Which factors are most important for sustainable tourism in southern Africa?  

Many experts agree that sustainable, nature-based tourism is an opportunity for developing countries to boost their economic development while supporting conservation efforts. Achieving sustainable tourism development depends on many factors, but which of these are the most important?

Nature-based tourism focuses on undeveloped natural resources such as landscapes, water features and wildlife. A researcher from the International Centre of Responsible Tourism in the UK, consulted local experts and tourism stakeholders in southern Africa to find out which factors they perceived as essential for sustainable nature-based tourism. The study focused on transfrontier conservation areas (TFCAs) – protected areas which cross the frontiers or boundaries of different countries.

The researcher used a forecasting method known as the Delphi technique. This involved consulting a panel of experts, who gave their views anonymously, followed by group communication to ensure the panel collaborated with each other to reach a consensus. The consultation took six months and invited the participation of over 500 stakeholders from governments, academia, non-governmental organisations, the private sector and consultancies, drawn from nine southern African countries.

The panel rated more than 500 factors, including policy, planning, environmental, economic and socio-cultural issues. They reached a consensus on 159 factors that were ‘essential’ for developing sustainable nature-based tourism in TFCAs, or ‘incompatible’ with this.

The research shows:

• Panel members agreed that using local knowledge and the participation of local people in tourism and conservation were very important; this agrees with previous research.
• Economic experts agreed that seasonal and part-time jobs were essential to sustainability; this contradicts much previous research, which cites such employment as undesirable.
• The panel members consistently gave energy conservation factors a low importance rating, despite growing international concern about the links between energy use and global climate change.
• Participants recognised that some forms of sustainable resource use, such as hunting, might not be compatible with nature-based tourism.

The researcher reviewed how these factors related to community-based tourism in the Great Limpopo TFCA, a transboundary area that includes protected areas in Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe. The factors above were all relevant to the Great Limpopo TFCA, as were others including the importance of cultural sensitivity, local consultation and political stability between TFCA nations.

The researcher made several conclusions from the study:

• The Delphi technique can be a long and demanding process when obtaining responses from participants across a wide area.
• The technique does ensure that regional experts have an opportunity to participate in consensus building on controversial issues anonymously.
• Many of the factors which came up in the consultation were relevant to the Great Limpopo TFCA case study; policymakers and practitioners in other places may find it a useful tool for comparing factors relevant to sustainable nature-based tourism in their own settings with those in southern Africa.