Community in International Business; supported by ECEAT.

ECEAT – European Centre for Ecological and Agricultural Tourism is the leading European organization in small-scale sustainable tourism field with special attention to rural areas and organic farming. ECEAT is also a network of over 1300 small-scale accommodations and tourists services all over Europe, offering sustainable quality of tourist services and approves their contribution to local communities and protection of the environment that promotes responsible travel which brings almost 500.000 overnights every year in rural areas for benefit of local economies in 20 European countries and satisfies responsible travelers. It also provides the best professional expertise in sustainable tourism field through projects all over the world, including in Indonesia.

In February 2008, INDECON had worked with ECEAT to accelerate and increase the economic growth of the local community in selected CBT sites in Indonesia with the Europe market in CBT as one of the target groups. The project aimed to grab the market and develop link between the regions and improve the quality of products that meet with Europe market; and implement marketing strategies. The increasing number of visitation would then achieved the economic growth at local level and prevented the loss of natural resources degradation.

The target groups were the stakeholders (community, local and national governments, civil society, small and medium community based enterprises, and local tour operator) in four community-based tourism sites in Indonesia (West Nusa Tenggara, East Nusa Tenggara, South Sulawesi and West Java), which attract visitors from Europe.