Dr. Peter Aderhold Büro für Tourismusforschung + Planung

Dr. Peter Aderhold
Büro für Tourismusforschung + Planung
Soestraede 2, DK 3460 Birkeroed / Kopenhagen - Dänemark
Tel 0045-4581 4246 Email: aderhold@aderhold.dk
Liebe Freunde,
gut ein Jahr nach meinem „Rückzug“ als Geschäftsführer der FUR, will ich jenen, die es interessiert,
einen kurzen Bericht geben über mein Leben nach diesem Rückzug aus dem aktiven Berufsleben.
Ganz ist die RA, mit der ich mich seit meiner Doktorarbeit 1972 beschäftigt habe, (noch) nicht aus
meinem Leben verschwunden, denn 2011 und 2012 bin ich noch für die Ausarbeitung des Berichtsbandes
der RA 2011 und 2012, der Kurzfassung und der englischen Fassung des Berichts-bandes verantwortlich
und habe auf diese Weise noch Kontakt zur RA und meinem „alten Leben“.
Auch mein eigenes Beratungsbüro halte ich für Problemstellungen, die mich interessieren, noch offen.
Darüber hinaus habe ich mich – auch auf der Basis der RA – mit einem Thema beschäftigt, mit dem ich
mich seit vielen Jahren – u.a. auf Bali - engagiert habe: dem Tourismus in Entwicklungsländern und der
Frage, wie Tourismus sich mit Vorteil nicht nur für die Touristen, sondern für die einheimische
Bevölkerung als Entwicklungs-Strategie in III.-Weltländern gestalten lässt.
Auf der Basis einer von mir geschalteten Exklusivfrage in der RA 2011 habe ich die Nachfrage nach
Urlaubsreisen in III.-Weltländer und deren Segmente untersucht, sowohl für die Entwicklungsländer
insgesamt wie auch ausgewählte Länder Asiens. Ein Beispiel auch, wie sich die RA auch für speziellere
Problemstellungen gut nutzen lässt.
Unter anderem geht es dabei auch um das Interesse für „Community Based Tourism (CBT)“, also
Urlaubsreisen in kleinen, vom Tourismus noch unberührten Regionen/Gemeinden und den Möglichkeiten
und Gefahren im Zusammenhang mit dieserart von Tourismus.
Einige der Ergebnisse dieser Analyse sind im Juli 2011 in einer internationalen Fachzeitschrift (Contours)
veröffentlicht, die sich speziell mit Fragen des Tourismus in Entwicklungsländern beschäftigt.
Für diejenigen, die sich dafür interessieren, sei verwiesen auf folgende Website: www.ecotonline.org und
hier siehe Contours Vol 21, Juli 2011) bzw. den Auszug in der Anlage zu diesem kurzen Bericht.
Die Ergebnisse dieser Analyse sind Ausgangspunkt und Basis eines neuen Beschäftigungsfeldes für
mich, nämlich der Umsetzung dieser Ergebnisse in nationale und regionale Tourismus-Entwicklungspläne
ausgewählter Länder und konkrete CBT-Projekte in diesen Ländern. Zurzeit arbeite ich in diesem
Zusammenhang mit dem „Community Based Tourism Institute“ der Universität von Chiang Mai in Nord-
Thailand zusammen und bin im Kontakt mit Tourismus-Ministerien in verschiedenen Ländern.
Innerhalb dieses neuen Engagements war ich im letzten Jahr mehrere Monate in Vietnam, Thailand, Sri
Lanka und auf Bali und habe mit Organisationen/Personen, die sich mit CBT beschäftigen, zusammengearbeitet,
aber auch das stressfreie Leben in diesen schönen Ländern und deren so andersartigen Kultur
und Lebensweise erleben dürfen, und zwar nicht mehr nur aus der Touristen-Perspektive, sondern als
jemand, der dort -zeitweise - lebt. Eine richtig schöne Erfahrung und Bereicherung.
Darüber hinaus habe ich jetzt Zeit und Gelegenheit, nach „neuen Themen Ausschau zu halten“, die nichts
mit Tourismus zu tun haben, für mich aber auch interessant und wichtig sein können.
