Abstract

Tourism has become a major economic agent and an important social and cultural element in contemporary southern Africa. As such, tourism has a wide range of impacts on environment, economy, cultures, and the everyday life of people. These processes have highlighted the role of sustainability in tourism development.This book represents an accessible examination of the connections between tourism and sustainability in southern Africa. It introduces connections between tourism, sustainability and development with a range of case studies and examples from the region. While the book and the individual chapters are emphasising the key role of tourism in the transition processes of local communities and environments, the social, cultural, economic and political contexts of tourism and communities are also highlighted.

Jarkko Saarinen is Professor at University of Oulu in Finland and University of Johannesburg, South Africa. His research interests include tourism and development, sustainability and tourism-community relations.

Fritz Becker is a Professor of Geography at the national University of Namibia in Windhoek, Namibia.

Haretsebe Manwa is Associate Professor at North-West University, South Africa. Her research encompasses tourism and poverty alleviation, wildlife tourism, community-based tourism and cultural tourism.

Deon Wilson is an Associate Professor at the Department of Tourism Management, University of Pretoria, South Africa.

I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the role tourism plays in the often difficult processes of transition for natural resource dependent communities. A wealth of case studies analyse the socio-spatial contexts that shape the outcomes of tourism development policy in the SADC region. It is a joy to be acquainted with these very specific contexts - and the selection of authors alone needs to be loudly applauded given that we generally hear the Southern African story from researchers located in the 'North'.

The strength of this book is in its involvement of local researchers in the southern African region itself. The international collaboration has provided a wider audience for their work, and I think this book will encourage other international researchers to seek them out for future collaborations. Jarkko Saarinen is to be commended for his initiative.