Lecciones desde África: Impacto socioeconómico del enclave turístico en Livingstone, Zambia

Abstract

espanolEl presente articulo emplea el paradigma de dependencia para ilustrar los impactos socioeconomicos del turismo de enclave en paises en desarrollo utilizando la ciudad de Livingstone en Zambia (Africa) como caso de estudio. Utilizando fuentes primarias y secundarias, este estudio revela que los inversionistas extranjeros y los turistas internacionales dominan principalmente la industria del turismo en Livingstone. El dominio del sector por parte de inversionistas extranjeros ha resultado en el desarrollo de un paradigma de dependencia de la actividad turistica para contribuir significativamente al desarrollo socioeconomico de la ciudad de Livingstone. A pesar de ser acreditado como un sector importante que contribuye al desarrollo socioeconomico y al alivio de la pobreza, el enfoque del paradigma de dependencia del desarrollo turistico en Livingstone ha conducido a vinculos mas debiles con la economia domestica, lo que ha tenido un impacto minimo en el crecimiento economico general de la ciudad. Ademas, el turismo en Livingstone se ha vuelto poco competitivo desde una perspectiva comercial debido al dominio de la propiedad extranjera de las principales empresas turisticas que han creado carteles y oligopolios en el negocio, creando asi barreras para que las empresas locales compitan efectivamente. Debido a su naturaleza, el sector turistico en Livingstone no se puede declarar como sostenible. Para abordar los problemas del turismo de enclave y promover un desarrollo turistico mas inclusivo y beneficioso en Livingstone y en otros destinos turisticos de paises en desarrollo, es necesario adoptar politicas y estrategias que garanticen la plena participacion de las comunidades locales y un retorno domestico de las significativas ganancias del turismo. Las estrategias tambien deben garantizar que el desarrollo turistico tenga fuertes vinculos con el resto de actividades socioeconomicas locales. EnglishThis paper draws on the dependency paradigm to illustrate the social-economic impacts of enclave tourism on developing countries using the town of Livingstone in Zambia, Africa as a case study. Utilising both primary and secondary data sources, the study indicates that international tourists, foreign investors dominate the tourism industry in Livingstone, Zambia. The foreign domination and ownership of tourism accommodation and adventure activities has led to the repatriation of tourism revenue, taking up of management positions by expatriates at the expense of locals, weaker government policies leading to lower wages and lack of protection for locally engaged employees and generally failure by tourism to significantly contribute to poverty alleviation in Livingstone. As a result, tourism and despite being perceived as a strong sector that would contribute to poverty alleviation, tourism in Livingstone has had minimal social-economic impact on the overall development of Livingstone town due its weaker linkages with the domestic economy. Because of this dominance by foreign ownership that have created cartels in the business, tourism in Livingstone can be said to be unsustainable from a socio-economic perspective. In order to address problems of enclave tourism development and promote more inclusive and beneficial tourism development in Livingstone, Zambia and other developing countries, there is need to adopt policies and strategies that will ensure substantial amounts of tourism revenue returned any tourists destination such as Livingstone. These strategies should also ensure that tourism development in developing countries has strong linkages with the rest of the economic activities in the country.