Exploring the Place Brand Factors Influencing Tourism to South Africa
Despite the proliferation of destination branding-related studies, there appears to be a limited academic inquiry into generic place brands and their potential influence on tourist behaviour towards destination countries. More-so within the African context. This paper explores whether there are place brand factors that potentially influence inward tourist’s perceptions of South Africa as a tourism destination country. Data generated from a survey of 233 inbound tourists to South Africa were analysed using Exploratory Factor Analysis. The findings establish that South Africa's place brand consisted of six distinct factors, two of which, namely, Socio-cultural and Competitive Advantages were new place brand factors within the South African context. Theoretically, the study complements the extent of the literature within the tourism discourse by providing an international demand-side perspective on place branding within an African tourism context. Practically, this study provides both South African and African tourism practitioners with insights into the potential utility of place branding as a heuristic cue in the decision-making process of international tourists, predominantly from the European and American markets.