Conceptualizing a Framework for Cultural Heritage Based Tourism in Rural Areas of Zambia

This paper focuses on rural community participation in tourism through their cultural heritage resources. It develops a technical account of actions that the local community of Lake Kashiba may employ to exploit and economically benefit from their cultural heritage through tourism. Currently, Zambia does not have a mechanism that promotes the utilization and management of cultural heritage resources for tourism. As a result, key stakeholders at rural tourist destinations have been excluded from effectively participating in and economically benefiting from the tourism industry. Findings show that there is a plethora of cultural heritage resources that could be a vital tourism product for a rural tourist destination such Lake Kashiba and have therefore revealed six themes that emerged, namely: cultural history tourism attractions; cultural activities for tourists; cultural products, food and beverages saleable to tourists; diversity of tourist attractions; and barriers to economic benefits from tourism. From the emerging themes a conceptual framework for cultural heritage based tourism in a rural setup has been advanced. Key economic benefits of tourism based on such a framework have been identified as employment, business and land sale/leasing opportunities for locals. Qualitative data informing this paper was obtained through interviews with 79 participants that were sampled via non-probability approaches and 10 individuals from two focus group discussions. Findings of this study leave little doubt that with a plethora of cultural heritage at a rural tourist destination such as Lake Kashiba, concerned local communities could benefit economically from the related tourism. Because of similarities in rural tourist destinations, it can be averred that the conceptual framework proposed in this paper could be applicable to any rural tourist destination within Zambia and beyond.