Sustainable Community-Based Tourism in the Digital Era: Opportunities and Challenges

Abstract

This study examines how community-based tourism (CBT) is reshaped under digital platformisation, focusing on tensions between sustainability and platform-mediated tourism systems. Using an interpretivist qualitative case study in a rural CBT destination in Vietnam (December 2025–June 2026), the research draws on 32 semi-structured interviews, observation, and digital artefact analysis. Findings show that digital visibility has become the main mechanism of market access, displacing resource-based advantages. Governance is increasingly hybrid, with authority shared among local actors, intermediaries, and platform infrastructures. Value creation remains local but is partially leaked through commissions and algorithmic mediation. Uneven digital capability produces internal stratification. Sustainability emerges as a negotiated, unstable condition shaped by platform dependence and adaptive responses.