In Search of Inclusive Tourism in South Africa: Some Lessons from the International Experience

The inclusiveness of tourism development is coming under close academic and policy scrutiny particularly as inclusion is one of the core principles behind the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Tourism development can be inclusive and assist towards poverty reduction only if a broad array of stakeholders contribute both to the creation of opportunities as well as to sharing of its potential benefits. The challenge of moving towards a more inclusive tourism economy is squarely on the South African government policy agenda. It demands that greater benefits flow to local (black) communities as well as other groups (especially women and the disabled) that formerly remained largely outside of the mainstream of the country’s tourism economy. This situation provides the context for the analysis of policy insights drawn from a review of international experience around inclusion in tourism or more specifically in coastal and marine tourism. It is argued that there is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ policy solution that can be applied across all different forms of coastal tourism and that in assessments of the potential of economic inclusion a range of coastal tourism models must be interrogated.