This study proposes a holistic framework, which synthesized the literature on resilience, tourism, and tourism micro small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). The dimensions of resilience were used as lens to highlight the role played by tourism small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and extract strategies for tourism destination resilience amid various disasters. The systematic integrative literature review of 107 documents covered six books and 101 papers. Seven sources are chapters from 6 books and 94 articles from 47 journals. The literature review uses thematic analysis to extract dimensional concepts from extant literature on resilience, tourism resilience, and tourism MSMEs. Key insights on limitations and strategies on resilience emerged from the review. These addressed aspects of governance, economics, environment, and social resilience. This analysis led to the formulation of a framework that underscored the dimensions of tourism. It provides insights for tourism policymakers in drafting strategies to address limitations, which anchored on a more comprehensive perspective. As a contribution to theory, this study expanded the scope of resilience dimensions to address limitations. The strategies intend to fortify MSME resilience as a dominant part of tourism resilience. The insights from the study offer an enhanced view of tourism MSME resilience as crisis and disaster management literature. 

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SME resilience as a catalyst for tourism destinations: a literature review

Although the impacts of COVID-19 have been extensively debated there is only limited writings and research on the geographical implications of the pandemic. The aim is to investigate the immediate or ‘first round’ impacts of COVID-19 on the South African tourism space economy with specific focus directed at its ramifications for small town and rural tourism. The study utilises a local tourism data base which tracks information concerning the tourism performance of all local municipal authorities in the country. The results reveal that during 2020 a noticeable change emerged in the spatial patterns of tourism. The trend for the concentration of tourism development upon the country’s leading cities was halted and seemingly put in reverse by the impacts of COVID-19. Evidence exists of a weakening of the previously dominant position of (in particular) the major metropolitan areas in South Africa’s tourism economy. Instead, there is recorded a relative upturn in the fortunes of tourism in small town and rural areas of South Africa as a whole.



The first round impacts of COVID-19 for rural tourism in South Africa

Rural tourism scholarship has greatly expanded over the past two decades. One aspect of rural tourism that is undeveloped in literature is the historical evolution of rural tourism destinations. This paper uses an historical approach and archival documentary sources to examine the evolution of rural tourism under apartheid in one of the former Bantustans of South Africa, namely Transkei. It is shown tourism became a sector of policy interest because of disappointments associated with national government programmes for industrial decentralization. Early tourism promotion centred on leisure tourism around the natural beauty and attractions of Transkei’s coastal areas. With the grant of ‘independence’, however, a new institutional environment emerged which resulted in the Transkei becoming a focus for casino tourism at a time when casino gambling was prohibited in South Africa. The growth of casino tourism was, however, linked to corruption which occurred between South African tourism capital and the leadership of this Bantustan.

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Cristina Barroco

Papers

COVID-19, wine routes, crisis management and resilience amongst rural wine tourism businesses