Resource-directed spatial planning of agritourism with GIS

Abstract

This article shows how modern spatial computing technology can be used for the development of spatial policy and planning of agritourism. An application is performed in the Western Cape province of South Africa. The article overviews provincial tourism development policy, the tourism marketing framework and the expressed tourist preferences that translate into spatial suitability indicators or attraction features captured in the agritourism resource base. Special attention is given to the conceptual foundations of what defines attraction and which can be captured in a spatial format as mapped variables. The methodological approach of spatial multiple criteria evaluation is applied through weighted linear combination of spatial factor layers as images in a geographical information system. The outcome in map format demonstrates the applicability of the technique to the Western Cape. The finely detailed spatial result is compared with coarser regional indicators from a spatial development framework proposed for guiding official tourism planning. The entrepreneurial implications of the analyses are indicated. The results are useful for entrepreneurial and regulatory planning that can be replicated in different spatial locations if the appropriate database can be constructed.

Keywords:

• geographical information system
• multiple criteria evaluation
• agritourism
• spatial planning
• Western Cape Province

Acknowledgements

The expert participants are gratefully thanked for their insights during the tourism workshop and Cape Town Routes Unlimited for permission to publish the research results.