The booming tourism industry in the developing countries has been widely viewed as a source of investment,
employment and foreign exchange. There is an assumption that the economic benefits of tourism will trickle down to
stimulate other sectors of the economy, including agriculture. The government of Botswana, for example, is grappling
with the task of developing a tourism policy that will maximize its goals of rural job creation, revenue generation from
foreign exchange, conserve and protect wildlife, and be compatible with the cultural norms of its people. As the rural
community in the Okavango Delta shifts its focus from agriculture to tourism, several concerns emerge. A key
contention of this paper is that a major challenge facing the Okavango Delta region in the twenty first century is an
attempt to support the tourism industry without compromising the traditional livelihoods of its local inhabitants. More
specifically, as tourism increases economic growth and employment opportunities, it is becoming difficult for local
inhabitants to sustain traditional subsistence agricultural livelihoods. As increasing numbers of rural, communal agricultural
people migrate to urban areas, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature warned that the uncontrolled
expansion of human activities, predominantly associated with tourism, and the foreign control of resources is resulting
in the abandonment of many traditional practices, including agriculture, and threatening the livelihoods of the Okavango
Delta’s inhabitants. Hence, the Okavango Delta presents a unique opportunity to study the impact of tourism on rural
agriculture, to observe the negotiation and competition which occurs between global tourism and local agriculture, and
to review the inevitable transformation of local culture, economy and physical landscape.