Tourism based black economic empowerment [BEE] : initiatives for local community development
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Date
2010-01
Authors
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Publisher
University of Zululand
Abstract
The South African government through a variety of tourism policies and strategies has tried to utilise the Black economic
empowerment [BEE] initiative to improve economic benefits for the previously disadvantaged communities. This is to bear
in mind that the BEE initiative has been criticised in that “transformation has come to represent a way of compensating
previously disadvantaged people, rather than creating opportunities for all citizens to contribute their talents and energies
to the process of developing our country” (Ramphele, 2008: 265).
This paper aims at discussing the viewpoints, practicalities and challenges of the tourism related BEE initiatives towards
achieving community empowerment and development in KwaZulu-Natal. It also focuses on identifying tourism business
opportunities available to the previously neglected communities and social groups. Some of the more specific objectives
are: (a) To reveal the extent to which Black people are aware of tourism based BEE opportunities. (b) To establish the
levels of tourism stakeholder participation in the BEE initiatives within the study area. (c) To investigate whether the BEE
policy is perceived as contributing adequately to tourism entrepreneurship in the study area. It is anticipated that the
findings of this study will reflect outcomes that represent the true nature of Black economic empowerment opportunities
in the area. It was established that the implementation of BEE policies was not adequately stimulating tourism
development, and needed the introduction of a new tourism strategy for entrepreneurial development.
Description
Peer reviewed article published under Inkanyiso, Volume 2, Issue 2, Jan 2010, p. 98 - 107
Keywords
Black economic empowerment, entrepreneurship, tourism, tourism development, community development, disadvantaged communities
Citation
Magi, L.M., 2010. Tourism based black economic empowerment [BEE]: initiatives for local community development. Inkanyiso: Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, 2(2), pp.122-134.