Rethinking trans-boundary tourism resources at the Botswana-North West Province border

Abstract

Several studies have recently revealed intimate linkages between political boundaries and contemporary tourism forms. This study draws on both the stakeholder theory and sustainability thinking to harness potential trans-boundary tourism resources straddling the Botswana-North West Province border of South Africa, and to synthesize the deeply divided resource base and potential stakeholders. It is argued that the boundary places actual and imaginary constraints on the potentially appealing cultural and historical heritage, and deepens the centre–periphery, rural–urban and global–local divides. Rethinking the increasingly complex nature of boundaries and cultural heritage can enrich the eco-cultural provision based on a fuller understanding of opportunities for trans-boundary rural tourism. Given the few trans-boundary tourism accounts that have explored the integrated concept of humans in nature, this study seeks to emphasize the need for this concept. What has been hypothesized is confirmed. Some findings are that cross-border communities are culturally affiliated to nature – highlighting the integrated human–ecological systems on which the potential cross-border tourism would depend; and they demonstrate inclinations to conserve and effectively harness global–local relationships by exposing Indigenous Knowledge Systems to western epistemological traditions and through visiting friends and relatives trips which represent the study location’s major source of tourism.