Urban Tourism Destinations Research Articles

Online reputation, virtual experience and tourists’ revisit intentions. The case of Vilakazi street tourism corridor in Soweto

Background: Academic literature has documented the benefits of technology for the tourism business. However, the influence of the fourth industrial revolution environment on the destination reputation, pre-visit experience, visit intentions and how these affect tourists’ satisfaction and loyalty intentions have not received much attention, especially within the African context. Aim: The purpose of this study was to empirically test the effect of this environment on all these variables. Setting: This study is one of the few empirical types of research conducted in an urban tourism destination centre in a South African context. Methods: The study employed a positivist quantitative research methodology. Primary data ( N = 235) were collected from tourists who visited the Vilakazi Street precinct during October–November 2019, using the convenient probability sampling approach. For analysis, the study employed structural equation modelling. Results: There are positive relationships between the fourth industrial revolution environment and the online reputation and the pre-visit experience. These, in turn, have a positive effect on the intention to visit the precinct, which affects the tourists’ feelings of satisfaction after actually visiting the centre. Satisfaction has a positive impact on their loyalty intentions. Conclusion: The findings create a space for future research by providing another framework for investigating the usefulness of new technology in the tourism industry, which can also extend to other industries. For managers, the findings can help in the creation of online advertisement strategies, online reputation management and online pre-visit experience enhancement.

Policy of Sustainable Development of Urban Tourism

Abstract Introduction. City tourism is one of the most frequently chosen forms of tourism consisting of many motives for doing it. On the modern tourist market, there are many negative phenomena that significantly affect the functioning of urban tourist destinations but primarily have an impact on the decisions of potential tourists about choosing cities as a tourist destination. These phenomena pose a threat to the development of both cities and tourism. They are conditioned by endogenous factors, which result from the functioning of the city, and exogenous ones, i.e. those related to socio-economic relations of the city with the environment, including tourist traffic. Cities, as a destination or transit tourist destination, are characterized by high concentration of tourist traffic; hence, the negative phenomena often affect urban tourist space with great intensity. The aim of the study is to present the author’s concept of sustainable urban tourism policy assumptions. After presenting the concept of sustainable urban tourism development policy, the following issues will be discussed: basics of tourism policy, urban tourism, sustainable tourism, classification of threats related to the sustainable development of urban tourism. Material and methods. The study is of theoretical and conceptual nature. The following research methods will be used: critical analysis of the literature and methods of logical operations. Results. The effect of the considerations is to propose the assumptions of the concept of sustainable urban tourism development policy. Conclusions. The most important problems related to the functioning of sustainable tourism were indicated, taking into account the impact of tourism on the natural environment and on overtourism.

해양도시 관광목적지의 해양 관광경쟁력 공급지수 비교분석 -부산과 인천을 중심으로-

최근 해양관광의 수요가 지속적으로 성장하면서 해양 도시들은 지역경제 활성화 차원에서 다양한 해양관광매력물 조성을 통하여 관광시장에서 관광목적지로서 경쟁우위를 확보하고자 노력하고 있다. 본 연구는 우리나라의 가장 대표적인 해양 관광목적지 인 부산과 인천을 연구대상으로 두 도시의 해양 관광경쟁력을 평가하고자 최근 KMI (한국해양수산개발원)에서 개발한 지표를 적용하여 비교분석을 하고자 하였다. 특히, 개발된 지표 가운데 관광경쟁력 공급지수를 적용하여 두 도시의 공급인프라에 초점을 두어 분석을 실시하였다. 본 연구결과 해양수도를 지향하는 부산이 인천에 비해 중분류에서 해양관광매력물과 해양관광수용력 점수가 높게 나타났다. 그러나 소분류의 자연자원인 해안선의 길이는 지역적 특성으로 인해 인천시가 압도적으로 높게 나타났을 뿐만 아니라 해수욕장 의 수도 높게 나타났다. 반면 문화자원이나 법정 관광지수는 부산시가 다소 높은 것으로 나타났다. 또한 관광수용력의 관점에서 호텔 등 관광숙박업의 경우, 부산이 다소 높게 나타났으며, 해양레저관광에 대한 수용태세 등에서는 부산이 전반적으로 높은 점수를 나타냈다.

