“You know that's a rip-off”: policies and practices surrounding micro-enterprises and poverty alleviation in South African township tourism

ABSTRACT

Supporting the development of small tourism businesses has been seen by policy-makers as a valuable means of alleviating poverty in South African townships. This perspective has been endorsed by several “responsible” tourism businesses and academics. Following a literature review, this paper reports the findings of an empirical study that examined the practices of 80 micro-business owners and the factors that shape their behaviour in two South African townships. In spite of significant visitor numbers, it finds that their narrow social networks, the imbalances of power between them and intermediaries such as travel agencies and tour operators, ideas of Ubuntu and Umona, and complex family and ethnic ties all represent barriers that prevent them from developing their businesses and sharing in the material gains available through tourism. This analysis has important implications for local policy-makers and those advocating responsible tourism. For the former, it suggests a cessation of current initiatives in favour of greater regulation and alternative forms of investment. For the latter, it implies a need to reassess the utility of advocating responsible tourism to consumers in a context where they do not understand the dynamics which fashion what is on offer or the implications of their choices.

“你知道这是敲诈”：微型企业的政策与实践和南非小镇的旅游扶贫

决策者和部分负责任旅游拥护者视扶持小型旅游企业发展为有益南非小镇的扶贫手段。本文对两个镇上80家小型企业业主的习惯及行为形成因素进行实证研究，结果显示尽管游客数量可观，但狭窄的社交网络、与中介机构间失衡的权力、固有文化习惯及复杂的家族、种族联系都阻碍着商业发展和共享旅游带来的物质利益。决策者应终止当前行动来支持更大程度的监管和其他形式的投资；拥护者需要重新评估在顾客不明就里时提倡负责任旅游的效用。

KEYWORDS:

• Small business policy
• power
• responsible tourism
• networks
• policy-making
• slum tourism

关键字:

• 小企业政策
• 权力
• 负责任旅游
• 社交网络
• 制定政策
• 贫困旅游

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ko Koens

Ko Koens is a senior lecturer at the Academy of Hotel and Facility Management, NHTV Breda University of Applied Sciences, The Netherlands, and a research fellow at the School of Tourism and Hospitality, University of Johannesburg, South Africa. His main fields of interest are sustainable city tourism and city hospitality, slum tourism, destination management and governance solutions, with a specific focus on smaller enterprises.

Rhodri Thomas

Rhodri Thomas is a professor of tourism and events policy at Leeds Beckett University, UK, and Head of the International Centre for Research in Events, Tourism and Hospitality. His research is concerned mainly with understanding business practices, notably those of smaller enterprises, and examining their implications for public policy.