Touring Katutura!

More about the book

Guided sightseeing tours of Katutura, a former township in Windhoek, have been available since the mid-1990s, marking an early integration of city tourism into the trend of utilizing impoverished urban areas for tourism. This practice, often labeled as “slum tourism” or “poverty tourism,” has sparked media attention and public debate, evolving into a significant area of academic inquiry. The study presented in this book emerges from a project by the Institute of Geography at the University of Osnabrueck, Germany, and serves as the first empirical case study of township tourism in Namibia. It examines four key aspects: the emergence and market structure of township tourism in Windhoek; tourists' expectations, representations, and perceptions of the township and its residents; local residents' views on township tourism; and the economic impacts and potential poverty alleviation associated with this form of tourism. The research aims to contribute empirically to the discourse surrounding the tourism-poverty relationship and enhance understanding of urban poverty tourism as a global phenomenon.