내국인 관광객의 도시 관광지 선택속성 중요도-만족도 연구 : 서울지역을 중심으로

Purpose - The purpose of this study is to present the basic data for establishing policy for revitalization of urban tourism by evaluating the importance and satisfaction of urban destination choice attributes. Design, data, and methodology -A face-to-face survey was conducted in December 2018. Factor analysis was conducted to verify the reliability and validity of the study constructs. Then, paired-sample t-tests were conducted to compare the importance and satisfaction for each of the attributes. Finally, we developed an IPA grid to visualize the study results. All of the analyses were run in SPSS statistical package program. Result - Overall, the importance level of attributes was higher than the satisfaction level of them. IPA grid showed that crowd, cost, local people, and cleanness fall in ‘concentrate here’, and transportation, safety/security, and F&B fall in “keep up the good work.” Conclusions - This study helps policy makers or urban tourism destination managers to make appropriate decisions about where they put their limited recourses for making their city as an attractive and competitive tourism destination.

Peer-to-peer accommodation in destination life cycle: the case of Nordic countries

ABSTRACT Internet platforms, enabling short-term rental of private houses, are an increasingly important provider of tourist accommodation. The largest peer-to-peer accommodation platform is Airbnb. To date, most geographical studies on Airbnb investigated spatial patterns and effects of platform activity on large cities. This study attempts to expand the understanding of the role of Airbnb in various types of urban and non-urban tourism destinations. It employs Tourism Area Life Cycle model to investigate the differences in the quantity of peer-to-peer accommodation in destinations in various stages of their life cycles. Five Nordic countries are used as the study setting. A database of 61 thousand active non-hotel Airbnb listings is compared with statistical data obtained from national statistical institutions on regional (74 NUTS-3 regions) geographical scale. The results show that peer-to-peer rental supply and use is concentrated in destinations characterised by the quick increase in the number of tourist visits.

Beyond smart tourism cities – towards a new generation of “wise” tourism destinations

Purpose The purpose of this trends paper is to offer insights into the technological changes affecting our cities and urban tourism destinations, and to explore avenues for further research and practice in the context of smart tourism destinations. Design/methodology/approach The literature on smart cities and smart tourism destinations is analysed in view of delivering a research agenda for a new generation of “post-smart” tourism destinations, beyond existing paradigms in this field. Findings Smart tourism research to date is found to be lacking in terms of addressing emerging (“post-smart”) social issues increasingly faced by global tourism cities, such as growing inequalities between host communities and visitors, wellness (e.g. slow tourism and slow cities) and resilience and mental health (e.g. digital detox), among others. Practical implications A post-smart approach to tourism city management and marketing calls for rethinking of existing tourism and urban policies that address wider sustainability issues exemplified by the urban transitions debate as well as adopting a more holistic networked approach to smartness involving entire regions. This also calls for the development of a new research agenda in urban tourism through a new prism – the post-smart “wise” tourism destination. Originality/value A new tourism futures construct – the “wise” tourism destination – is posited. This is done within the context of a new (“post-smart”) generation of tourism cities. It is argued that “wise” tourism cities will require novel attributes and adopt a visionary strategic positioning well beyond today’s smart tourism destination paradigms. Additionally, a tentative research agenda for “wise” tourism cities is discussed.

Urban wellness: the space-out moment

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to advocate the emerging trend of wellness tourism in an urban setting. Cities, with dense population and hectic pace of living, pose some challenges on mental health to dwellers. Meanwhile, the populated characteristic of cities opens up opportunities for economic activity, in particular wellness tourism. To comply with the “travel to feel ‘well” trend, product offerings and demand of wellness tourism in urban tourism destinations are yet to be enumerated. The trend paper offers research insights for future investigation. Design/methodology/approach The ideas presented in the trend paper are inspired by the personal observation of the author from both scholarly and grey literature. Findings The research directions are delineated in the supply and demand facets. In the demand side, the motivations and behaviors of wellness tourist exerted rooms for examination. Their experiences on wellness tourism could possibly extend to the long-term influence on the cognitive, affective and behavioral changes of individuals. From the supply perspective, the current demarcation of wellness tourism is yet to be explored. Intangible supply associated with wellness tourism, namely, event and dining experiences have been ignored in scholarly studies. A fresh review of the topic from socio-cultural perspective is also viable. Originality/value The rise of urbanization and visitor arrivals to cities is expected in foreseeable future. To the best of the author’s knowledge, research insights on wellness tourism in the urban context are still at infancy. The insights on the trend paper are consolidated from a wide range of scholarly and grey literature in a holistic manner.

