The essence of geographic information systems (GIS) in sustainable tourism, public leadership and inclusive community participation in remote-African rural societies

Effect investigation and simulation are increasingly evolving as integral parts of tourism development (McAdam, 1994; Carver, 1995; Rogerson, 2002a; Papatheodorou, 2004; Chaudhuri and Ray, 2015). As to McAdam (1999) and Hall (2012), there are multiple examples where a geographic information systems (GIS) was used to offer a substantial contribution to tourism strategy and development. On this account, Carver (1995), on a “wilderness continuum map” unveiling locations prescribed as wilderness in the UK, came to the fore, amongst several others. The earlier assumption is consistent with Tasoulas et al. (2013) and Singh (2015), who assert that GIS was applied in various disciplines such as forestry, urban planning and smart cities (Tao, 2013), geography and environmental considerations (Ramaano, 2024a). Admittedly, this is more evident in general public urban development than in digital policy regulations and typical tourism management and its products. Thus, such a factor implies its contemporary turnaround imminence and hoisted utilization of GIS management tools (Tayyebi et al., 2011; Pijanowski et al., 2014). Many remote rural communities in sub-Saharan Africa, southern Africa and broadly Africa typically have poor incomes and compromised socioeconomic development and services (Rogerson, 2005). However, these areas, which include tourist hotspots, thrive on natural biodiversity and diverse capital such as within agritourism (Rogerson and Rogerson, 2014), necessitating tourism planning and development (Saarinen et al., 2019). Information systems (IMS), like GIS and remote sensing (RS), community-based natural resource management (CBNRM), inclusive public leadership and sustainable tourism can combine local community development programs within their environments. Admittedly, Tang (2023) asserts that the digital economy has influenced global tourism growth.

Tourism triumph revolves around practical outlining and development, which can be magnified by applying GIS (Ramaano, 2021a, 2021b). Hence, the GIS recreates a crucial function in tourism leadership and management (Wei, 2012). That being the case, Jovanović (2016) further highlighted the fundamentals of planning, promoting research and retailing within any tourism business and opined that GIS has an integral function in such requirements and responsibilities. African impoverished countries can save themselves within such implied horizons (Ramaano, 2021d, 2023a). Chaudhuri and Ray (2015) argue that GIS is one of the most famous information technology (IT) tools for apprehending, keeping, recovering, performing, mapping and examining spatial and nonspatial geographical data in digital form. It is thus more compatible with Fagerholm et al. (2016). They appraise the relations within ecosystem services land use and well-being in an agroforestry scene operating public participation GIS (PPGIS) as the most critical components of beneficial agro-by-products. Accordant with the African rural environs conundrum, PPGIS vouches for the empowerment and incorporation of marginalized denizens, who have restricted voices in the public medium, with geographic technology teaching and collaboration as its central theme (King, 2002). It involves and supplies digital maps, satellite imagery, sketch maps and other spatial and visual instruments to enhance geographic engagement and knowledge on a social level and provide intellectual capital insurance (ICI). Similarly, African rural neighborhoods can also lean on the ideals of the open sourcing of quantum GIS (QGIS) utilities to fight impoverishment and enhance diverse entrepreneurial productions and their socioeconomic conditions. A natural and sociocultural resource is the capital for developing tourism in an area, necessitating well-defined planning in tourism design; hence, various geographical systems can prove integral (Rahayuningsih et al., 2016). To this end, Albuquerque et al. (2018) assert that GIS bears instruments that enable a more reliable decision-making process, definitely contacting legislators and directors in tourism expansion and implementing blended touristic knowledge. They are convincing modes for improving destination retailing operations.

GIS’ varied forms and integrated methods, such as ArcGIS, QGIS, Participatory GIS (PGIS) and RS, were considered to possess a potentially significant position in inspecting environmental conditions, assessing the locations for envisaged and planned developments, defining contradictory matters and modeling affinities (Mundia and Aniya, 2005; Greene et al., 2011). To add to that narrative, systematic assessment of the ecological effect necessitates adequate data and is often impacted by a lack thereof. That being so, they are instruments and procedures for data manipulation, integration, image processing and research; thus, they are significant for general development. For instance, it is feasible in hydropower projects regarding social-economic and environmental criteria and engineering aspects (Rojanamon et al., 2009). GIS has since been established as a fundamental answer to a variety of such considerations and commitments (Church, 2002; Fagerholm et al., 2016). To that effect, CBNRM ties local people into packs to fend for their land, water, animals and plants to operate these natural resources to intensify their current and future livelihood prospects. Accordingly, it allows every participating member of society to have a responsibility for their subsistence culturally, economically and spiritually according to the essence of the diverse capital available. CBNRM is thus a strategy to perform synchronically to support their natural resources and deliver long-lasting significance to the community [Department of environmental affairs and tourism (DEAT), 2003; Stone and Nyaupane, 2014]. Given this, it communicates its paragons with the essential utilities of certain forms of geographical information systems, such as PGIS. Akin to CBNRM, the cited attributes are participatory rural appraisal (PRA) and collaboration efforts to handle community resources, especially in marginalized remote societies. That being the case, the International Institute for Environment and Development (2006) asserts that PGIS and CBNRM are complementary in resource management, community empowerment and livelihoods. Along with the significance of IC and PGIS offers a platform for the utilization of traditional knowledge GIS, i.e. the data, approaches and technologies devised to record and use local knowledge in societies around the globe. It is consistent with Botswana and Namibia case studies on land use management and San communities’ identities (DeGeorges and Reilly, 2009; Taylor, 2012; Basupi et al., 2017). This review’s primary research question is how useful GIS can be for comprehensive community participation, sustainable tourism and public leadership in rural, impoverished, but biodiversity-rich societies with a particular focus on Africa.

