Lighting up! The socio-economic opportunities and pitfalls of cannabis decriminalisation for South African tourism

ABSTRACT

Progressive attitudes towards cannabis consumption have resulted in many countries decriminalizing its use. South Africa is only the third African country to liberalize the recreational consumption of cannabis, potentially raising both societal concerns and economic opportunities for the country, including the development of cannabis tourism. This paper synthesizes the contemporary literature – drawing on experiences and best practices associated with cannabis decriminalization and its moral regulation within tourism. With reference to effectively balancing the economic benefits of cannabis decriminalization versus its contentious social ramifications, the paper is a concerted effort to identify actionable and socially grounded solutions to sustainably managing the cannabis decriminalization-tourism nexus for the government and tourism practitioners in African tourism destinations such as South Africa.

KEYWORDS:

• Cannabis tourism
• cannabis decriminalization
• social impacts
• economic benefits
• South Africa

Acknowledgement

The authors would like to acknowledge Dr. A. Viljoen for some of his insights in the development of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Tafadzwa Matiza

Tafadzwa Matiza is a Senior Lecturer and researcher with the Tourism Research in Economic Environs and Society (TREES) Research Unit, North-West University, South Africa. He holds a Bachelor of Technology (Hons) in International Marketing (CUT-Zim), a Master of Commerce in Business Management (University of Limpopo, South Africa) and a Ph.D. Commerce in Business Management (Nelson Mandela University, South Africa). His research interests are in Nation Branding - an emerging field in international and strategic marketing - particularly within the context of destination branding and marketing, tourism destination image evaluation and development.

Peet van der Merwe

Peet van der Merwe is currently a senior lecturer and researcher in Tourism Management at the North-West University, South Africa. He obtained his degree in Recreation and Tourism Management in 1994, honours degree in 1995 and master’s degree in 2000 from the North-West University. He completed his Ph.D. in 2004 in Tourism Management, was promoted to associate professor in 2010 and full professor in 2014. Peet received his NRF (C3) rating as a researcher in 2016. As a researcher, he forms part of the NRF research unit TREES (Tourism Research in Economic Environs and Society) and currently lectures Game Farm Management to third-year students, and Ecotourism at honours level. Peet’s field of expertise lies within wildlife tourism, hunting tourism, ecotourism (sustainable tourism) and marine tourism.