Trotz dieser insgesamt positiven Entwicklung will ich aber auch nicht verschweigen, dass der Übergang
vom sehr aktiven und engagierten Berufsleben zu einem geruhsamen Leben ohne konkrete (Arbeits-)
Aufgaben nicht ganz einfach war ... und immer noch nicht ist. Ich habe schon sehr deutlich erlebt, wie
sehr mein berufliches Engagement für die RA und die FUR mein Leben und mein Selbstverständnis
bestimmt hat, wie sehr sich meine Zufriedenheit aus der „ordentlichen“ und erfolgreichen Lösung von
beruflichen Problemen gezogen habe ... und ich jetzt habe „lernen“ müssen, meine Zeit sinnvoll
einzusetzen und meine Zufriedenheit aus anderen Quellen als der Arbeit zu beziehen ... eine Erfahrung,
die viele machen, die so engagiert in ihrem Beruf aufgehen, wie dies auch bei mir der Fall gewesen ist.
Allen meinen alten Geschäftspartnern und Freunden wünsche ich auf diesem Wege alles Gute und
möchte mich noch einmal für die jahrelange, gute Zusammenarbeit bedanken.
Mit besten Grüßen
Peter Aderhold

4
IN FOCUS
Community Based Tourism in Sustainable
Tourism Development: Great Potential
with Risk
By Dr. Peter Aderholdl
Community Based Tourism (CBT), seen as tourism in smaller communities away from
and untouched by (mass) tourism enabling closer contact with local populations and
their environment, can be incorporated as a significant element of sustainable tourism
development strategy. The analysis and insights below come from research into
expectations of German tourists. ECOT welcomes research by analysts into other
settings.
Community Based Tourism (CBT) offers an
opportunity to holiday in a country and get to know
it, but is as yet known to and taken up by only a
very small number of people. For this reason a special
investigation was carried out on the German market – the
largest and most developed holiday market in the world – to
determine the size and market potential in Germany for this
special form of holiday.
In the course of the 2011 German Travel Analysis almost
8,000 Germans were asked, in personal interviews, what
manner of holiday they would most prefer to spend in
a developing country. The results are representative for
residents of Germany aged over 14. Preferences were
investigated with the help of a list of 10 descriptions of
how a holiday in a developing country could be spent. The
analysis presented here is based on those people who
• had holidayed in a developing country at least once in the
last three years (2008-2010), or
• had “fairly firm plans” to spend a holiday in a developing
country in the following three years (2011-2013), or for
whom such a holiday was a possibility.
As can be seen from Fig. 1, the preferred form of holiday in
these countries is a combination of a tour to get to know the
main sights of the country, and a beach holiday (58%).
Just fewer than 30% gave beach holiday only as their
preference, this number of course varying considerably from
destination country to destination country. The proportion of
those preferring a pure beach holiday might be significantly
greater for the Caribbean than, for example, for Indonesia.
CONTOURS Vol.21, No.2, July 2011
Fig. 1: Preferences of potential III.World tourists (%)
Source: Dr. Peter Aderhold © German Holiday Survey RA 2011
Besides these basic holiday types (beach holiday, tour
and combination of both) a range of special interests were
mentioned such as cultural attractions (40%) or more
adventurous experiences off the beaten track (27%).
Further, some 38% of the potential holiday-makers to
developing countries express special interest in “experiencing
more about the lives of local people” and 19% said that they
“would like to experience the closest possible contact with
the local population.” The preferences expressed here were
multiple selections, i.e. respondents could each choose more
than one option.
On the basis of these results, the market potential for CBT
was established as follows:
All respondents who …
• wish to take a holiday in a developing country in the next
three years, AND

• would prefer to stay in a small, simple hotel with typical
local atmosphere rather than in an international hotel,
AND
• at the same time would like to experience “as much as
possible about the lives of local people” or “the closest
possible contact with local people”
… can here be considered as potential CBT tourists.
A total of 19% of all 15.2 million potential holiday-makers to
developing countries from Germany meet these conditions,
which corresponds to a potential interest in CBT of some 3
million people over the next three years.
