Author(s)

J. Pansiri & R. N. Mmereki

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of tourism on urban and rural communities in Botswana. Based on past work on tourism impacts, this paper identifies a set of tourism impacts and analyzes their implication for tourism development in Botswana. The study is based on a review of the literature which provided a theoretical understanding of the impact of tourism on communities. This theoretical understanding was then tested using primary data that was collected through a survey of 595 respondents from Gaborone, Kasane, Maun and Mochudi in Botswana. The study was designed in such a way that it captured tourism impacts in both urban and rural communities. The study found that tourism affect host communities positively and negatively, and that respondents’ perceived effects of tourism on their communities differed significantly dependent upon whether one is employed in the tourism industry, have ever visited any tourism facility, and was born in that particular community Keywords: tourism impacts, Botswana, tourism development, local communities, economic development, developing countries, economic diversification. 1 Introduction Tourism has been identified as an engine of growth and an industry with potential to contribute to Botswana’s economic diversification that will help to broaden the country’s economic base (Commonwealth Sectretatiat [1]). Tourism is currently Botswana’s second largest contributor towards GDP and is therefore

Keywords

tourism impacts, Botswana, tourism development, local communities, economic development, developing countries, economic diversification