The Impacts of Tourism Initiatives on Rural Livelihoods and Poverty Reduction in South Africa: Mathenjwa and Mqobela - Responsible Tourism: Critical Issues for Conservation and Development - page 221

income; and lastly, facilities, infrastructure, environment and general information.
Questions were designed to give adequate opportunity for the respondents to
provide data on changes in level of assets, house construction, size and dates of
acquisition of a range of possessions including furniture and any consumer items.
The questionnaire was translated into IsiZulu, the local language, to assist poten-
tial respondents in their understanding of the questions and to better facilitate the
implementation of the survey and collection of relevant information; the question-
naire was then piloted and further refined. A survey response sheet was also
designed so the information gathered could be recorded in an organized manner.
Since no official documentation existed for the number and location of
households in each community in the study sites, the sampling areas (the commu-
nities) were surveyed and the location and number of households were recorded
and coded. Huts, houses and compounds were numbered and a random sample
of approximately 17 per cent of the households in Mathenjwa and around 35 per
cent in Mqobela were selected for the implementation of the questionnaire.
Assistance in the implementation was secured from a small team of seven local
people in each study site. The team were trained and accompanied in the collec-
tion of data and the fulfilment of the household surveys in order to ensure that
data gathering was as accurate as possible and to minimize any potential bias.
During the implementation of the questionnaire survey, regular meetings were
held between the researchers to ensure consistency and data quality.The quantita-
tive data collected were then subjected to analysis in stage six of the protocol using
SPSS version 14.0 computer software.
Twelve respondents ( N = 171) in the Mathenjwa community stated that a
member of their household was earning an income as a direct result of the
presence of the tourism initiative; seven households in the Mqobela community
( N = 77) stated the same. Average earnings from tourism by these household
members in both communities were stated as being between ZAR50 and
ZAR200 per month. Approximately 50 per cent of respondents in each sample
stated that their total household income from all sources varied throughout the
year and generally there was an optimistic perception that overall the household
will earn more in the future. However the perception of households in both
communities when asked if they anticipated more or less people in the household
earning an income from tourism deriving from the lodge was mixed, with the
majority believing that the number of people earning an income as a result of the
tourism initiative would stay the same; the results are shown in Table 11.1. Table
11.1 also shows the responses of the households to questions concerning how the
infrastructure and environment in and around the community may have changed
since the inception of the tourism initiative and indicates their perception of the
effect that the tourism initiative may have had on these aspects of their livelihoods.
In the Mqobela community 32.9 per cent of respondents ( N = 73) stated that
members of their households had attended training courses or acquired new skills
since the start of Rocktail Bay Lodge, 9.5 per cent of the households sampled in
the Mathenjwa community responded that they also had members who had
attended training courses or acquired new skills since the start of Ndumo