Since the creation of the Sustainable Tourism - Eliminating Poverty (ST-EP) initiative, tourism has been presented to the world as an effective tool to eliminate poverty and to promote sustainable human development. One of the forms of tourism included in the scope of the ST-EP initiative is Community Based Tourism (CBT). This paper, which is based on the case study of Usme in Bogota – Colombia, supports the idea that Community Based Tourism can no longer be approached as a paternalistic activity to support development through cooperation and donation. Contrarily, it should be considered as any other international business initiative. Furthermore, the paternalistic cooperation approach, as currently considered, leads to misunderstand the purpose of the community-based tourism initiatives and drives the communities into a vicious circle of undeveloped in order to attract tourists.