Tourism is today the world’s largest industry and an important economic development tool in many developing countries. However tourism sometimes causes social complications, often due to social- and economic gaps that lead to tensions between tourists and local residents. At small island destinations spatial confinement and isolation contribute to the risk of these tensions to occur, which may then ruin the destination’s image. This study examines the relationship between tourists and local residents at the small island Koh Tao, which is a popular tourist destination in Thailand. The aim is to identify possible tensions and to examine why these tensions may occur. The research material is collected through an ethnographic study, including participant observations and informal interviews. The result of the study shows an overall positive relationship between the tourists and local residents, where the tourism industry’s economic contribution to the host community is an important factor fortheir positive attitude towards tourism. A few social- and economic gaps are identified, however these do not seem to be the cause of any notable tensions. Yet, sometimes tensions do occur and are then most often related to cultural- and linguistic misunderstandings. The essay discusses how these misunderstandings could be prevented through increased knowledge and also proposes an illustrating model. Finally, suggestions for future research regarding the usage of tourism as a development tool are proposed. / Minor Field Studies

This study outlines the importance of entrepreneurship in developing and growing the economy. South Africa is low in entrepreneurial activity when compared to other developing countries. Considering South Africa‘s high poverty and unemployment rates, retrenchments, downsizing of big businesses, high failure rate among start-ups, and the valuable contribution that effective entrepreneurship can make towards economic growth and development. It becomes very important to determine how entrepreneurship can be encouraged and promoted to yield the desired results. The key lever to increasing the pool of entrepreneurs is through education. The answer that is evident is that entrepreneurship education should be taught in schools. The South African curriculum has made provision for the teaching of entrepreneurship from an early age. There is a widespread idea that entrepreneurship education would generate more and better entrepreneurs than there have been in the past and that education would increase the chances of obtaining entrepreneurial success. To achieve this, the study attempted to find out about the status of the Economic and Management Sciences (EMS) teachers, whether they have the necessary knowledge and skills to produce learners with an entrepreneurial inclination or not. Again the study attempted to find out whether teachers would like to be trained or not. The results revealed that teachers do not have the necessary knowledge and skills to implement the EMS Learning Area and need to be trained. The study addresses the importance of training teachers in EMS and the principles of entrepreneurship. The goal is to provide teachers with the rationale, mindset, tools, skills and knowledge needed to infuse the spirit of entrepreneurship into classrooms and to expand entrepreneurial career options. Knowledgeable teachers are needed to bridge the gap between the content on paper and the actual transference of the entrepreneurial skills and attitude to the learner in order to raise South Africa’s rate of entrepreneurial activity. Education and training should be improved so that the supply of people equipped to become entrepreneurs is increased. / Dissertation (MPhil (Entrepreneurship))--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Business Management / unrestricted