FOR WHAT STANDS THE "B" IN THE CBT CONCEPT: COMMUNITY-BASED OR COMMUNITY-BIASED TOURISM? SOME INSIGHTS FROM NAMIBIA

Since the middle of the 1990s, the Namibian government has tried to tackle land and socioeconomic inequalities prevailing in the country. In this regard, rural communities, registered as communal conservancies, were granted new rights over wildlife and tourism resources. As a result, these communities were able to start operating tourism ventures in rural areas and benefit from associated revenues generated. In this process, these were in addition strongly technically and financially assisted by donors and NGOs. Nevertheless, in this article we argue that tourism benefits delivered so far at the local level have proved quite limited. Two reasons could explain this situation. First, rural communities and supporting NGOs lack minimum capacity and skills to efficiently manage tourism businesses. Second, the tourism sector is best characterized as a very competitive global commodity chain (GCC), where economic power lies in tour operators' hands and thus where rural communities can only capture a marginal share.