MCom (Business Management) / See the attached abstract below

In this study, we examine the dynamic relationship between tourism growth and economic growth, using a newly introduced spillover index approach. Based on monthly data for 10 European countries over the period 1995-2012, our analysis reveals the following empirical regularities. First, the tourism-economic growth relationship is not stable over time in terms of both magnitude and direction, indicating that the tourism-led economic growth (TLEG) and the economic-driven tourism growth (EDTG) hypotheses are time-dependent. Second, the aforementioned relationship is also highly economic event-dependent, as it is influenced by the Great Recession of 2007 and the ongoing Eurozone debt crisis that began in 2010. Finally, the impact of these economic events is more pronounced in Cyprus, Greece, Portugal and Spain, which are the European countries that have witnessed the greatest economic downturn since 2009. Plausible explanations of these results are provided and policy implications are drawn. (authors' abstract)

Thesis (MBA) --University of Limpopo, 2011 / The potential for tourism to contribute to the economy of South Africa has been embraced by the new democratic government for a lengthy period. In order for government to benefit fully from tourism, it has charted out strategies and policies to make tourism grow and for communities to also benefit from the activities emanating from tourism. Although these measures to support the growth, development and sustainability of tourism SMMEs are in place, implementation remains a challenge. The purpose of this study is to investigate how the growth and development strategies have been implemented in Limpopo province to support the sustainability of Tourism SMMEs in Polokwane. This is done through the interogation of the literature to determine the major objectives of the tourism growth and development strategies in Limpopo Province, the challenges faced by tourism SMMEs and also to gain feedback through empirical studies on the effectiveness of, and support of the Tourism Growth and Development Strategies.

The thesis looks into the under-researched phenomenon of ‘stasis’ that can be observed in many emerging tourist destinations in the world. Stasis—defined here as non-growth—has been essentially addressed in the tourism literature from the perspective of operational constraints. However, in this thesis it is argued that such an approach neglects to consider these constraints as outcomes of deeply sedimented and chronically reproduced structural properties. In other words, the study attempts to gain an understanding of why operational constraints fail to receive response in destinations experiencing stasis. With its focus on stasis rather than on change, the study adopts an innovative approach to tourism development, intending in this way to add to destination development theories.Accordingly, the examination of the research problem is integrated into the general reflection on the development of tourist areas, composing the theoretical background of the study. Moreover, two important methodological decisions are made with the aim to better grasp the dynamics of tourism development within stasis. A first decision is to dissociate the quantitative aspects of destination development from the qualitative ones, introducing two distinctive constructs named destination growth and destination shaping. A second decision is to address the research question from a strategic relational approach to structure and agency. The use of a structure-agency approach is decisive in appraising the extent to which structural constraints affect tourism stakeholders’ actions. The phenomenon is explored empirically from a critical theory perspective and a qualitative approach based on a single case study. The case under scrutiny is Gabon, a politically stable destination with acknowledged tourism assets and a tourism strategy adopted in the past decade. Gabon is examined essentially for its function as internal leisure travel destination. The analysis thus includes both domestic and international tourism, but limits itself to leisure travel. The study results indicate that, in the case of Gabon, structural properties and their rigidity explained a great deal of operational constraints and their continuity over time. However, and while structural properties adversely affect destination development, including growth, tourism initiatives are still able to emerge. These tourism initiatives are varied in that they are undertaken by different types of actors, they have different goals and take different forms. Yet, very few of these tourism stakeholders are in a position to modify the country’s structural properties due to a high centrality of social control. In such context, destination growth is primarily determined by the vested interest of a small circle of agents with social power. In conclusion, a country’s structural properties need to be regarded as spatialized and temporalized tendencies having a selective effect on actors but cannot fully explain action, hence destination development. In turn, action is intended—and strategic—but results do not necessarily match initial intentions. This implies that tourism development cannot be apprehended through the sole actions of tourism stakeholders, but need a combined analysis of the interrelationships between structure and agency. / Doctorat en Sciences / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

This study is based on data regarding the social, economic, and demographic characteristics of 130 countries, and uses fixed effects estimation for the model analysis. It demonstrates that tourism development represents a complex process, which requires the implication of a multitude of stakeholders. Macroeconomic factors, such as GDP per capita growth and economic openness, are having a positive impact because they benefit private ownership and motivate people to open tourism-related businesses. Overall, higher carbon dioxide emissions and worse safety are having a negative effect over tourism development. Human development factors, such as education, are generally beneficial to the long-term tourism growth because they serve as positive externalities. Clustering the initial dataset based on various economic, demographic and social factors brought several new conclusions. Particularly, GDP per capita growth is not an important tourism development factor among developed countries, whereas the dummy variable for the year 2010 is a substantial one. Education and economic freedom are particularly important regressors for post-socialist states. The former is also crucial among African countries and in the Latin American region, where safety has also an essential impact over tourism development. Finally, tourism in small states would benefit the most from lower emissions,whereas in big states the best strategy for the policymaker would be to increase safety measures.

