More travel executives get their mission-critical industry news from Skift than any other source on the planet.Tell me more The concept of community-based tourism, in which businesses are owned and operated by local communities with revenue, in turn, targeting rural development, dates back to the 1970s. Pre-pandemic, a greater number of community enterprises were entering the tourism value chain as travelers increasingly sought culturally immersive experiences with travel dollars going directly to local communities. But this model wasn’t as widespread nor as prioritized by mainstream tour companies. Communities lacked access to training and resources to set up their own businesses to compete, while governments and for-profit travel companies focused on selling established mainstream tours over the more complicated task of doing commerce with local communities.