Dynamic Vista of Sustainable Green Public Spaces Network in Wonosobo

Regional development always stimulates urbanization, growing demographic and generating needs of housing. In Kampung Sruni, an urban kampung settlement in Wonosobo Regency, Indonesia, people built new houses on the lands which are the remaining green pockets amidst the settlement. In addition, green space area aimed to maintain ecosystem balance are absent within the new house planning. The challenge of designing green space in built settlement is the availability of land which is many in quantity, scattered and relatively small in size. On the other hand, this kampung has been designated as urban tourism destinations in Wonosobo, promoting people, socio-cultural activities and the green valley landscape setting. This paper offers alternative architectural perspective to design green public space which engages community, culture and urban kampung landscape fabric. Together with inhabitants as local community, strategy to replenish the degrading green spaces was done by creating sustainable design for inhabitant’s current and future need, environment and tourism. Interestingly, beside the main function as green public space, the spatial component arrangement of the designs creates various types of vista offering view of man-made, man-made and nature, and fully nature landscape. Moreover, topography along this green public spaces network would generate observer’s body a motorically spatial experience

An Analysis in City Tourist Behavior at Day and Night Time: Focused on Mokpo City in Jeonnam Province

The purpose of this study is to analyze the differences in perceptions of tourism activities including seeing, experiencing, and eating at day- and night time and to present findings for tourists visiting Mokpo city, Jeonnam. Through this study, this research will derive a competitive alternative as an urban tourism destination that can attract tourists based on various tourism destinations and resources in Mokpo city, Jeonnam. This city was divided into four tourism zones, and each 100 survey was distributed to four zones. Using a convenience sampling method, a self-administered survey was conducted from November 1 to November 30, 2019. A total of 396 questionnaires was used for analyses, except for the four questionnaires that were unusable. The following conclusions were drawn from the results. First, since activities for tourists in the Mokpo city are concentrated at daytime, it is necessary to consider development of daytime-tourism products and political proposals in order to preempt comparative advantages. Second, it is important to provide tourists visiting the city with night tour activities and tourism products including various foods. Potential implications of this study are development of thematic day and night city tourism programs by utilizing unique history, culture, and art resources in the city.

Tourist perceptions and uses of urban green infrastructure: An exploratory cross-cultural investigation

Urban Green Infrastructure (UGI) serves both inhabitants’ and visitors’ numerous and various needs. This research aimed to enhance knowledge regarding the role of UGI in urban tourism. The research questions addressed tourists’ perceptions of UGI, their understanding and uses of UGI, and the ways that this understanding influenced their travel choice to specific urban destinations. A cross-cultural comparative study among urban tourists was carried out in eight European countries. The selection of case studies followed a roughly comparative logic, employing the same on-site questionnaire survey administered in a sample of large and medium size cities in Southern European, Central European and Northern European countries. Looking from the perspective of the tourists’ countries of origin, our findings validate a well-established trend in international tourism, namely the fact that neighbouring countries tend to be the most significant tourist markets of an urban destination. The other major finding confirmed the most well-known tourist movement patterns of Northern and Central Europeans travelling to the Mediterranean for tourism purposes. While the study revealed that the majority of the tourists interviewed were not very familiar with the term ‘Green Infrastructure’, nor with specific UGI features offered in the visited cities, the importance of UGI was acknowledged and viewed in a mostly very positive light. The majority of respondents enjoyed visiting UGI and used it for some light physical activity or for purposes of relaxation, socialization, and in order to explore the culture and society of the destination city. The fact that most UGI in the case study cities is located around or within a short distance from important heritage sites provided UGI with an indirect possibility of being included in the tourists’ visiting plans. In conclusion, the results of this study may prove to be very helpful to local and regional authorities in considering how to plan, manage and promote an urban tourism destination’s green infrastructure as part of the tourism offer.

