In the past few decades, tourism has evolved to become one of the lucrative industries in the world.

According to Reisinger (2009), tourism is recognised and supported by many governments around the world because of its potential to bring about economic growth and social development for host-destination communities. In places where there is tourism growth potential, tourism is viewed as valuable source of income, job creation, foreign currency, socio-economic growth, investment, skills development, poverty reduction, and development (Sharpley, 2009). While North America and European countries enjoy the most success with tourism growth and attract high volume of international arrivals, developing countries in Africa and Asia have also become the focus of tourism development(Christie et al, 2014). Take the Southern African Development Community (SADC), for example, countries like Kenya and South Africa have developed policies that seek to support tourism initiatives with the purpose of showcasing the unique African cultures and heritage (Sharma, 2019). Like everywhere, in South Africa, tourism growth is linked witheconomic growth and social development.

While the African continent falls in second place after many of the developed countries in terms of tourism growth, there are several states within the continent making good strives through exploiting cultural assets to promote tourism.The African continent is one of the geographical spaces on earth where cultural diversity, authenticity, richness, and uniqueness is found in abundance(Novelli, 2015). Such culture and heritage contribute much in the creation of a strong cultural tourism, which needs to be developed and practiced sustainably for the benefit of visitors and local communities alike. In South Africa, for example, the rich culture and heritage has proven to be ideal for cultural tourism considering that this is a part of Africa where a number of world-class cultural sites are found(Novelli, 2017).

Travellers throughout the world have shown a strong desire to travel to Africa, particularly for the purpose of experiencing the way of life and diverse cultures of the ordinary people in the post-colonial era. Adu-Ampong and Kimbu (2020) argue that theneed and interest for the consumption of rich history and cultures of destination areas in Africa have brought about economic opportunities for African people. They can now be able to actively participate in the tourism industry through serving visitors with tourism products and service during their holidays (BeekandSchmidt, 2012). Thus, tourism has unlocked opportunities for Africans to be enter and benefit from the market through starting-up small and medium size businesses, taking advantage of the available job, skills development, and bringing tangible economic gains for cultural-related activities(Sharpley, 2009).

With that being said, it is also important to note that tourism development, within Africa in general and SADC in particular, remains limited. As a result, many communities still face economic growth challenges and under-development (Seyfi and Hall, 2020). This means tourism development in Africa is still growing at a very slow pace as compared to other destination areas of the third-world, making the continent to lag behind in terms of tourism growth and development(Beek andSchmidt, 2012). As a result, the African continent continue to face new and old challenges, including the high rates of unemployment, poverty and hunger, lack of government services, illiteracy, and environmental issues(Sharpley, 2009).

Carefully read the scenario above and do the following task

Identify a tourism destination within the SADC region and do a thorough research on it to better understand the state of tourism development in the area

  • Brief introduction which has a picture of the chosen destination with proper referencing
  • Give the background of the areaand discuss what makes it unique from other destinations
  • Identify the local resources used fortourism and discuss the progress made thus far to develop and market the area as a ‘must visit area’ to the world
  • Discuss the key challenges, which prevail and thus hinder tourism development in the area
  • Conclusion

Answer to tourism development within Africa and SADC Questions

Tourism Development is considered as one of the most important contributing factors towards the overall development of an economy. This is mainly because there are a number of other sectors that are directly dependent on the development of tourism. This is the reason why governments across the world promote their tourism sector with the objective of attracting people from worldwide so that they can contribute towards the overall development of economic growth of the country. In the given scenario, there is a selection of the tourism destination within SADC region, and this is followed by an evaluation of overall development and challenges faced by the tourism development in the area. The specific tourism destination within the SADC region as selected is …….

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