Abstract
Ph.D. (Geography)
This research investigation straddles the disciplines of economic geography, innovation studies and tourism studies. In recent decades, services have outperformed manufacturing from an employment and output perspective in most advanced economies. This trend, associated with neoliberal restructuring, is also observable in emerging market economies like South Africa and regions like the Western Cape. Research on innovation in services has been limited in the international, as well as the local context. Innovation activity has significant implications for firm and destination competitiveness, as well as regional economic development. Policy makers, concerned with fostering innovation, are
increasingly recognising the economic significance of tourism for economic development. In South Africa and the Western Cape, tourism is regarded as a key sector for job creation and growth. However, in South Africa innovation policy excludes tourism, whilst there is a limited understanding of tourism innovation evident in tourism policies. Therefore, tourism innovation, and related issues such as networking and regional competitiveness, needs to be understood better in the South African context to support evidence-based regional economic, tourism and innovation policies. The research confirms that the Schumpeterian notion of innovation is appropriate for measuring
innovation in services and tourism. The European Community Innovation Survey questionnaire was adapted for a sector-specific survey of tourism firms in the Western Cape. In addition, qualitative interviews with firms on the establishment and corporate levels; as well as with tourism actors in the Western Cape tourism system, and with tourism experts, entrepreneurs and associations formed part of the empirical investigation. In total, 182 responses were obtained. It is determined that innovation by tourism firms is widespread in the Western Cape tourism economy. The incremental nature of innovation, however, is an outstanding feature in an emerging economy, global South, context. Evidence of product, marketing, environmental, organisational,
process, structural and social innovations in tourism are identified. The identification of environmental, social and structural innovation in tourism contributes to the literature. This investigation contributes further by providing perspectives on innovation per tourism sub-sector.