Community Tourism Entrepreneurship for Sustainable Tourism Management in Southern Africa: Lessons from Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe tourism development has suffered the pitfalls of uneven development often producing disproportionate distribution of returns. While tourism has been promulgated as a panacea to the socio-economic development challenges Zimbabwe is facing, local and often marginalized rural communities have not meaningfully reaped the benefits through tourism income. In this paper community tourism entrepreneurship is suggested as a viable option to promote sustainable tourism as it places the local communities at the centre of tourism planning and management. The entrepreneurial model puts limelight on the Community Based Tourism evaluation criteria that fosters a broad-based ownership of the tourism resource base, and focuses on the degree of individual participation and the extent to which the tourism income is earned directly by local communities through entrepreneurial activities and administering tourism services. The findings of this study, based on a survey of the Community Based Tourism Enterprises in Mashonaland West Province in Zimbabwe indicate that local communities occupy a peripheral role in the tourism sector matrix. The real tourism industry is taking place outside of community control and influence. There is therefore need to build Community Based Tourism Enterprises (CBTEs) capacity in terms of tourism product development, linkages with the tourism market and further enhance community collective awareness of tourism opportunities in their locality. In this paper it is therefore notable that a higher level of community tourism entrepreneurship leads to greater socio-economic benefits for the majority of residents leading to biodiversity conservation and sustainable tourism development.