South African tourism geographies: progress and prospects

Abstract

Tourism geography has developed into a dynamic sub-discipline of contemporary South African geographical scholarship. The investigation provides an overview of the development of South African tourism geography since the early 1970s, and traces its subsequent development. Since the first investigations, tourism geographers had an interest in the developmental potential which the tourism system presents for South Africa. It is shown that recent tourism research is generally framed by concerns for responsible tourism, pro-poor tourism impacts, tourism as a vehicle for local economic development, and the role of small, medium and micro enterprise (SMME) development in the tourism sector. The main contribution of the paper is to propose a range of new investigatory avenues that can build on the current scholarship, and considers potential threats to the future development of South African tourism geography.

Keywords:

• South Africa
• tourism geographies
• development
• geography

Acknowledgement

The assistance of Gijsbert Hoogendoorn and Chris Rogerson on an earlier version of the paper is gratefully acknowledged. The usual disclaimers apply.

Notes

1. From the late 1950s to early 1960s, white tourists from neighbouring colonial territories numbered approximately 172,000 annually (Ferrario, 1987, p. 58).

2. Sufficient interest in nature-based tourism led to the establishment in 1993 of the Centre for Ecotourism in the geography department at Pretoria University.