• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.242-264
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• 2016

Tourism is a major sector of the national and regional economy in Southeast Asia endowed with rich natural environment and a variety of cultural and historical heritages. Tourism has been recognized as the industry without chimneys. However, as tourism sector is getting larger and being globally standardized, various problems such as environmental degradation as well as profits leakage from locals have been gradually aggravated. Against negative impacts from massive tourism various efforts have been tried and community-based ecotourism(CBET), seeking environmental conservation and community development at the same time, has emerged as a noteworthy alternative. By comparing the two cases of CBET in Indonesia and Cambodia, this paper aims to review the current status and future challenges of community development through ecotourism in Southeast Asia's rural villages. In the concrete, this paper analyses in-depth on case of JED(the village ecotourism network) in Bali, Indonesia and CBET project in Ramsar wetland reserves of Steung Treng province, Cambodia and founds out the possibility and main obstacles of community developmental strategy through CBET. Both cases have proven the positive outcomes in terms of environmental protection, local people's awareness improvement, and direct/indirect economic gain from CBET project. However, there are significant, but differentiated limitations in management capacities and stabilities of internal governance of two villages. Both villages are still in need of brisk networks with and assistance from the outside. In the conclusion part, this paper suggests CBET development program in Southeast Asia through Korea's social enterprises as one of the possible ODA programs(in tourism sector).