A COMMUNITY RELATIONS MODEL

The primary goal of this book was to construct and test a Community Relations Model (CRM) that may be implemented by policy makers, tourism planners and managers as they develop tourism policies and manage the social impacts of tourism. Five objectives were derived from the primary research goal. The first objective was to analyse the social impacts of tourism. This was achieved by examining the theoretical perspectives, framework and models for assessing host community perceptions of social impacts of tourism. The second objective was to analyse the role of the community. The community should actively participate in tourism management by seeking partnership opportunities with the established private tourism sector, voluntary groups and NGO's. The third objective was to determine the components to be used in order to develop and test the CRM. The components were found to be the relationship between the role of government, the role of private sector, community awareness, community involvement, positive impacts and negative impacts of tourism. The fourth objective was to construct and test the CRM based on an empirical investigations.

Autorentext

Dr. Reginah M. Thetsane is a lecturer at the National University of Lesotho. She received her Ph.D in Business Administration majoring in tourism management from the North-West University in South-Africa in 2010. She also holds B.ed, PGDM and MBA degrees. Her major areas of teaching include tourism management, marketing and management.