Problem of Financing Local Development in Decentralized Communities: An Answer Through the Promotion of Tourism in Seguela (Côte d’Ivoire)

Since the 1980s, decentralization has improved local development adaption in a number of sub-Saharan African nations. However, in recent decades, this approach of autonomous local administration has encountered challenges, such as a decline in funding. However, Côte d'Ivoire's Law No. 2003-208 of July 7, 2003, on the transfer and distribution of state competencies to local authorities, permits local elected officials to mobilise funds locally by establishing revenue-generating ventures in a number of industries, including tourism. How can local tourism support local development in Côte d'Ivoire's decentralized villages given the country's diminishing financial resources? The goal is to demonstrate how local tourist marketing may serve as a lever for funding local development in the dynamic of enhancing living standards. 200 household heads in neighbourhoods chosen by reasoned choice participated in a questionnaire survey, field observation, direct and semi-direct interviews, and documentary research as part of an empirical method. The municipality of Seguela seems to be brimming with a variety of tourism opportunities. To highlight these potentialities, local officials have undertaken to boost local tourism through the opening of roads, the improvement of potable water supply and electrification, the creation of public spaces for tourist attraction, the cleaning of gutters and street sweeping, and especially the establishment of the "Worodougou Lôgôba" festival, etc. These municipal investments have resulted in: the commercialisation of agricultural products and local cultural craftworks, the emergence of various means of mobility, the attraction of customers to restaurants, maquis, and hotels; thus creating direct and indirect jobs. Due to the increased foreign cash earned by tourist taxes, this has made it easier to optimise local budgetary resources.