Sport and Tourism Destination Development: Hunting in South Africa c.1890-1939

In this study, we examine the causal relationship between tourism and financial development in South Africa using data from 1995 to 2017. The study attempts to establish whether financial development Granger-cause tourism in South Africa. The Autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach and ECM-based Granger causality test were used to examine the link. The results show that when broad money was used as a proxy for financial development, a distinct unidirectional causality from tourism to financial development was found in the short and the long run. However, when the domestic credit provided by financial sector and market capitalisation of domestic listed companies were used as proxies, a bidirectional causal flow was confirmed in the short run, but a unidirectional from financial development to tourism was found to dominate in the long run. The results confirm the reinforcing effect between tourism and financial development in the short run with financial development taking the centre stage in the long run.

Although considerable attention is given to the prospects for developing small, medium and micro-enterprises (SMMEs) in South Africa's tourism economy, very little relevant research has been undertaken in this regard. In this article, the findings are presented from over 60 detailed interviews conducted with key enterprises and entrepreneurs involved in tourism, outsourcing and small enterprise development in South Africa. The aim is to examine opportunities for outsourcing and business linkage development in South Africa's tourism economy, and to investigate the difficulties that confront the tourism SMME economy through examining the status of business linkages between large tourism enterprises and SMMEs in South Africa. The South African research is located within the context of existing works on tourism and small enterprise development in developing countries.

Rebuilding is a prominent theme in a post pandemic era where economies are looking to attract all opportunities to recover. Tourism has always been a key driver to boost economies particularly in countries which are rich in cultural diversity and natural beauty. South Africa, which already has a thriving tourism industry, has seen an increase in medical tourists who are motivated by the desire to avoid high healthcare costs, long wait times for services and specific procedures that are not offered in their own countries. South Africa's private healthcare system is world-class for medical tourism because it is supported by a thriving medical insurance market. The rise of medical tourism in South Africa has stemmed from synergies formed with the private sector healthcare system because of the growth of tourism. Currently, only private sector hospitals are involved in rendering services related to medical tourism. The current rollout of the National Health Insurance (NHI) poses as an opportunity for the public healthcare sector to also benefit from the revenue generated by medical tourism, however there are challenges that exist that must be alleviated. This paper will begin with an overview of the medical tourism and healthcare sectors in South Africa based on secondary research conducted. Thereafter the empirical data highlighting challenges experienced at selected public central hospitals in South Africa will be presented. The paper will then explore the collaboration potential of the tourism and healthcare industries to overcome the challenges presented. Recommendations will be contributory in highlighting the need for revenue to restore trust in the public healthcare sector and boost medical tourism. The empirical study, through adopting a descriptive exploratory paradigm, emphasises the quantitative method used to gather data from a purposive sample with the use of a questionnaire. Data collected from 322 respondents revealed that the daily challenges, underpinned by a severe lack of funding at the selected public central hospitals in South Africa, inhibit high quality service delivery, making the public healthcare sector an undesirable option for medical tourism.

The primary purpose of the paper is to highlight the extent to which selected macro policy components namely, leisure, sport, recreation, tourism growth, tourism safety and security, environmental management and tourism education and training have been realised in South Africa, and three selected African countries, and to investigate whether the realization will benefit leisure and recreation in general and tourism, in and around, South Africa in particular. The White Paper on the Development and Promotion of Tourism in South Africa, May 1996, formed the primary document for this investigation, although reference is made to the 2005 Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEAT) Strategic Plan, and various Acts of the Department of Sport and Recreation, and selected legislation in Namibia, Botswana and Kenya, by way of comparison. This study, therefore, reflects the situation up to April 2009. The authors are aware that due to recent cabinet reshuffles, the DEAT has been divided into two portfolios which split environmental affairs and tourism. Environmental Affairs has now been integrated into the Department of Water Affairs as a new department that is now referred to as the Department of Water and Environmental Affairs. Tourism is now a standalone department, referred to as the Department of Tourism (DT); as such all leisure activities we engage in can be directly addressed when they lead to tourism recreation. The authors are confident that these cabinet changes do not affect the findings and recommendations proffered in this paper, and are optimistic that the relevant Departments could utilise the findings of this study accordingly.

Heritage tourism is a significant contemporary facet of tourism in many developing countries. This paper analyses the economic opportunities for battlefield- heritage tourism in South Africa by examining the battlefields route within KwaZulu-Natal. Through structured interviews with stakeholders and structured questionnaires with visitors and local residents, this research explores the understanding of heritage tourism as well as perceptions of its influence on the physical landscape and gauges the importance of this form of tourism as a driver for local economic development in South Africa. Dundee, a small coal-mining town in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa - where several battlefields are found, is used as a case study. The study demonstrates that several issues need to be addressed if this niche of cultural and heritage tourism is to be a sustainable and responsible form of tourism in South Africa.

