Towards a coalescence of the community-based tourism and ‘Albergo Difusso’ tourism models for Sustainable Local Economic Development

• Published in: African journal of hospitality, tourism and leisure tourism and leisure, 2020-01, Vol.9 (1)
• Main Authors: Dr Andrea Giampiccoli, PhD, Prof. Oliver Mtapuri
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: albergo diffuso (ad); community-based tourism (cbt); local economic development (led); tourism
• ISSN: 2223-814X

Tourism is a major global economic sector and its potential role in decreasing poverty and inequality and fostering community development should not be underestimated. However, while tourism can have positive impacts on localities, invariably the model of tourism development determines the type of impacts. This is a conceptual paper based entirely on secondary data. It has been acknowledged that the current system of conventional/mass tourism has not fulfilled tourism’s potential to promote development. Local Economic Development (LED) focuses on local resources and benefits, while community-based tourism (CBT) and, Albergo Diffuso (AD) are tourism models that are compatible with the development of the local context. This article coalesces the CBT and AD tourism model in relation to LED to advance a ‘new’ tourism model, referred to as community-based diffused tourism (CBDT), based on the characteristics of CBT and AD. More specifically, it explores the socio-economic and ownership/control characteristics of CBT together with geographical/space characteristics and a specific ‘social’ feature of AD. The geographical/space characteristics of AD are expanded and reconfigured.