Public participation in tourism projects for sustainable development : the case of Malealea Lodge and Pony-trekking Centre, Lesotho.
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Date
2008
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Abstract
The concept of public participation is one of the growing interests in development
discourse. It is considered to be one of the valuable principles of sustainable
development, because of its people-centred development approach world wide.
The study examines the level of public participation in the Malealea Lodge and Pony
Trekking Centre and whether the public participation procedures in the centre sustain
the livelihood strategies of the Malealea community. The investigation of the level of
participation is triggered by the notion that the centre presents itself as a "best
community involvement programme."
The study employed qualitative and quantitative methods. Interviews, observations
and documentation were used for data collection. The background to the study
presents levels of participation, the model for full public participation and techniques
for appropriate participation, according to Pearce et al. (1996). The findings within
this study show that from case studies and secondary data collected, one of the driving
factors in the failure of tourism projects is the implementation of policies which stick
to exploitative, outdated approaches to development. Some tourism development
projects are still practising pseudo or partial participation, whilst supposedly
practising full participation.
This study includes the analysis of responses regarding the level of participation and
perceptions of participation from both the community and lodge management. It
shows the shortfalls of full participation in the Malealea Lodge and Pony Trekking
Centre. The researcher concludes that the centre practices partial participation and
recommends, in this project and other similar projects, some potential solutions to
ensure full participation for sustainable community development. Some
recommendations are that: there should be community consultation at all levels of
development, employment contracts should be drawn on agreement of conditions of
work between lodge owners and community members, training and re-training of
different community groups, and local authorities should be capacitated with different
skills, mainly facilitation and management skills. The LTDC should also ensure
implementation of tourism policy.
Description
Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2008
Keywords
Tourism--Lesotho., Theses--Development studies.