A dissertation of limited scope submitted to the Faculty of Arts in partial of
the requirements for course-work Master of Arts degree in the Centre for
Recreation and Tourism at the University of Zululand, South Africa, 1998. / After the first democratic elections in South Africa in 1994, South Africa was heartily welcomed into the family of nations of the world. Likewise, South Africa should extend a warm welcome to peoples of the world to its shores.
South Africa must take full advantage of its political popularity under the democratically elected government. Besides, South Africa has an abundance of natural resources and is rich in history because of its racial diversity. The cultures of its indigenous people of South Africa can make this region one of the most sought after tourist destinations of the world.
Tourism, like all other industries in this country, has been badly affected by sanctions, violence, crime and internal political conflict. Furthermore, the media has created a turbulent atmosphere through its exaggeration of incidents that are common to all countries of the world. These have dissuaded thousands of people who would otherwise have chosen to visit South Africa especially the Black townships and rural areas.
Tourism has, unfortunately, received little attention, from both the previous and the present governments compared to other industries. A number of projects and programmes have been directed at alleviating problems of Black communities with the ultimate aim of improving their standard of living. In most cases, these programmes have failed to achieve this objective. Instead, in tourism, it is the wealthy hoteliers who have been beneficiaries and not the target population.
South Africa has engaged in a number of tourism forms with the objective of including and involving Blacks such that they benefit from tourism development. Presently very few Blacks have been properly involved in tourism in a positive way.
This study focuses on establishing a Tourist Information Centre in Umlazi that will provide information concerning tourism that may be required by potential tourists. Tourism needs much more than providing information to tourists, it also needs that the infrastructure available should be of a suitable standard. The development of such infrastructure in Umlazi and neighbouring townships has lagged behind in the past because of the policies that were in operation. Tourist Information Centres will help develop a high level of awareness of the potential benefits available in Umlazi Township for both the tourists and the host communities.
It has been found from the tourism workshop held in May 1998 to orientate the people of Umlazi in tourism. that tourism awareness campaign seems to be the only criterion that can be used to answer all the questions and challenges pertaining to tourism industry.
The survey conducted re-iterated the need for tourism education and, also revealed that the majority of Umlazi community would love to see a Tourist Information Centre materialising. The opinion survey showed that the support from the community cannot be doubted.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uzulu/oai:uzspace.unizulu.ac.za:10530/939 |
| Date | January 1998 |
| Creators | Tshabalala, Sibongile Princess. |
| Contributors | Magi, L.M. |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf |
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