Flourishing Women through Sustainable Tourism Entrepreneurship
In Matabeleland North, grassroots women face many disadvantages simply because of their sex such as: obtaining an education, surviving violence, the gender wage gap, and much more.
The Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA) has long been a tourism destination. While tourism is flourishing in these areas, women are, by default, at a disadvantage when accepting the risk of entrepreneurship, simply because they might lack the necessary resources in terms of financial resources, networks and the management expertise to start up their own business.
Furthermore, the negative environmental impacts of tourism are substantial. They include the depletion of local natural resources as well as pollution and waste problems. It puts enormous stress on local land use, and can lead to soil erosion, increased pollution, natural habitat loss, and more pressure on endangered species, as well as negative effects on cultural heritage.
We support sustainable tourism, working with grassroots women groups to become engaged in the business of tourism.
We develop strategies in addressing wider social needs to promote women’s economic empowerment processes through sustainable tourism, facilitate training and develop conservation strategies in resilience building towards climate change as well as capacity building communities.
Such women have become important actors in the tourism entrepreneurial arena, despite facing inequality in a perceived male-dominated environment. Although making significant contributions to the growth of any given economy through their business initiatives, women still face a number of challenges that limit their effectiveness in the small business context.
We give women opportunities to amplify their voices, and help to create opportunities that they have ownership over. We are deliberate and intentional about inclusion and diversity in every action and we keep up the momentum to build long-lasting, sustainable solutions for entire communities by investing in women.
Grassroots women showcase their development projects and together we encourage small-scale and sustainable tourism offerings which involve the local populations. Especially for the women who live in the rural areas, the development of sustainable tourism provides work opportunities and gives women the freedom to be economically independent.
Community empowerment enables the community to establish successful sustainable tourism development through local people’s support for tourism and has a crucial function bridging the link from community empowerment to sustain tourism in a local area.
