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

tourism to influence the accumulation of wealth in developing regions is considerable
(Ryan, 1991; Williams, 1998; Shaw and Williams, 2004).
A second advantage of tourism is its ability to bring about economic regeneration
and provide support for marginal economies through diversification. Evidence of this
exists within numerous rural economies. For example, in areas such as Wales,
Devon and Cornwall in Britain, less profitable hill farm economies have been widely
sustained by the development of farm holidays and tourist activities such as fishing,
riding, shooting, bed and breakfasts businesses and camping (Williams, 1998).
Thirdly, various economists hold the view that an advantage of tourism is its ability to
attract inward investment to finance capital projects. Even though the industry is still
dominated by small-scale local firms, there is a movement towards greater levels of
globalisation in the organisation of world tourism and the development of large-scale
international and multinational operators, each with the ability to move significant
volumes of investment to new tourism destinations. These firms are distinctive not
just due to the way in which they have extended their horizontal linkages (where
firms merge with, or take over other companies operating in the same sector), but
more specifically through the development of vertical linkages in which, for example,
an airline purchases or develops its own travel company and takes on the ownership
of hotels. An example of such a firm is the Grand Metropolitan Group, which has
ownership in international hotels, holiday camps, travel agencies, package tours and
restaurants (Williams, 1998).
In developing nations, the role of foreign investment in creating a tourism industry
through, for example, hotel and resort construction, can be an essential first step,
out of which an indigenous industry may eventually develop. Without the aid of
foreign investment, start-up capital may not be available locally. Even though profits
from foreign-owned firms will tend to leak-out of the economy, local taxation on
tourists and their services can provide funding to assist in the formation of new
indigenous firms and key infrastructure development (roads, water and power
supplies), around which the further expansion of tourism may then be based
(Williams, 1998).
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