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Research Centre (see Chapter 9 by Mbaiwa) , who has used the delta to exemplify
what he calls the 'enclavic nature' of the safari lodge sector (Mbaiwa, 2005, p464):
The foreign domination and ownership of tourism facilities has led to the
repatriation of tourism revenue, domination of management positions by
expatriates, lower salaries for citizen workers, and a general failure by
tourism to significantly contribute to rural poverty alleviation in the
Okavango region.Tourism as a result has a minimal economic impact on
rural development mainly because it has weak linkages with the domestic
economy, particularly agriculture.
(Mbaiwa, 2003, p1)
To counter this situation, Mbaiwa argues for a 'sustainable' form of tourism based
on local control of the industry, which will, in his opinion, ensure 'benefits to local
people and the sustainable use of resources' (Mbaiwa, 2005, p463). This view
falls squarely within a broader tendency in the tourism studies literature that
regards mainstream tourism as necessarily exploitative of local economies and
resources. These critiques - rooted in earlier dependency perspectives - argue in
favour of 'sustainable' or 'alternative' tourism that is 'small-scale, indigenously
owned, environmentally sensitive and … authentic' (Mitchell and Ashley, 2006;
Mbaiwa, 2003, 2005).
Recently, however, some commentators associated with the Overseas
Development Institute's Tourism Programme, have rejected this approach.
Mitchell and Ashley, for example, argue that it constitutes a 'strategic mistake'
because it deflects the pro-poor focus away from mainstream tourism - which
alone has the 'muscle' to reduce African poverty - towards 'the comfortable
ghetto of small, niche operations' (Mitchell and Ashley, 2006, p1). They argue
that the depiction of high value, international tourism as a 'neo-colonial' activity
characterized by huge 'leakage' of benefits is not generally supported by rigorous
empirical analysis. Moreover, it involves a turning away from the broad thrust in
contemporary thinking, which regards outward-orientated global processes,
rooted in the market and private enterprise, as the main drivers of global poverty
reduction (Mitchell and Ashley, 2006, p2).
Against the background of these debates, this chapter draws on new data
(sourced from recent government statistics, an industry survey and focus group
discussions) to re-examine the Okavango's high value lodge sector. It shows that
tourism in the delta already brings significant benefit to local citizens, primarily
through employment in safari lodges. But it also supports the view that the sector
is not well integrated, especially at the local level, and that a relatively low percent-
age of tourist spend is earned by local and national interests. Unlike Mbaiwa it
does not regard this as a neo-colonial affront that requires radical 'indigenization'.
Instead, the chapter argues that a degree of 'leakage' is a necessary consequence
of the socio-cultural roots and global structure of wildlife tourism and may be
better regarded as a form of 'gearing' that is necessary to attract tourist spend at
the local level. The policy challenge is therefore not so much the radical restruc-
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