Diversity of Cultural Tourism Attractions in Nairobi Urban Destination

The purpose of this research was to find out the diversity of potential cultural attractions in Nairobi urban tourism destination. Today cities are tapping into diverse sources to increase international visitor arrivals as well as their spending. Cultural tourism and urban entertainment are the greatest motivation for urban tourism since culture is a fundamental component within the tourism system. The subjects of interest in this study for quantitative data consisted of foreign departing tourists through Kenya’s biggest airport - Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) located in Nairobi. To get a complete picture of the research, the study also employed qualitative approach, specifically; in-depth interviews with public and private sector stakeholders to answer questions on key areas. The research found out there was a weak motivation to cultural attractions despite their proximity to the CBD. Thus, Nairobi urban cultural tourism destination managers should ensure that urban cultural attractions have the highest score if a definite visitor appeal is to be created, realized, and maintained for continued and repeat visitor visitation. The findings of this research have provided invaluable understanding on the opportunities available to cultural attractions available in Nairobi. This information can be used by private and public stakeholders to develop clear policies and collaborations on urban cultural tourism development.

What will prevail within citybreak travel, motivation or demotivation?: Case study of Novi Sad, Vojvodina, Serbia

The aim of this paper is to develop a new perspective on urban tourist motivations and demotivation's by applying the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) model in order to better understand how tourists make decisions about which destinations to visit. Authors discovered that most important factor within city break travel is internal force, followed by the external force and least important is demotivation. The paper argues that the results indicate the value of applying the AHP model to understand the role and importance both of push and pull factors and demotivators in urban tourism destination choice.

Urban touristification in Spanish cities: consequences for the rental-housing sector in San Sebastian

This study aims to analyse the relationship between tourist growth in urban destinations and certain transformations apparent in main recipient cities. Particular attention is paid to the impact of tourism on housing in popular tourist destinations, and on the people who live there. We focus on the case of San Sebastian, in Spain, which is a major tourist destination and, together with Dubrovnik, Venice, Barcelona and Amsterdam, is one of the European cities which has seen a growing concern over mass tourism. Firstly, this study seeks to analyse different research approaches conducted over recent years on the complex relationship between tourism and the rental-housing sector. Secondly, the study examines whether the increase in the intensity of use of the Airbnb platform is related to the price asked when renting a property long-term. The analysis conducted shows that a one standard deviation increase in Airbnb intensity is associated with an increase of 7.3% in rental prices. Our suggestions for urban planners and managers in charge of urban tourist destinations are for greater regulation of tourist accommodation in line with long-term house rentals.

Geographical and Logistic Aspects of Urbotourism Sustainable Development Under the Conditions of Overtourism Extension

A new phenomenon in tourism in the early 21st century is overtourism, which reflects the acute nature of the problem of managing growing tourist flows, especially in urban areas. The increasing number of urban tourists increases the consumption of natural and tourist resources of cities, exerts socio-cultural influence and exerts pressure on urban infrastructure. Therefore, for urban tourism, it is now an important task to effectively manage the flow of tourists in cities to ensure the sustainability of integrated urban development. Strategies, measures and proposals for sustainable urban tourism development include mandatory consideration of logistical and socio geographical (regional) features of urban tourist destinations.

TOWARDS SOCIALLY SUSTAINABLE TOURISM IN CITIES: LOCAL COMMUNITY PERCEPTIONS AND DEVELOPMENT GUIDELINES

In the last years, tourism has been growing significantly in urban settings. This growth led to a number of positive impacts, but the uncontrolled expansion of tourism-related activities (the ‘overtourism’ effect) has caused many negative outcomes. This paper entails a reflection on sustainable tourism in urban contexts, focusing on locals’ perceptions of tourism impacts on their daily lives. A survey was conducted of 151 residents and workers of the city centre of Porto, Portugal, aiming at a deeper understanding of the social, cultural, and economic, impacts resulting from the exponential development of tourism in the city. The findings suggest that, at this early stage of development, locals agree with the development of tourism in the city and consider that it improved their overall living conditions. However, there are concerns with housing prices and rising cost of living. The resulting data allowed to design a set of guidelines to build a sustainable development model for urban tourism destinations, assuring the local communities’ quality of life, where several preventive measures are presented that aim to preserve the sociocultural sustainability of urban communities .

