the role of tourism in natural resource management in the okavango ...

Introduction
1.1 Motivation
CHAPTER ONE
"Of all noxious animals, the most noxious is a tourist," wrote the Victorian diarist
Francis Kilvert in 1870. These are words that have been echoed on numerous
subsequent occasions in diverse parts of the world by individuals with widely
differing backgrounds and political persuasions (Bouquet and Winter, 1987).
Tourism provokes reaction, whether positive or negative, and conjures up images of
change and progress, exploitation and degradation. The social, economic and
environmental impact of tourism has long been a focus for academic inquiry in those
parts of the world associated with its most rampant and rapidly growing forms in the
past decades (Bouquet and Winter, 1987).
The dramatic global growth of the middle class and a parallel increase in disposable
income and leisure time following World War 11 has made tourism one of the world's
largest industries, and the world's largest economic sector, generating a higher
income than any other economic activity (Economist. 1991; Filho, 1996; Hall, 2005).
As tourists from the generally more developed 'North' have sought new and more
exotic locations, governments in the generally less developed 'South' have
welcomed them as a source of foreign exchange, investment and economic growth
causing the Third World tourism industry to boom (Torres, 1996; Timothy, 2001).
National development plans are drawn up based on the assumption that the
economic benefits of tourism will trickle down to stimulate other sectors of the
economy, while alternatively helping to conserve and protect the fragile
environments and natural resources on which the tourism industry is often based.
The rationale for this assumption is that the tourist-driven demand for 'pristine and
unspoilt' locations will ensure the long-term protection of these areas by both
government policy makers, tourists and local populations (Ioannides, 1995; Torres,
1996).
1