Local Impacts of Community-based Tourism in Southern Africa - Responsible Tourism: Critical Issues for Conservation and Development - page 276

Tourism is a business, in addition to being a conservation and development tool.
If the business plan is flawed, and the enterprise unprofitable, the continuation of
the enterprise will likely frustrate those whose expectations were raised unrealisti-
cally. If tourism is not viable, other, more sustainable livelihood opportunities
should be sought. Fundamental problems with the way that donor agencies and
NGOs have approached CBT have been highlighted by Häusler (2008). She
found that in proposals for funding in South America and Asia, agencies
frequently considered participation, gender, empowerment and capacity building.
However, their proposals were not required to address business plans, administra-
tion, marketing strategies, product development, target groups, cooperation with
private sector or communication channels. Therefore it is perhaps not surprising
that so many CBTEs struggle with the basic principles of business management:
they were established without a business focus.
It was interesting to find that most of the CBTEs believed they practised
sustainable tourism, and many had sustainability commitments and activities that
incorporated conservation, sustainable resource use, community benefits,
employment, cultural conservation, local ownership, empowerment of women
and participation. The enterprises cumulatively had provided the equivalent of
US$4.46 million to local projects over the previous year. In impoverished, and
particularly in rural areas, the extent of this support could make substantial
impacts on the quality of life of people affected by them, and also potentially on
the conservation of biodiversity. Further work, and site visits by ecologists, would
be required to establish the actual extent of the conservation benefit of CBTEs.
They would need to compare baseline data (i.e. before the CBTE) with current
survey data to establish the difference, and would also need to consider other
factors affecting biodiversity unrelated to tourism.
The CBTEs appeared to have a substantial impact on the local economy. The
218 enterprises employed a total of 1587 men and 1048 women, of which 94.7
per cent were local. Other local benefits cited included access to finance (e.g.
loans, profits, donations) (45.0 per cent), community infrastructure development
(30.3 per cent), education and training support (28.9 per cent), craft purchasing
and product development (28.0 per cent), service provision (22.0 per cent) and
access to resources (18.4 per cent). Local products and services were extensively
procured by the enterprises. Products purchased included craft (39.5 per cent),
fruit and vegetables (28.9 per cent) while services used included cultural enter-
tainment (42.7 per cent), guiding (28.9 per cent) and catering (13.8 per cent).
On average, 196 of the CBTEs spent the equivalent of US$6616 per year on local
products and services, or almost US$1 million cumulatively. As shown in Chapter
6 by Ashley and Haysom, promoting local procurement through the value chain
can have substantial implications for poverty alleviation, and therefore this
element of the CBTEs' business practice (and potentially related to one of the
main limitations: accessibility) is one of its pro-poor strengths.
In conclusion, this review reveals that the CBTEs in the region contribute
positively and substantially to local economic development, and presumably
poverty alleviation through their operation. The level of local employment,