The Local Community’s Participation and the Benefit Sharing of Community Based Tourism Lao PDR: Case Study of Khao Kouay Nbca-

The tourism in Lao PDR is paid attention to the ecotourism site because of the rich natural resources and the various culture. In 2009, the international conference of ecotourism was hold in Vientiane that is the capital city in Laos. Community Based Tourism (CBT) has been developed in Laos in order to improve the welfare of local communities, as well for the conservation. ‘Community based’ means the local community is engaged with management and the decision-making, and the benefit is allocated directly into local community (Khanal and Babar, 2007). Khao Kouay NBCA is one of the most famous CBT sites in Lao PDR. Douanphosy, Han and Ping (2015) have tackled the environmental assessment for the CBET in Phou Khao Kouay NBCA, and analyzed the participatory of local community. Their results show that the CBET in this area has the potential site as ecotourism and that local community is willing to participate in the CBET. Sirivongs and Tsuchiya (2012) demonstrates that villages that participate in the CBET have the better evaluation for the resource management than other villages. Sirivongs and Tsuchiya (2012) analyzed their village understands that the conservation for natural environment leads to the opportunity to get the benefit in the future. However, the previous studies don’t focus enough on the level of the participatory by local community and the benefit sharing in the local community. This paper discusses two points about the Community Based Eco-Tourism (CBET) project in PKK NBCA in Lao PDR based on the collected questionnaire data; (1) The level of the local community’s participation, (2) The structure of the benefit sharing.