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Sustainable tourism and community participation in transfrontier tourism development : case of the Sengwe Community and the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area (GLTFCA)
Thesis (PhD (Tourism Management))--University of Pretoria, 2016.
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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2026
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| _version_ | 1867613472134529024 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author2 | Saarinen, J.J. |
| author_browse | Saarinen, J.J. |
| author_facet | Saarinen, J.J. |
| collection | Thesis |
| description | Thesis (PhD (Tourism Management))--University of Pretoria, 2016. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/110189 |
| institution | University of Pretoria (South Africa) |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:36:41.285Z |
| license_str | Not specified — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UPSpace — University of Pretoria Institutional Repository |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| publishDateRange | 2026 |
| publishDateSort | 2026 |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UPSpace — University of Pretoria Institutional Repository |
| spelling | oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/110189 Sustainable tourism and community participation in transfrontier tourism development : case of the Sengwe Community and the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area (GLTFCA) Saarinen, J.J. schiutsi@gmail.com Chiutsi, Simon Sustainability Community poarticipation Transfrontier tourism Thesis (PhD (Tourism Management))--University of Pretoria, 2016. Since the inception of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area (GLTFCA), which happens to be the flagship transfrontier tourism destination in southern Africa, there has been a great deal of optimism about communities development and livelihoods development through transfrontier tourism. Admittedly the GLTFCA has been a battle ground for scholarly attention interrogating the multiple objectives of the GLTFCA which include biodiversity conservation, growth of the tourism sector, regional cooperation and socio-economic development. Due to the multinational packaging of the GLTFCA there has been concern that it is excluding and further marginalising the local communities who happen to be one of the key stakeholders in this transfrontier tourism destination. As a result the study comes to make its contribution towards understanding community participation in transfrontier tourism and the projected livelihood changes that have been largely associated with the GLTFCA initiative. This research explores the extent to which livelihood strategies have been transformed in the GLTFCA with particular focus on the Sengwe community, by investigating the extent to which the local communities have been involved in the transfrontier destination through sustainable tourism and biodiversity conservation. The research objectives are; to assess community participation in conservation and tourism entrepreneurship; analyse community members perceptions towards the GLTFCA; to generate knowledge of community integration in conservation and tourism opportunities. The theoretical framework of the research is based on the key concepts of transfrontier conservation, sustainable livelihoods development and community based tourism (CBT) in transboundary conservation. The study is mainly based on qualitative approaches but aims to utilise also the benefits of quantitative analysis. Research material was collected between March and October in 2013 by using structured interviews as many rural community members are not often able to respond independently to a questionnaire kind of questions.The research concludes that the local community members from the Sengwe area in the GLTFCA remain largely alienated from the key tourism activities currently operational in the transfrontier destination and that the GLTFCA lead agencies have not meaningfully involved the local people in their programmes. As a result the local people are largely negative about the prospects of tourism driven livelihoods in the GLTFCA due to the realisation that local participation in sustainable conservation and ecotourism is subdued and weak. As such the dominant livelihood strategies have remained largely crop farming and livestock rearing as the tourism industry vi is not meaningfully availing opportunities for community participation. There is a greater concern from the local people in Sengwe which happens to be a key stakeholder in the GLTFCA that the hype and excitement associated with ecotourism in this transfrontier tourism destination have not been meaningfully availed to the people since the inception of the transboundary conservation arrangement in 2002. In recommendation, the success of tourism and livelihoods sustainability needs a positive enabling environment in which local community members are meaningfully engaged and not to bring down the objective of community participation to merely rhetorical or tokenistic levels. There is need to improve transfrontier governance and facilitate community participation through partnerships with both the private and public sector. There is need for the GLTFCA lead agencies to promote programmes which improve livelihoods sustainability as these will increase the perceived utility of GLTFCA by the local people. This in turn could guarantee increased trust and collaboration of the local people towards the GLTFCA primary goal of biodiversity conservation. One of the key findings is that the worsening socio-economic conditions and political instability in Zimbabwe since 2000 has negatively affected tourism growth and conservation funding in southeast Zimbabwe and there is need for the government and other key stakeholders to work towards restoration of socio-economic and political stability so that Zimbabwe regains its destination competitiveness. Tourism Management PhD (Tourism Management) 2026-05-15T17:26:36Z 2026-05-15T17:26:36Z 16/02/15 2016 Thesis http://hdl.handle.net/2263/110189 en application/pdf |
| spellingShingle | Sustainability Community poarticipation Transfrontier tourism Sustainable tourism and community participation in transfrontier tourism development : case of the Sengwe Community and the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area (GLTFCA) |
| title | Sustainable tourism and community participation in transfrontier tourism development : case of the Sengwe Community and the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area (GLTFCA) |
| title_full | Sustainable tourism and community participation in transfrontier tourism development : case of the Sengwe Community and the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area (GLTFCA) |
| title_fullStr | Sustainable tourism and community participation in transfrontier tourism development : case of the Sengwe Community and the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area (GLTFCA) |
| title_full_unstemmed | Sustainable tourism and community participation in transfrontier tourism development : case of the Sengwe Community and the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area (GLTFCA) |
| title_short | Sustainable tourism and community participation in transfrontier tourism development : case of the Sengwe Community and the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area (GLTFCA) |
| title_sort | sustainable tourism and community participation in transfrontier tourism development case of the sengwe community and the great limpopo transfrontier conservation area gltfca |
| topic | Sustainability Community poarticipation Transfrontier tourism |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/2263/110189 |