Community-based tourism as a sustainable solution to maximise impacts locally? The Tsiseb Conservancy case, Namibia

Abstract

Based on an in-depth field study in a rural area of Namibia, this article assesses the potential contribution of community-based tourism enterprises (CBTEs) to poverty alleviation and empowerment. It shows that tourism income captured locally improves rural households' livelihoods and generates linkages in the local economy. On the job learning, training sessions and extensive support by non-governmental organisations and donors are further shown to empower rural actors and unlock socioeconomic opportunities for the future. In this context, CBTEs can be characterised as pro-poor initiatives. However, this article provides counter evidence that the sustainability of such community tourism ventures is to be questioned. First, mainstreaming these projects within the competitive tourism commodity chain proves highly challenging and costly; second, communities' institutional and managerial capacity is weak and thus CBTEs' viability is limited; finally, inadequate support by donors and non-governmental organisations fails to tackle challenges faced by community tourism ventures.community-based tourism, livelihoods, institutional arrangements, global commodity chains,

Conflict management within the context of community based tourism: an exploratory study

“…The use of facilitators can assist in transforming destructive conflict into constructive dialogue, and facilitators can assist by empowering different stakeholders (Okazaki, 2008). However, as noted by Lapeyre (2010), although facilitators can assist in solving conflict at the local level, they are not necessarily the most qualified to assist in building the capacity or leadership skills of local community members.…”

“…One of the problems among CBT developments is the lack of available copies of approved guidelines (Mgonja et al, 2015). Additionally, regular meetings should occur to discuss the current status of the CBT project, future plans, and to address any conflict instances that need resolved (Lapeyre, 2010).…”

Towards Creating Sustainable Ecotourism Interventions: Practical Lessons from Mesomagoro, Ghana

“…The afore-mentioned conditions lead to a situation where the opportunities generated by tourism development are exploited mainly by more powerful outsiders in cohort with a few local elite (Zhang and Fang, 2004) as has been found variously on the African continent Namibia (Lapeyre, 2010), Ghana (Akyeampong, 2011) and south Africa (Mukwada and Dhlamini (2012). It is normally tempting to always conceptualize the core-periphery dichotomy at the inter-country level but in ecotourism the more detrimental power relations happen within the same local space where the resident elite dominate.…”

Cooperative, Social Enterprise, and Community-Based Enterprise: Competing, Substituting, or Complementing?

“…as association (e.g. Sociedad Sur Mexico (Wilshusen, 2005) and DMG Namibia (Lapreye, 2010)), commercial enterprise (e.g. Chaubas-Bhumlu Nepal (Timsina, 2005) and GMCL India (Torri, 2009)), and trust (e.g.…”

“…A mix version is also found in a Gambian beekeeping CBE, where the start-up capital is mainly from outsiders' donations and community only provides around 25% of the needed capital (Thoma & Camara, 2005). Meanwhile, Namibian tourism CBE is externally financed by outsiders' grants (Lapreye, 2010). Nevertheless, communities' role in providing materials is dominant; it is fathomable since they are likely having ownership or user-rights over local natural resources (Soviana, 2015).…”