Tourism strategies and local responses in Southern Africa

This book discusses tourism development in Namibia. It consists of 12 major chapters. Chapter 2 explores the opportunities and challenges of implementing a national tourism policy in Namibia, as perceived by tourism entrepreneurs. Chapter 3 presents the South African experiences for local economic development (LED) in rural route tourism, also a potentially strategic tool for development through tourism in the rest of Southern Africa. Chapter 4 discusses the modernization approach to tourism development, both in theory and practice. Chapter 5 discusses their commoditization in the Namibian tourism promotion, thereby defining their symbolic role in Namibian tourism development policies. Chapter 6 evaluates the applicability of the strategic objectives and government policy in regard to community-based catering services among the Hananwa.^ Chapter 7 analyses the effectiveness of tourism development in the simultaneous achievement of successful nature conservation and better means of subsistence in the Okavango Delta. Chapter 8 analyses the resources and restraints of coastal bird tourism in Namibia. Chapter 9 explores the awareness and responses of the Southern African tourism sector to control HIV/AIDS, and the perceptions on the effects of the disease on its operational environment. The process of mutual learning is, however, a complicated one and has a number of critical points, as described in Chapter 10. Chapter 11 elaborates on the applicability of information and communication technology (ICT) for school-based tourism marketing in Namibia, based on experiences and studies in his former home region, the eastern Caprivi Strip.^ Chapter 12 discuss the possibilities for communities in or close to the park to benefit from its existence, focusing on the partnerships between the Makuleke community, the park's management and the private sector, and on a comparative situation on the Mozambican side in the former Coutada Sixteen National Park. Chapter 13 discusses some of the lessons learned from the Southern African case studies are brought together to outline the current issues of strategic tourism development, in terms of both academic research and applied work in the tourism sector.