Third International Conference on Tourism & Leisure Studies

Abstract

Tourism is seen as having a huge impact on rural communities. It is generally known for its pro-poor implications that convey socio-cultural, political, ecological, and economic benefits to steer a community if directed with strong policies. Community-based ecotourism in particular has a great prospective in uplifting the said different factors of a locality. Sustainable development, on the other hand, plays side-by-side with ecotourism as they both meet the standards of a pro-poor, pro-environment, and pro-economic thrust on mitigating the environmental degradation and poverty. The researcher determined the perceptions of a key sector on ecotourism as basis for sustainable development, investigated the positive and negative impacts of ecotourism in the rural communities, and explored the effect of ecotourism development in the standard of living of the local people in the island known as the “Galapagos of Asia.” Sibuyan is composed of three municipalities: San Fernando, Cajidiocan, and Magdiwang. Using the Slovin’s formula, the respondents were divided per municipality; One hundred sixty (160), one hundred forty three (143), and ninety four (94) respectively. Using percentage distribution and weighted mean as statistical treatments, results showed that ecotourism gives more positive outcomes over negative outcomes. Aside from the survey method, the researcher interviewed resource persons from the local government units and non-government organizations, analysed pertinent data from different agencies of government, and observed the implications of ecotourism development in Sibuyan Island.