Displaying items by tag: Tourism

This research aims to model tourism demand for South Africa from the UK and the USA by using an almost ideal demand system. An error correction almost ideal demand system (EC-AIDS) is used to quantify the responsiveness of UK and USA tourism demand to South Africa relative to changes in tourism prices and expenditure or income. Short-term own-price, cross-price and expenditure elasticities are derived from the EC-AIDS models. One of the key findings of the paper is that tourism from the UK and USA is not sensitive to price changes in South Africa in the short-term. Tourism to South Africa is found to be more income elastic than price elastic, indicating that the country is vulnerable to changing world economic conditions. Even though price competitiveness does not seem to be a key concern yet, significant substitution effects are present, with especially Spain and Malaysia benefitting from a decline in South Africa's price competitiveness

This paper models tourist arrivals into Mauritius from various parts of the world with a view to understand the contribution of different determinants in explaining the success of the island as an international tourism destination. A dual methodological approach was adopted namely panel date and survey frameworks. Results from the econometric analysis indicate that infrastructure capital is positively related to total tourist arrivals as well as on arrivals from the three regions considered. European and American tourists are observed to attach sizeable importance to such infrastructure. Results from the dynamic panel data analysis (GMM methods) are overall consistent those of the fixed effect model. The presence of repeat visits was also detected. Results from the survey analysis overall validate that of the initial set of results particularly to comfort, cleanliness and security. The respondents tended to place lot of emphasis on the availability and quality of public transport, where many of the elements falling under this dimension were rated high with mean score. Univariate descriptive statistics also reveal that public utilities (water and electricity) were the most important. The mean score for the case of soft infrastructure were relatively high side which indicating that the tourists equally ascribe high importance to the soft infrastructure.

This research attempts to assess the attitudes of residents towards the perceived tourism impacts on their lives and communities in selected tourism coastal villages in Mauritius. A survey was used to examine residents' attitudes toward tourism development. The survey results show that tourism is a major pillar of the economy. Tourism has been a key contributor to economic growth and has led to increased job and investment opportunities, to the expansion of local amenities and infrastructural improvement. However, tourism is also generating inflationary pressures. The local community views on the social impact of tourism development in the region suggest positive social impact, except in the area of sports/leisure facilities. As such the respondents consider that the development of tourism has some negative impact on society. As far as local communities' views on the tourism development impact on the environment are concerned, residents' perceptions are negative. However, it is noted that the respondents are of the opinion that it is residents, not tourists, who are responsible for the degradation of the environment. Interestingly, the respondents admitted that tourism development has led to greater cleanliness of their localities. In contrast, tourism development is associated with crowded beaches and even, at times, restricted access to the beaches.

About the Authors:

Jashveer Hosany is a graduate from the University of Technology,Mauriitus. He is presently working as research assistant in some projects funded by the ADB and World Bank. His research interest is in financial development and in tourism as well
 
Dr. R V Sannassee is an Associate Prof of International Business at the Uni of Mauritius with research interest in foreign direct investment, international trade and also in Finance. He is actually a consultant for a number of organisation including the UNDP, ADB and the World Bank.
 
Dr B Seetanah is the faculty research advisor and senior lecturer at the faculty of Law and Management at the UoM. His research area is related to transport, economic develpment, tourism and finance as well. He has been consulting with numerous bodies such as the ILO, UNDP, World Bank and ADB among others

Kesseven Padachi is a Senior Lecturer in the field of Accounting and Finance at the University of Technology, Mauritius. He is a PhD holder in small business finance and a fellow of the Chartered Association of Certified Accountants.

Tourism is increasing becoming an important phenomena for developing countries and as such it affects the livelihood of many poor people. According to Yunis (2004), tourism is growing much faster in developing countries than in developed countries. However, its potential for poverty reduction has been insufficiently recognized and exploited in developing countries (PPT 2004). The increasing importance of the tourism sector in developing economies obliges a greater investigation to ensure that tourism becomes embedded in poverty reduction strategies. Tourism is generally viewed as an engine of economic growth rather than as a mechanism for delivering on poverty reduction. It is normally argued that tourism is driven by foreign and private sector interests, and is therefore not well placed to contribute to poverty alleviation (PPT 2004). Tourism can indeed exacerbate poverty through increased local costs, loss of access to resources and social and cultural disruptions. However, tourism has the potential to change lives of the poor in developing countries as well.

