A dissertation of limited scope submitted to the Faculty of Arts in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the course-work Degree of Master of Arts in the Centre for Recreation and Tourism at the University of Zululand, 2005. / The study was conducted against the background that Ithala Game Reserve has a lot of tourism benefits. These benefits must be shared among the various sectors of the community such as the people who were evicted from Ithala and KZN Nature Conservation Services. The study was aimed at finding out whether these tourism benefits compensate for loss of land. This aim was narrowed down to the following objectives:
• To investigate the level of understanding that Ithala people have
towards the meaning of tourism.
• To identify the criteria and strategy used by authorities to determine
the beneficiaries of tourism resources at Ithala Game Reserve.
• To determine the level of participation of local people in decision-
making concerning tourism related matters.
• To examine the level of accessibility to tourism resources of the
Ithala area.
• To assess the extent to which tourism benefits enhance the livelihood
of the people around Ithala Game Reserve.
The study hypothesised that:
• That the Ithala people have a poor understanding of the meaning of
tourism.
• That there is no clearly defined criteria and strategy used by
authorities to determine the beneficiaries of tourism benefits.
• That the Ithala people do not participate actively in decision-making
concerning tourism benefits.
• That the level of accessibility to tourism resources is relatively
restricted among the Ithala community members.
• That tourism benefits do enhance the livelihood of the Ithala
community in a sustainable manner.
Data was collected through the use of sets of questionnaires, which had both open-ended and closed sections. After this data was collected, it was analysed through the use of computer programme, Statistical Package for Social Sciences. This programme was used to formulate frequency tables and to relate variables.
There were various findings that were deduced from the responses of all interviewees. It was discovered that the Ithala community has limited knowledge about tourism and its benefits in their area. Such limitation resulted from the fact that for a long time, the Ithala community has been excluded from tourism development initiatives. This community was scattered over a large area after eviction, so they know very little about what is happening in the area.
Another stumbling block to access tourism benefits is that the recent arrangements to involve the community in the tourism management are still neatly typed in the Memorandum of Understanding (the legal document that was signed by the Claimants, The Board, NCS), which is not easily accessible to
people. People can begin to accept the prevailing situation provided they have sufficient knowledge about tourism.
To address the concerns of the community, various recommendations were suggested. These included tourism awareness strategies, consultation and involvement of local people in tourism development initiatives, translation of tourism brochures into Zulu and construction of a cultural village. Once local people begin to grasp the concept of tourism, they will begin to accrue more benefits from this lucrative venture. / National Research Foundation and Department of Labour.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uzulu/oai:uzspace.unizulu.ac.za:10530/241 |
| Date | January 2005 |
| Creators | Mayise, Zanele Sonto |
| Contributors | Magi, L.M. |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf |
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