African Journal of Hospitality, Tourism and Leisure (Feb 2019)
Community Based Tourism ventures apt for communities around the Save Valley Conservancy in Zimbabwe.
Abstract
In Zimbabwe, tourism contributed about 10.4% to the GDP in 2014 making it one of the most important economic contributors. However, tourism development in that country is heavily skewed towards traditional and already developed tourism destinations such as the famous Victoria Falls, Hwange National Park and Kariba for example, with little effort directed towards community-based tourism (CBT) to achieve sustainable tourism development in remote rural areas where wildlife tourism is the main attraction. In areas such as the Save Valley (SV) tourism sustainability is threatened by conflict, tension, and hostility which originated from the colonial period following the passing of the Land Apportionment Act of 1930. The situation has been worsened by the lack of a framework for facilitating (CBT) as a strategy to reduce poverty in local communities while also promoting sustainable wildlife conservation. Properly planned CBT is believed to be capable of enabling local communities to participate in tourism development and derive meaningful and sustainable socio-economic benefits while contributing to wildlife conservation. The study adopted a non-positivist paradigm within a case study, and a cross-sectional design aimed at collaborative construction of multiple realities through dialogue and observation. The study found that there were numerous possible CBT ventures suitable for the communities bordering the SVC. These included, in order of preference by the respondents, vegetable outgrowing to supply established tourism accommodation establishments, jewelry-making, cultural dance and music, accommodation, fruit and wild berries and pottery and embroidery. Armed with this information, the government, NGOs and community-based organisations (CBOs) can develop capacity, provide market spaces, find markets and package the products properly to promote sustainable CBT ventures within the rural communities bordering the SVC.
