The Uneven Geography of Tourism in South Africa
- Authors: Prof. Rogerson, C.M.
- Date: 2016
- Subjects: Spatial patterns , Uneven development , Tourism space economy
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10210/93439 , uj:20348 , Citation: Prof. Rogerson, C.M. 2016. The Uneven Geography of Tourism in South Africa.
- Description: Abstract: Understanding the spatial dimensions of tourism is one of the core challenges for geographers involved in tourism studies. The aim in this paper is to pursue a geographical analysis of uneven patterns of tourism in South Africa and specifically to unpack the key trends observed in the country‟s tourism space economy. The analysis is conducted between three groupings of municipalities as destinations or tourism spaces. These three groups are demarcated as the metropolitan areas, the rural spaces of the priority district municipalities, and what is called the intermediate space of the remaining non-priority district municipalities. The findings show the dominance of South Africa‟s tourism space economy by the metropolitan areas. In addition, the analysis shows these three different tourism spaces exhibit different trajectories in terms of growth performance (numbers of trips, bednights and visitor spend), origin of visitors (domestic versus international) and purpose of travel (leisure, business, VFR and other). Interpreting the characteristics of these tourism spaces is an essential first step for improved local tourism planning.
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Less visited tourism spaces in South Africa
- Authors: Rogerson, Christian M.
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: Tourism space economy , Uneven development , Peripheral spaces
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10210/239217 , uj:24572 , Citation: Rogerson, C.M. 2017. Less visited tourism spaces in South Africa. African Journal of Hospitality, Tourism and Leisure, 6(3):1-17. , ISSN: 2223-814X
- Description: Abstract: Within the vibrant and expanding body of tourism scholarship around peripheral regions, there are limited geographical studies on locational issues. Notwithstanding a substantive contribution by geographers to understanding a cross-section of tourism issues the need exists to ‘re-spatialize’ our understanding of tourism patterns in peripheral areas. It is against this backdrop that the purpose of this paper is to build upon recent analyses of South Africa’s tourism space economy and investigate the location of ‘less visited tourism spaces’ in the country. Situated within an international literature on peripheral tourism this analysis reviews a range of indicators concerning less visited tourism spaces in South Africa. The focus is explicitly upon identifying the most marginal and in many respects most ‘off the tourism map’ local municipalities in South Africa as a counterpoint to previous works that identify across a range of similar indicators the most significant and leading spaces for tourism development. Overall, the paper represents a contribution both to an evolving South African scholarship on tourism geography, as well as to an expanding international literature around peripheral tourism spaces.
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The economic geography of South Africa’s international tourism industry
- Authors: Rogerson, Christian Myles
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: International tourism , Uneven development , Spatial inequalities
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10210/227157 , uj:22983 , Citation: Rogerson, C.M. 2017. The economic geography of South Africa’s international tourism industry. Acta Universitatis Danubius, 13(2):66-80.
- Description: Abstract: The business of international tourism is a growth industry and key driver for economic development in many countries. For national and local policy makers the attraction of international tourists is of major importance for economic and social development. Understanding the flows and impacts of international tourism is a vibrant issue in global tourism scholarship. Although the global flows of international tourism are well documented, much less understood are the spatial patterns of international tourists within national territories. The objective in this paper is to analyse scientifically the overall economic geography of international tourism flows in South Africa. An uneven geographical pattern of development of international tourism is disclosed for the period 2001-2012. In interpreting this spatial distribution it is argued that a conceptual distinction be drawn between the different mobilities of South Africa’s cohorts of long haul as opposed to regional African visitors. The economic geography of international tourism in South Africa is a composite of these two sets of visitors and of their differential flows variously for purposes of leisure, business and VFR travel.
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