Dynamic assessment of tourism carrying capacity and its impacts on tourism economic growth in urban tourism destinations in China

Abstract For urban areas, Tourism Carrying Capacity (TCC) can be defined as the abilities of a destination to absorb and manage increasing tourism activities without a degradation in the tourism sector of the urban economy. To optimize the concept and assessment of TCC, this paper develops a dynamic carrying capacity model including three subsystems and 47 variables by System Dynamic (SD) method from a macroscopic perspective. Taking the top nine urban tourism destinations in China as the objects of the study, we compare how government investments in tourism resource, environmental protection, economy and infrastructure impact tourism growth through four scenarios. The results indicate that environment scenario simulation contributes to both TCC and tourism economic growth; the economic scenario simulation can increase the overall TCC, but harms to tourism economic growth compared with other scenarios; the resource scenario simulation has no significant change in TCC compared with the current scenario. The results suggest that to promote sustainable tourism development, TCC management should focus on environmental and tourists management policies, such as external environment improvement, behaviour rules and ecological concept establishment in personal daily life.

Concepts of hospitality and its application in the built space

PurposeThis study began with the following question: how hospitality concepts have contributed to the quality of cities and to the qualification of urban tourist destinations. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to analyze the historical evolution of the concepts of hospitality and their implications in the contemporary concept of the hospitality of the built space.Design/methodology/approachIn this study an analytical empirical approach was used, focusing on the concepts and paradigms that support the studies of the hospitality of built space. The method was based on the representation of hospitality as spatial reading indexes according to the categories of analysis: identity, accessibility, and readability, as stated by Grinover (2007), Raymond (1997) and Lynch (1997). The empirical study, in the Brazilian context, took as its object of analysis the urban hospitality of the three cities that were capitals of Brazil throughout its history: Salvador da Bahia, Rio de Janeiro and Brasília.FindingsThe results of the research confirm the pertinence of the categories of analysis proposed for the understanding of hospitality of the built space and proposes other categories of analysis related to accessibility in its interfaces with identity and readability.Practical implicationsThis study can contribute with new understandings in the field of the hospitality of the built space as support to public managers and trade tourist managers that can give quality to the urban space for tourists, and for the citizens as well. Because, in the Brazilian context, the formulation of public policies for public transport services, mobility, accessibility and recreation areas are linked to public managers; in the same way that private initiatives and incentives for leisure, entertainment, and tourism are linked to the managers of the tourist trade.Originality/valueNew possibilities of the understanding of urban hospitality in tourist destinations by the categories of analysis listed – identity, readability and accessibility. Accessibility was the spatial condition that most needed attention as urban hospitality in the Brazilian tourist destinations studied. Otherwise, a contribution was made to the area of study in urban hospitality, given the scarcity of scientific literature on the subject.

Marketing smart tourism cities – a strategic dilemma

There is a growing consensus among scholars in neuroscience with regards to the adverse effects of technology on the cognitive functions of the human brain (Loh and Kanai, 2016). These include the processing of emotions, memory and the storage of lived experiences. In fact, this has been shown to be particularly applicable to regular users of smartphone-based mobile applications (Wilmer et al., 2017). Rather worryingly for today’s prevalently technology-based conception of what a smart tourism destination should deliver, recent research has shown that visitors’ intentions to preserve the memories of a visit to a tourism attraction by engaging with mobile media (e.g. taking photos and sharing them with others via social media) during their visit may actually prevent those same visitors (though perhaps not the recipients of their photos via social media) from remembering the very experience they are trying to preserve (Tamir et al., 2018; see also Soares and Storm, 2018). Furthermore, research has also shown that this ‘hyperconnected’ state of affairs may be altogether detrimental to visitors’ enjoyment of the overall experience (Barasch et al., 2017). For those tourists who can still boast an adequate level of battery charge on their smartphones after a busy visit spent updating social media profiles with new photos whilst trying to simultaneously absorb the multi-sensory experience offered by the tourist attraction, there is further bad news. Similar neurological research has shown that people who are over-reliant on satellite navigation systems for way-finding (say, back to the hotel or to a restaurant highly rated on Tripadvisor) tend to perform worse at finding their way in the absence of their digital aid than those who rely on paper maps (McCullough and Collins, 2019). Parallel research in tourism has argued that this ‘smart’ technology-enabled tourist may run the risk of alienation (or “e-lienation”, to use the term coined by Tribe and Mkono, 2017) from their surroundings and missing out on potentially enriching experiences offered by the tourism destination. All in all, this should be rather worrying news for aspiring and existing smart tourism destinations. Why? Well, given that memorable experiences remain arguably a desirable goal in the design and delivery of visitor experiences, it appears that technology could be actually conspiring to rewire our brains in the opposite direction (Ward, 2013). Should, then, smart tourist destinations strive to become more efficient at delivering other services instead of memorable experiences? Maybe, though this is perhaps particularly applicable to some of the earlier models in the smart cities longitudinal spectrum. In fact, there is growing consensus around the fact that technological innovation (Pinke-Sziva et al., 2019; Skeli and Schmid, 2019) can alleviate some of the effects of overtourism, particularly in the context of smart tourism destinations (Gretzel and Scarpino-Johns, 2018). This includes ‘smarter’ transport solutions, even if we know that residents and tourists will differ considerably in their assessment of urban mobility improvements (Albalate and Bel, 2010). However, all this is part of what smart cities (presumably) do already. Consequently, if the whole raison d'etre of the ‘smart’ concept applied to tourism destinations rests mainly on the proviso of experience design and delivery, where do the insights from the latest neurological research leave smart tourism destinations? Should the next generation of smart tourism destinations re-consider their strategic focus altogether? This special issue of the International Journal of Tourism Cities (IJTC) on “Overtourism and the Marketing of Smart Tourism Destinations” attempts to shed light not only on the overtourism phenomena but also on a nascent field of research: the marketing and branding of smart urban tourism destinations. Inevitably, and given that both topics can hardly be considered in isolation, much of the research showcased in this special issue, including this editorial, explore also elements spanning the overtourism phenomena and the marketing and management of smart tourism destinations, chiefly from an urban perspective.

