Change management for sub-Saharan Africa's rural tourism development

Abstract

Managing transition from traditional livelihood activities to rural tourism in a local community is a sensitive process. The purpose of this paper is to point out and address risks and contingencies associated with rural tourism development in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), as a change process. This study conducted descriptive analysis of change management for SSA's rural tourism development. It is exploratory in nature and by no means conclusive. The occasional review of internal strengths and weaknesses combined with external threats and opportunities with regard to rural tourism development can act as a creative spur for action. This will enable a rural community to highlight their skills and capabilities, their sources of leverage and knowledge necessary to embark on a change process as regards tourism development. Stakeholders, with local people at the core can collaborate and manage this development proactively and retain revenue generated from tourism within rural communities. An effective vision for rural tourism development should have a reference to an idealistic future but be based in the present, with a value proposition to differentiate the particular products and services the local community is offering. Measuring the impacts of the change process should be done in both informal and formal manner.

Keywords:

• change management
• change process
• local community
• rural tourism
• tourism development
• sub-Saharan Africa

Acknowledgements

The author acknowledges the suggestions of the anonymous reviewers, who added more value to this paper.