African Tourism Research Articles

Risk, uncertainty and the tourism sector of North Africa

AbstractThis paper investigates, for the first time, the uncertainty on the tourism of North Africa and uncertainty on the second‐degree effects of the North African tourism sector. The study uses data from 1995 to 2019 and a structural vector autoregression to perform the investigation. The research finds that uncertainties, measured by the uncertainty of Europe, the uncertainty of the Middle East and Central Asia, and the volatility of GDP growth of the Euro area, have significant negative effects on investment and job creation in, as well as the contribution to the GDP of, the North African tourism sector. The paper invents a new proxy of risk, measured by the volatility of crude oil production in North Africa, and finds that this new risk measure has a significant negative impact on the North African tourism sector. The results show that geopolitical risk and the uncertainty of Africa do not significantly affect the North African tourism sector. The paper suggests that policymakers in North Africa subsidize tourism‐related activities and explore new markets to attract tourists during periods of high risk and uncertainty.

African tourism and air transport: the role of the African Union and ECOSOCC in SDG implementation post COVID-19 pandemic

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to offer an insight of the role of the African Union (AU) and the Economic Social and Cultural Council (ECOSOCC) in implementing the sustainable development goals (SDGs) for the air transport sector and the tourism industry. The objective is to show how the AU along with its advisory body ECOSOCC collaborates with regional tourism organizations and stakeholders to achieve the SDGs. Design/methodology/approach The methodology is based on desk-based research and content analysis of documents, reports and research articles related to Agenda 2063. Findings The findings show that achievement of the SDGs necessitates collaboration between regional and international organizations. But, not all AU members are committed to implementing the SDGs. However, the COVID-19 outbreak has threatened many tourism economies, and stakeholders are now interested in finding a solution to the crisis. Practical implications The outcome of this study provides an improved understanding of the importance of SDGs while confronting tourism challenges during the pandemic crisis in Africa. Originality/value According to the authors’ best knowledge, the study is among the first to address SDG issues in a post-COVID African context.

Africa’s Capital Cities: Tourism Research in Search of Capitalness

Although African cities are significant tourism destinations scholarship on African tourism is rural biased. This paper centres on one aspect of the neglected urban tourism research agenda of Africa, namely the state of tourism research in Africa’s national capital cities. A review of extant research is conducted on tourism in Africa’s capital cities. It pinpoints an upturn of research over the past decade with a concentration of scholarly contributions on a small group of cities and with many capitals lacking any research on aspects of the local tourism industry. Prominent thematic foci in research on capital cities are tourism and planning related issues and the development and impacts of various forms of niche tourism, most commonly of heritage and culture. Only minimally represented in Africa literature is investigations of the role of ‘capitalness’ in defining and impacting the character of capital city tourism. Arguably, therefore, Africa’s capital cities provide the setting for examining a variety of issues in tourism and hospitality research albeit that ‘capital city tourism’ is scarcely evident in contemporary scholarship about urban Africa.

The Use of Social Media as a Marketing Tool by Tourist Attractions: Influence on Cognitive, Affective and Behavioural Consumer Attitudes

Social media has an enormous influence on the manner in which people look for and distribute data, and select a tourist destination. Hence, research was undertaken to ascertain the role of social media as a communication and marketing tool for Cape Town tourist attractions (Cape Point, Groot Constantia Wine Estate, V&A Waterfront, Table Mountain Aerial Cable Way and Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens) via the analysis of tourists’ cognitive, affective and behavioural attitudinal responses. The results revealed that tourists displayed positive cognitive/affective and affective/behavioural attitude associations towards social media usage by the Cape Town tourist attractions. Several demographic and usage characteristics resulted in significant positive attitudes regarding Cape Town tourist attraction social media sites, viz. South African and African tourists; mobile device access; new social media users; daily log-ons; Black, Indian and Coloured tourists; and tourists who used the local Rand currency. The findings could be used by Cape Town tourist attractions to improve their social media platforms, and thereby the effectiveness as a marketing tool. The study makes an original contribution since few tourism-related studies investigated the hierarchy of effects model in terms of social media and most previous research only considered usage and demographic characteristics as descriptive measures.