CBNRM authorizes the administration of land and natural resources. It maintains the possibility of contributing keys to some of the complexities encountered within the communal grounds. It marks communities’ rights to resources, successful farming, food supply, job production and small businesses. It, therefore, encourages all-around equality, diversity, inclusion and public leadership in its core themes. It is in consonance with Nassani et al. (2019), who realize that the tourism sector has a vital role in diminishing gender imbalances. Henceforth, it affords women entry to partake in economic activities and provides the resources and opportunities to achieve more professional fulfillment (UNWTO, 2010). Constant with the resolution and community empowerment worth of CBNRM and PGIS, Hartley (2018) voiced public leadership as around activities and determinations about the public sphere or public domain; hence, politics, both formal and informal, veil and ingrain it. In this account, competition and contests stay at the core of their essence. Accordingly, along with the standards of CBNRM, integrative GIS and PGIS, improved public leadership platforms can engender inclusive community development and empowerment while settling disputes and facilitating development and sustainability (Ramaano, 2023d, 2024a).

Myers et al. (2016) recommended the need for South Africa’s integrated, Web-based heritage management systems to enrich cultural heritage management and sustainable development. It was discovered that web-based GIS significantly improved the effective management and marketing of tourism in Oyo State, Nigeria (Fajuyigbe et al., 2007). Thus, Mango et al. (2021) specified the akin sentiment that the Web-based GIS prototype with diligent and interactive maps is essential for handling and facilitating tourism welfare in Tanzania. In southern Africa, countless people live with and count on natural resources. Accordingly, a point of this narration is that tourism (agro-tourism) could aid horticulture and agriculture, and this can be facilitated by diverse GIS applications. Thus, for community-based tourism (CBT) endeavors (Ramaano, 2021d), it is a secondary and spare source of remuneration in many rural locales across the continent. So, it is influential in the procurement of farm devices and enriches the socioeconomic status of the local people. To this end, agritourism and sustainable tourism can create synergies. To that effect, more development doors can open for various local entrepreneurs and public leaders. The aforesaid is akin to Rogerson's (2006, 2016) and Donaldson’s (2017) works on tourism routes in South African small towns and rural areas and local economic development initiatives. Undoubtedly, flourishing CBNRM can generate myriad revenues and boost sustainability, e.g. within agritourism, ecotourism and agroforestry enterprises (Ramaano, 2021d, 2023a, 2023b). Consequently, fostering community development while battling climate change’s consequences is possible. Therefore, it is paramount for capacitating rural, poverty-stricken and marginalized African societies, mainly through women’s empowerment via tourism and hospitality-linked schemes and small and medium enterprises (SMEs), such as trading traditional baskets, brooms, artwork and ceramics, amongst others, from indigenous biodiversity and natural capital. Together, these help achieve a number of specific UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (Ramaano, 2023e), including SDG 5 on gender equality and the eradication of gender-based discrimination to enfranchise all women and SDG 1 on no poverty and the eradication of all forms of poverty. While SDG 10 focuses on further minimizing existing inequalities, SDG 8 encourages decent work and economic growth to provide a continuous and inclusive improvement of economic activities (Biermann et al., 2017). In support of the aforementioned, CBNRM can be a medium through which SMEs thrive within the networks of resources shared in the social capital and IC rationales. Indeed, such can be empowered by IT and PGIS in rural locales. Art crafts, intellectual property rights (IPR), and indigenous cultural creations are essential for local communities’ IC, intellectual property (IP), and crucial for the hospitality industry’s offerings and local SMEs.

