End-Presentation in Capetown

After we finished in Genadendal, we traveled back to Capetown for a few days to end the study tour. There, we saw Robben Island, which is where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for political crimes, during the rise against apartheid.

In Capetown, we presented all of our research findings to the Capetown Tourism board.



Here is a summarized version of our presentation:

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BULEMBU

Research Objective:
"To determine how the local community can contribute to the development of tourism in Bulembu by analyzing the involvement and willingness of the local community."

Bulembu Achievements:
- creating a local honey and guava jam manufacturing projects
- building a craft shop to sell local crafts, adjacent to the main lodge
- tourism lodge infrastructure improvements
- offering guided hikes for tourists through the city and into the foothills
- proactively pursuing a project to enhance existing water lines in the community

Findings & Recommendations:

1. Communication could be improved, in order to achieve more local involvement.

- English. Many local people cannot speak adequate English to interact with tourists. This can be addressed by offering more English language courses in schools, as well as courses for adults. Encouraging informal interaction with tourists can also help.

- Marketing. Marketing at the lodge does not provide information about activities that tourists could participate in, within the community. A large poster with photos of the activities and prices is a good way to inform tourists of what they can do in Bulembu. The website also needs to be further developed.

- HIV. HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention needs to be addressed in the community. This is a strategy for staff-retention and local empowerment.

- Tourism Committee. A tourism committee should be created, to communicate about tourism development in Bulembu. The creation of a committee spreads responsibility over a greater area, and also builds a sense of ownership.

2. Tourism products could be expanded, based on suggestions from interviews. These may include:

- story-telling
- a trip to the daycare for tourists
- rotational homestay
- expansion of existing walking tours for more local involvement (e.g. eating local foods, drink stops, going to the old asbestos mine, tours of the honey and guava projects, etc)
- creating a soccer program for tourists and local children

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GENADENDAL

Research Objective:
"A comparison study between Genadendal and Greyton to measure local community involvement in tourism development."