Travel Stokvels, Leisure on Lay-by, and Pay at Your Pace Options: The Post COVID-19 Domestic Tourism Landscape in South Africa

As the world came to a relative standstill during the initial stages of the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, with nearly all countries having enforced some kind of COVID-19 regulations, the global tourism economy was one of the hardest hit. Travel bans and border closures resulted in many tourism businesses having to enter business rescue or shut down indefinitely. This new economic climate forced the tourism economy to imagine a new reality and to consider a negotiation of its revival in a post-pandemic world. Coupled with the impact on tourism itself, the pandemic resulted in a subsequent economic crisis, which unarguably, impacted upon travel, particularly leisure tourism. The South African tourism sector is no exception and will need to explore several avenues in addressing this new status quo. With domestic tourism being a weighty component of many countries’ tourism economies, it serves as an important building block for the resurgence of the industry. This is especially the case in a time when uncertainties are particularly prevalent for the re-emergence of international travel. Therefore, domestic tourism in South Africa has been a key starting point as travel restrictions have slowly started to lift, a context, which has been highlighted in current debates amongst South African tourism stakeholders. This paper explores the potential opportunities for opening up tourism to cash-strapped South Africans by specifically addressing their savings and travel cultures and prospects for future travel. The paper presents a desktop review of the recent introduction of savings and payment schemes available to travellers in South Africa, with particular focus on travel stokvels, leisure on lay-by and pay at your pace options.

Implications of COVID-19 Induced Lockdown on the South African Tourism Industry and Prospects for Recovery

South Africa has one of the largest and most developed tourism markets in Southern Africa. Consequently, the sector's performance, therefore, has implications on the regional tourism market. In the advent of COVID-19, South Africa emerged as one of the global and regional epicentres of coronavirus infections. In March 2020, South Africa was one of the countries that adopted hard lockdown measures to control the pandemic. The consequent sealing off of the country’s ports brought the tourism industry to a sudden halt. This study is aimed at examining the impact and potential reopening strategies that the tourism industry can adopt in South Africa. The study is based on critical document analysis of survey reports from South Africa’s National Department of Tourism, Stats SA, Google Mobility and other authoritative, relevant sources. The study concludes that the pandemic had a devastating impact on various sectors of the tourism economy. The most devastating industries include the aviation, maritime, special events, accommodation and attraction sectors. The sudden halting of the tourism industry threatened conservation efforts and the business viability of many tourism establishments. Consequently, public and private airlines were liquidated or placed under business administration with far-reaching implications for various destinations and travel sectors. The study recommends a well-engineered financial aid package for the region's tourism industry, reduced tourism levies and taxes backed by the adoption of stringent health protocols to help the industry recover and make travel appealing and attractive again. A robust vaccination program must support such efforts.

관광지 서비스 품질, 관광지 이미지 및 재방문의도 간 관계에서 한류의 조절효과

Korean wave has recently been spreading across borders throughout Asia, and its scope has expanded. This study focused on how Korean wave has spread over in Africa which is a region newly influenced by Korean wave. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship among tourism service quality, tourism image, and revisit intention focused on African students residing in Korea as well as the moderating effect of Korean wave between tourism service quality/tourism image and revisit intention. The results from structural equation modeling showed that destination service quality significantly affected destination image(tourism resource, infrastructure, environment) and the biggest effect was observed on ‘infrastructure.’ Only ‘tourism resource’ among three factors of tourism image had influence on revisit intention, and tourism service quality did not have any effect on revisit intention. Korean wave had no significant moderating effect on relationships between tourism service quality and revisit intention; however, there was a moderating effect of Korean wave between destination image and revisit intention in part. Our findings suggest that in order to attract more African tourists, a high quality of service should be provided through hospitality, information service training for the service staff and a variety of interesting tourism resources should be continuously developed. Moreover, the development of a variety of Korean wave contents using K-pop would encourage African tourists to revisit Korea.

Opportunities for respiratory disease transmission from people to chimpanzees at an East African tourism site.