Henceforth, it is vital for its constituents’ production and marketing. With that, Njoroge et al. (2019) urge the essence of technology adoption in hospitality to drive innovation and sustainability strategies with the case study of hostel enterprises in Tanzania. To this end, Eze et al. (2019) invariably analyzed the factors determining the knowledge required to adopt emerging information and communication technologies through a case study of small service businesses in the UK, thus further demonstrating the value of technology and GIS-linked processes for SMEs’ sustainability. Correspondently, Jordão and Novas (2017) highlighted the vital relationship between knowledge management (KM) and IC in the Web of SMEs’ worth, innovation and sustainability. The aforesaid is consonant with information and knowledge management, IC, innovation and sustainability endeavors in emerging economies (Jordão, 2022) and sustainable growth in networked SMEs (Jordão and Novas, 2022). It is significant in prompting the local communities’ entrepreneurial-based indigenous knowledge systems and ethnographies with their ethnobotanicals and natural resource bioprospecting for livelihoods, including offsetting the counterproductive effects of climate change dilemmas on productivity. Henceforth, for benchmarking with other rural environs globally and the KM of a community-based organization (CBO) within CBNRM enterprises, Nonetheless, for hoisted productivity and the epitome of digital platform appeal, Jordão et al. (2020) opined that knowledge-based networks (k-network) are the backbone and latently significant facet of IC and corporate execution within SMEs’ procedures.

According to Rezabakhsh et al. (2006), by the actual outset of the internet, a definitive transformation from supplier endowment to consumer influence had been prognosticated by several authors and is still attested to in contemporary discussion. Kogut (2003) holds that by 2002, the whole world, hitherto a handful of nations, had become attached to the internet. The interlinking of the internet and universal finance, corporate governance and trade elevates subjects about public frameworks of technological advancement and property rights. To that end, Gnezdova et al. (2016) sat on several topics regarding the specifics of economic connections on the internet, including the creation, delivery and transfer of network privileges. Hence, Noe and Parker (2005) maintain that, if not well-planned, Web-based companies may dissipate dissolutely on promoting and retailing and still lose money at the expense of decent economic rationale. However, Romm et al. (1999) are optimistic that the extension of e-commerce will contribute to numerous openings and challenges for all organizations, public and private. With that, Carroll and Tansey (2000) cautioned that IC is the foundation of corporate progress in the new economy. However, Evans (2007) worries that Web-based enterprises are frequently the subject of antitrust matters. Hayman (2000) is still optimistic about the internet economy and maintains that future enterprise resource planning in the internet economy has a distinguished and vital role in the more ubiquitous content plan that efficiently combines distinct kinds of market relationships and cooperations. To this end, the internet of things (IoT), such as diverse types of GIS and IT, plays a pivotal role in tourism resource management and marketing. It manifests the supportive function of the IoT for comprehensive corporate platforms, digital economies and developmental capital (Ramaano, 2023d, 2024a).

Chang (2012) asserts that digital governance grants platforms for new technologies to enhance public services and participation. With that, Yen (2020) maintains that part of the digital governance infrastructure is to administer and further facilitate the effectiveness of government statutes. Given this assertion, a digital policy is influential for data security regulation and the plethora of government offerings (Wagner and Ferro, 2020). In their case study of India, Chatterjee and Kar (2018) assert that the usage of the IoT is growing more rapidly across the globe and enhancing corporations. To this end, highlight the significance of citizen involvement and IT to achieve change (Milakovich, 2012). Henceforth, it is pertinent to the politics of the digital age, new industrial policies, the essence of the internet and the global management of invention (Dai, 2018). In the case study of Latin America, Aguerre (2018) reminds us of the importance of government authority and the emerging digital trade established by existing policies and procedures. As a result, the development of the commercial and global internet is a product of the 1990s’ reforms of resilient and reliable global e-commerce functions and institutional environments (Mueller, 2002; Aguerre, 2018). Jouanjean et al. (2020) suggested that fragmented and ambiguous data administration and configurations may strain farmers’ readiness to embrace digital resolutions. The cited factors could not only negatively impact agriculture but also agritourism’s flourishing. With that, Dredge et al. (2019) view that digital technologies (DT) have granted vital shifts to the tourism industry, revolutionizing tourism corporations, spin-offs and adventures, enterprise ecosystems and destinations. Therefore, it has transformed the conventional positions of tourism producers and consumers with new functions, affinities, enterprise standards and competencies. Digital media also offers platforms for people to convey their tourism stories and communicate their ventures (Bassano et al., 2019). Likewise, Kalbaska et al. (2017) maintain that digital government and its technology are crucial for tourism and destination governance, expressing the need for enhanced adaptation of public administration in the tourism sector. Henceforth, it is crucial to take full advantage of the digital economy, e-commerce, IT and the role of the internet in tourism businesses and empowering communities (Tombarge, 1999; Hojeghan and Esfangareh, 2011). However, Abbasian Fereidouni and Kawa (2019) warn that if not carefully implemented, digitalization in tourism may lead to the long-term economic, political and social impacts of digital colonialism in a tourist destination.

