Community Based Tourism in the South West Region of Cameroon: Opportunities and Challenges for Women
Cameroon like many other sub Saharan African countries has identified tourism as a sector that can enhance the development of local communities by creating jobs and encouraging income generating activities. This is expected to help reduce poverty and empower local communities. The challenge, however has been to integrate gender concerns into the tourism industry so that both men and women can benefit equally. Using empirical data, this paper addresses the challenges women face in taking advantage of the opportunities offered by the tourism industry to reduce poverty and empower themselves. The paper identifies gender issues, cultural and traditional dictates, low education, limited knowledge of their rights as the major challenges that affect women's participation in and benefits from community based tourism. The paper further identifies rural women's project that can be transformed and sustained as part of the tourism industry. The paper concludes that unless gender is employed as a unit of analysis in the design and conception of local tourism projects in Cameroon, women's empowerment and poverty reduction through community based tourism remains a myth.