Being near the action: bed and breakfast and guesthouse entrepreneurs and the hosting of black South African domestic tourists in the Cape Town townships

Abstract

This article examines how black female bed and breakfast (B&B) and guesthouse entrepreneurs in the black townships of Cape Town, South Africa were providing accommodations to black South African domestic tourists that allowed these tourists to ‘be near the action’ in the townships. ‘Being near the action’ refers to being able to conveniently attend various life-cycle events, such as weddings, funerals, and circumcision celebrations that involve friends and/or family, or engage in work, business, and other activities in the townships. This research contributes to tourism mobilities studies by explaining how these entrepreneurs impacted and were being impacted by domestic tourism and how the social spaces or ‘moorings’ of the entrepreneurs’ accommodations produced and reproduced social and cultural life. In addition, this study provides an understanding of tourism in Africa, and specifically domestic tourism in South Africa, related to the discretionary mobilities of a growing population of middle-class black South Africans. For this study, data was collected through semi-structured interviews conducted with black female B&Bs and guesthouse entrepreneurs in the townships of Langa, Gugulethu, and Khayelitsha. The article also includes a discussion of the possible implications of the COVID-19 pandemic’s halting of travel mobilities on the economic sustainability of these entrepreneurs.

Keywords:

• Tourism mobilities
• domestic tourism
• female entrepreneurs
• B&Bs and guesthouses
• South Africa
• economic sustainability

Disclosure statement

The author reports that there are no competing interests to declare.

Notes

1 I use the term, black, to identify those individuals who would have been classified as members of the ethnic groups referred to as Africans under the population Registration Act of 1950. My use of the term excludes those individuals formerly known as coloureds (mixed-race people) and Asian Indians under the apartheid system.

2 A guesthouse accommodation is provided in a house or specifically designed building in which public areas are for the exclusive use of guests. A bed and breakfast accommodation is located within a home and involves the sharing of public facilities/areas (dining area, lounge, etc.) by the host and guests. It also includes breakfast as part of the room charge (Tourism Grading Council of South Africa 2019).

3 Langa, Gugulethu, and Khayelitsha are three of the black townships located on the Cape Flats, a flat and barren area much different than the mountain, vineyard, beach, garden, and resort areas for which Cape Town is known. In relation to the Cape Town City Centre, Langa is approximately 13 kilometres (8 miles) away whereas Gugulethu is approximately 18 kilometres (11 miles) away, and Khayelitsha at 30 kilometres (18.5 miles) is farthest away in distance.

4 Apartheid was a system of racial classification and segregation in South Africa that was enforced by law from 1948 to 1990. It privileged whites while marginalizing blacks with Asian Indians and coloureds forming intermediate groups with varying degrees of privilege and marginalization.

5 Approval of my research project was given by the Protection of Human Rights and Research Committee (PHRRC) at my university. The PHRRC protocol number for the research project is SS18-009_AC.