The role of second homes in local economic development in five small South African towns

Abstract

Local economic development (LED) is receiving greater policy prominence in a range of southern African settings. Strategic interventions often draw on tourism development to attain LED objectives. This investigation contends that second home development can serve as an additional focus for tourism strategies aimed at LED, and demonstrates that important LED objectives, such as developing and maintaining enterprises, generating employment and attracting capital inflows, can be achieved through second home development.

Keywords:

• second homes
• small towns
• tourism
• local economic impacts, local economic development
• South Africa

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Michelle Naidoo for administering the questionnaire in Nieu Bethesda and Devlyn Hardwick for preparing the map. Parts of the paper are based on research supported by the National Research Foundation, award 65890. The authors extend thanks for their support. The usual disclaimers apply.

Notes

¹Post-productivism means extensification instead of intensification, dispersion instead of concentration and diversification instead of specialisation in the contemporary countryside (Ilbery & Bowler, 1998).

²At the time of writing, ZAR1 = approximately US$0.10.

³It should, however, be noted that future retirement is not a factor that comes into play in the acquisition of second homes in Rhodes and Nieu-Bethesda, largely because of the lack of services and the fact that there are no pharmacies or hospitals nearby.

⁴For example, at Rhodes 33 per cent of the respondents share their properties with friends, and in Greyton 29 per cent of the respondents own their properties through a trust. In Clarens 20 per cent are involved in fractional title.