Lauren Dyll-Myklebust has recently been awarded her PhD by the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal for her thesis ‘Lodge-ical’ Thinking and Development Communication: !Xaus Lodge as a Public-Private-Community Partnership in Tourism.

Lauren’s thesis is one of a number of academic studies that has used field work from !Xaus Lodge as part of the research. It is a study from 2006 until 2011 focusing on the processes involved in transforming a failed poverty alleviation-built tourism asset into a commercial product with a range of benefits for the community partners.

The thesis proposes a communication model for other similar tourism developments. A summary, and link to the full thesis, can be found here.