Suffice to note that, with the case of Airbnb, Cheng and Foley (2018) remind us that digital discrimination entails situations where decision-making strategies established on information mining downsize entrance for specific social classes to lodging, profession, education, interests and variable services. Thus, Airbnb manages an internet outlet that constructs options for Airbnb users to prefer conceivable hosts and visitors on the basis of race and sexual orientation, which would be counterintuitive to community empowerment, human justice and sustainability rationales (Fisman and Luca, 2016; Ahuja and Lyons, 2017). To this end, new DT have introduced essential inventions in manufacturers, hospitals, resorts, metropolises and settlements to benefit a variety of sustainable tourism forms, such as medical, rural, adventure and ecotourism (Ramaano, 2023d, 2024a). Thus, the tourism sector is manifesting digital transformation efforts through the smart tourism concept (Pencarelli, 2020).

McGehee et al. (2015) remind us of the implications of tourism development in rural communities around the globe. They opine that tourism was identified as a tool for sustainable development. Hence, it necessitates the involvement of various stakeholders and leadership roles. Thus, realizing the potential significance of public leadership in rural tourism development, they expressed the lack of satisfactory literature and efforts to fulfill the implied essence. On this account, along with the core theme of this review, there is a need to mingle diverse IT, GIS, e-commerce, sustainable tourism, CBNRM and leadership roles in community advancement, rural development and community empowerment (Sharpley, 2007). According to Haven-Tang and Jones (2012), a triumphant rural tourism product relies on decisive leadership for cross-sectoral exercises among rural tourism enterprises and their development schemes under calculated risks and opportunities, thus being influential for the benefit of the destination communities and bolstering linkages among diverse parts of the rural economy. Hence, it is for progress toward a leadership role in tourism-based efforts. Valente et al. (2015) contended that leadership in regional tourism is usually more concerned with helping various communities with different welfare needs than directing an enterprise with a homogeneous cluster of profit-led pursuits. Thus, it manifests the part of a better-informed and manifold education system within the distinct rural community development around integrated GIS, sustainable tourism and livelihood strategies within the rural domains.

Public leadership obligations are commonly influential in education and reputable public service distribution. Consistent with the Association of Research Libraries and GIS Literacy Project in June 1992, in Canada and the USA, central libraries, Tombarge (1999) evoked the idea that GIS services are crucial for library services and utilities. Therefore, for vital public participation and tourism-oriented allotment of knowledge and sustainability in conservation, integrated parks, hospitality and tourism development literature, GIS-underpinned libraries’ operations can be critical for African-remote communities as benchmarked worldwide.

An exhaustive literature examination on the most relevant issues was conducted using Google Scholar and integrated publication outlets, and the entire data was analyzed manually and unstructuredly. As such, this study uses existing documents and narrative literature reviews to garner data on the pertinent topic. Although no stringent inclusion and exclusion procedures were applied, more attention was put on publications and scenarios where GIS and linked tools and procedures contribute to sustainable tourism, sustainability and community development, enhancing public leadership and livelihoods, and a special emphasis was placed on remote African countries or worldwide scenarios that set the best example for these marginalized African countries. By doing this, a general review that offers a summary and symbolic analysis of a particular phenomenon in a more descriptive and educational manner than interpretive is manifested. Document review is an arranged collection of documentation, commentary and interpretation, as well as data organization, as a collection method in research (Viloria et al., 2018). It is a data collection technique whereby the investigator acquires information from existing secondary sources and correlates it with what is in the field (Bowen, 2009; Sileyew, 2019). Henceforth, a narrative literature review is an inclusive, critical and factual examination of current knowledge on a topic. It is an essential part of the research process and allows one to designate an academic framework and emphasis or context for the study (Grant and Booth, 2009; Palmatier et al., 2018).

GIS is a computer-based mechanism for mapping and diagnosing distinguishing influences on land. A GIS is a computerized database surveillance system for the snap, recollection, retrieval, handling, service, analysis and display of spatial (i.e. locationally defined) data (Harvey, 2015). There are examples wherein GIS and its associates promote sustainable tourism, public leadership and inclusive community livelihoods (Ramaano, 2024a). Hence, the following instances have been encouraged and drawn from the main themes through which tourism and sustainability undertakings manifest abundantly, mainly in peri-urban, rural and peripheral areas:

• Geo-informatics specialists and engineers working with telecommunication assistants may be required to examine the appropriate spots for the company relay environments, viewing distinct financial matters such as landscape undulation and the price of the land. Accordingly, such details can sustain the planning and management of the tourism businesses in African rural dwellings related to environmental utility and impact estimations, as they may abroad. It can assist in deciding the most suitable place for the construction of tourism establishments. According to Gitis et al. (2016), Web-based GIS technologies are integral for geo-informatics, monitoring and analysis of the environmental process. For the tourism and hospitality industries, such information is paramount in determining favorable seasons for touring, safety and security against potential hazards like earthquakes and tsunamis in marine-based tourism destination spots.

