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The research is centred on rural tourism and its socio-economic effects on the local community of Hlabisa located adjacent to the Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park, investigating and disclosing the socio-economic conditions, tourism activities, rural tourism models/ strategies, community participation and challenges faced by the local community and businesses in the area. The socio-economic conditions include employment, income, education, quality of life and other relevant infrastructure contributed by rural tourism to the local economy of Hlabisa. According to Ivanovic et al. (2009) rural tourism can develop rural economies by providing new economic activities and employment. The research was guided by five research objectives: (1) To determine the socio economic well-being of the local community of Hlabisa, i.e. employment, income, skills development, entrepreneurial opportunities; (2) To determine level of tourism development and the nature of tourism activities taking place in the Hlabisa area; (3)To determine the level of community participation and representation on tourism activities taking in Hlabisa; (4) To ascertain rural tourism strategies / rural tourism models in place to empower the local community of Hlabisa socially and economically? (5) To ascertain the challenges / obstructions faced by the rural community and tourism entrepreneurs of Hlabisa? The research problem of the study seeks to investigate the extent to which the wellbeing of the local communities of Hlabisa is being empowered or changed for the better socially and economically through the game park and tourism development inter alia. The Rural Tourism Strategy (2012) states that between 10-15 million South Africans live in areas that are characterised by extreme poverty and underdevelopment. “There is limited integration of local communities and previously neglected groups into tourism, inadequate tourism education, training and awareness and lastly lack of infrastructure, particularly in rural areas” (Rural Tourism Strategy 2012). Moreover, what triggers the researcher’s curiosity is that while seeing and knowing that there is quite a number of tourism activities taking place in the study area but the extent to which those activities affect the livelihood of the surrounding rural communities economically and socially is unknown. The concept and literature were matched or tested in line with the identified themes which were as follows:  Socio-economic conditions;  Rural tourism models (strategies);  Community participation and representation in tourism;  Tourism activities; and  Challenges / obstructions faced by the local community and businesses in the area. The study was anchored around the Integrated Rural Tourism (IRT) development model “with emphasis on co-planning, learning and participation which originates from the Global North” (Saarinen and Lanao 2014). This model was relevant to this study because “it discusses key challenges of rural tourism development especially related to the integration of the tourism industry and rural communities in developing countries and overviews the applicability and conditions of the IRT framework as a potential approach for rural tourism development in the developing world” (Saxena et al. 2007). The study employed a qualitative research approach, with the following tools or instruments used to collect data i.e. questionnaires, unstructured interviews with open ended questions and focus groups. The questionnaires were analysed using the Atlas.ti 8 Data Analysis Software in order to enhance reliability by applying the rules built into the programme. The information analysed included employment, income, education, quality of life and other relevant infrastructure contributed by rural tourism to the local economy of Hlabisa. The software provided tools that helped with transcription analysis, coding and text interpretation, recursive abstraction, content analysis and discourse analysis. The outcomes from the interviews indicate that the majority of the local community respondents are happy with the economic opportunities presented by tourism development in the area. The majority of respondents indicated the community participates in tourism planning and development activities in the area. There are structures in place such as Co-management boards in the Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park and, Local Community Committees and Community Trust that represent communities in decision making processes in relation to tourism. However, the key challenges that emerged from the findings were that the majority of the locals employed in tourism occupied low paying positions, with grade 08-12 and no tourism qualifications. This means locals do not have the necessary qualifications and skills to qualify to be employed in Senior Management positions in the tourism establishments in the area. The lack of a tourism qualification, training and skills would prohibit locals to progress up the ranks to become managers who earn higher salaries and be in a position to make key decisions about tourism in the area. On the other hand, the small family run tourism business cited access to capital and incentives, markets access, road access, lack of training programmes, unreliable electricity and water supply among the main challenges they face in the area of Hlabisa which affects their growth and revenue. Recommendations arising from the study include but are not limited to the following: The local and district municipality, provincial and national government tourism institutions should consider providing bursaries to the youth and scaling leanership programmes in Hlabisa in order to have greater reach and impact in advancing the careers of the local people in the local tourism industry. The Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park should put in place a sound educational programme to improve the education of the local people of Hlabisa so that they can advance to high ranking positions in order to earn high income. The small businesses in the area of Hlabisa should enter into joint marketing agreements with one another, travel trade, destination marketing organisations in order to increase tourist volume and revenue but also to meet tourist demand in the interim. In addition, the local, provincial and national tourism institutions should put in place sound tourism dedicated incentives and capital to assist small tourism business businesses to grow and expand their businesses to enable these small tourism businesses to employ more local people and pay them high income

The socio-economic effects of tourism development in rural areas : the case of Hlabisa and its local community adjacent to game parks