ABSTRACT

Local economic development remains an important imperative for developing countries, especially countries with large rural communities where little economic activity is evident. This especially applies to southern Africa and specifically South Africa, which has adopted local economic development as a reform mandate for local governments. Many lessons from the South African situation had been exported to other parts of Africa. This chapter therefore aims to provide an overview of local economic development in the context of southern Africa, focusing on the progress and challenges of local economic development, the rise of rural tourism and its impact on communities, as well as community-based tourism and route tourism as ways in which communities can benefit from government and private partnerships and tourism development.