Respiratory illnesses, including COVID‐19, present a serious threat to endangered wild chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) populations. In some parts of sub‐Saharan Africa, chimpanzee tracking is a popular tourism activity, offering visitors a chance to view apes in their natural habitats. Chimpanzee tourism is an important source of revenue and thus benefits conservation; however, chimpanzee tracking may also increase the risk of disease transmission from people to chimpanzees directly (e.g., via aerosol transmission) or indirectly (e.g., through the environment or via fomites). This study assessed how tourist behaviors might facilitate respiratory disease transmission at a chimpanzee tracking site in Kibale National Park, Uganda. We observed tourists, guides, and student interns from the time they entered the forest to view the chimpanzees until they left the forest and noted behaviors related to disease transmission. Common behaviors included coughing, sneezing, and urinating, which respectively occurred during 88.1%, 65.4%, and 36.6% of excursions. Per excursion, individuals touched their faces an average of 125.84 ± 34.45 times and touched large tree trunks or branches (which chimpanzees might subsequently touch) an average of 230.14 ± 108.66 times. These results show that many pathways exist by which pathogens might move from humans to chimpanzees in the context of tourism. Guidelines for minimizing the risk of such transmission should consider tourist behavior and the full range of modes by which pathogen transmission might occur between tourists and chimpanzees.

Assessing the Impact of Terrorism on African Tourism Demand

Many African states are relying on or have identified tourism to accelerate their growth and the continent has become the world’s second fastest growing tourist industry. However, African states have also not been spared by increasing terrorism attacks during the past decades, probably hindering the growth of this sector to certain extent. This study examines the relationship between terrorism and tourism for a sample of selected African countries over the period 1995 to 2017. Given the dynamic nature of tourism demand and the possibility of endogenous relationships in the terrorism-tourism nexus, dynamic panel data analysis, namely a Panel vector error correction model (PVECM) is employed. The results confirm that terrorism negatively affects tourism demand in Africa and this can be explained by the reactive psychology of tourists to the various aggravated terrorist attacks in the countries. Moreover, the findings show that an increase in tourism may have resulted in an increase in terrorist attacks, hence confirming a bi directional causality between tourism and terrorism.

Uncertainty and tourism in Africa

Tourism growth is on the rise in Africa, and yet limited empirical evidence exists that explores the factors that drive this important contributor of economic growth on the continent. Previous literature focuses mainly on developed countries. This study weighs in on the recent debate on African tourism by providing evidence on the role that economic uncertainties have on tourist arrivals. Using panel data from 1996 to 2017, we find that economic uncertainties reduce tourist arrivals in Africa in comparison to other global regions, such as Europe. Further disaggregation by African regions reveals that economic uncertainties in West and North African regions drive these adverse results. These regions have been the hardest hit by political instability and social unrest during the period under review, which may have acted as a deterrent to tourists.

Mapping Diaspora: African American Roots Tourism in Brazil

Mapping Diaspora: African American Roots Tourism in Brazil

Brand loyalty and the Bangtan Sonyeondan (BTS) Korean dance: Global viewers’ perceptions

This study examined the influence of brand trust and loyalty to Korean Bangtan Sonyeondan (BTS), as perceived by global viewers who watched a BTS dance performance on TV and online. The sample consisted of 498 respondents (women = 44. 7%), with 230 Americans (women = 50%), and 268 South Africans (women = 40. 3%). They completed online surveys on brand trust and loyalty of the festival event. Structural equation modelling showed the festival event performance enhanced brand trust and loyalty. Additionally, higher festival event brand trust and loyalty reciprocally enhanced each other. Further, American tourists had little evidence of festival event performance influences on their brand loyalty, while South African tourists had a strong festival performance and brand loyalty association. The results are consistent with the view that festival performances self-market with brand trust and loyalty influences on consumers, while the selling points may vary based on audience segment.

COVID-19 and African tourism research agendas

ABSTRACT COVID-19 has triggered a burst of international scholarship concerning the reshaping of tourism and the resetting of tourism research agendas. The aim of this paper is to tease out some implications for re-orienting the African tourism research agenda from 2020 and beyond. Arguably, an appropriate African research response to COVID-19 in the context of tourism must embrace a genuine transdisciplinary approach and draw in researchers who would not, historically, have operated in the tourism space. Seven key themes are discussed namely, market confidence; dependence on international long-haul tourists; supporting regional and domestic tourism especially VFR travel; redefining community-based tourism; informal sector resilience; climate change; and, addressing present-mindedness in African tourism scholarship.

