Duration	Price per person (€)
CBT Experiences with/without Homestays
Camel Riding at Rangkul Lake	Kyrgyzstan	3-4 hours	n/a
Hiking in Jiseu Valley	Kyrgyzstan	8-9 hours	n/a
Wild Coast Accommodation	South Africa	1 night	4
Lesotho Lodge and Pony Trekking	Lesotho	1 night	11
Cooking the traditional way	Guatemala	Half day	16
Thai Cooking Class and Market Tour	Thailand	Half day	32
Learn to Cook a Traditional Jordanian Meal	Jordan	2-3 hours	32
Lantern Making, Basket Boat and Local Food	Vietnam	5 hours	32
Homestay	India	1 night	34
The Shanty Town Tour	Peru	Half day	42
Organic Rice Farm Experience and Homestay	Laos	Half day plus overnight stay	44
Nairobi Storytelling Tour with Street Children	Kenya	3 hours	38
Discover Knife Da Sy Village by Motorbike	Vietnam	5 hours	55
Lao Weaving and Natural Dyes Class	Laos	Full day	69
Floating Gardens, Canals and Local Food	Mexico	Half day	69
Cooking Class and Local Market Tour	Peru	Half day	69
Masai Village Day Tour	Kenya	5 hours	82
Stay in Eco Lodge	Costa Rica	1 night	82
Whale shark researcher	Mexico	Half day	100
Cusco Women Today Tour	Peru	Half day	100
Bribri Culture Experience	Costa Rica	2 days	105
Coffee or Cacao Farm Cultural Jungle Tour	Peru	2 days	119
Juanilama Reserve and Community Experience	Costa Rica	2 days	126
Overnight with Chari Weavers and Rainbow Mountain Hike	Peru	2 days	132
Overnight Hill Tribe Experience	Thailand	2 days	169
Kalahari Desert Wilderness and Bushman Culture at Xaus Lodge	South Africa	1 night	319
Tours of Multi-CBT Experiences
Tigray Trekking Tour	Ethiopia	4 days	181
Nature, Community and Spirit	Bali, Indonesia	3 days	242
Trekking, Wildlife and Ecolodge Adventure	Nicaragua	4 days	270
Travel from Ferghana Valley to Song-Kul Lane	Kyrgyzstan	4 days	290
Experience Mentawai Community Life in Sumatra	Indonesia	5 days	310
Lisu Lodge Trekking and Hill Tribe Village Adventure	Thailand	3 days	333
Whale Watching and Jungle Eco Lodge Adventure	Colombia	4 days	477
The Great Elephant Trails Safari	Kenya	3 days	589

Source: Acorn Tourism Consulting

You should remember that to some extent CBT travellers are prepared to pay a bit more for a CBT experience, as they are keen to make a contribution to supporting a communities’ development into the long term. When setting your prices, you should factor in every cost before coming up with a final price. You should also take into account other influencing factors such as seasonality.

This guide, Pricing your tourism business gives you a practical step-by-step guide to setting your prices to boost sales.

This study has been carried out on behalf of CBI by Acorn Tourism Consulting Limited.

Please review our market information disclaimer.