Fig. 2: CBT potential in the German market 2011-13 in
selected Asian countries
Source: Dr. Peter Aderhold © / German Holiday Survey RA 2011
% Million
India 27 1.2
Sri Lanka 21 1.3
Thailand 17 1.8
Vietnam 28 0.9
Malaysia 23 1.0
Indonesia 24 0.9
If we examine the potential interest for CBT for a selection of
Asian countries we see that the proportion of those interested
in CBT varies significantly from country to country. While
interest in CBT from potential holiday-makers to India and
Vietnam is almost 30%, the corresponding figure for potential
travellers to Thailand is ‘only’ 17%. However, taking into
account the sheer size of the potential for these countries, we
can see that some 1.8 million holiday-makers from Germany
with an interest in visiting Thailand have admitted an interest
in a CBT holiday. Of course, not all these will actually fulfil
their wish to visit Thailand in the next three years, and of
those who do, not all will actually take a CBT holiday. It
remains clear, however, that the interest is there – and it is
huge!
The varying amount of CBT interest in the different
countries can be explained mainly by the fact that countries
with significant and well-developed tourist demand, such
as Thailand, have a large proportion of beach tourists, who
often have little experience of travel. Relatively ‘new’
holiday destination countries, such as Vietnam, on the other
hand, attract greater numbers of inquisitive and experienced
travellers, of whom a greater proportion are interested
in CBT than are the ‘traditional’ holiday makers, who are
more interested in relaxing, swimming and sightseeing.
The total interest potential for each country is greater
than the 3 million potential interested customers. This has
IN FOCUS 5
methodological reasons, because polling CBT potential for
individual countries results in values greater than those from
examination of the potential interest in CBT in general.
If we compare the structure of CBT interest with the (German)
population and the potential holidays in developing countries
in total, we get the following picture:
Fig. 3: Socio-demographic characteristics of potential
CBT holidaymakers
Source: Dr. Peter Aderhold © / German Holiday Survey, RA 2011
German
Population
Travellers
Potential
3 rd World
CBT
Potential
People (millions) 70.5 15.2 2.95
Age % % %
14-19 8 11 11
20-29 14 22 25
30-39 15 17 18
40-49 19 22 21
50-59 16 16 14
60-69 14 8 7
70+ 16 4 4
Average age
Education
47 40 39
Elementary 44 28 23
Secondary 35 39 38
Higher
Social strata
22 34 39
High 23 34 37
Medium 53 54 53
Low
Internet
24 12 11
Access 70 89 93
Info 49 71 80
Booking 29 46 51
From the point of view of age, potential CBT travellers
are not significantly different from developing country
holiday makers in total. However, highly educated people
are disproportionately represented among those interested in
CBT compared to the total population, but also in comparison
to the potential developing country tourists. The same applies
to the upper social class.
In this context, some 93% of those interested in CBT have
internet access, 80% of them use the internet for information
on their planned destination and more than 50% make whole
or partial holiday bookings online. We are clearly dealing
with an internet-savvy and experienced group of people.
Vol.21, No.2, July 2011 CONTOURS

6
IN FOCUS
CBT provides opportunities for contact with local people and their culture.
Features that emerge
The results of the analysis of the German market show
therefore that
• there is a significant market or potential interest in CBT,
which is possibly considerably greater than the available
current supply,
• those potentially interested in CBT are generally
experienced travellers with a higher than average level of
education and a large proportion of people from the middle
and upper social classes, and
• these people are internet-savvy and experienced and use
the internet for information and booking to a greater extent
than most other tourists.
These results apply not only to the German market, but, as
other studies have shown, can be said to apply to most other
European countries, for example, Austria, Switzerland, The
Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden and Norway.
The bottleneck in CBT
The bottleneck for the development and further growth of
CBT lies therefore not in lack of demand, but rather in a
lack of
• consumer knowledge of the existence of CBT, and
• mass market access to potential CBT travellers.
This is therefore primarily a marketing problem, explained
CONTOURS Vol.21, No.2, July 2011
www.ecoteerresponsibletravel.com
by the fact that individual CBT projects are, as a rule, freestanding
and do not have an umbrella group to help them
with this. However, there are some very successful examples
of CBT projects that have, to a greater or lesser extent, solved
these problems. For example,
• the activities and projects of “The Thailand Community
Based Tourisms Institute“ at Chiang Mai University (www.
cbt-i.org), or
• a list of other successful projects of “Socially Responsible
Tourism“, as regularly presented by the ToDo-Contest at
ITB (Germany’s Internationationale Tourismus Börse)
since 1995 (www.to-do-contest.org).
