The gig economy and employment in tourism in Southern Africa

Abstract

The informal sector is a major component of the global economy and accounts for a large percentage of the workforce, especially in the Global South. Additionally, the emerging gig economy is becoming an increasing source of income for many people throughout the world. Due to the nature of the gig economy as largely contracted work facilitated through virtual (often remote) platforms, it is clear that there are already some impacts, which will likely continue to evolve on the workforce of the informal economy. In the tourism context, issues around employment are of the utmost importance due to the growth of job opportunities in the sector, particularly in emerging economies with high un- and underemployment rates. As a sector that is notorious for poor working conditions, there has been some discussion on how the emerging gig economy could potentially facilitate the formalisation of precarious and informal tourism employment. Thus, this chapter seeks to explore these issues. It begins with an overview of employment within both the gig and informal economies focusing on the context of the Southern African tourism sector. It then seeks to provide a critical assessment of tourism employment within the gig economy and its links to the informal tourism workforce in the hopes of promoting future research on these increasingly significant issues.