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Abstract
Over the years a plethora of factors have been associated with sustainable tourism in the literature, but little has been done to prioritize those that are most important to stakeholders in destinations. In particular, this research aimed to identify factors perceived as essential for sustainable nature-based tourism operating in transfrontier conservation areas (TFCAs) in southern Africa. A Delphi consultation was conducted in which 518 southern African experts from government, academia, non-governmental organizations, the private sector and consultancies were invited to contribute. Participants rated the relative importance of 502 policy, planning, economic, environmental and social factors drawn from the literature, and additional factors suggested by regional consultees. A statistically significant level of consensus was achieved on 159 multidisciplinary factors considered to be ‘essential’ or ‘incompatible’ with sustainable nature-based tourism in TFCAs. The implications for the assessment of sustainable nature-based tourism in southern African TFCAs are discussed, with a review of how they relate to tourism in the Great Limpopo TFCA: a transboundary protected area that incorporates protected areas in Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe.
Acknowledgement
The author wishes to thank Professor Harold Goodwin of the International Centre for Responsible Tourism and Professor Charles Breen and Dr Trevor Hill of the University of KwaZulu-Natal for their advice; The Leverhulme Trust for their financial support; and all of the Delphi consultees in southern Africa who participated anonymously in this research. Thanks also to anonymous reviewers from Tourism Geographies who provided constructive comments that were used to strengthen this paper.
Notes
∗p < 0.05;
∗∗p < 0.1.