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

1981). Butler (1991) recognises that maximising the resistance of the resource base
has been successful in some cases, but questions its acceptability to tourists and
others in situations where any change to the resource might reduce its
attractiveness, or where tourists are doubtful of the need for protection.
Butler (1991) is also sceptical of a management approach founded on curbing tourist
numbers, whether this is used to reduce numbers where they are already too high,
or to limit numbers before they reach some 'carrying capacity' level. Butler (1991)
notes that attempts to reduce tourist numbers are rare, due to the risk of jobs and
the standard of living amongst the host population which a reduction in tourist
revenue might bring. Butler's (1991) scepticism is supported by the experience of
some mountain regions, for example, where proposals to reduce tourist numbers
have met with resistance from local populations in response to a potential loss of
income (May, 1991).
For Butler (1991) the foremost, and possibly only, prospect of reducing tourism
pressures in existing centres over the long term lies with education. There is a need
for developers and others in the industry, governments and other public sector
agencies, local populations, and tourists themselves to better understand the
environmental impacts of tourism, and concepts of sustainable tourism growth and
natural resource and environmental management. The primary impediments to the
implementation and success of education strategies include:
• An unwillingness by developers to consider factors other than profit
margins, especially where controls over development are weak;
• A failure by central and local governments to appreciate that it is not
necessarily in their own best interests to facilitate the development of every
resource for tourism;
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