Re-Imagining Community-Based Tourism in Rural Africa Through Networks and Management Innovation

Abstract

While community-based natural resource management appears common in Africa, management innovation (MI) in community-based tourism (CBT) on the continent has received limited attention. This chapter contributes to the innovative management of CBT promoted through recruiting actors that might seem remote ordinarily in tourism governance. We noted complexities in managing CBTs with multi-actors and diverse interests. Using actor network theory (ANT) and MI, we argue that CBT can be managed innovatively by recruiting diverse transnational, national and local actors, institutions, and discourses. It entails a complex and interactive engagement with actors that help in marketing, promoting, and tourism infrastructure development. MI in CBT is analysed within a network perspective of enrolling actors into a tourism system to pursue communal and corporate agenda. And lessons from CBTs in Ghana and South Africa highlight that (un)successful CBT is contingent on effective recruiting and enrolling of actors to promote resilient and inclusive tourism.