Mountain tourism enjoys a long history in many countries, much of which is unrecorded. This paper addresses one dimension of the neglected past of recreation and tourism in the Global South. The focus is on the development of mountain tourism as a form of niche tourism in South Africa. The paper contributes to the limited international historical scholarship on niche tourism. In addition, it extends the literature in South African tourism scholarship on tourism’s past, tourism history and the historical geographies of tourism. Using the limited extant literature and with primary archival sources the early development of mountain tourism in South Africa is investigated. The time period covered is from the mid-19th century to the early 1950s. Arguably, the initial origins of mountain tourism in South Africa must be situated at Table Mountain in Cape Town. The focus shifts subsequently to the growth of mountain tourism in the high Drakensberg range. Although mountain tourism is dominated by domestic visitors it is argued that the South African Railways played a vital role in exposing South Africa — and especially the Drakensberg — as a potential destination for international mountain tourists.

The growth of tourism in South Africa after the end of apartheid can be associated with the growth of various forms of special interest tourism. Religious tourism as a form of special interest tourism is possibly the most important contributor of tourism geographical dispersion in South Africa. South Africa's religious tourism is dominated by Christian religious pilgrimage. Religious pilgrimages produce positive spin off for many destinations in South Africa, which may not be regarded as traditional tourism destinations. Religious-linked domestic travel continues to dominate domestic tourism expenditure. The existence of several African Initiated Churches such as the Zion Christian Church and the Nazareth Baptist Church attract several million worshippers during their religious pilgrimages, attracting worshippers beyond South Africa. Robben Island, which is a shrine for the anti-apartheid struggle, has a glorious Muslim resistance history, which is yet to be exploited by the Robben Island Museum. This chapter adds to the academic literature on religious tourism.

This chapter examines certain major policy debates concerning the development of South Africa's tourism economy and to highlight issues surrounding the country's changing economic geography. It discusses the leading themes in the shifting national policy environment for tourism. Nature tourism is a further critical area for expansion that is linked to poverty alleviation in many rural areas. The introduction of various new forms of ownership and institutional arrangements for tourism projects is a final vital aspect for poverty alleviation. The promotion of new tourism growth and investment in tourism plant and product development is of central importance, not least for achieving certain goals of poverty alleviation. Another key element in transforming the spatial structure of the South African tourism economy is maximisation of the impacts of local-level initiatives for tourism-led economic development.

The investment of the Chinese government has been one of the biggest across the globe and Multinational Corporations (MNCs) have been at the center of this investment. Some scholars have referred to this as a Neo-colonial strategy by China on the African continent as most of these investments are only fostering their interests while degrading African states. In addition, these MNCs have acted as important agents in economic, social, and infrastructural development/ underdevelopment in the state. Thus, the paper sought to examine Chinese MNCs as agents of development and underdevelopment in South Africa. From this premise, the paper adopted a qualitative research method and case study approach of five MNCs from China operating in South Africa to critically examine their role as agents of development and underdevelopment in South Africa. The findings of the paper show succinctly that MNCs within the mining, technology, and industrial sectors of China have critically contributed to the development and underdevelopment of the country. Hence, it recommends that these companies must adopt strategies that contribute positively to the country’s long-term growth while minimizing negative impacts. They further need to implement and adhere to rigorous environmental standards to minimize their ecological footprint to ensure sustainable development in South Africa. The paper concluded by noting that there are challenges and opportunities created by MNCs which include job creation, contamination of water, destruction of wildlife, forceful displacement of settlements, and infrastructural development. Keywords: Chinese MNCs, Agents of Development and/or Underdevelopment, South Africa’s Development, and Chinese Investments.

In April 1994, South Africa held its historic first democratic election. The African National Congress overwhelmingly triumphed and Nelson Mandela became the first president of a free and democratic South Africa. In this review, the situation of South Africa's young children under apartheid and the context of young children in South Africa in 2012 are described. A situation analysis of early childhood development (ECD) in South Africa was undertaken using South African government ECD policy and programme implementation reports, and the main challenges affecting children and the ECD sector in South Africa was investigated. There has been progress since 1994, both quantitatively and qualitatively. Children now have access to a Grade R year, government education and social development budgets have increased and a per capita subsidy is available to qualifying children at ECD centres nationally. More children are in provision and in better-quality provision than before. However, much still remains to be done before we can say with confidence that the needs of our youngest children are being met. This study identifies infrastructure, nutrition, ECD programmes, teacher training, institutional capacity and funding as the major gaps in ECD provision.

