The impacts of tourism investment on rural communities: Three case studies in South Africa

Significant research, both locally and internationally, has been undertaken on tourism development and its impacts on the empowerment of rural communities. This article analyses the extent to which three tourism projects in South Africa, namely the Makuleke tourism initiative, Umngazi River Bungalows and the commercialisation of Manyeleti Game Reserve, have improved the livelihoods of rural communities and contributed to rural economic development. The projects are analysed in terms of both their economic and non-economic benefits, as well as their contribution towards the attainment of certain key policy objectives of the South African government.     

赣南苏区红色旅游发展潜力及营销策略研究

赣南革命老区拥有丰富的红色旅游资源。2012年国家苏区振兴发展的若干意见中确立了建立赣南红色文化传承创新区的战略定位,赣州红色旅游受到越来越多的关注。本文分析了赣州红色旅游的现状以及发展潜力,提出了赣州红色旅游的6P营销策略组合。     

Tourism impact,distribution and development: The spatial structure of tourism in the Western Cape province of South Africa

The structural dimensions of a country's tourism sector, and in particular the spatial structure of tourism production and consumption, relate closely to the nature and extent of the impact that tourism can have. This article examines the spatial characteristics of tourism in the Western Cape province, one of South Africa's foremost international tourist regions, and where its government seeks to use tourism as an instrument of development and socio-economic transformation. To understand how this could be effected it is necessary to understand the spatial distributional effects of tourism, and the underlying reasons for it. To this end the article examines the spatial structure of the provincial accommodation sector as evidenced in patterns of accommodation supply and tourist usage (demand); and trends in the nature, direction and distribution of public and private-sector tourism investments. The central argument is that tourism is geographically focused, with tourist activities concentrated in a few locales and sub-regions. This follows the general demographic and economic contours of the province. Yet trends in capital investments tend to reinforce the spatial concentration of tourism. Attempts by the government to spread tourism's benefits have not been too successful due to institutional and capacity deficiencies. Greater emphasis should be placed on developing domestic tourism.     

The determinants of rural and urban household poverty in the North West province of South Africa

Based on standard poverty measures, the extent of poverty in the North West province is on average worse than in South Africa. For instance, the poverty gap ratio for North West is twice that of the South African average, and the FGT index is three times as high. This article therefore aims to identify the determinants of rural and urban poverty in the North West province of South Africa. Using data gathered from a survey of 593 black households across the province, probit model estimates suggest that the major significant determinants of household poverty in both rural and urban areas are education and household size. A difference between rural and urban poverty is, first, that extra female adults in a rural household raise the probability of poverty. Secondly, having a migrant (out) worker as head of the household in rural areas lowers the probability of poverty, while this does not apply to urban households. A sensitivity analysis for the robustness of the results over a range of poverty lines reveals that the impact of education is much stronger for poorer households than for more wealthy households.     

Informal moneylenders in the Limpopo,Gauteng and Eastern Cape provinces of South Africa

The article provides a critical analysis of the informal (unregistered) money-lending business and how it has served as a survival strategy for black South Africans. Using data obtained from 657 informal (unregistered) micro-moneylenders in three South African provinces, namely the Eastern Cape, Gauteng and Limpopo, an analysis is undertaken to highlight how the business is organised, conducted and marketed, and how income generated from it. Provincial spatial variations and similarities relating to this economic activity are noted. Finally, the article aims at highlighting of the informal microlenders' responses to affiliation to the Micro Lenders Association and registration with the Micro Finance Regulatory Council.     

Improving food security in the rural areas of KwaZulu-Natal province,South Africa: Too little,too slow

Food insecurity is still remarkably high in the poorest areas of the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa. Many rural households struggle to have sufficient access to the food they need or prefer. This article explores the extent of food access insecurity and assesses the perceived impact on food security of an Empowerment for Food Security Programme that was launched in the Province in 2007. One of the programme aims was to improve agricultural practices in community gardens, home gardens and broiler production. Data were collected among 390 beneficiary households involved in these agricultural projects in 2010. Findings confirmed that experience-based food insecurity levels were still high, despite the agricultural support programme and the government income transfers. Nevertheless, respondents attribute an improved dietary diversity and better access to resources to the programme.     

Constraints facing tourism entrepreneurs in South Africa: a study in the Gauteng and Mpumalanga provinces,South Africa

The current study is an investigation into tourism entrepreneurship of small, medium and micro enterprises in Gauteng and Mpumalanga. Through Principal Factor Analysis, the paper identifies a three-factor instrument that could be used as a diagnostic tool to investigate how government policies and support, the tourism industry's products and services, and perceptions about South Africa could advance or constrain the development of small, medium and micro tourism in South Africa. Such a tool can be used to identify problematic areas in order to take remedial action to manage sustainable tourism in South Africa and prevent the leakage of profits.     

The impact of tourism on poverty in South Africa

This paper evaluates the potential impact of tourism on poverty in South Africa on the basis of recent survey data on international tourism spending patterns. It looks at three scenarios, using an applied general equilibrium model. The main finding is that the poor benefit very little in the short term from additional tourism income. A further finding is that domestic and international tourist expenditure affect the economy differently; both markets are therefore important. In essence, the research confirms that tourism receipts can be used as a tool to alleviate poverty, but in South Africa this must be supported by policies that focus on the labour market and human resource development.     

