Question & Answers

Dear Mayorⁱ Ramokhoase,

Heritage tourism is indeed a sector with enormous potential for local economies in Africa and other parts of the developing world to diversify into. Tourists today are often prepared to pay a premium to have a "different" holiday and see "the real country" rather than just stay in a 5 star hotel that could be anywhere in the world. It is therefore a very good decision for a locality possessing resources with touristic potential to capitalise on this and try to develop its heritage tourism sector.

I have just come back from Jordan, where Municipalities and Governorates are undertaking a process of LED strategic planning and are developing projects to be financed by a forthcoming European Union funded programme. Firstly, they undertook a Local Economy Assessment which identified the locality's resources and comparative advantages. These often included resources with tourism potential such as areas of natural beauty, hot springs with medicinal value, archaeological sites, and cultural heritage including food, folklore, and traditional artefacts. While these resources provide good potential for tourism development, they need significant investment to be functional. Tourists today expect high quality accommodation, excellent management of tourism sites, and good services such as restaurants, crafts shops and folklore shows. In addition to this, the locality will then need good marketing to bring the tourists there in the first place.

Following this assessment, the Governorates and Municipalities are embarking on a strategising process to produce an LED Strategy for each locality. This strategy will include the priority actions and projects needed to develop local resources and unleash the locality's potential for tourism. Current ideas include developing historical monuments and medicinal spas, park and ride facilities for tourists, crafts selling outlets and marketing campaigns in conjunction with the national Ministry of Tourismⁱ.

The key to success will be implementing a comprehensive tourism development programme that does not just develop one or two sites for tourism but that also focuses on improving the level of accommodation, food and information services and on strong marketing of the area. To do this, local governments will need to partner with private sector and civil society actors who can all play a role in developing tourism.

While not a local government initiative, an inspirational example of heritage tourism development has been undertaken in Ethiopia by an NGO called TESFA (Tourism in Ethiopia for Sustainable Future Alternatives). TESFA starting operating in Northern Ethiopia in 2003 with the aim of empowering local communities to provide services to tourists, enabling them to bring in extra income. Although the local area possesses amazing natural beauty, trekking potential, interesting cultural traditions in proximity to the famous rock hewn churches of Lalibella, these communities had probably never seen a tourist and were among the poorest in Ethiopia.

With the help of TESFA, who built simple accommodation facilities and undertook local training, local communities are now managing the facilities themselves and spending the income on improvements that will benefit the whole community. The TESFA trek has now become a popular destination for tourists who come to Ethiopia and want to see "the real Ethiopia" and interact with real communities. Although TESFA still receives grant funding from various donors, the aim is to become commercially profitable and independent in the long term. For more information see http://www.community-tourism-ethiopia.com/Pages/TESFA.htm

I am sure there are many more excellent examples, making a real difference to localities throughout Africa, which other LEDNA members know of or are involved in. I hope to hear of them......