The implications of “miniaturism” for urban tourism destination futures – from micropubs to microbars

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore how the continued interest in the concept of “miniaturism” has seen the micropub develop into the new format of the microbar and examines the drivers of this trend. It then reflects on the possible implications of the rise of the microbar concept on the future of the urban tourism destination landscape. Design/methodology/approach This is a conceptual paper that is built on the natural curiosity of future studies to use an understanding of the present to predict what will happen next and what the implications of those developments will be. Findings The paper provides a clear definition of the microbar and identifies four distinctive drivers behind its conception, linked to changes in consumer behaviour. These cover the rise of the micro-break, the need for responsible urban regeneration, consumers desire for immediate and unique experiences and increasingly diverse populations. The paper predicts that these trends will drive an increase in microbars leading to greater tourist mobility in the urban tourism destination, more fragmentation and heterogeneity of products and services as well as an intensification in the need for authentic experiences and opportunity driven development giving rise to a hybrid form of guerrilla hospitality. Ultimately the authors predict that the venue will become more important than the specific location when consumers view the landscape of the urban tourism destination. Originality/value The focus of previous academic research has been on the historic development of the micropub and its impact on regeneration and communities, but very little literature has examined the rise of the microbar and the potential implications for the urban tourism destination.

“Does the poor matter” in pro-poor driven sub-Saharan African cities? towards progressive and inclusive pro-poor tourism

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to question the extent to which Sub-Saharan African cities are progressing towards promoting pro-poor economies through pro-poor tourism (PPT). It specifically examines how African cities are resilient towards attaining sustainable urban tourism destinations in light of high urbanization.Design/methodology/approachThe methodological framework is interpretive in nature and qualitative in an operational form. It uses meta-synthesis to evaluate the causal relationships observed within Sub-Saharan African pro-poor economies to enhance PPT approaches, using Accra, Ghana, Johannesburg, South Africa, and Harare, Zimbabwe, as case studies.FindingsTourism development in Sub-Saharan Africa has been dominantly underpinned by neoliberal development strategies which threaten the sustainability of tourism in African cities.Research limitations/implicationsThe study is limited to three Sub-Saharan African countries. Further studies may need to be done in other developing countries.Practical implicationsIt argues for good governance through sustainability institutionalization which strengthens the regulative mechanisms, processes and organizational culture. Inclusive tourism approaches that are resilient-centered have the potential to promote urban tourism in Sub-Saharan African cities. These findings contribute to the building of strong and inclusive Institutions for Sustainable Development in the Sub-Saharan African cities to alleviate poverty.Social implicationsThese findings contribute to the building of strong and inclusive institutions for sustainable development in the Sub-Saharan African cities to alleviate poverty.Originality/valueThe “poor” are always within the communities, and it takes a community to minimise the impact of poverty among the populace. The study is conducted at a pertinent time when most African government’s development policies are pro-poor driven. Though African cities provide opportunities of growth, they are regarded as centres of high inequality.