Linking Culture and the Environment

212 Tourism and Poverty Alleviation
During the first year they saved R117,000 (US$15,600), which was equivalent
to 25% of what Spier would have spent on a conventional laundry. Therefore,
there was a clear commercial business case for shifting procurement to a local
SMME, as well as clear returns in terms of Spier’s non-financial values.
As a fourth example, a review of seven private game reserves (PGRs) in
the Eastern Cape of South Africa by Sims-Castley et al. (2005) is considered.
In this review, it was found that by changing from farming to wildlife-based
ecotourism, employment had increased by a factor of 3.5: 175 people had
been employed on the seven farms before they were transformed into PGRs,
and this rose to 623 employees under tourism. The wage bill also increased
by a factor of 20, from US$20,848 to US$416,000 per year, providing an average
salary of US$4064 (instead of US$715 previously). This case importantly
illustrates that changing land use from agriculture to tourism can provide
substantial increases in financial benefits to local people, and that they can be
‘engines’ for local economic growth, while simultaneously conserving natural
resources.
Perhaps due to the complexity of the concept of poverty, surprisingly
few studies have extrapolated information on local salaries from tourism
to establish the impact on poverty. However, at a luxury private game
reserve neighbouring Kruger National Park, there was an attempt to do so.
As the fifth and final example, the level of local earnings from the Sabi
Sabi was estimated, and then related to the proportion of local people living
above the international poverty line (US$1 per day) that was determined
during systematic surveys within local communities. It was revealed
that approximately 70% of the monthly wage bill was paid to 140 people
living within 20 km of the enterprise, and that the average monthly wage
was R2500 ( US$357). Local employees effectively earned US$12 per day
and therefore had the capacity to support their estimated 7–8 dependants
to a level just above the poverty line, on US$1.5 per person, per day.
Cumulatively therefore, local employment from Sabi Sabi was estimated
to have lifted between 980 and 1120 dependants in the local area above the
poverty line: or approximately 4.1% of the local population (Spenceley
and Seif, 2002). However, these calculations did not address the wide
range of social, cultural and political aspects of poverty, such as human
dignity (UNHCHR, 2002).
Challenges and Opportunities for Pro-poor Tourism
In their review of pro-poor tourism case studies, Ashley et al. (2001) listed a
range of challenges to alleviate poverty through tourism, but also a number
of opportunities for interventions that could overcome these, as shown in
Table 12.7.
Ashley et al. (2001) also review the lessons for different stakeholder roles
in reducing poverty through tourism, and explain activities that can be undertaken
by the private sector, government, the poor, civil society and donors.