Tourism for development and the new global aid regime

Abstract

This article analyses the new global aid regime’s championing of tourism as a solution to poverty as a continuum of colonial governmentalities. A key focus is an examination of tourism for development in Namibia, particularly the role of conservancies and the Community-Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) programme in this promotion. We argue that this tourism promotion in Namibia is a vital example of tourism for development and part of an increasingly widespread promotion of tourism as a means of achieving broad advanced liberal development goals. We examine the growth of conservancies and suggest that they are a technology of colonial governmentality in Namibia’s tourism for development. They act to shape the physical environment, wildlife and livelihoods for the communities engaged in the conservancies in the name of tourism and advance liberal ideas of poverty reduction. The article concludes with consideration of the manner in which these conservancy programmes can be considered as extensions of colonial rule in the name of tourism for development.