Attempts to market this kind of tourism through traditional
distribution channels such as tour operators’ catalogues
have generally met with limited success. This is because
tour operators make relatively little commission on these
products. (This is exactly what the service providers
intended, as the money is, after all, intended to flow into
the communities themselves and not into the pockets of the
international tourism industry). Indeed where such products
are included (if at all) in such catalogues, it is often for
image-related reasons. Furthermore, the typical potential
CBT holiday maker is well travelled and probably not a
traditional tour operator customer (with the exception of
the very few operators specialising in sustainable tourism).
These customers therefore tend to avoid the traditional
tourism industry, preferring to travel independently and ‘off
their own bat’. Some 40-60% of these people prefer to travel
totally independently, making all their own arrangements.

They tend also, as mentioned, to be very internet-savvy and
to use mostly this new medium for holiday information and
bookings.
One considerable marketing challenge therefore would seem
to be the development of an internet platform on which CBT
products can be made available for information and booking,
nationally, regionally or even worldwide.
However, the development and implementation of CBT is not
purely a matter of marketing. The first – and most important
– step is obviously the careful and sensitive development
of individual CBT projects in often under-developed regions
and communities. While most CBT projects offer a relatively
simple experience from a technological point of view in
as far as accommodation facilities are concerned (simple,
local-style accommodation), the problems to be solved in
the development of these projects are both complex and
technical, as each project is highly different and requires
individualised solutions. Training of all people involved in
the CBT project will therefore be crucial to the success – or
otherwise – of the projects.
Because CBT projects, in their capacity of “Socially
Responsible Tourism”, (should) claim that
• the economic effects benefit the entire community (and
not only local ‘big shots’) and so are of a participative,
inclusive nature, and
• the social, cultural and environmental impacts on these
untouched communities are kept within acceptable limits
or are avoided completely, and
• the expectations of CBT guests of an authentic experience
of life in the host community are not only very high but
need to be met if this form of tourism is to meet with long
term success,
great insight and experience will be required to develop and
implement these projects. There are some excellent examples
of how this can be successfully organised. (See the examples
from Thailand and the ToDo contest mentioned above).
However, there are also unfortunately many cases of CBT
projects where the results have been exactly the opposite of
what was originally intended and more economic, cultural,
social or environmental harm has been caused than if the
sensitive CBT approach to development had not been
attempted.
While there certainly are opportunities for successful
sustainable tourism development through CBT, we would
do well not to underestimate the risks.
IN FOCUS 7
www.tourismconcern.org.uk
Interaction between the hosts and tourists is a key feature of CBT
Considerable knowledge and experience of CBT planning
is required in order to develop and implement this form of
tourism successfully and to secure the advantages of CBT
for tourism development in underdeveloped regions.
It is worth considering bringing interested and experienced
partners together in an international workshop or seminar to
develop an organisational structure that
• can provide help with planning, development and
implementation by the systematic use of experience of
successful CBT projects, and
• takes on the development of an internet platform for the
marketing of individual CBT products or at least provides
help to this end.
One aim could be to establish an international network
bringing together and supporting communities, regions,
organisations and individuals with an interest in CBT.*
It is also entirely possible that development aid or similar
organisations could provide financial or organisational
support. CBT development after all constitutes a particularly
concrete form of sustainable tourism, which not only satisfies
but more than fulfils current development aid criteria.
Dr Peter Aderhold is a specialist in marketing and market research in
tourism. He has been associate professor at the Institute of Transport,
Tourism and Regional Science of the Copenhagen Business School
and head of its Tourism department. Author and co-author of a series
of articles and books on tourism development and market research,
he has had wide experience as a Consultant, including on sustainable
tourism development projects and regional development plans.
* Dr Aderhold and ECOT are interested in pursuing this suggestion and
its implications. We would be keen to hear expressions of interest from
relevant groups.
Vol.21, No.2, July 2011 CONTOURS