An Analysis of Challenges obstructing Growth of SMEs in the South African Tourism Sector: A theoretical evaluation

The study empirically sought to analyse challenges inhibiting the growth of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) within the tourism sector in South Africa. The study employed qualitative research design following the in depth interviews in order to gather data form tourism SME owners and managers in South Africa, who formed the sample population for the study. A sample of 20 respondents was drawn using purposive sampling approach. The participants who were selected were tourism SME owners and managers of guesthouses, lodges and bed and breakfast houses, shuttle transport, art and craft curio shops and agricultural sector. The researchers has provided a perspective on the role of tourism SMEs in South Africa. The study identified the hindering challenges for tourism SMEs development and growth as lack of access to funding, inadequate or unavailable government funding, lack of entrepreneurial and management skills to operate their businesses, lack of networking connections, poor location of SME operations and stiff competition for well-established SMEs. The recommendations were made that alternative funding strategies should be used, SME owners and managers should be trained, the SMEs should join network groups and share ideas, and they should also invest in marketing and communication technologies for their products to be known to the market. Keywords: Small and Medium Enterprises, tourism, economic growth, inclusive growth DOI: 10.7176/EJBM/12-22-06 Publication date: August 31 st 2020

Exploring the Place Brand Factors Influencing Tourism to South Africa

Despite the proliferation of destination branding-related studies, there appears to be a limited academic inquiry into generic place brands and their potential influence on tourist behaviour towards destination countries. More-so within the African context. This paper explores whether there are place brand factors that potentially influence inward tourist’s perceptions of South Africa as a tourism destination country. Data generated from a survey of 233 inbound tourists to South Africa were analysed using Exploratory Factor Analysis. The findings establish that South Africa's place brand consisted of six distinct factors, two of which, namely, Socio-cultural and Competitive Advantages were new place brand factors within the South African context. Theoretically, the study complements the extent of the literature within the tourism discourse by providing an international demand-side perspective on place branding within an African tourism context. Practically, this study provides both South African and African tourism practitioners with insights into the potential utility of place branding as a heuristic cue in the decision-making process of international tourists, predominantly from the European and American markets.

Local Residents’ Assessment of South Africa as a Domestic Leisure Travel Destination

Market research has realised that identifying tourists’ needs and wants, and making concerted efforts to satisfying them is the hallmark of destination marketing. This study explores locals’ perception of South Africa (SA) as a leisure travel destination, and ways of marketing the destination, using the case of Mtubatuba Local Municipality in KwaZulu-Natal. We used a structured questionnaire to collect data from 400 respondents. Results show that respondents perceive South Africa as a favourable leisure travel destination. Results also show that better promotion of South Africa as a domestic leisure travel destination should be made, mostly through the usage of Technology. Young (18-30 years of age), female, and employed residents, and those with tertiary education, show higher demand for domestic tourism than their counterparts. This study recommends that domestic tourism marketing efforts by South African Tourism should be amplified targeting these demographic groups. Intensive and continuous domestic tourism promotion (using social media and other modern forms of Information and Communication Technology), competitive pricing (through reduced operational costs and bundle pricing), and further improvements on national security are areas that still need national attention. Domestic tourism demand translates into international or foreign demand.

