Local tourism awareness: Community views in Katutura and King Nehale Conservancy, Namibia

In Namibia the tourism industry is increasingly used for socioeconomic development. Recent government policies have highlighted the role of community-based tourism in particular, a policy tool that aims to ensure that local communities can participate actively in tourism and have a fairly high degree of control over tourism development and practices, so as to recognise and receive the benefits of tourism. For this to happen, local people need to know about tourism, tourists and the impacts of tourism in their daily environment. This paper discusses community views and local tourism awareness in two case study communities in Namibia: Katutura, in Windhoek, and King Nehale Conservancy. It concludes that making local communities aware of tourism could help them become agents in tourism development, rather than objects as is still often the case in peripheral and marginalised rural and urban communities in southern Africa.