Tourism promotion as a local government response to poverty: Ingwe Municipality, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

Chronically high poverty levels prevailing in the Ingwe municipality have helped to galvanise the local municipality to embark on an ambitious pro-poordevelopment intervention. Anchored on a pro-poortourism drive, the initiative seeks to encourage sustainable development for impoverished people in the municipality in terms of its developmental local government mandate. The paper details the steps which are currently being engaged in to achieve this objective and also outlines other Local Economic Development interventions. While success cannot be guaranteed, the case indicates the potential that exists, even in small marginal rural municipalities, to embark on innovative pro-poor development interventions.