Leveraging Wildlife Tourism for Employment Generation and Sustainable Livelihoods: The Case of the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, Southern Africa

Lekgau Refiloe J. () and Tichaawa Tembi M. ()
Additional contact information
Tichaawa Tembi M.: University of Johannesburg, School of Tourism and Hospitality, College of Business and Economics, Johannesburg, South Africa

Bulletin of Geography. Socio-economic Series, 2020, vol. 49, issue 49, 93-108

Abstract: This study examined the contribution of wildlife tourism and conservation to employment generation and sustainable livelihoods of a community residing adjacent to the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, Southern Africa. Adopting a qualitative approach, semi-structured interviews were conducted with tourism stakeholders and focus group discussions with members of the community. The findings reveal wildlife tourism to have positively contributed towards providing diverse employment opportunities for the community. Additionally, the livelihood diversification strategies largely involved integrating the cultural and natural resources with the wilderness experience of the region. However, a major concern is the significant lack of linkages between wildlife tourism and the local economy of the community. While the study concludes wildlife tourism to be an important economic sector for the community, it recommends further integration of micro and small local businesses into wildlife tourism so as to enhance the contribution of the Park and wildlife tourism to community livelihoods.

Keywords: wildlife tourism; employment; sustainable livelihoods approach; Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.2478/bog-2020-0026 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:vrs:buogeo:v:49:y:2020:i:49:p:93-108:n:7

DOI: 10.2478/bog-2020-0026

Access Statistics for this article

Bulletin of Geography. Socio-economic Series is currently edited by Daniela Szymańska

More articles in Bulletin of Geography. Socio-economic Series from Sciendo
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Peter Golla ().