Marketing Community-based Ecotourism Based in Senegal, West Africa: the Potential for the Development of Community-based Ecotourism, and the Challenge of Marketing It to the UK

This dissertation investigates both how Community- Based Ecotourism (CBE) can be implemented in impoverished rural areas of developing countries for the benefit of the local populations and their surrounding environment, and the role of marketing in the generation of a sustainable revenue to provide socio-economic development for the host communities. The paper begins with the introduction of the concept of ecotourism by exploring the different definitions and its origins, and by enumerating its potential impacts on the host destinations. Next, a detailed description of Senegal and its already developed tourism industry is looked at to allow the study of whether the country has the potential for developing CBE. Following this, the marketing of Senegalese CBE is investigated by carrying out a market analysis for CBE and by enumerating the issues that may arise whilst undertaking the process of creating marketing material from the rural communities? point of view. The final chapter focuses on the marketing channels that can be used to market Senegalese CBE to the UK market.