• may need to discover copper-mining anticipations that are excellently suitable for forthcoming utilization and, thus, consider standards like depth, qualities and the possibility of the ore material (Mudd and Jowitt, 2018). Mining areas and their activities are an intriguing element of tourism. They combine heritage tourism and geotourism by visiting ancient and deserted mines; yet, existing mining sites can still entice adventuresome tourists. Informational GIS data about both operational and abandoned mines can improve the safety of tourists and expose any unknown dangers from the deserted mines. GIS can also assist in the mapping and sketching of mining domains, both for the mutual stakes and interests of tourists and residents and also for preserving any ensuing resource incongruities for sustainability within rural spheres.

• Forest patrons might be curious about optimizing timber yield by operating soil data and exact tree outlook distributions, despite numerous challenges, such as the necessity to hold tree multiplicity and land use cover change (Janse, 2005). The citation is supported by their case study on the essence of satellite data to monitor forest dynamics in northeastern Latvia (Fonji and Taff, 2014; Ramaano, 2024a). Decent expertise in forest surveillance allows tourism stakeholders and planners to establish tourism ventures and endeavors. Quite remarkably, forests are the most prominent element of an assortment of tourism (Ramaano, 2021b, 2021d). Accordingly, planning and stakeholder involvement, finding and management of tourism spots, such as heritage, agro-tourism and adventure tourism, and forest-based tourism within the coastal and remote areas is essential (Argent, 2004; Rogerson, 2006, 2012; López and García, 2006). The latter can considerably assist and fortify sustainable tourism strategies and rural community development actions. Henceforth, it is toward impacting the outcome and control of natural and water-based tourism ambitions and resources on pro-poor tourism development, public leadership and sustainability in African rural areas and abroad (Ramaano, 2021c, 2022c, 2022d).

• Conservationists could be distressed about the slash-and-burn activities and their impact on wild animals or certain insects. They might also be concerned about invertebrate biodiversity in farming and urban headwater streams (Walker, 2012; Jordan, 2013). Imperatively, conservation biologists and agroforesters convey common opinions and are stewards of two significant arrangements of sustainable tourism within the rural surroundings: ecotourism and agricultural tourism (Ramaano, 2008, 2019). Thus, in tandem with natural resource consumption, the digital economy is essential for green consumption and enterprise sustainability (Ran et al., 2023). Significant GIS data about conservation areas, agricultural areas (Moore and Palmer, 2005), ecotourism and agritourism is fundamental for tourism strategy and local community empowerment and participation in rural milieus and elsewhere relevant (Ramaano, 2021d). The cited research could facilitate the implementation of Web-based GIS in tourism-oriented e-businesses (Chaudhuri, 2018).

• Urban personnel and planners might want to pursue urban edge elongation in their municipality and evaluate the population growth that some suburbs are experiencing. The consciousness of green spacing and land use change is a crucial facet in this regard (Xu et al., 2011; Abdullahi and Pradhan, 2018); they might also like to determine the precise motivations after the boundary growth of typical suburbs linked to the others (Van Herzele and Wiedemann, 2003; Hassan and Southworth, 2017). Both GIS and RS informational data are prerequisites for these developmental efforts. Consequently, they would have crucial information on the area's attractions and tourism initiatives, administration and leadership in the urban stretch (Ramaano, 2024a, 2024b). As with the case study of the calibration of the slope, land use, exclusion, urban extent, transportation and hill shade (SLEUTH) urban growth model for Lisbon and Porto, Portugal, by Silva and Clarke (2002), the reversal would be equivalent for rural development planners in creating and sustaining sustainable tourism in African rural surroundings and, therefore, in the wild coast of South Africa (Naude et al., 1999), and in rural spectrum (Brail and Klosterman, 2001; Briedenhann and Wickens, 2004; Ramaano, 2022d).

Vatsavai et al. (2012) revealed that QGIS is an open-source GIS. The aforesaid is consistent with Tatlonghari (2009) and the essence of the QGIS training manual. QGIS was released as a project on SourceForge in June 2002 (Tatlonghari, 2009). Accordingly, Rossetto et al. (2018) remind us that it can function as a converged data bank, addressing spatial and nonspatial data in a synthesized database. To that end, QGIS works as cross-platform desktop software for GIS. Consonant with the African systems, it represents a free alternative to additionally pricey GIS programs (Mzuza and Van Der Westhuizen, 2019). Numerous disadvantaged and remote African communities can capitalize on this outlet to improve agricultural production (Flenniken et al., 2020; Ramaano, 2022b, 2024a). Robinson and Metternicht (2005) and Duveiller et al. (2013) expressed that the betterment of sensors contributing to geospatial knowledge on crop and soil circumstances has been a premium refinement for unvarnished agriculture. Likewise, the Geospatial Simulation (GeoSim) plug-in for QGIS has been influential in enhancing the quality of yield maps and sugarcane productions, as demonstrated by their study. Therefore, the same could be elemental for numerous African countries’ agrarian products, such as maize and other agronomy initiatives while upgrading the socioeconomic situations of the respective neighborhoods via CBNRM, public leadership, precision agriculture and agritourism ambitions to benefit locals (Ncube et al., 2018; Ramaano, 2022c, 2022d; Rogerson and Rogerson, 2014).

