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

overriding challenge facing authorities in the Okavango Delta is reducing 'rural­
urban' migration levels, rural poverty, inequality and unemployment.
9.8.1 The Socio-Economic Impacts of Tourism in the Okavango Delta
Region
Much of Third World tourism occurs in rural areas or draws upon rural resources,
and so inevitably leads to socio-economic and cultural changes as well as to the
deterioration of the physical environment (Goodman and Watts, 1994). In the
Okavango Delta, processes of rural restructuring directly linked to tourism
development are dramatically evident. Firstly, the intersection of global utilization
patterns and international tourist flows has occured. Rural areas, traditionally
production spaces for local populations, have become consumption space for the
leisure of non-locals. However, tourists and the indigenous 'other' remain socially,
economically and ethnically separate. Driven by tourist demand, imports are
increasing so that both production and consumption are imported, the tourist
multiplier has diminished and the tension between the local and global continues to
grow (Torres, 1996).
In the Okavango Delta region the resentment by local communities of the
international tourism industry is growing. Locals increasingly perceive the
development of tourism ventures, and the conservation of the areas wildlife and
natural habitats, as the 'selling out' of their land and resources, to foreigners, by the
Botswana Government. Most Batswana in the Delta experience no tangible benefits
from the tourism industry, and hence, fail to see its importance to the region's
economy. Due to the loss of land by local people to conservation and tourism,
tension between indigenous communities and the global tourism industry in the
Okavango Delta continues to grow. According to Alien and Hamnet (1995),
compared to the absolute poverty of the majority of individuals in a Third World host
community, the tourists seem extremely affluent, which is usually manifest in their
appearance and behaviour. In the Okavango Delta most tourists dress in designer
safari fashions, and sport the latest hi-tech photographic and wildlife viewing
equipment. They frequent the luxury hotels and lodges in the area, where the price
of even one meal in such establishments is likely to be more than what a local will
be paid in one month (Alien and Hamnet, 1995). This is leading to increasing
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