Cultural Heritage Tourism in South Africa: Perceived a Panacea for Rural Development?

Cultural heritage tourism is perceived as one of the major development opportunities forAfrica. This study conducted in South Africa, enquired the perceptions of the local communitiestowards their cultural heritage tourism development, and their level of participation in suchdevelopment. Quantitative data were collected from simple randomly selected respondents using astructured questionnaire. Descriptive data analysis provided information required to address researchobjective. Local community members surveyed are sceptic towards cultural heritage tourismdevelopment invariably becoming a panacea for their rural development. Cultural heritage tourismdevelopment in South Africa should align with the sustainable rural tourism critical success factorsrecommended by this paper. This study conducted in a district of South Africa has implications forcultural heritage tourism development in developing economies.