Tourist Profile as an Indicator of Perceptions of South Africa’s Political Climate Conditions

Abstract

Tourism is seen as complexed and unpredictable. The industry does not operate in a vacuum and is sensitive to change in the environment in which it operates. The political climate of a tourist destination can influence the risk perception by tourist. The aim of this study is to explore if tourists’ variables can predict the role the political climate play in selecting South Africa (SA) as a tourist destination. A quantitative research design was utilized with 512 domestic and foreign tourists travelling within or to South Africa participating in an online survey. Multiple Analysis of Variance, Post-hoc Tukey tests and Cohen d tests were conducted to analyze the data. Of the six statistically significant mean variances, five practically statistically significant effect sizes were identified between the tourism profile variables excluding employment status. Of these practically significant effect sizes, only age seems to be an indicator of how travelers view SA’s political climate conditions. The SA government should purposefully strive to create a positive risk-free image of being a safe politically stable country. To increase travel to and within SA, marketers must apply a differentiated marketing approach for younger travelers (between 18 and 25 years) and those in the age group 56-65 years to reassure them about the absence of travel risks in the country. It is further suggested that destination marketing organizations compile specific travel packages for these two age groups to ease their travel risk fears and increase tourist demand to and within South Africa.