PGIS is a participatory practice in spatial planning, spatial data and contact directions. PGIS combines participatory learning and action approaches with GIS. Globally, individuals convey social transformation by teaming to formulate concepts and developments (Quan et al., 2001). Spatial information technologies, incorporating GIS, Global Positioning Systems, remote sensing (RS) software and open access to spatial data and imagery, designate those who use them. Commonly, varied access can benefit the advantaged and assist less impoverished communities and local individuals. To this end, it perpetuates the marginalization of already remote societies. PGIS is thus a vision for procedures that aspire to adjust the inferred by supporting PRA and spatial data technologies. Minority people can be empowered through traditionally overlooked spatial decision-making actions. Sieber (2006) documented how local people can get empowered and presented the significant role of PRA and public leadership in operating the technologies to assemble their maps and using them for their research. These maps and prototypes can range from the ground and paper maps of PRA in their greater spatial accuracy, permanence, warranties and credibility with government personnel (Rouse et al., 2007).

Rambaldi opined that such maps were used as interactive routes for spatial discovery, data exchange and affirming decision-making. Thus, it is imperative for resource use planning and advocacy movements. With that, participatory mapping and ethnobiological biocultural conservation in the Peruvian Amazon communities are manifest (Rambaldi, 2005; Gilmore and Young, 2012). Hence, it can be crucial for developing and administrating various tourism routes in Africa. Equality is one of the necessary standards of sustainable rural tourism development (Jamal and Camargo, 2014; Ramaano, 2022d); in confluence with the various functions of GIS, this paper also supports the significant role of women in tourism schedules as livelihood options for local communities (Xiang et al., 2015). Villagers all around the globe can use diverse PGIS models, including safeguarding indigenous lands, resource rights and IPR and assets; management and resolution of spats and disagreements over natural resources; joint resource utilization planning and leadership; intangible cultural heritage conservation and identity structures among indigenous rural communities; equity progress with regards to ethnicity, culture, gender and environmental justice; hazard devaluation, for example, it is feasible through community safety monitoring and audits; and peri-urban planning and research and climate change transformation (Rogerson, 2002a, 2002b; Ramaano, 2021a, 2021d, 2024a). Likewise, a strong, encompassing, and credible approach is provided by the Natural Resource Governance Framework (NRGF), the IUCN initiative (Bugembe, 2016), and the participatory poverty assessments (PPAs) dimensions that evaluate and reduce poverty by incorporating the perspectives of the poor (Robb, 2002). Help achieve SDG 12 on Responsible Consumption and Production, encourage sustainable patterns of consumption and production, and work fundamentally to combat climate change and its impacts in order to achieve SDG 13 on Climate Action (Ramaano, 2025). In a similar vein, this ought to be constant and significantly support the work of the National Development Agency (NDA). As a government organization tasked with helping to eradicate poverty in South Africa and its root causes, the NDA must empower and strengthen the civil society sector in order to fulfill its mandate (Khambule and Gerwel-Proches, 2019). In order to achieve this, the Ninth Conference of the Parties (COP9) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) on the ongoing climate change dilemma, natural resource uses, entrepreneurship, and livelihoods is a key component of the conference that should remain relevant to build on (Jinnah, 2011).

Akin to the abovementioned, with a case study of Brazil, Jordão et al. (2022) urged us to consider the role of IC toward the synergy of sustainable economic and financial execution and utility in the developing nations’ economies and pertinent organizations. The specified can work favorably for land reform dynamics in South African parks, nature reserves and adjacent local communities’ collaborations for beneficiation and empowerment (Saarinen et al., 2019). To this end, tourism could prove necessary as a livelihood strategy for remote communities (Rambaldi, 2005; Rambaldi et al., 2006; Ramaano, 2022b, 2022c, 2022d). Many representatives of PGIS were established for countries as expansive as Australia, Brazil, Bhutan, Cambodia, Cameroon and Canada, amongst others. Indeed, there are multiple non-documented circumstances where technology arbitrators [most non-governmental organizations (NGOs)] affirm CBOs or indigenous communities in engaging geographic information technology and systems for their spatial planning essentials.

