Releationship between Sustainable Tourism Planning

The continuing limited involvement of local community and regional government authorities in tourism planning and the development of sustainable tourism approaches given the continued conspicuously absence of documented national development planning policy and fragmented legislation framework of sustainability in Zambia’s national strategies Berrisford (2011). With the role of tourism in economic development been established and recognised in statutory plans. Sustainability now underpins sectorial policy framework for tourism in Zambia, and the landmark steps taken to develop and review national aspirations for tourism development will represent a step forward in establishing a clear remit for local government in planning for tourism. The extent to which this is rhetoric rather than reality is questionable, given the somewhat mixed results in the survey of local government agencies reported in this study. For Zambia a country emerging from a history of centralised economic planning, this question becomes even more vexed quite clearly, a range of pressures continue to affect local areas and the challenges that face many local communities in trying to manage the effects of tourism on environmental resources are as pressing as ever. A national tourism plan will enable local authorities and councils to evolve futures that befit environmental resource opportunities and constraints, community aspirations and local budgets. While tourism is mainly a private sector industry in Zambia, the public sector adopts a dual role as the gatekeeper of tourism developments through planning control, while promoting economic development opportunities through tourism.

As such, while councils have become the arbiters of sustainable tourism through their role in implementing the Zambia Tourism Policy, the appeal of developing the local economy places them in a dichotomous position. While much of this discussion sounds positive, there is still a major gap between strategy and implementation in the evolution towards Zambia as a sustainable destination. While sustainability is now one of the cornerstones under tourism strategy review, much of this lies at a national strategic level and remains as a philosophical stance. Evidence suggests that problems created by tourism pressures do exist and some of these are difficult to deal with given the ppoor linkages and synergies within the various tiers of government that undertake planning with limited budgets at local government. Pressure at key tourist hotspots and with certain tourism related activities is recognised, and with the continuing growth in tourist numbers forecasted, the effects of tourism have the potential to change the nature of the tourist experience and the very foundations on which Zambian tourism is built.