Business tourism is a lucrative, fast-growing segment in tourism, known as the world’s largest industry sector. Countries rely heavily on investment in infrastructure to support the development of the business tourism sector and to ensure sustained growth, and many destinations use Destination Management Organisations (DMOs) and Convention Bureaus (CBs) to provide leadership. These organisations are also tasked to actively promote the destination for leisure travel such as cultural tourism, ecotourism, and activities, and it’s necessary to understand the distinct requirements that set business tourism development and promotion apart from leisure tourism. South Africa has tremendous opportunity, with both urban and off-the-beaten-track attractions to attract meeting and convention traffic to the continent, but what is hindering us, and is there a simple solution to this problem? Multi-method qualitative research was employed to investigate the roles and functions that DMOs perform to develop business tourism at four major conference centres across destinations in South Africa. This included understanding the challenges faced within the varied destinations. Data was collected through interviews with a sample of nine major DMOs at various levels in the country. Strategic documents and website content were also analysed as a supplement to the primary data. Results revealed the importance of especially DMO stakeholder engagement, marketing, identification of opportunities to host business tourism events within the destination, and bidding support as the main roles and functions that need to be performed to ensure sustained growth of business tourism in South Africa. Recommendations are made in the form of an innovative business tourism framework depicting the interaction between DMOs at the national, regional, and local levels, and with the various industry stakeholders for cities conference centres/off-the-beaten-track locations to be used in the future.KeywordsDestination management organisationsBusiness tourismConvention bureausSouth AfricaUrban and rural business tourismBusiness tourism modelJEL ClassificationO1 Economic DevelopmentO19 International Linkages to DevelopmentRole of International OrganisationO2 Development Planning and PolicyO21 Planning ModelsPlanning Policy

For tourism geographers, coastal tourism is a major focus of international research. In South Africa, however, there has been a relative oversight by local tourism geographers on coastal destinations. The policy environment concerning coastal tourism in South Africa is changing with new policy interventions and debates around the blue economy. Against this backdrop, the chapter provides an examination of coastal tourism in South Africa from a geographical perspective. The study is the first to map out the size, complexion and spatial distribution of coastal tourism in South Africa on the basis of investigating the 15 district and metropolitan municipalities that adjoin the national coastal line. Arguably, the contribution of coastal areas to South Africa’s tourism economy is in relative decline. Existing coastal tourism is geographically concentrated upon the two major coastal metropolitan areas. In addition, different geographies are revealed for different types of tourism, namely leisure as opposed to business or VFR travel and for domestic as opposed to international travel. The research discloses that coastal tourism is polarizing and is increasingly an urban phenomenon in South Africa. The uneven geographical impacts of coastal tourism raise a number of policy concerns about the need for strategic interventions to spread more widely the impacts of coastal tourism in the country.

The segment of visiting, friends and relatives (VFR) is one of the largest components of tourism economies. During the last two decades there emerged tourism scholarship around VFR travel, mostly in Australia, the USA and Europe. This paper examines the size, characteristics and spatial patterns of VFR tourism in South Africa. It is argued that studies of VFR travel in the global South must be linked to questions about migration. In the South African case the volume, nature and geography of VFR tourism cannot be understood without an analysis of historical migration trends. It is demonstrated that VFR travel is the largest element of domestic tourism and is dominated by black travellers. In terms of explanation, the continued role of circular mobilities in the post-apartheid period is highlighted. The geographical patterns of VFR tourism in South Africa reveal a complex of factors and most importantly the existence of split or translocal households for which VFR mobilities are critical. In South Africa, strong VFR travel occurs to large metropolitan areas and to the former homeland areas that are not considered as significant tourism destinations. Arguably, in many of these rural areas of South Africa VFR travel is the most significant driver of local tourism economies.

In this paper the dynamic relationship between interest rate reforms, bank-based financial development and economic growth is examined – using two models in a stepwise fashion. In the first model, the impact of interest rate reforms on financial development is examined using a financial deepening model. In the second model, the dynamic causal relationship between financial development and economic growth is examined, by including investment as an intermittent variable in the bi-variate setting, thereby creating a simple tri-variate causality model. Using cointegration and error-correction models, the study finds strong support for the positive impact of interest rate reforms on financial development in South Africa. However, contrary to the results from some previous studies, the study finds that financial development, which results from interest rate reforms, does not Granger cause investment and economic growth. In addition, the study finds a uni-directional causal flow from investment to financial development and prima-facie causal flow from investment to growth. The study, therefore, concludes that although interest rate reforms impact positively on financial depth in South Africa, the causal relationship between financial depth and economic growth tends to take a demand-following path. Moreover, given the causal flow from investment to financial development and a prima facie causal flow from investment to growth, it is likely that the economic development in South Africa is driven largely by the growth of the real sector rather than the financial sector.

Background: There has been considerable decline in the investment on road transport infrastructure in recent times, as a result of the dwindling economic investment owing to lowering gross domestic product (GDP) since 2009.Objective: The objective of this study was to examine the relationship between road transport investment (ROTI) and economic development (ED) in South Africa. This article adopts the Harrod–Domar (HD) model of economic growth and development theory, endogenous growth theory and Solow–Swan neoclassical growth model.Method: Data were derived from the South African Reserve Bank, Quantec database and Statistics South Africa (StatsSA) between 1990 and 2014. It used time series, econometric models cointegration and vector error correction model (VECM) to analyse.Result: The results of the estimation demonstrate that the explanatory variables account for approximately 86.7% variation in ED in South Africa. Therefore, there exists a positive relationship between ROTI and ED.Conclusion: This study established a long-run relationship between phenomena and demonstrates the role of road transport investment on economic development in South Africa.