In recent years, rural tourism has emerged as an important development strategy to combat poverty and unemployment among low- to middle-income countries. The CSIR collaborated with the University of Venda on a research project funded by the Department of Tourism to develop a sustainability framework that could assist rural tourism products in assessing and planning for sustainability. The project report reviewed literature and other credible sources to identify and profile rural tourism products (RTPs) in South Africa.

It presents a framework designed to provide RTP providers with an understanding of their responsibility towards sustainability. It provides rural tourism establishments with indicators to measure their sustainability performance and informs them of actions they can take to improve their sustainability contributions. The sustainability framework was designed to support South Africa’s National Development Plan and the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).