| Summary: | Like many organizations working in the tourism sector, the authors believe that private sector investment is one of the key drivers of development. Over the past few years, the private sector has been a central innovator in forging business partnerships with local communities for tourism purposes around the world. Having demonstrated some extraordinary development results, joint ventures increasingly need to demonstrate their commercial viability over the long term. Moving out of the donor and grant-funded sphere and into the competitive capital markets in search of finance has posed a significant challenge. The author have observed that many community joint venture partnerships contain high levels of risk and that this risk usually is too high for banks to assume. The author have learned that this risk could be reduced to more acceptable levels in a number of ways, notably through better market-orientation and a more competitive enabling environment. This guide provides nine tips for all actors involved in this arena, including governments, the private sector, communities, banks, and nongovernmental organizations, to reduce risk and greatly improve joint ventures access to commercial finance.
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