A benefit sharing mechanism and the cooperation can only happen when the villagers have a strong sense of community and trust one another.
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Tour operators and travel agencies tend to send guests to 1-2 particular homestays and/or using the same service providers to ensure the consistent service quality throughout all bookings. A task force allows its members to work together to improve the quality of homestay and other services for consistency in the delivery of services and products.
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A local coordinator is needed in case of a tourism task force, for communication and for booking allocation among homestays. This coordinator must be trusted and transparently elected among the members. Together with booking allocation, a benefit sharing mechanism should also be deployed to make sure that the community also gets the indirect benefits from community tourism. For instance, a community fund takes 5-10% of revenue to support common affairs in the village.
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Cooperation at the grassroot level may only work without a formal structure when it is organised within a community with a strong connectedness among its members. The bonding among community members enables a trusted relationship and supportive environment. It also allows amicable settlements in case of disputes or conflicts. The local coordinator should also be trusted in the community as (s)he is perceived to inherently have an advantage of knowing the booking information first-hand and being able to assign the service providers.
Despite the difference in the result of this activity, people in both PAs tend to be positive that it still contributes to the ongoing process of establishing community tourism. As pointed out throughout two workshops, the biggest concern of the local members is still the formality of such institutions, be it a network at the inter-regional level like Ecotourism Cluster Network or an association at the grassroots level like Community Task Force.