Towards Sustainable Tourism Development in Zambia: Advancing Planning and Natural Resource Management for “Greener” Tourism in Livingstone (Mosi-Oa-Tunya) Area.
Towards Sustainable Tourism Development in Zambia: Advancing Tourism Planning and Natural Resource Management in Livingstone (Mosi-Oa-Tunya) Area.
Floyd Misheck Mwanza
Department of Landscape Studies, College of Architecture & Urban Planning, Tongji University, 1239 Siping Road, Post Code 200092, Yang Pu, Shanghai, P.R. China.
Tel: +86 1312 0894 802 ; Fax: 0086 (0)21 6598 0600
E-mail: floydmwanza@gmail.com
Abstract
Over the last few decades, development policy has been dominated by mainstream economic theories that focus on economic growth to achieve sustainable development. The pace and scale of tourism growth in Livingstone (Mosi-oa-Tunya) area in Zambia has seen over reliance on natural resource utilisation by mass tourism developments. Compounded by insufficient planning and limited co-ordination and collaboration among the institutions involved in the tourism sector, tourism can have a negative impact and can create conflicts. Tourism growth in Livingstone (Mosi-oa-Tunya) has predominantly focused on the economic incentives in tourism and ignored the social perspective and impact on the local population. This paper presents an analysis of the challenges of policy and planning implementation towards sustainable tourism development in Zambia. The sample of the study was 85 respondents that were purposely selected. In addition, the opinions of 9 heads of tourism departments and the community were purposefully selected for in-depth interviews. Data was gathered using both questionnaires and interviews. The findings showed tourism planning is a new phenomenon in Zambia. It was found that the factors that emerged as challenges related to priorities of national economic policy. In general, the government agencies administration structure affect the successful implementation of tourism policy and planning for sustainable tourism development. Given the limited government support, funds and appropriate knowledge in tourism limit Livingstone (Mosi-oa-Tunya)
Floyd Misheck Mwanza
Department of Landscape Studies, College of Architecture & Urban Planning, Tongji University, 1239 Siping Road, Post Code 200092, Yang Pu, Shanghai, P.R. China.
Tel: +86 1312 0894 802 ; Fax: 0086 (0)21 6598 0600
E-mail: floydmwanza@gmail.com
Abstract
Over the last few decades, development policy has been dominated by mainstream economic theories that focus on economic growth to achieve sustainable development. The pace and scale of tourism growth in Livingstone (Mosi-oa-Tunya) area in Zambia has seen over reliance on natural resource utilisation by mass tourism developments. Compounded by insufficient planning and limited co-ordination and collaboration among the institutions involved in the tourism sector, tourism can have a negative impact and can create conflicts. Tourism growth in Livingstone (Mosi-oa-Tunya) has predominantly focused on the economic incentives in tourism and ignored the social perspective and impact on the local population. This paper presents an analysis of the challenges of policy and planning implementation towards sustainable tourism development in Zambia. The sample of the study was 85 respondents that were purposely selected. In addition, the opinions of 9 heads of tourism departments and the community were purposefully selected for in-depth interviews. Data was gathered using both questionnaires and interviews. The findings showed tourism planning is a new phenomenon in Zambia. It was found that the factors that emerged as challenges related to priorities of national economic policy. In general, the government agencies administration structure affect the successful implementation of tourism policy and planning for sustainable tourism development. Given the limited government support, funds and appropriate knowledge in tourism limit Livingstone (Mosi-oa-Tunya)