Tourism impact, distribution and development: The spatial structure of tourism in the Western Cape province of South Africa

The structural dimensions of a country's tourism sector, and in particular the spatial structure of tourism production and consumption, relate closely to the nature and extent of the impact that tourism can have. This article examines the spatial characteristics of tourism in the Western Cape province, one of South Africa's foremost international tourist regions, and where its government seeks to use tourism as an instrument of development and socio-economic transformation. To understand how this could be effected it is necessary to understand the spatial distributional effects of tourism, and the underlying reasons for it. To this end the article examines the spatial structure of the provincial accommodation sector as evidenced in patterns of accommodation supply and tourist usage (demand); and trends in the nature, direction and distribution of public and private-sector tourism investments. The central argument is that tourism is geographically focused, with tourist activities concentrated in a few locales and sub-regions. This follows the general demographic and economic contours of the province. Yet trends in capital investments tend to reinforce the spatial concentration of tourism. Attempts by the government to spread tourism's benefits have not been too successful due to institutional and capacity deficiencies. Greater emphasis should be placed on developing domestic tourism.

Notes

1 Tourism Satellite Account (TSA) methodology was developed by the World Tourism Organisation (WTO) and the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC). It aims to provide a comprehensive delineation of all the economic activities related to, or influenced by travel and tourism in a given economy, by anticipating and depicting the flow-through effects of tourism-specific and tourism-related activities.

2 One example is of multiplier models (see, for instance, Archer, 1977) that attempt to measure the direct, indirect and induced effects of tourist expenditure on income. Another, related methodology is input-output analysis that attempts to measure the effect and flow-through of tourist or government spending, or tourism-related investments (Fletcher, 1989; Fletcher & Archer, 1991). A third is Tourism Satellite Account (TSA) methodology.

3 This was part of a larger analysis of provincial tourism in which a total of 181 interviews were conducted with local and international tourism producers, regulators and consumers.

4 The director of one of the largest hotel chains in South Africa, for instance, argued: ‘The situation in 1986 was such that we had a state of emergency, we had disinvestment, sanctions. That was the lowest period in apartheid-era tourism, and this affected hotels severely. Occupancy in our hotels, in our industry, was at an all-time low, there were no new projects happening whatsoever. Hotels were unable to refurbish because they didn't have the revenues. Then, after the political transformation in 1994, things changed dramatically. We ended up having dramatic growth after 1996.’

5 Section 13.2 of the Income Tax Act of 1967 offers incentives for the construction and development of new hotels. Up until 1988 tax concessions were given for the development of three- to five-star hotels. Such concessions included the rescinding of building costs over 9-, 12- and 14-year periods. In 1988 20-year write-offs for building costs were introduced for hotels of all star gradings (DEAT, 1996).

6 This is due to the demographics of casino patrons, who are generally medium- to low-income local residents or day visitors from further afield.

7 Personal communication with owner and chief executive officer, Relais Hotels, 6 March 2001.

8 Data obtained from Statistics South Africa (Stats SA).