Political inferences comprise part of the limitations to successful tourism enterprises in rural regions. In light of this, land ownership and the demarcation of land use are central to healthy tourism initiatives (Rogerson, 2002b). Henceforth, this impacts the welfare of private-sector acquisitions. As such, GIS possesses a potentially significant role in local societies and the private sector. Henceforth, the mapping and administration of indigenous land will improve sustainable tourism efforts in Africa, remote rural populations and rural areas elsewhere. As per Timur and Getz (2009) tourism investigators and officials proceed to encounter how to produce sustainable approaches consistent with tourism development. As such, community collaboration and stakeholder interplay are commonly more essential to achieving desired fortunes. It is indeed crucial for corporate responsibility, public leadership and sustainability, alongside information and technology for development.

RS explores the earth by satellite or high-flying aircraft to get transmissions and data. It gains data about a phenomenon without creating an actual tangent (Wang, 2011). It is also considered earth observation. Ecotourism is a type of sustainable tourism. It has both a positive impact and damaging consequences for its surroundings (Rogerson, 2005; Saarinen et al., 2009). RS can stimulate tourism stakeholders and local inhabitants to enrich the positive influences of tourism and uncover and suppress the unfavorable ones. Without disregarding the good deeds of tourism, such as ecosystem protection and sustainable tourism companies, it can harm the environment (Ramaano, 2022e). To this end, environmental tribulations such as soil erosion, wildlife tension and the trampling of nature can be detected by RS, which can pinpoint soil or greenery under stressful circumstances (Yuan, 2008; Chaplin and Brabyn, 2013). RS and GIS modeling were crucial in analyzing and evaluating land cover and ecological consequences in a study conducted in the Greater Mankato location of Minnesota (Yuan, 2008; Ramaano, 2024a). It thus sustains careful and preventive measures along with the guiding regulations for sustainable tourism developments. Indeed, RS possesses a vital function in the tourism policy strategy (Chaplin and Brabyn, 2013; Devkota et al., 2019). The latter can capacitate environmental management local community development and public leadership in rural African communities and globally. Thus, this report maintains the fulcrum of the implied significance of integrative GIS in sustainable tourism and comprehensive community development in Musina Municipality, South Africa, and the raison d’etre of GIS and RS in sustainable rural tourism and local community empowerment (Ramaano, 2022c, 2022d, 2023d, 2024a). Hereafter, the economic and administrative roles of GIS in natural resource management estimation for remote, impoverished African communities are discussed.

It will be essential to support an inclusive tourism policy that endeavors to operationalize local resources and rectify past management accounts in connection with digital governance, IT and diverse GIS for integrated local development in society (Ramaano, 2021c, 2021d). Hence, it is vital to sustain equity, equality and empowerment for every member of the respective communities within their residences. Given this, Magole and Magole (2009) prompted us to think about the essence of the entailments and implications of local governance in natural resource preservation in the Okavango Delta, a Botswana case study. A prosperous, digital governance-oriented tourism development policy and guidelines could prove crucial for African marginalized and remote communities in forest-based rural livelihoods.

Figure 1 is founded on comprehensive suggestions from this perspective and review and its vital composition of sustainable tourism fundamentals, as influenced by the sustainable tourism and livelihood model that strongly highlighted the latent essence of diverse GIS applications from the prior-related studies (Ramaano, 2022a, 2022b). It demonstrates that aspects like policy and rules involving the effectiveness of role participants such as researchers and the media can support tourism opportunities and community blossoming in rural places. Accordingly, along with the virtues of CBNRM and CBT corporations (Stone and Nyaupane, 2014; Ramaano, 2024c), a formulation of a tourism approach has to enforce influential socioeconomic and social impact assessment (SIA) constituents and technical and environmental exertions. Accordingly, tourism transactions, new route installation, synergies between sustainable tourism strategic coalitions and prioritization of GIS, ArcGIS, QGIS, PGIS, IT, information and communication technology (ICT) and RS in the findings and monitoring of tourism, CBNRM and community development endeavors could be fundamental components of environmental impact assessments. Ultimately, integrated digital governance toward tourism livelihoods and sustainability enhances resource management and empowers citizens (Touchton et al., 2019; Tang, 2023; Ramaano, 2024d, 2024e). Likewise, GIS is the most intricate system available for modifying and mapping spatially related data (Tombarge, 1999). This study necessitates the need to formulate a tourism strategy that implements practical socioeconomic and SIA components and technological and environmental efforts.

