International demand and motives for African community-based tourism

Abstract

This study utilizes the push-pull model to understand demand for community-based tourism (CBT) in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Data was collected through an online Google Form survey undertaken with respondents in Eberswalde, Germany. The findings show that there is a substantial international demand for CBT. The push motives behind the demand are not only limited to interaction, novelty seeking, authentic and new knowledge and sharing economy ethos, but also include physical motives of relaxation. This is in contrast to a dominant argument that motives for CBT represent the dichotomous polarized discourses of soft versus hard with reference to the notions of interaction versus relaxation. The findings also show that the mere presence of natural and cultural resources does not structure pull motives, but critical in pulling tourists are the traditional use of the resources by the local community, safety and security, accessibility, quality of service and sustainability aspects of CBTs. In addition, the findings indicate that potential tourists prefer to arrange CBT tour themselves through the internet and website. The implications of these findings are examined for conceptualizing tourism demand and motives and marketing of CBT in SSA.