The effects of Community-Based Tourism on socio-cultural values

With the appearance of a Community-Based Tourism (CBT), in 1994, supported Namibian communities are getting significant control over and benefits from the industry. The aim of the thesis is to investigate if the growth in CBT leads to considerable socio-cultural impacts on the host population, using the Himba and the Ovambo tribe as case studies. The study reveals that the socio-cultural capacity has not been overexploited. The casual earnings have contributed to human and physical capital and to community and women empowerment. On the negative social side, there have appeared inter-generational misunderstandings, jealousies, imitation effects and the collective traditional life-style is being altered. In the cultural field, the arts and crafts are being recovered, transmitted and therefore the cultural identify has been strength. Several traditional crafts have been altered. Besides, through the gained skills, new kinds of decorative arts have been developed. Finally, there is required a regularly monitoring in tourism impacts and a major socio-anthropological involvement in order to comprehend the effects of tourism in general and the CBT in particular.