No abstract available. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1999.

The tourism phenomenon has shifted focus from a purely economic and business development strategy towards sustainable development and community-based tourism. It currently emphasises the importance of responsible tourism development. A growing trend in South Africa and KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) is the promotion for tourists and host destinations to take responsibility for local resources, including cultural and natural resources. As a result, the proliferation of cultural, heritage and natural centred attractions have emerged throughout the province. However, this shift in thinking has not always managed to result in sustainable and successful tourism projects in practice. The academia emphasises the breach that exists in community participation and levels of management in many community-based initiatives. This research project proposes that sustainable tourism development requires a thorough examination of how communities perceive the tourism phenomenon and how they would like to see their own cultural identity represented to tourists. The case study of the Van Reenen community was interspersed with visual research methods in order to elicit a purer response from the local community. It questions what influences people’s perceptions of their collective and individual social identities. This research used conventional interview methods combined with two visual methodologies, namely auto-driven elicitation and photo elicitation. The former removes the researcher from the image-making process and involves the use of photographs or visual art produced by the research subjects in response to a specific question. The latter method is based on the idea of placing a photograph into a research interview and structuring questions around it. The theoretical framework of this study considers cultural self-representation as a tool to enhance community participation which can result in more sustainable and authentic experiences for both the tourists as well as the host community. Referring to the gap which exists in sustainable tourism development, this method can be very productive to increase community tourism knowledge development and participation. The results of this research will enable the local community to produce marketing literature; enable the N3 Toll Concession (Pty) Ltd (the project sponsor) to enhance community-based tourism (CBT) in the area, and inform future projects. The participant data reveals that this particular rural community is substantially influenced by their most immediate surroundings. It can therefore be assumed that the community has a perception which values that their current cultural and natural heritage can be utilised as vehicles for tourism development. The case study identifies its own limitations in not eliciting enough useful data from participant self-analysis. The visual methods used in this study provide tourism development projects with a tool to increase community commitment through real involvement as well as constructions of authentically unique products for the tourists. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2012.