Community Capacity Strengthening for Inclusive Community-Based Tourism Beatrice Imbaya * , Nthiga RW School of Tourism, Hospitality and Events Management, Moi University, Eldoret, Kenya ABSTRACT Community-based tourism (CBT) has been widely advocated as an avenue for communities to participate in and benefit from tourism development. Due to community limitations, Community Capacity Building (CCB) interventions have been initiated to improve the ability of communities to participate and derive benefits from CBT. In this paper, we argue for the adoption of Community Capacity Strengthening (CCS) interventions to help address the challenges facing CBT. This would in turn ensure the achievement of inclusive CBT, a situation in which a broad array of stakeholders especially the marginalized contribute to the creation of opportunities as well as share in the potential benefits from tourism. Keywords: Community-based tourism; Inclusivity; Community capacity building; Community capacity strengthening INTRODUCTION Community-Based Tourism (CBT) was initiated as a model of tourism development that could lead to the flow of benefits and inclusion of communities in tourism development. CBT has been embraced as an effective tool for providing socio-economic opportunities to rural communities in several developing countries. In particular, CBT has been promoted for its perceived contribution to livelihood improvement and biodiversity conservation WWF [1] in many a rural destination of the developing world. Advocates of CBT argue that it has the potential to create an avenue for communities to have a stake in tourism [2,3], and the potential for a win-win outcome for conservation and development [2]. Though widely lauded for its socio-economic and conservation benefits, literature on CBT also point to some of its limitations. Examples include the oversimplification and misconception of concepts such as ‘community’, ‘participation’, and ‘empowerment’ leading to failure of projects [4], competing policy objectives of conservation and development [2], limited attention to specific contextual aspects [5], power struggles [6], lack of consensus and unrealistic expectations [7]. In an attempt to address limitations, and enhance CBT outcomes, Community Capacity Building (CCB) and capacity strengthening initiatives have been adopted. However, CBT can have enhanced outcomes if it embraces inclusive tourism principles. It is worth noting that, despite the relevance of issues related to CCB in CBT, there has been limited attention on linking them to inclusive tourism. In this paper we therefore briefly review literature on CCB to establish its application for the achievement of inclusivity in CBT. We further argue that Community Capacity Strengthening (CCS) interventions, which follow similar dimensions and levels of CCB, if well planned and well implemented, can lead to inclusive CBT which is characterized by enhanced participation and sustainable benefits to the marginalized in the community. The concepts of community capacity building and capacity strengthening The concept of community capacity (CC) draws on the community development [8,9], and participatory development [10], discourse which advocates for granting people more control in the handling of local issues [11,12]. CC is about enabling marginalized groups to articulate and guard their interests more efficiently, both within their immediate locality and beyond [13]. Thus, community capacity building (CCB) is viewed as a way to strengthen communities, equipping them with knowledge and skills in order to effect positive change and reduce the challenges [14,15]. It focuses on enabling all members of the community, including the poorest and the most disadvantaged, to develop skills and competencies in order to take greater control of their Journal of Tourism & Hospitality Review Article Correspondence to: Beatrice Imbaya, School of Tourism, Hospitality and Events Management, Moi University, Eldoret, Kenya, E-mail: Imbayab@gmail.com Received: January 21, 2021; Accepted: February 04, 2021; Published: February 11, 2021 Citation: Imbaya B, Nthiga RW (2021) Community Capacity Strengthening for Inclusive Community-Based Tourism. J Tourism Hospit.10:461. Copyright: © 2021 Imbaya B, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. J Tourism Hospit, Vol.10 Iss.2 No:461 1