Local Impacts of Community-based Tourism in Southern Africa - Responsible Tourism: Critical Issues for Conservation and Development - page 263

require, leaving large tourism operations without competition or any incentives to
distribute wealth (Yu et al, 1997).
Kiss (2004) notes that the level and distribution of economic benefits from
CBTs depend on many factors including the attractiveness of the tourism asset,
the type of tourism operation, the nature and degree of community involvement,
and whether earnings become private income or are channelled into community
projects or other benefit-spreading mechanisms (Wunder, 2000). She notes that
projects that simply generate local employment opportunities are sometimes a
good start. Joint ventures between community groups and private tourism opera-
tors, which are increasingly popular, might have the greatest potential for
generating significant revenues for communities, and might also be more likely to
succeed than wholly community-run enterprises, particularly in the early stages.
However, communities will often need outside assistance to organize themselves,
obtain and assert their legal rights and understand their obligations in such
partnerships (Wunder, 2000; Wells, 1997; Ashley and Garland, 1994).
There have been many case study examples of livelihood impacts of specific
tourism enterprises on local people (e.g. Spenceley and Goodwin, 2007;
Simpson, Chapter 11; Mbiwa, Chapter 9; Spenceley, 2001; Ottosson, 2004;
Ntshona and Lahiff, 2003), but few systematic evaluations of many enterprises
(e.g. Dixey, Chapter 15 ; Kibicho, 2004; Williams et al, 2001; Roe et al, 2001), and
no systematic evaluations where hundreds of enterprises have been compared.
The aim of the review was to establish how 218 CBTEs in southern Africa
impact on the local environment and people.The analysis includes information on
the type of tourism operated, their commercial viability and their socioeconomic
impacts on local communities. The chapter also presents a review of the
constraints faced by CBTEs, and a review of interventions that the enterprises
deem necessary to improve their commercial viability.
Method
Scope
The geographical scope of the study was the 14 Southern African Development
Community (SADC) countries, which are members of the Regional Tourism
Organization for Southern Africa (RETOSA). The SADC countries are Angola,
Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi,
Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia
and Zimbabwe.
Defining community-based tourism enterprises
A working definition of CBTEs that would be used to guide the directory devel-
opment was developed. In the absence of an internationally recognized and
standard definition of CBTE in the academic or institutional literature, a defini-
tion used by RETOSA during the compilation of an existing CBTE directory was