In recent decades tourism has asserted its importance as the biggest employer and foreign exchange earner in both the developing and developed countries. Consequently, there has been increasing attention to tourism development as a strategy to stimulate economic growth, local economic development and poverty alleviation, especially in the developing countries. This study was undertaken with the objective of determining the direct benefits of the growth in tourism to the local communities in the vicinity of protected areas in South Africa's Mpumalanga Province. The tourism sector is strategically located within the economic mainstream as it links easily with other sectors of the economy such as agriculture, hospitality, transport and entertainment. It has added advantages, including the fact that the tourist product is consumed at the destination. This offers local communities opportunities in job creation, skills development, economic empowerment and social development. The study found that meaningful involvement of local communities in the tourism industry through ownership of tourism-related enterprises was almost non-existent. There were no meaningful linkages between the industry and the local communities other than the communities' supply of unskilled labour. There were also no programmes aimed at harnessing the phenomenal growth in South Africa's tourism for the economic empowerment of local communities. The economic empowerment of local communities need not be achieved through the ownership of tourism-related enterprises only, but may also include shareholding, outsourcing, affirmative procurement and social responsibility programmes by the industry.The continued marginalisation of the local communities by the tourism industry was attributed to unsatisfactory progress with the industry's transformation. The launch of the Tourism Black Economic Empowerment Charter and Scorecard in 2005 provided impetus for the transformation of South Africa's tourism industry. However, more work still needs to be done in the identified areas of ownership and control of tourism-related businesses, distribution of tourism benefits and the development of tourism-related skills and entrepreneurial culture in local communities. The role of the private sector in stimulating community involvement in tourism is particularly important. The private sector is singled out because of government policy that tourism development would be regulated by government and be private-sector driven. Furthermore, the private sector has the capacity and the resources to mobilise, not only to improve the attractiveness and marketing of a destination and the overall management of the tourism industry, but also to build thriving local communities. / Development Studies / D. Litt. et Phil. (Development Studies)

In recent decades tourism has asserted its importance as the biggest employer and foreign exchange earner in both the developing and developed countries. Consequently, there has been increasing attention to tourism development as a strategy to stimulate economic growth, local economic development and poverty alleviation, especially in the developing countries. This study was undertaken with the objective of determining the direct benefits of the growth in tourism to the local communities in the vicinity of protected areas in South Africa's Mpumalanga Province. The tourism sector is strategically located within the economic mainstream as it links easily with other sectors of the economy such as agriculture, hospitality, transport and entertainment. It has added advantages, including the fact that the tourist product is consumed at the destination. This offers local communities opportunities in job creation, skills development, economic empowerment and social development. The study found that meaningful involvement of local communities in the tourism industry through ownership of tourism-related enterprises was almost non-existent. There were no meaningful linkages between the industry and the local communities other than the communities' supply of unskilled labour. There were also no programmes aimed at harnessing the phenomenal growth in South Africa's tourism for the economic empowerment of local communities. The economic empowerment of local communities need not be achieved through the ownership of tourism-related enterprises only, but may also include shareholding, outsourcing, affirmative procurement and social responsibility programmes by the industry.The continued marginalisation of the local communities by the tourism industry was attributed to unsatisfactory progress with the industry's transformation. The launch of the Tourism Black Economic Empowerment Charter and Scorecard in 2005 provided impetus for the transformation of South Africa's tourism industry. However, more work still needs to be done in the identified areas of ownership and control of tourism-related businesses, distribution of tourism benefits and the development of tourism-related skills and entrepreneurial culture in local communities. The role of the private sector in stimulating community involvement in tourism is particularly important. The private sector is singled out because of government policy that tourism development would be regulated by government and be private-sector driven. Furthermore, the private sector has the capacity and the resources to mobilise, not only to improve the attractiveness and marketing of a destination and the overall management of the tourism industry, but also to build thriving local communities. / Development Studies / D. Litt. et Phil. (Development Studies)