Business Challenges of Arts and Crafts Street Vendors at Key Tourist Attractions in Soweto, South Africa

Abstract

Soweto is South Africa’s most iconic tourist destination, providing local street vendors with an opportunity to sell arts and crafts. This paper presents a detailed overview of business challenges faced by a population of 60 arts and crafts street vendors operating at two main tourist attractions in Soweto, the Mandela House/Museum and the Hector Pieterson Memorial. The study employs a mixed methodology based on a four-stage exploratory sequential research design. The profile characteristics of arts and craft street vendors lead to some interesting conclusions whereby the triangulation of qualitative and quantitative results reveals the main challenges in operating their businesses. They are grouped as: a) inadequate infrastructure, especially a lack of dedicated trading space and storage facilities; b) lack of safety due to high levels of congestion and crime affecting daily trade; and c) non-compliance with legislation, lack of government funding and reliance on the cash economy. The study presents a contribution to tourism literature on the little-known challenges of informal businesses trading as arts and crafts street vendors at main tourist attractions in Soweto.