Who Truly Benefits? Assessing Asenso and Stakeholder Perception Gaps in Philippine Tourism

Abstract

Community-based tourism contributes to the socio-economic development of an area in several ways. This study examines the contribution of nature-based tourism activities to the selected coastal community stakeholders. A quantitative research design was used to achieve the study objectives. A survey among tourism operators and community members in two coastal tourism sites (Malajog Ridge and Nature Park and Turtle Island). Tourism operators were composed of fisherfolks and women’s association, while the other group are ordinary community members. Purposive sampling was used for the tourism operators while random sampling was employed for community member interviews. Results show that majority of the respondents were adult male, have only attained primary formal education and has monthly income below poverty threshold in the Philippine economic setting. Social and economic impacts were tested using Mann-Whitney U analysis. This analysis revealed statistically significant differences between the two stakeholders on three economic impact factors: livelihood activities (U= 2692, p= 0.004), create business opportunities (U= 2912, p= 0.048), increase household income (U= 2742, p= 0.005), with tourist operators consistently rating impacts higher than the community members. No significant differences were observed across the seven social impact indicators (all p > 0.05). The economic disparities as perceived by the two stakeholders suggests that local policymakers should prioritize equitable benefit-sharing mechanisms — livelihood and income distribution — to ensure economic gains from ecotourism extend beyond tourism operators to the wider coastal community.