An analysis of the South African adventure tourism industry

Abstract

South Africa has many of the physical resources that support an adventure tourism industry. Thus, since the 1990s, adventure tourism has grown enormously and is now a significant industry in its own right. Geographically it is spread across the entire country. The industry, however, suffers from policy neglect – both from South African tourism authorities and the national government. So, if South Africa is to continue to foster economic growth through tourism, policy-makers need to maximize the potential of adventure tourism. This study shows there is a great diversity in the types of adventure tourism products on offer, with three well developed sub-sectors: namely hard, soft and nature-based adventure. A tourism policy directed at supporting these market segments can assist in promoting their growth, as the South African adventure tourism market is far from saturated.

Keywords:

• Adventure tourism
• South Africa
• sectoral analysis
• tourism resources

Acknowledgements

Parts of this paper are drawn from the unpublished PhD thesis of the author, submitted to the University of Johannesburg, 2017.