Designing a Community-Based Ecotourism Model for the Tourism Sector of Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari Province

Abstract

This study aimed to develop a locally grounded community-based ecotourism model for Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari Province by identifying mechanisms related to community empowerment, participatory decision-making, environmental conservation, and the retention of tourism-generated economic benefits within local destinations. This qualitative study employed thematic analysis. The participants consisted of eight tourism-sector practitioners and two managers and experts from the agricultural and cultural heritage sectors, selected through purposive and snowball sampling. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews based on seven principal questions. The content validity of the interview framework was reviewed and confirmed by two university professors. Following transcription, the interviews were analyzed through systematic familiarization with the data, initial coding, theme development, theme review, and the definition and naming of themes. The analytical process generated 29 basic themes, which were subsequently organized into 16 organizing themes and four overarching themes. The conceptual relationships among the extracted themes indicated that an effective community-based ecotourism model is structured around four interdependent dimensions: empowerment, local participation, environmental conservation, and economic benefits. Empowerment enhances the capacity of local communities to enter and control the tourism value chain through tourism skills development, entrepreneurship, marketing, local business development, and improved access to markets, capital, and permits. Local participation, encompassing economic, cultural, governance, and capacity-building dimensions, shifts communities from passive beneficiaries to active decision-makers and destination managers. Environmental conservation becomes sustainable when tourism-impact management, legal support, direct community involvement, and the redistribution of tourism benefits are institutionally interconnected. Furthermore, strengthening linkages between tourism and the local economy and minimizing economic leakage were identified as essential mechanisms for retaining benefits within the destination. Sustainable community-based ecotourism in Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari requires an integrated governance system in which empowerment, participation, environmental conservation, and equitable economic benefits mutually reinforce one another. Tourism policies should therefore recognize local communities simultaneously as beneficiaries, decision-makers, economic actors, and custodians of destination resources.