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Author : Limpho Lekaota & Jarkko Saarined
School/Work Place : Vaal University of Technology, South Africa & University of Oulu, Finland
Contact : limphol@vut.ac.za
Year : 2015

In order to maximize the benefits and minimize the costs, rural communities should be able to participate actively in all aspects of tourism, including planning and management. The main purpose of this study is to evaluate the local communities’ participation in rural tourism development utilizing mixed method. Survey and interview materials from local rural communities and local authorities (nature reserve managers, tourism officers, environmental/conservation officers and Conservation Committee Forum members) in the Katse and Mohale Tourism Development Area of Lesotho. Non-probability, purposive and convenience sampling approaches were used to gather the data. The study was conducted in three villages adjacent to the T’sehlanyane Nature Reserve - Ha ‘Mali, Bokong Nature Reserve -Ha Lejone and Liphofung Nature Reserve - Phelandaba.

The information gathered was used to formulate a model of the elements influencing rural tourism benefit-sharing processes in rural local community contexts. Such model could be beneficial as without a strong emphasis on local benefit-sharing, Lesotho people, especially in the rural areas, would probably not receive the potential benefits of tourism development in the future. Such a model would support communities’ participation in tourism development, leading to sustainability of resources in rural tourism.

Ha ‘Mali and Ha Lejone respondents recognized community members’ participation but the Phelandaba respondents generally disagreed that the communities were involved in planning, as they indicated not being consulted in any planning about tourism. Respondents from all three villages would prefer greater involvement and decision-making power in the management of tourism.

The study concludes that government should not merely construct conservation and tourism development areas but should also empower local communities to participate in all stages of planning, development and management. Involving community members in as well as formulating supporting tourism regulations, implementation, monitoring and evaluation procedures would be beneficial for sustainable rural tourism development.


List of Articles
No. Subject Views Datesort
13 Think Tank XV The role of interpretation in mindfulness/mindlessness... file 3587 Jul 27, 2015

Cultural tourism is recently receiving increasing attention from southern African countries (The South African National Heritage and Cultural Tourism Strategy, 2012; Van Veuren, 2001). Cultural tourism is promoted as a local development stra...

Author: Haretsebe Manwa, Dudu Boemah & Emile Coetzee 

Year: 2015 

12 Think Tank XV A vacation from capitalism; what happens when the ‘mas... file 6244 Jul 27, 2015

Philosophical and theoretical debates in tourism must be situated not just within economic and cultural contexts, but also political and social ones (Ataljevic, Pritchard & Morgan, 2007). Tourism is more than an ‘industry,’ Freya Higgins...

Author: Amy Savener 

Year: 2015 

11 Think Tank XV Lifelong learning for guiding and interpretation file 2948 Jul 27, 2015

Scholarship on guiding and interpretation positions formal training as a central factor in guide instruction. Guide training operates in the area that mediates between personal characteristics, attitudes and knowledge of the guides and what ...

Author: Julia N. Albrecht & Trisha Dwyer 

Year: 2015 

10 Think Tank XV Can we eat it? Exploring the cultural challenges in ma... file 2831 Jul 27, 2015

Can we eat it? How did you stop the waves? Is there water in there? Where is the switch to turn it off? Will it eat me? These are just some of the many questions asked by visitors to uShaka Sea World in Durban, South Africa. While South Afri...

Author: Judy Mann & Roy Ballantyne & Jan Packer 

Year: 2015 

9 Think Tank XV Conserving biodiversity as tourism (including wildlife... 3257 Jul 27, 2015

Governments throughout Australia and elsewhere recognise that tourism is an important sector of the economy, and are encouraging its growth in a variety of ways, some more environmentally sound than others. This papers presents not the resul...

Author: Ronda J Green 

Year: 2015 

8 Think Tank XV The operational challenges of community-based tourism ... file 12079 Jul 27, 2015

Community-based tourism is increasingly being developed and promoted as a means of reducing poverty in developing countries assisting local communities to meet their needs through the offering of a tourism product. The Swaziland Tourism Auth...

Author: S. E. Lukhele & K. F. Mearns 

Year: 2015 

7 Think Tank XV A modified value chainanalysisoftourism development in... file 3106 Jul 27, 2015

Tourism development in a relatively unknown country is faced with various challenges. The difficulty is not only choosing an appropriate tourism development strategy but also managing it in a complex sociocultural, economic and political env...

Author: Sonja Frommenwiler & Péter Varga 

Year: 2015 

OPA: Runner Up Outstanding Paper Award 

» Think Tank XV Perceptions of local communities participation in rura... file 2831 Jul 27, 2015

In order to maximize the benefits and minimize the costs, rural communities should be able to participate actively in all aspects of tourism, including planning and management. The main purpose of this study is to evaluate the local communit...

Author: Limpho Lekaota & Jarkko Saarined 

Year: 2015 

5 Think Tank XV Rural renewal or requiem? Establishing new creative ve... file 1102 Jul 27, 2015

During the past decades, concern for rural poverty and underdevelopment of the rural communities of Namibia has been central to government development efforts. This has further given rise to several rural development programmes. While, some ...

Author: Erling Kavita 

Year: 2015 

4 Think Tank XV Social Representations of Tourist Selfies: New Challen... file 2813 Jul 27, 2015

A number of recent incidents have focussed media attention on the phenomenon of tourist selfies, described their negative consequences for tourist destinations and identified a number of challenges for tourist site managers. This paper repor...

Author: John Pearce & Gianna Moscardo 

Year: 2015 

3 Think Tank XV Why Africans do not visit their national parks: A case... file 1588 Jul 27, 2015

Present-day Western approaches relating to nature and natural resources management assume that humans are independent from the natural world (Pierotti & Wildcat, 2000). Protected areas such as Yellowstone National Park were created with ...

Author: Lesego S. Stone & Gyan P. Nyaupane 

Year: 2015 

2 Think Tank XV Enhancing stakeholders’ participation for sustainable ... file 2091 Jul 27, 2015

Tourism is a fragile industry with multiple stakeholders. Globally, the desire of its stakeholders is to gain more benefits and eliminate negative impacts on resources that support the industry, particularly in protected areas (PAs) such as ...

Author: Richie Wandwi 

Year: 2015 

1 Think Tank XV A novel review approach on adventure tourism scholarship file 1563 Jul 24, 2015

As a niche market, adventure tourism has been developing rapidly in many regions and territories, evidenced by increasing number of participants and intensive growth of adventure tourism products (Adventure Travel Trade Association, 2013; T...

Author: Mingming Chen, Deborah Edward, Simon Darcy 

Year: 2015 

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