Showing papers by "Christian M. Rogerson published in 2005"

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

Abstract: 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. 1Professor of Human Geography, School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. An ear...

‘Sho’t left’: Changing domestic tourism in South Africa

Abstract: This chapter aims to contribute to the limited body of recent research on domestic tourism in South Africa and more widely to the international scholarship on "Southern tourists" or domestic tourism in the developing world. It analyzes international debates and scholarship on domestic tourism in the developing world is reviewed as background or context. The chapter examines the features of the domestic tourism industry in South Africa. It focuses on the range of new initiatives that seek to counter the former exclusion of black South Africans from the domestic tourism economy and instead to encourage their participation via promotional campaigns under the umbrella of "Opening the doors of travel to all" South Africans. The Sho't Left campaign is an integral part of South African Tourism's domestic marketing and geared to stimulate a travel culture amongst communities which, as a result of apartheid, had been previously marginalised, if not excluded entirely, from participation in tourism.

Conference and exhibition tourism in the developing world: The South African experience

Abstract: Tourism scholarship concerning conferences and exhibitions is dominated by writings concerned with developed countries. An examination of the South African experience, therefore, provides a useful complement to the existing writings and reveals certain parallel themes, particularly concerning issues of local development. Historically, in the apartheid period the market for conference and exhibition tourism was based upon domestic demand. After the democratic transition, however, it is evident that new opportunities were opened for the attraction of international conferences and exhibitions to South Africa. Undoubtedly, a watershed event in the development of South African participation in the global market for conferences was the successful hosting in Johannesburg during 2002 of the World Summit on Sustainable Development. The positive local development impacts of the attraction of such conferences have been the essential catalyst for the development and continuous upgrading of three international quality convention centres in the country. These three major convention facilities represent the apex of an estimated 1700 conference and exhibition centres that currently exist across South Africa and serve both domestic and international MICE markets. With heightened levels of competition for the conference and exhibition market—both domestic and international—uncertainty surrounds the long-term prospects of many of these facilities. The task of monitoring the progress, dynamics and changing fortunes of conference and exhibition tourism merits a place on the research agenda of urban tourism studies in South Africa over the next decade.

Tourism in urban Africa: The South African experience

Abstract: Although the city and its artefacts have long been a source of attraction to tourists, several writers assert that the urban dimension has been given insufficient attention within international tourism scholarship (Law, 1992, 1993; Hall and Page, 1999; Page and Hall, 2003; Suh and Gartner, 2004). Undoubtedly, over the past 15 years this relative neglect of tourism in cities and the phenomenon of urban tourism have been addressed as a range of issues relating to tourists in cities attracted a progressive stream of contributions. Further, the field of urban tourism has consolidated with the appearance of several books, which mostly concentrate upon the Western European and North American experience (Law, 1993; Van den Berg et aL, 1995; Law, 1996; Murphy, 1997; Page and Hall, 2003; Tyler et al., 1998; Wober, 2002). Overall, the rise in tempo of urban tourism research has been linked to "two real-world phenomena: escalating demands by tourists for urban historic sights and heritage cities, and concerted efforts by policy makers to focus on the role of tourism in revitalizing urban areas and economies" (Chang and Huang, 2004: 223-224). The scope and range of urban research has thus widened quite considerably, including the welcome appearance of studies that examine the tourism phenomenon in cities outside of the Euro-American academic heartland. The frontier of research on urban tourism was extended geographically to encompass studies on Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore and most recently, China and Taiwan. The wave of Asian writings stresses the critical importance of cultural and heritage management for urban tourism promotion especially in Singapore (Chang, 1999, 2000) and Hong Kong (McKercher et aL, 2004, 2005). In Singapore a central planning focus is the development of thematic zones and the conservation of ethnic districts in order to promote the city's ambitions of becoming a global tourism capital (Teo and Huang, 1995; Yeoh and Huang, 1996; Yeoh and Teo, 1996; Chang et aL, 1997; Chang, 1997, 1999; Chang andYeoh, 1999; Savage

Towards the world-class African city : planning local economic development in Johannesburg

Abstract: Local economic development is viewed as being of central importance for sustainable development. This paper examines the changing trajectories of local economic development in South Africa's major metropolitan centre, Johannesburg, which was one of the country's first localities to take up the task of LED planning. Specifically, the focus is on Johannesburg's LED as part of the search for the status of a 'world class African city'. The Johannesburg experience of LED represents a case of planning for local adjustment to globalisation and is of special interest to other large African cities, particularly those that potentially have more than a national role. The planning and urban management experiences of Johannesburg are of considerable interest and often are adopted or modified by other African cities. Two sets of discussion are provided here. The first contains a review and analysis of the shifting international debates concerning world cities. Against this backdrop, the second section of the paper examines Johannesburg's shifting local economic development initiatives, in particular from 1986 to the present day.

SMME development in peripheral regions: Manufacturing in Free State Province, South Africa

Abstract: As in several other African countries (see e.g., Liedholm and Mead, 1999; McCormick, 1999), in South Africa, the activities of the small, medium and microenterprise (SMME) economy are viewed as critical for addressing the goals of promoting economic growth, employment creation and poverty alleviation (Rogerson, 2001a). Since the democratic transition in 1994, the post-apartheid state has introduced a suite of new national support programmes to assist entrepreneurship development and upgrading of the SMME economy (DTI, 2004). Reviews of the impact of the first decade of government support for SMME development have generally been mixed (Berry et al., 2002; Kesper, 2002; Rogerson, 2004a). Several areas of agreement, however, are evident, inter alia, the existing national data for impact evaluation is poor; the SMME economy exhibits only a weak contribution towards job creation because most SMMEs do not grow; and, that existing government SMME programmes largely have been biased towards the groups of small and medium-sized enterprises, and, to a large extent have by-passed groups of micro-enterprises and the informal economy (Berry et al., 2002; Rogerson, 2004a). It is against this background of disappointments concerning the impact of the first decade of SMME support that a revised national support programme, the Integrated Small Business Development Strategy, is due for release in early 2005. One theme that is of increasing concern is the need to recognise sectoral differences within the SMME economy and potentially the need for support programmes that recognise or are sensitive to specific sectoral needs (DTI, 2004; Kaplan, 2004). The manufacturing sector has been at the forefront of the development of such sectoral support programmes. South African research has underlined the need for the innovation of specific policy interventions which are designed to enhance the

Decentralisation and local initiatives for development : African perspectives

Abstract: Before the advent of the contemporary globalisation phenomenon, the world was dominated by the activities of strong national governments. At the beginning of the 21st century, the political landscape has radically changed. A devolutionary trend has swept the world over the past 20 years, including both developed and developing countries. The demise of certain countries (e.g. Soviet Union, Yugoslavia) and the emergence of new states in Europe, Asia and Africa (such as Macedonia, Uzbekistan or Eritrea) is perhaps the most extreme form of a more general global movement towards the transference of powers, authority and resources to sub-national levels of government.