Tourism and rural development in Maputaland: A case‐study of the Kosi Bay area

Abstract

There is often a vast difference between the needs of the tourism industry and tourists on the one hand and of the local inhabitants of developing tourist destination areas — especially in Third World, rural settings — on the other hand. This article describes some of the problems associated with tourism development in general and discusses tourism development in terms of the psychological saturation effects it can have on local inhabitants. The authors state that tourism could enhance the development of rural areas on an ecologically and economically viable basis, and improve the quality of life of the rural black. They further state that it is possible to reconcile the needs and demands of locals and those of tourism through adequate planning and the development of effec‐tive intra‐ and intercultural communication systems. Using the Kosi Bay area of the Maputaland region in northern Natal as a case‐study, specific suggestions are offered about ways in which this process of need reconciliation can be built into tourism plan‐ning and into the development of a meaningful infrastructure for tourism.

Notes

Both of Department of Psychology, University of Pretoria, Pretoria