Essay On Tourism Development

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THE SOCIAL, ECONOMIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF TOURISM DEVELOPMENT IN BOTH THE OKAVANGO DELTA (BOTSWANA) AND ISIMANGALISO WETLAND PARK.
The sustainability term could be defined as an ability or capacity of something to be maintained or to sustain itself. Sustainability is about taking what we need to live now, without jeopardising the potential for people in the future to meet their needs. If an activity is said to be sustainable, it should be able to continue forever. Therefore sustainable tourism refers to tourism development that that avoids damage to the environment, economy, and culture of the locations where it take place. The aim of sustainable tourism is to ensure that development is positive for the local people, tourism companies as well as the tourists themselves. Taking such an approach of sustainable tourism development is quite beneficial and minimizes conflicts of interest.
The term PRINCIPLES OF SUSTAINABILITY goes hand in hand with the one of RESPOSIBLE TOURISM, its state that are we responsible or acting responsibly enough in saving or using wisely our resources to avoid their depletion. It is therefore wise to sustainably use our resources so that the future generations can still enjoy them.
In the case study of the Okavango Delta in Botswana by (Mbaiwa,2003), he stated that the Okavango Delta is one of Botswana’s leading tourists destination areas, mainly because of the rich wildlife resources it sustains and its scenic beauty. It is indeed quite clear that the principles of sustainability were applied in the Okavango Delta in Botswana because it is said that tourism has stimulated the development of a variety of allied infrastructure and facilities such as (hotels, lodges and camps) in the Okavango region....

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...es of O.D and I.W.P has contributed more in the upliftment of living standards of the local communities through infrastructural development, creation of job opportunities and it created sense of pride in local culture. Tourism development in both destinations has made local people to be aware of the sustainable ways of development and the sustainable ways of using local resources more wisely. The implementation of CBNRM and community-based projects has been a driving force towards the application of sustainability principles of every aspect in both destinations. Although it also known that not every projects imposed by tourism destinations becomes a success, therefore there were some failures or some negatives on the ‘environmental impacts’ part of the destinations but it also of greater significance that those negative impacts are well monitored and controlled.

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