Revisiting VFR tourism in South Africa

Abstract

The segment of visiting, friends and relatives (VFR) is one of the largest components of tourism economies. During the last two decades there emerged tourism scholarship around VFR travel, mostly in Australia, the USA and Europe. This paper examines the size, characteristics and spatial patterns of VFR tourism in South Africa. It is argued that studies of VFR travel in the global South must be linked to questions about migration. In the South African case the volume, nature and geography of VFR tourism cannot be understood without an analysis of historical migration trends. It is demonstrated that VFR travel is the largest element of domestic tourism and is dominated by black travellers. In terms of explanation, the continued role of circular mobilities in the post-apartheid period is highlighted. The geographical patterns of VFR tourism in South Africa reveal a complex of factors and most importantly the existence of split or translocal households for which VFR mobilities are critical. In South Africa, strong VFR travel occurs to large metropolitan areas and to the former homeland areas that are not considered as significant tourism destinations. Arguably, in many of these rural areas of South Africa VFR travel is the most significant driver of local tourism economies.

Keywords::

• VFR
• tourism
• South Africa
• circular migration

Acknowledgements

Thanks are due to Wendy Job for the accompanying maps and diagrams and to useful comments offered by two anonymous referees.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

This paper is dedicated to Rosie Alberton, one of the best friends of all time, who passed away in the completion stage of this paper.