Globally, the tourism industry is recognised as one of the fastest growing industries,
generating high revenues and creating a vast number of job opportunities. In South
Africa, this is no different and, in recent years, the tourism industry has outshone the
country's gold exports therefore claiming its position as the fourth highest earner of
foreign exchange to date. Yet the industry is still to receive the attention it deserves from
conventional economics. This research aimed to fill this gap in South Africa by providing
an understanding on the determinants of international tourism demand for South Africa.
The first objective of the study was to provide a broad overview of the tourism industry
of South Africa. The discussion focused on the supply and demand sides of tourism
which, in turn, are divided into the domestic and international tourism markets. There has
been a high growth, especially in the international market since 1994 and, while domestic
and international markets continue to grow, seasonality remains an issue. Tourism has a
significant impact on economic activity, employment, and the balance of payments and
therefore the industry has great potential.
The second objective was to create a theoretical understanding on the different factors
that could determine the international demand for the tourism product. From this
discussion it was found that there are various economic and non-economic factors that
are believed to have an influence on tourism demand. Income, prices, transport cost, and
the exchange rate are amongst the favourite economic variables with travel time,
population, marketing expenditure, climate, and capacity being the more popular noneconomic
factors. Among these, certain threats were also identified that could have
harmful impacts on tourism growth.
The third objective and main aim of the study was to determine which of the factors
identified earlier determine the demand for international tourism to South Africa. This
was done through an empirical investigation. Data from all the continents were used to
attain an international perspective on tourist arrivals (tourism demand). The results
indicated that capacity and climate factors determine tourism demand in the short term
with income and transport cost influencing South Africa as a tourism destination in the
long term.
The last objective was to determine whether certain events or disasters that take place
globally have a negative influence on tourism demand to South Africa. The event that
was looked as was the terror attacks on the United States in September 2001. It was
found that although the overall tourism activity of the world became stagnant during this
period, the effect was not that considerable in South Africa's tourism arrivals. Tourism in
countries such as the United Sates, on the other hand, has still not recovered fully after
this event. / Thesis (M.Com. (International Commerce))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:nwu/oai:dspace.nwu.ac.za:10394/1275 |
| Date | January 2006 |
| Creators | Smith, Jardus |
| Publisher | North-West University |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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