Abstract
The development of small, medium, and micro enterprises (SMMEs) in tourism continues to attract a growing international scholarship in the Global North and the Global South. For many countries in the Global South, the promotion of tourism SMMEs has been a significant policy focus with specific attention directed towards making the tourism economy more ‘inclusive’. The study was examined against a backdrop of international research. Within these international debates around SMME development, South Africa presents a distinct case, particularly within the developing world. Under the apartheid regime, participation in the country’s tourism economy was exclusively restricted to white-owned businesses, with black entrepreneurs excluded. In post-apartheid South Africa national government is committed to the ‘transformation’ of the tourism economy by introducing national policy frameworks that aim to increase the economic participation of black entrepreneurs.
The research uses a mixed method approach to investigate the historical constraints and contemporary challenges that face black accommodation providers in the tourism sector of South Africa’s Eastern Cape province, which was constituted in 1994 and incorporates much of the territory of the former 'independent' Homelands of Transkei and Ciskei.
The results of the study are analysed from 19 structured interviews conducted with key policy stakeholders within the Eastern Cape province, as well as a survey of 79 black accommodation businesses across the Eastern Cape. Additionally, a historical approach is applied. The study draws upon a range of archival materials to investigate the former homelands tourism economy during the colonial and apartheid period. This approach is applied to understand the contemporary issues confronting black-owned enterprises. The study reveals several key constraints faced by the emerging black entrepreneur in terms of the development of their small accommodation business, as well as highlighting spatial differences in patterns of tourism SMME development which in part reflects the historical legacy of apartheid in South Africa. Overall, the study contributes to the literature on small tourism businesses in the Global South by analysing the geographies of transformation in one of South Africa’s provinces.
Keywords: Tourism, SMMEs, transformation, inclusive, South Africa, Eastern Cape