A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Urban Studies, Johannesburg 2016 / Like many cities around the world Johannesburg began marketing to attract tourists in the 1990s. Johannesburg has in the last couple of years become a ‘hot’ tourism destination and is increasingly ranked among the top global tourist destinations. Tourist cities market their cultural, historical shopping, entertainment and lifestyle attractions to attract tourists and wealthy residents. They also regenerate older historical districts or build new attractions in the form of high profile infrastructure and architecture. To attract tourists, cities use discourse to represent themselves in certain ways to the prospective tourist. This discourse found in tourism marketing and other communications; creates certain expectations or commonly held imaginings of a city as a tourism destination. These are referred to as tourism imaginaries. In cities these ‘tourism imaginaries’ become absorbed as urban imaginaries that shape not only tourist spaces, but the whole city. The research aims to deconstruct the imaginaries represented in Johannesburg’s tourism marketing to understand how tourism is shaping Johannesburg in line with this view. Discourse analysis is used as a method to achieve this. Michel Foucault understood discourse as a system of representation, where discourse is a way of creating meaning by representing knowledge and exercising power around a subject at a certain time in history and in a particular way. Besides the content analysis of the tourism marketing, the discourse analysis also captured how tourism businesses in three case study sites namely Newtown Precinct, Vilakazi Street and Montecasino Entertainment Complex have responded to the discourses in the City’s tourism marketing. A central argument made is that the drive to create tourist cities reinforces rather than reduces power inequalities and creates further fragmentation by creating pockets of exceptionalism reserved for tourists. The research contributes to the recent interest in the cultural and political understandings of cities which considers the often invisible or overlooked manifestations of power that shape cities. In the research tourism imaginaries are conceptualised as central in the generation and shaping of social practices in the City. It was concluded that the move to create tourist cities has given tourists and other tourism actors symbolic power, shaping the city by remote control, and therefore reinforcing global power dynamics that have shaped the world since colonial times. / XL2018

The concept of city branding has sprung to prominence in recent years. This can be attributed to globalisation and the ease of access to all corners of the globe with the improvements in technology and modes of transport. This increased competition for resources, skills, talent and revenue has made cities not only compete with other cities in close proximity to one another, but also with cities across the world. The answer to this conundrum was found to be a comprehensive marketing strategy composed of clever and catchy slogans, beautiful logos, media campaigns and public relations drives. This process only led to the loss of large amounts of money since the benefits were not longstanding and the results were not tangible as these avenues only benefitted the home country’s tourism industry. A long term solution for cities was needed to build a favourable image. Corporations were used as models to build a brand since manufacturers of similar products are in constant competition to gain market share and revenues from their competitors. The similarities between corporations and cities are undeniable and efforts were made to incorporate successful branding strategies from corporations into city branding efforts. Cities and corporations must be effective in developing and incorporating social, economic and political aspects of their culture into a successful city brand image. The major difference between cities and corporations stems from the fact that it takes considerably longer to leverage a comprehensive brand of a city, when compared to the brand of a product since their lifespans are completely different. In the past, city brands were based on historical significance. Today, city brands are exclusively influenced by the events it hosts. The hosting of events has been seen as a guaranteed way for a city to improve its brand image. On the contrary, the hosting of events has been found to either improve a city brand or tarnish it. Sports events have been deemed as the best way to improve a city brand because sports appeal to a wide audience and are relatively inexpensive to host in comparison to the benefit and improvements they bring. This treatise investigates the approach and various types of sports events which must be included for the successful branding of Nelson Mandela Bay as part of a destination marketing strategy. The suggestions from this study were formulated upon scrutiny of the available literature and case studies on various branding efforts undertaken by cities around the world to establish and improve their brand image. A survey was conducted amongst the residents of Nelson Mandela Bay using a questionnaire. A total of 952 responses were received. The questionnaire measured the respondents’ attitude to what types of sports events they will support, their feelings on the standard of facilities and quality of events in Nelson Mandela Bay. This treatise served to identify which sports events should be used in any branding effort undertaken by Nelson Mandela Bay. Literature and case studies served as the foundation for this study. The survey insights and expectations enabled a plan to be developed that will be unique for Nelson Mandela Bay based on its location, characteristics, tastes and preferences of its residents. This plan would serve to benefit the residents of Nelson Mandela Bay, the city itself and encourage additional investment from external sources. The results of this study indicate that the residents of Nelson Mandela Bay advocate the use of sports events as the main driver in branding the city. Furthermore, the residents have made it clear that cricket, rugby and Iron Man-type of events are favoured and more likely to be supported than any other type of sports event in Nelson Mandela Bay.

Thesis (MTech (Tourism and Hospitality Management))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2018. / Sport mega-events are a powerful tool for branding nations. There has been a significant shift in countries that bid for and win the rights to host sport mega-events. Historically, Western countries used to be leaders in winning rights to host such events; however a new emerging trend has seen developing countries winning the rights ahead of developed ones, for example, South Africa, Brazil and Russia winning the rights to host the FIFA World CupTM. South Africa faced a serious branding challenge leading up to the 2010 FIFA World CupTM. Therefore, one of the primary objectives of hosting this tournament was to change international tourists’ perceptions of South Africa. There has been limited research on the brand legacies of the 2010 FIFA World CupTM, hence this research examined the brand image legacies of the tournament in the long run. It is believed that the football fans who attended the 2016 UEFA European Championship either visited South Africa during the 2010 FIFA World CupTM or watched the tournament on television (TV) at home, therefore they have certain perceptions of South Africa as a sport tourism destination. A quantitative methodology was employed to survey football tourists at fan parks and stadium precincts in five metropolitan cities in France during the 2016 UEFA European Championship, using a spatially based systematic sampling technique. In total 391 football tourist questionnaires were completed. The key findings reveal that prior to the 2010 FIFA World CupTM, football tourists’ perceptions of South Africa as a sport tourism destination were generally positive; however they indicated that they were very concerned about safety and security, as well as segregation issues, prior to the tournament. It can be argued that the tournament had a significant impact on reinforcing the positive perceptions of the destination as well as reducing the negative perceptions of the destination. The findings reveal statistically significant differences in most aspects between tourists’ perceptions prior to, and six years after, the 2010 FIFA World CupTM. Tourists’ perceptions on most aspects changed positively six years after the event, including those that were major concerns prior to the tournament. The findings also show that there has been very little repeat visitation to South Africa since South Africa hosted the 2010 FIFA Word CupTM. However, an overwhelming majority of respondents indicated that they were willing to travel to South Africa should it host another sport mega-event in the near future. The key findings of this study have a wider applicability to sport mega-events legacy research and body of knowledge. These key findings can assist destination marketers in managing the destination image and foster a greater understanding of brand image legacies of past mega-events in order to inform the bidding and hosting of future sport mega-events.