rural communities often view small-scale, community-based tourism development as a viable opportunity for economic and community development (timothy, 2002; beeton, 2006; reid, 2003). unfortunately, the process of developing a successful tourism product can be beyond the capabilities of these communities (joppe, 1996). capacity building and empowerment are seen as two useful strategies for enabling people to partake in a variety of development initiatives, including tourism development (moscardo, 2008; sofield, 2003). capacity building is a concept that has been used extensively in international development and is the primary focus of the united nations development programme‟s efforts to alleviate global poverty (fukuda-parr, lopes and malik, 2002; eade, 1997). empowerment has also been used heavily within an international context, although it tends to focus specifically on disadvantaged sub-groups within a larger population, most commonly indigenous peoples and women (sofield, 2003; malhotra & schuler, 2005). both of these concepts have also been examined and used in the field of tourism development (moscardo, 2008; scheyvens, 2002). however, there has been little research that examines the relationship between the two concepts, and none from the perspective of the community members engaged in the tourism development process.