The sustainable tourism strategy is determined by communities’ understanding, advantages and attitudes. So, how do the locals regard sustainable tourism? Better techniques could enable local economic development and public leadership, diminish poverty and ease environmental degradation; tourism can thus facilitate sustainable community development. To this end, the remote rural provinces of the African continent can blossom, serving as a benchmark globally (DEAT, 2003). Any tourism design within rural communities should not distance itself from the evident connection between agricultural, diverse farming and tourism initiatives; African rural regions are commonly bound to agriculture and tourism in their typical character. Thus, this is essential to rural communities elsewhere (Ramaano, 2022f). In this view, the practice, design and embrace of a possible inclusive tourism technique to promote livelihoods and outdoor recreation is a bona fide need (Beeco and Brown, 2013). In most circumstances, agriculture has a slight advantage over tourism in rural areas. Hence, in this consideration, a strategic tourism direction that contains the significance of agriculture and agritourism, with the concept of a synergetic association rather than a competitive analysis, can be ideal for the communities in marginalized areas. Therefore, conformity between CBNRM, GIS, sustainable tourism, community development and empowerment is crucial within rural locations.

There is more space for the dynamic incorporation of RS and other earth observation procedures for studies on tourism and the sustainability of community livelihoods in remote rural regions. Therefore, it is significant for the enhancement of monitoring the performance of current and potential inclusive tourism strategies in marginalized and peripheral areas. Indeed, it is essential for substantial economic products, well-established public leadership endeavors and digital governance to coexist, thus ultimately spurring the socioeconomic status of the citizens. As already inferred, tourism dealings and new route facilities should blend in with the prioritization of new economies, digital knowledge management systems and IMS agents like GIS, PGIS, IT, ICT and RS in monitoring and managing tourism and community-based natural resources.

It was demonstrated that tourism-oriented CBNRM can present the best norms for driving communities’ native resources and that mixed forms of GIS, linked procedures and improved public leadership platforms can complement such enterprises. There is an unconquerable necessity for a holistic system among African rural and destitute denizens to permit exhaustive socioeconomic development and optimal local capital utilization. To this end, there must exist a commitment within national, regional and local government commodities to connect in one joint pursuit of resource management and community development via the endorsement of technology and various enterprise platforms (Mkwizu, 2020; Ramaano, 2023b, 2023c). Likewise, awareness of participatory tourism planning would glorify tourism accumulation, population betterment in rural stretches and the advancement of tourism destination management (Ryan, 2020). Thus, Hao et al. (2023) cautioned us about the essence of enhanced environmental resource consumption and economic efficiency in the digital generation, and rural areas offer tourism attractions and sites for mixed-income ventures and livelihood systems, which GIS, PGIS, RS and related tools can support.

The study dwelled on limited research methods that compromised review procedures and ample data accumulation and analysis. Thus, it only used narrative literature review and document review as the main examination methods due to its limitation of exclusively comprehensive data compilation and content. To this end, the analysis was predominantly narrative and manual, versus sophisticated techniques. While acknowledging the methods used, it is sufficient to note that a rapid review makes use of techniques to expedite or simplify conventional systematic review procedures, and the current one demonstrates more or less of this nature. To streamline the process and generate information quickly, some of the elements of a typical systematic review procedure are left out in a rapid review (Ganann et al., 2010). While a scoping review aims to provide a summary of a potentially sizable and varied body of literature on a wide-ranging subject, this study, displaying traits of both rapid review and scoping review, resonates with the rapid scoping review natures. Nonetheless, it is cognizant of the imperativeness of advanced techniques such as bibliometric review and others while being, consistent with the main goal of the examination. The constraints and limitations did not compromise its desired contribution to the body of knowledge on tourism livelihoods, sustainability and digital platforms. Therefore, it demonstrated a model underpinned by the design of sustainable tourism fundamentals and the impact of digital information technologies, information management systems (IMS) and their pertinent policies and regulations for development. Future studies can rope in additional methodologies and refined analysis, such as big data analytics procedures and active application of GIS and RS, to explore the same. They will do so while keeping in mind that a systematic review finds, evaluates and synthesizes all of the evidence that satisfies predetermined eligibility requirements to address a particular research question, whereas a scoping review uncovers and characterizes all of the evidence that satisfies predetermined eligibility requirements to ascertain the body of existing literature (Aromataris and Pearson, 2014; Pollock and Berge, 2018; Booth et al., 2021). With these, further study imports rest in the view that, to validate the contemplated model of Figure 1 and the essential application of diverse GIS, IT and IoT, government and public leaders’ seminars on sustainable tourism, public leadership and sustainability are important. These will be preceded by the collaborative efforts of the researchers with local government officials, owners of tourism entities and selected local communities about sustainability, diverse livelihood underpinnings, tourism development and management and the significance of GIS-empowered enterprises as policy-integrated. Therefore, the current study presents a conducive environment for more detailed studies and actions that appraise and actively apply diverse GIS procedures in community development and participation, promote inclusive livelihoods, enhance public leadership and sustainability in the epitomized-envisioned area and serve as a benchmark for other rural areas.

The author acknowledges the anonymous reviewers and editors for their guidance and management of the manuscript.