Small-Scale, Nature-Based Tourism as a Pro-Poor Development Intervention: Two Examples in Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa
Small-scale, nature-based tourism as a pro-poor development intervention: Two examples in Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa
Trevor Hill, Etienne Nel and Dayle Trotter Discipline of Geography, School of Environmental Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa Department of Geography, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa Abstract Tourism is widely acknowledged as a key economic sector that has the potential to contribute to national and local development and, more specifically, serve as a mechanism to promote poverty alleviation and pro-poor development within a particular locality. In countries of the global South, nature-based tourism initiatives can make a meaningful impact on the livelihoods of the poor, in particular the subsistence based rural poor. Taking two examples in KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa, where small-scale tourism initiatives were developed recently in response to existing natural attractions in the context of coping with local economic crises, this paper broadly assesses the modest benefits to date, as well as drawbacks, in improving conditions of life. Introduction Tourism today is a high-growth sector, driven by enhanced affluence and increasing leisure time. In many countries of the global South, this very growth has served as an effective mechanism to promote local and national development in terms of job creation, infrastructural improvements and the general enhancement of marginal economic areas. Tourism, as Reid (2003: 67) observes; 'has become the development sector of choice for many developing countries '. Indeed, the capacity of the tourism sector to promote pro-poor development is an issue that has attracted recent attention and positive recommendations in policy and academic circles (Ashley & Roe, 2002; Dann, 2002). The tourism industry comprises a diverse array of products and services whose boundaries for inclusion are not clearly defined but manifest in a wide variety of forms such as
Trevor Hill, Etienne Nel and Dayle Trotter Discipline of Geography, School of Environmental Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa Department of Geography, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa Abstract Tourism is widely acknowledged as a key economic sector that has the potential to contribute to national and local development and, more specifically, serve as a mechanism to promote poverty alleviation and pro-poor development within a particular locality. In countries of the global South, nature-based tourism initiatives can make a meaningful impact on the livelihoods of the poor, in particular the subsistence based rural poor. Taking two examples in KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa, where small-scale tourism initiatives were developed recently in response to existing natural attractions in the context of coping with local economic crises, this paper broadly assesses the modest benefits to date, as well as drawbacks, in improving conditions of life. Introduction Tourism today is a high-growth sector, driven by enhanced affluence and increasing leisure time. In many countries of the global South, this very growth has served as an effective mechanism to promote local and national development in terms of job creation, infrastructural improvements and the general enhancement of marginal economic areas. Tourism, as Reid (2003: 67) observes; 'has become the development sector of choice for many developing countries '. Indeed, the capacity of the tourism sector to promote pro-poor development is an issue that has attracted recent attention and positive recommendations in policy and academic circles (Ashley & Roe, 2002; Dann, 2002). The tourism industry comprises a diverse array of products and services whose boundaries for inclusion are not clearly defined but manifest in a wide variety of forms such as
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