One of the key issues that has been raised in terms of the analysis of small enterprise (SMME) support programmes in South Africa is that often support initiatives have been in the form of 'generic' packages that overlook the specificities of particular sectors. Although it has been recognized that the SMME economy in South Africa is extraordinarily diverse and composed of different groups of enterprises which require different kinds of support intervention, currently there exists only limited research on the specific support needs and constraints that challenge SMME development in particular sectors of the economy. This report is part of a series of studies to be undertaken on the specific challenges that exist in terms of SMME development in particular sectors of the South African economy with special attention to the priority sectors which have been identified in the government's Microeconomic Reform Strategy and the DTIs Integrated Manufacturing Strategy.

The focus in this investigation is upon the tourism sector , one of the DTI priority sectors - and the specific issues that confront tourism SMME development. For the period 1998-2002 of all the priority sectors tourism exhibits the strongest growth in terms of absolute numbers of formal sector employees. Indeed, tourism is the only sector for the period 1998-2002 that shows both positive growth in employment and contribution to GDP. Whereas for several other priority sectors the trend has been for employment to decrease whilst contribution to GDP continues to grow, tourism has recorded substantial improvements both in terms of employment and GDP contribution (Monitor, 2004).

It is clear that, in terms of the future development of the tourism economy in line with government objectives of transformation and Black Economic Empowerment, the promotion of SMMEs is an issue that is of critical concern for policy-makers (TBCSA, 2002, 2003, Rogerson, 2004a, 2004b). Despite the importance of SMME development in the contemporary South African economy it remains that relatively little research has been undertaken on the issues and developmental challenges that confront tourism SMMEs. This paper aims to present the findings from a number of recent empirical investigations and review material concerning the progress and problems of tourism SMME development in South Africa. The essential argument that is developed here is that the nature and problems that face tourism SMMEs in South Africa exhibit certain similarities but also several important and distinct features to SMME development in other sectors of the South African economy.

The paper aims to contribute towards a body of knowledge and more nuanced understanding of the South African SMME economy with the additional goal of feeding into a rethinking of support interventions. The analysis unfolds through five major sections of material.

• First, a review is undertaken of international writings and debates on small tourism firms. This review provides a wider context within which to view the South African experience and challenges of tourism SMME development.
• Second, clarification is provided of the definition of tourism, its key features and performance in the South African economy.
• Third, the position and importance of developing tourism SMMEs in South Africa is examined.
• Four, new research material is presented which analyses the major problems that face different types of tourism SMMEs in contemporary South Africa.
• Finally, by way of conclusion, a select review is offered of certain support initiatives to assist SMME development in tourism

The tourism sector of the South African economy has been characterized by rapid growth in the mid-1990s which has levelled off more recently, and an increasing contribution to overall employment. The question now is how South Africa's negotiation process in removing barriers to the trade in services might affect the tourism and travel industry, and by extension, whether this sector is likely to maintain above average growth in an environment of trade liberalisation.

South Africa is in the process of removing barriers to trade such as tariffs and discriminatory laws that do not allow foreign businesses to compete on an equal footing with domestic ones. However, it is arguable that South Africa needs some degree of protectionism in order to improve its capabilities before going head to head with institutions from more technically advanced nations. Furthermore, it is possible that concessions already made to lure overseas investors place them at an advantage vis-a-vis their South African counterparts. This paper aims to identify some of the challenges to tourism growth in South Africa by analysing the likely impacts of trade regime openness. In this sense the study is inward-looking and does not attempt to treat the subject of South African interests abroad.

The first section presents a discussion about the various definitions of tourism and how these impact the scope of analysis. Secondly, a characterisation of tourism and the role it plays in the South African economy is elaborated. [Also discussed are the pivotal structures and institutions involved, as well as recent forecasts from the industry.] Next, the regulatory environment which governs foreign commercial presence and investment is outlined, with attention to candidate areas for liberalisation. From the accepted literature in the field of tourism and trade in services comes a discussion of the analytical tools of economics. Finally, by applying established economic models to the tourism sector under trade liberalisation, a final assessment of South African tourism is formulated.