Community Participation in Ecotourism Projects in the Western Cape Province, South Africa: A discourse or a marketing strategy

This research paper contends that tourism-led development should be cognisant of local peoples’ own measures for change. The study argues that local peoples’ aspirations for welfare should be based on the substantial, social, cultural and economic aspects of their livings. The basis of any meaningful alternative tourism development should support and strengthen the existing endogenous resources within communities. It also should encourage interface between tradition and modernity- endogenous and exogenous approaches. Thus, this research paper positioned in the broader theory of Local Development (LD), seeks to situate both endogenous and exogenous approaches as complementary tools to promote competitiveness of the two cases, Cape Care Route in Cape Metropole and West Coast Biosphere Reserve Trails in West Coast Region. This research acknowledges that, local participation in tourism is not always good as hypothesised in literature. Despite that, ways to enhance integration of communities for greater local ecotourism development and nature conservation are theorised as a possible solution for sustainability of ecotourism projects.