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Tourism, Food, and Culture: Community‐Based Tourism, Local Food, and Community Development in M pondoland
Author(s) -
Giampiccoli Andrea,
Kalis Janet Hayward
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
culture, agriculture, food and environment
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.308
H-Index - 12
eISSN - 2153-9561
pISSN - 2153-9553
DOI - 10.1111/j.2153-9561.2012.01071.x
Subject(s) - tourism , livelihood , tourism geography , resource (disambiguation) , poverty , community development , local community , indigenous , business , economic growth , rural tourism , marketing , agriculture , geography , political science , economics , ecology , computer network , archaeology , computer science , law , biology
Tourism is often seen as a tool for poverty alleviation and community development. This article highlights community‐based tourism as a possible strategy for the development of poor communities. It further investigates how specific cultural contexts––in this case, that of rural M pondoland, S outh A frica––can contribute to positive community‐based tourism development outcomes. In this sense, the local culture is not seen as a tourist attraction but as a resource on which community‐based tourism development can be built. The article locates community‐based tourism within a more general strategy of diversifying rural livelihoods. Poor households in rural areas meet their needs through a combination of livelihood strategies and community‐based tourism is seen as an additional means to meet household needs. In addition, local culture becomes a tourism resource using indigenous foods, arts, and crafts as tourism attractions. Food is one example of a local cultural resource that has the potential to facilitate a number of community benefits.