PERCEPTIONS AND PRACTICE OF TIPPING AMONGST DOMESTIC TOURISTS IN ZIMBABWE

Tipping is a common practice globally and at times mandatory in some societies, at the same time, some communities regard tipping as taboo. African societies view tipping differently and this poses a challenge among international tourists, particularly those from the west who are used to expressing their gratitude towards a satisfactory service through giving a tip. While it is almost certain that some nationals will always give a tip, do Africans, particularly Zimbabweans subscribe to the tipping philosophy? There is not enough literature in academia on tipping amongst African tourists, particularly those in Zimbabwe. Preliminary review of literature has revealed that there are only two studies published on the tipping practice in Zimbabwe. The one focused on the impact of tipping on waiters’ service delivery as well as working relations among waiting staff (Mkono, 2011). The other study looked at the perceptions of hotel employees towards tipping and motivation (Kazembe, Mapingure & Chimutingiza, 2014). It is evident that the published studies were all supply side oriented without considering the demand side. This study seeks to interrogate the demand side by; (i) establishing the perceptions of domestic tourists when it comes to tipping; (ii) expose the nature of tipping amongst local tourists; (iii) establishing the motivation for tipping amongst domestic tourists. The study adopted a phenomenological philosophy, and used a qualitative design to collect and analyze data. The study conveniently sampled forty (40) domestic tourists from four (4) hotels in Zimbabwe and interviewed them. The findings revealed that domestic tourists in Zimbabwe perceive tipping as an appropriate and good practice. The main form of tipping indicated in the study is the monetary. The study also found out that the motivations for tipping are as varied as the people who practice it.

Segmenting Tourists Based on Traditional Versus Social Media Usage and Destination Image Perception

Despite considerable insight into both traditional and social media, the research on these media types is largely mutually exclusive. Consequently, it is largely not known what media tourists use before forming an image of a destination for potential visitation. To provide insight into this phenomena, this study segmented 558 tourists to South Africa based on their media usage and destination image perception. The first segment, experienced South African tourists (39%), did not use media when forming an image of South Africa, but rather focused on their frequent past experience. This segment rated cognitive and behavioral image of South Africa the highest. The second segment, friends and family orientated tourists (21%), utilized personal sources in their destination image formation of South Africa. They also rated the country's image the lowest. The third segment, multiple media usage tourists (40%), employed both traditional and social media in forming their destination image of South Africa. These tourists also rated affective image of the country the highest. While destination marketing organizations (DMOs) need to continue to employ traditional and social media to cater for different consumer learning techniques and different consumer response stages of the largest segment (multiple media usage segments), three fifths of the sample are currently being neglected. Because past experience is incredibly relevant for segment validation and representing destination image of the two smaller segments, the DMO needs to identify through in-depth interviews what South Africa's destination image means to all three segments. This process allows comparisons between the segments to be made. It can identify how these tourists' perception of the country's image has changed with experience and if their perceived image accurately represents what is currently marketed by DMOs.

The Influence of Hallyu on Africans’ Perceptions of Korea: The Moderating Role of Service Quality

The purpose of this study is to explore the relationships between Hallyu, destination image, and behavioral intentions in light of the moderating effect of service quality. To that purpose, we established two objectives: to investigate relationships between Hallyu, destination image, and behavioral intentions and to examine how service quality at a destination affects the relationship between Hallyu and destination image. We collected data from 250 African students studying in Korea, 223 of whom returned usable surveys that we subjected to structural analysis. The results revealed that there is a positive relationship between Hallyu and destination image and that destination image significantly influenced behavioral intention. Moreover, we found differences in the moderating role of service quality. Such findings contribute to tourism marketing for African tourists.

Is tourism a spur to economic growth in South Africa? An empirical investigation

ABSTRACT In this study, the dynamic Granger-causality between tourism development and economic growth in South Africa was empirically examined during the period 1995-2016. The study was motivated by the limelight that the South African tourism sector has been enjoying in recent years, on the one hand, and the lack of sufficient coverage of tourism-growth nexus studies in many sub-Saharan African countries, on the other hand. The study used two tourism proxies, namely tourist arrivals and tourism revenue, to examine this link. In addition, the study used exchange rate and foreign direct investment as intermittent variables in a multivariate Granger-causality model in order to address the omission-of-variable bias. Using the auto-regressive distributed lag (ARDL)-bounds testing approach, the study found that although the direction of causality between tourism development and economic growth in South Africa is sensitive to the proxy used and the time under consideration, in the main, a feedback relationship tends to predominate in the short run. The study, therefore, recommends that short-term policy efforts be directed at developing the tourism and the real sectors as both sectors have been found to reinforce each other in the short run, irrespective of the tourism proxy used.