Abstract

There is a great need for ‘community-based tourism’ (CBT) to devise new, holistic ways to embrace other cultural worldviews instead of relying on the dominant Eurocentric values that have driven ‘development’. The chapter commences with a brief review and critique of some key principles and approaches to CBT development and governance. Two paradigm shifts are then offered for consideration: a ‘One Health’ perspective and an approach that embraces a plurality of worldviews and practices beyond those sedimented by modernist, Enlightenment values. This is followed by a case study of rural endogenous development in the transitional Otomi community of Cudilla, Mexico, where a local microfinance non-governmental organization is facilitating women’s empowerment and involvement in local enterprise. The chapter ends with a call for greater attention to critical, reflexive research approaches and, especially in the postcolonial and Indigenous context, decolonizing methodologies.