Challenges and Opportunities for ‘little brothers’ in the Tourism Sector Matrix: The Case of Local Communities around Great Zimbabwe National Monument.

Abstract

Pro-poor tourism seeks to improve opportunities and earnings of the socio-economically disadvantaged communities. This research explored ways in which poor and often marginalized local communities around the Great Zimbabwe National Monument can benefit through pro-poor tourism. The study adopted a mixed methods research framework. Research methods included key informant interviews, a questionnaire survey, participant observations and desktop research. The research findings indicate that local communities are deriving economic, social, cultural and environmental benefits from the tourism economic sub-sector. The benefits accruing to these local communities are derived from selling artefacts, handicrafts, agricultural produce and fruits to tourists as well as often lowly paid wage employment in hotels and lodges. There are also spill-over benefits as improved transport and communication services as the area is linked by an all-weather tarred road from Masvingo City and partial cellular network provision respectively. Moreover, some of the villagers are also involved in fishing in Lake Mutirikwi and its feeder rivers. However, accrual of the stated benefits remains unsatisfactory due to a plethora of factors including poor participation by the local villagers in community-based tourism projects as a result of lack of entrepreneurial skills, technical knowhow, capital and linkages to the mainstream tourism market. The study recommends a multistakeholder approach in building the capacity of local communities in terms of tourism product development and linkages with the mainstream tourism market. This maximization of benefits will enable the local villagers to play a stewardship role towards cultural and biophysical resources found in their area thereby contributing to employment and sustainable tourism development.

Keywords

• pro-poor tourism
• community-based tourism
• heritage management
• local communities
• Great Zimbabwe