TRANSFORMING CULTURAL VILLAGES IN THE SPATIAL DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVES OF SOUTH AFRICA

ABSTRACT

Cultural villages in South Africa are predominantly owned and controlled by whites. Transformation in cultural village tourism is essential to the government's agenda of empowerment through tourism. Comparison with the international experience of indigenous people with tourism, points to historically and politically determined factors that have shaped ownership and benefit flows from cultural villages. Literature on indigenous tourism further highlights trends in support for empowerment through tourism, and related debates. In South Africa, the use of tourism as a tool for empowerment has been taken forward predominantly within SDIs and through the SDI process, and has started to affect cultural villages in these areas. Current local strategies and projects can both learn from and contribute to international debates around tourism and empowerment.