The aim of this study was to explore and describe HIV and AIDS workplace programmes and policies (WPPs) in the tourism industry of Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality (NMBM) in South Africa. This study adopted a quantitative and qualitative approach, in other words, a mixed approach. The reason for using more than one method of inquiry was to obtain a deeper understanding of the tourism industry of NMBM in terms of examined behaviour, and of the meaning of occurrences in the industry. To gather qualitative data concerning HIV and AIDS programmes, key informant stakeholders in the tourism industry at global, national, provincial, and local levels were identified to conduct in-depth interviews. These respondents were selected using the non-probability sampling method of quota sampling. This is a type of stratified sampling in which the selection of the strata within the sample is not random, but rather is typically left to the discretion of the interviewer (Wienclaw, 2015). One respondent for each level of the industry was selected, resulting in four key informant stakeholders participating in the qualitative research component of this study. The initial criterion for participation in the quantitative portion for this study was that tourism businesses based in NMBM must be able to produce robust evidence of HIV and AIDS WPPs. The researcher selected the probability sampling method of stratified random sampling with proportional allocation. This technique considers the known characteristics of the population (Wienclaw, 2015). A database of tourism businesses was obtained from the local tourism organisation, who are members of the governing body for local tourism. This database was cleaned, to eliminate any data that did not meet the participation criterion for the study. Ten per cent of the total number of businesses in the cleaned database were sampled. The simplest approach to sampling is to merely randomly select from the population by, for example, having a computer choose names at random from a list, or by selecting names from a hat (Wienclaw, 2015). Therefore, every fifth business listed on the sampled database was selected to participate. Unfortunately, surveys tend to have notoriously low return rates, and people are frequently reluctant to give out information over the phone. This was also the case for most of the tourism businesses in the sample. When emailed or telephoned, they refused to participate for various reasons. Some stated that HIV does not affect their business; others reported that their businesses were too small and therefore they could not afford to implement these programmes. Some businesses were hearing about the WPP for the very first time, while several others responded with simple disinterest in participating. The findings of the study are that although tourism is viewed as an important industry that contributes to the economy, tourism businesses do not include any intervention programmes with which to respond to the threat of HIV and AIDS to their businesses. Additionally, there is neither leadership nor support from any level of the tourism industry, to create a conducive environment for the adoption of HIV and AIDS WPPs by tourism businesses. The primary reason for the lack of uptake of these programmes is ignorance across cascading levels of the tourism industry, which includes tourism businesses. Additionally, a number of perceived barriers, such as size of business, are cited as the reasons why tourism workplaces in the NMBM fail to participate in HIV and AIDS WPPs. It is anticipated that this study will create further awareness of HIV and AIDS WPPs, in an industry that seems to have limited knowledge about such programmes. This study will also provide guidance regarding the requirements to implement effective HIV and AIDS WPPs.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:nmmu/vital:26473 |
| Date | January 2017 |
| Creators | Mahlangeni, Iviwe |
| Publisher | Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Faculty of Business and Economic Sciences |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis, Masters, MPhil |
| Format | xiii, 132 leaves, pdf |
| Rights | Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University |
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