Material poverty is a difficult reality for a large population of the world that live in rural settings. Many of these rural settings, like the village of Secacar in Guatemala, are in unique natural environments and contain interesting cultures that could act as tourism amenities. However, utilizing tourism in a successful way resulting in economic, social, and ecological sustainability is difficult. Community-based tourism is one model seeking to accomplish these results while also empowering the local community. This thesis studies the key factors that help community-based tourism succeed and how the profession of landscape architecture can benefit the Secacar community-based tourism enterprise by utilizing the approach developed in this research.