Scaling-Up Tourism in East and Southern Africa: The Role and Impacts af Transfrontier Conservation Areas
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Date
2015
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Abstract
Tourist destinations that are transfrontier in nature have marked the latest tourism
innovation in East and Southern Africa. Owing to the emergence of borderless notion that
supports the establishment of transfrontier conservation areas, the industry benefits from
supra-national green destinations that increase free movement of tourists and services
across state borders. This paper adds to an important literature on scale construction and
its spatial implications for transfrontier tourism. It examines how the borderless notion is
used to support scaling-up of tourism and the establishment of transfrontier destinations
in East and Southern African regions. The main argument of the paper is that scaling
processes that promote borderless tourism are necessarily a means of producing space for
private projects of actors who are involved in facilitating these processes. The paper draw
lessons from the East African Community and Southern African Development Community
to demonstrate how these regional blocks are used differently to mobilize political support
and legitimacy for ‘borderless tourism initiatives’. Subsequently, this discussion shifts
towards examining how ecological and economic claims made of borderless destinations
are directly associated with creating space for private investments of conservation
organizations.
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Keywords
Transfrontier tourist destinations, Scale, Space, East Africa, Southern Africa
Citation
Noe, C., Scaling-up tourism in East and Southern Africa: the role and impacts of transfrontier conservation areas.