ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates evidence of how tourism's economic development benefits could be improved based on well researched methodologies. Botswana is a highly regarded safari tourism destination that receives about 100,000 visitors a year. Historically, foreign companies dominated Botswana's well developed tourism economy, leaving little opportunity for local people, but now the country receives praise for its proactive policies that favor the poor. Tourism as a national policy for governments is undergoing rapid change in order to acknowledge the importance it has as a powerful generator of foreign exchange. Many countries are updating and reorienting their plans to develop more cohesive integrated policies in response. Pro-poor revisionists have sought to foster a triple bottom line approach to investment in local economies that takes into account societal and ecosystem well-being, also known as livelihood needs. The goal is to foster long-term change and allow local people to access the capital required to do so.