论赣南采茶戏的旅游开发

赣南采茶戏为国家第一批非物质文化遗产,为促进采茶戏的发展,分析旅游开发对采茶戏发展的促进优势以及采茶戏进行旅游开发的可行性,进而提出相应的发展策略。     

Developmental Constraints Adversely Affecting New Entrants Into the Construction Industry of the Limpopo Province of South Africa

Although political transformation has occurred in South Africa in April 1994, the pace at which economic transformation has occurred has been slow. A review of the literature has shown that economic transformation has been slowed by an acute shortage of technical skills among Black South Africans working in business, government, and industry. A case in point is the construction industry of Limpopo Province of South Africa in which emerging contractors have failed to compete adequately with well-established contractors in the construction industry due to shortage of technical skills, capital, and lack of access to markets. The study is based on a random sample of 104 emerging contractors operating in the Province of Limpopo. A combination of quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection and analyses was used in the study in order to identify and quantify key obstacles to growth and development in emerging contractors. Eigen values estimated from factor analysis showed that the viability of emerging contractors in the construction industry of Limpopo Province was significantly influenced by three factors （lack of entrepreneurial skills, lack of capital, and lack of transparency in the award of construction tenders）. Based on results obtained from multilevel analysis, differences among the five districts of Limpopo Province accounted for 13.18% of the total variation in viability. Differences in entrepreneurial skills between viable and non-viable businesses accounted for 33.49% of total variation. Findings of the study show that entrepreneurial skills are no less important than financial capital for ensuring viability in emerging contractors currently operating in Limpopo Province. The study has also found that the fundamental principles of good governance such as transparency and accountability are not adhered to in the administration and award of government tenders, and that this predicament was working to the detriment of emerging contractors in the province.     

Energy,environment and the rural poor in South Africa

The lack of adequate energy services imposes heavy social and environmental costs on poor rural households. The rural energy‐environment interface, however, is prone to oversimplistic analyses, especially in the case of the ‘fuelwood problem’, and to a lack of research. International experience suggests that deforestation is not necessarily an ‘energy problem’ resulting from the cutting of trees for fuelwood ‐ and therefore that it may not have an energy solution, like planting more trees for firewood. Instead, wood scarcity must be understood under multiple use of wood resources, and policies need to be multifaceted if they are to succeed. South African studies show that wood is becoming increasingly scarce in many areas; here fuelwood collection may contribute to deforestation more than suggested by international experience. In addition to the environmental effects of increasing wood scarcity and its social costs, borne largely by women, another serious problem arises from indoor air pollution caused by wood fires with social and health costs largely unaccounted for to date.     

Labour market discrimination in the North West province of South Africa

This article provides an econometric estimate of labour market discrimination in the North West province of South Africa. Using data obtained from the October 1995 Household Survey, it was found that in 1995 statistically significant gender discrimination exists against women in North West's labour market. The male discriminatory wage advantage of 127 per cent and the female discriminatory disadvantage of 195 per cent were ascribed to the overrewarding and underrewarding of some personal characteristics of males and females, respectively. Productivity differentials of 40 per cent in favour of females and a premium paid to women measuring 71 per cent also exist. Discrimination explains 50 per cent of the wage gap between genders, while productivity differentials and the premium account for 13 and 37 per cent respectively. The study supports 'affirmative action' and suggests policies that aim to alter the occupational distributions, and these may need to target educational decisions made prior to labour market entry.     

浅谈江苏农村旅游资源与产品的开发

江苏农业资源丰富,田园风光秀美,江湖河网密布,沿海滩涂广阔,交通方便快捷,旅游资源开发利用前景广阔。将特色农业及农村自然资源与旅游相结合,创新农村旅游资源开发的思路,提高农村旅游项目及其旅游产品的文化艺术内涵,使久负盛名的江苏旅游业迈进更加兴旺发达的新天地。     

Unpacking tourism SMMEs in South Africa: structure,support needs and policy response

Small enterprise (SMME) support policy in post-apartheid South Africa has traditionally involved support initiatives in the form of ‘generic’ packages that overlook the specificities of particular sectors. In this article the specific issues concerning SMME development in tourism are investigated. Against a backcloth of a review of international scholarship on tourism small firms, the article presents findings from recent empirical investigations into the progress and problems of tourism SMME development in South Africa. Within the international scholarship and policy debates on tourism, it is argued that the South African experience is particularly distinctive in two respects: (1) the support of particular groups of tourism SMMEs linked to objectives of transformation and (2) the introduction of dedicated tourism-specific support programmes for SMME development.     

Some poor and invisible women: Farm labourers in South Africa

This article presents the results of a prevalence survey carried out in 1994 to assess the socio‐economic significance of waged farmwork in parts of the Eastern Transvaal (now Mpumalanga). The survey was designed to shed light on the question of how many rural households depend for their survival on the availability of wage employment opportunities for women on farms. The results support the view that economists and statisticians in South Africa have paid insufficient attention to the importance of unrecorded, or statistically ‘invisible’ agricultural wage employment to the rural population. In particular, the importance of women's work as waged farm labourers has not received the attention it deserves for policy purposes. Women's wages and working conditions on all types of farms are probably the critical determinants of the standard of living of many tens of thowsands of households in Mhala and Mapulaneng, and of many millions of the poorest households in South Africa as a whole.