Barriers to community participation in Zimbabwe s community-based tourism projects.

Abstract

Several barriers to the inclusion of local people in the development of tourism exist in most underdeveloped nations. The aim of this article is to present these impediments to the inclusion of local people in community-based tourism projects in Zimbabwe. A qualitative content analysis of community-based tourism projects in Zimbabwe was done, which involved a systematic search of community-based tourism projects' documents. The 48 documents found identified a total of 84 projects, and 22 of these projects experienced some constraints to the inclusion of local people in tourism. These impediments to local people's involvement in tourism were classified into operational, structural, and cultural barriers and include the absence of a legal system to defend community interests, lack of capacity, failure to devolve power and authority to local communities, domination by a few elites, lack of communities' involvement when making decisions, financial constraints, limited time and apathy. Recommendations on how to mitigate these obstacles to community inclusion in tourism development are given, and areas of future research are suggested.