Ahead of the 2013 Adventure World Summit, the first Summit to be held in Africa, our guests from the The World Bank Group wanted to share an eight-page overview of their new book, Tourism in Africa: Harnessing Tourism for Growth and Improved Livelihoods (available online). The book was prepared to support governments and the private sector across Africa in their understanding and planning for their tourism sectors, and with 24 viable case studies, is a dynamic resource for anyone interested in successful models of sustainable stakeholder issues in African tourism.
During the Summit, Hannah Messerli, from the World Bank will be part of a session entitled “Synergy – A Study in Development & Tourism” that will review Namibia’s success in becoming a world leader in balancing conservation, community development and tourism. She will be joined by leaders in both government and conservation. The moderator of the session, Mr. John Kasaona, is the son of the first game guard in Namibia, and is today a distinguished second-generation leader in the Namibia’s Community Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) Program.
In a second session, John Perrottet, from the World Bank Group, will be speaking on “Raising Capital for Community Based Tourism Businesses.” He will explore capital raising models for community based tourism businesses, specifically examining what project developers and destination managers need to know to be successful. Based on the World Bank Group’s experience as both financier, project packager and advisor to SMEs (small and medium sized enterprises), John will address topics such as the different types of finance and what this means for community SMEs, what financiers need to know about your project, how banks will assess your project and your destination, developing an investment strategy for your destination and risk and how it is assessed.