CULTURAL COMMODIFICATION AND TOURISM: THE GOO-MOREMI COMMUNITY, CENTRAL BOTSWANAtesg_664 290..301 JOSEPH E. MBAIWA Okavango Research Institute, University of Botswana, Botswana; and Research Affiliate, School of Tourism & Hospitality, Faculty of Management, University of Johannesburg, South Africa. E-mail: jmbaiwa@mopipi.ub.bw Received June 2010: accepted March 2011 ABSTRACT Botswana is promoting cultural tourism to diversify the country’s nature-based tourism industry, to increase citizen participation in tourism development; and, improve rural livelihoods. The objective of this paper is to analyse tourism and cultural commodification at Goo-Moremi Village, Central Botswana, an emerging destination for cultural tourism. Conceptually, the study is informed by the debates around cultural commodification. Using both primary and secondary data sources, culture at Goo-Moremi Village and Gorge is considered sacred as ancestor worship controls the day-to-day lives of people. Ambivalence, tensions and local resistance emerge in the process of commodifying culture at Goo-Moremi village. Some local people embrace the com- modification of their culture into a tourism product because of anticipated socio-economic benefits whereas others resist cultural commodification as a result of fears that it may devalue their culture and belief system. Key words: Cultural commodification, cultural tourism, ancestor spirits, Goo-Moremi Village, Goo-Moremi Gorge, Botswana INTRODUCTION Since the 1980s there has been a rapid growth in cultural tourism worldwide (Richards 2001, 2002; Sigala & Leslie 2005; Chhabra 2010). Indeed, cultural tourism can be described as one of the key sectors of tourism development emerging in many destination areas around the world (Richards 2002). The concept of cultural tourism is subject, however, to many definitions (Christou 2005; Chhabra 2010). Richards (1996) argues there is a conceptual and techni- cal definition of cultural tourism. According to Richards (1996, p. 24) the conceptual defini- tion of cultural tourism is that it represents ‘the movement of persons to cultural attractions away from their normal place of residence, with the intention to gather new information and experiences to satisfy their cultural needs’. The technical definition is that cultural tourism includes ‘all movements of persons to specific cultural attractions, such as heritage sites, artistic and cultural manifestations, arts and drama outside their normal place of residence’. Silberberg (1995, p. 361) considers cultural tourism as ‘visits by persons from outside the host community motivated wholly or in part by interest in the historical, artistic, scientific or lifestyle/heritage offerings of a community, region, group or institution’. The different definitions of cultural tourism show that the term involves consuming both the contemporary and historic way of life of people in areas visited (Richards 2001). As Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie – 2011, DOI:10.1111/j.1467-9663.2011.00664.x, Vol. 102, No. 3, pp. 290–301. © 2011 The Author Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie © 2011 Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG Published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA