Abstract

This volume provides an accessible overview of cultural tourism in southern Africa. It examines the utilisation of culture in southern African tourism and the related impacts, possibilities and challenges from deep and wide-ranging perspectives. The chapters use case studies to showcase some of the cultural tourism which occurs in the region and link to concepts such as authenticity, commodification, the tourist gaze and ‘Otherness’, heritage, sustainability and sustainable livelihoods. The authors scrutinise both positive and negative impacts of cultural tourism throughout the book and explore issues including the definition of community, ethical considerations, empowerment, gender, participation and inequality. The book will be a useful resource for students and researchers of tourism, geography, anthropology and cultural studies.

This book is a comprehensive, critically informed overview of cultural tourism in Southern Africa. Drawing on a range of examples from Southern Africa, the book critically explores and challenges the growth of cultural tourism in the region. The book provides deep insights into the impacts and management of cultural tourism in Southern Africa, offering lessons for developing regions around the world.

This fascinating book covers a wide range of topical and pertinent issues in cultural tourism studies from a previously under-researched region of the world. The authors provide an intelligent and sensitive analysis of the ways in which cultural and community-based tourism are being developed, managed and promoted with a focus on both ethics and sustainability.

The book is a great reference to open people’s eyes on current cultural tourism issues in Southern Africa. The book also discussed on specific cases of how problems were addressed and tried to be solved. Due to that, the book is an extremely important reference for further discussion and development of cultural tourism; especially for the Africans. On top of that, the book can definitely assist in future projects and initiatives, to ensure a higher rate of success, as it emphasizes on the concept of authenticity.

This book offers a carefully composed variety of chapters. Readers are invited to partake in educational reflections on personal, collective and institutional problem formations, aspired solutions and modes of local governance for development. Guided by the paradigm of sustainability, and linked to ideas of regional knowledge-economies and their actor-networks in the glocal tourism industry, this recommendable work is a must-read.

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.

Naomi Moswete is Senior Lecturer at the University of Botswana. Her interests include tourism as a strategy for rural development, community-based natural resources management and trans-frontier park-based tourism.

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