scholarly journals The Making of a ‘Big 5’ Game Reserve as an Urban Tourism Destination: Dinokeng, South Africa

2020 ◽  
pp. 892-911
Author(s):  
Calum Burton ◽  
Christian Rogerson ◽  
Jayne Rogerson
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Economic Development ◽  
Local Economic Development ◽  
Manufacturing Sector ◽  
Development Project ◽  
Urban Tourism ◽  
Small Enterprise ◽  
Big 5 ◽  
Game Reserve ◽  
Development Programming

Since 2000, against the background of chronically high levels of city unemployment and of the stagnation or rundown of the manufacturing sector, many urban governments across South Africa pivoted towards the building of competitive tourism economies as an anchor for local economic development, employment creation and small enterprise development. With the tourism sector being the most popular sectoral focus for local economic development programming in South Africa, the evolution of place-based development initiatives around tourism is a topic of policy relevance. This paper contributes to tourism scholarship concerning new product innovation and development for urban tourism in South Africa. It investigates the unfolding planning and challenges of a unique tourism development project for the creation of a ‘big 5’ game reserve located on the periphery of the country’s major metropolitan complex and economic hub, Gauteng province. The evolution of the project and the challenges of destination development are themes under scrutiny.

scholarly journals Urban tourism, aerotropolis and local economic development planning: Ekurhuleni and O.R. Tambo International Airport, South Africa

2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 123-129 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian M. Rogerson
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Economic Development ◽  
Local Economic Development ◽  
Tourism Development ◽  
Development Planning ◽  
Urban Tourism ◽  
Inclusive Development ◽  
International Airport ◽  
Development Programming ◽  
Development Goals

Abstract One vibrant topic within the emerging scholarship around geographies of tourism development and planning concerns that of tourism and local economic development planning. Across many countries tourism is a core base for planning of place-based local economic development programmes. In post-apartheid South Africa the country’s leading cities have promoted tourism as part of economic development programming. This article examines planning for South Africa’s aerotropolis around the O.R. Tambo International Airport in Ekurhuleni, which is adjacent to Johannesburg. Under circumstances of economic distress and the need for new sources of local job creation Ekurhuleni is undertaking planning for tourism development through leveraging and alignment to aerotropolis planning. The nexus of aerotropolis and urban tourism planning is analysed. Arguably, the strengthening of tourism in Ekurhuleni offers the potential for contributing towards inclusive development goals.

scholarly journals Transforming the Siyabuswa Community Centre into a Smart Centre

10.28945/4221 ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 001-014
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Economic Development ◽  
Computer Literacy ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Local Economic Development ◽  
Development Project ◽  
Mpumalanga Province ◽  
Smart Community ◽  
Competency Area ◽  
Community Centre

Dr. Jackie Phahlamohlaka reflected on what he would propose to the board regarding the transformation of the existing Siyabuswa Educational Improvement and Development Trust (SEIDET) community centre to a smart community centre. As the Competency Area Manager at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in South Africa, the founder of SEIDET and the chairman of its Board of Trustees, he had for over twenty-four years led socio-economic development efforts and ICT related research linked to SEIDET (SEIDET, 2014). These programmes ranged from high school supplementary tutorials on mathematics and science to adult and computer literacy training of the broader community in the Siyabuswa area of Mpumalanga Province, Republic of South Africa. These questions were: (1) How could SEIDET leverage or create affordable cyber network infrastructure in the envisaged smart centre? (2) How could the smart centre assist the local community and individuals in the community to be enabled to participate in local economic development? (3) How could SEIDET get the local government administration, traditional leaders and the local community to buy-in to this smart centre development project in order to ensure its sustainability?

scholarly journals Towards regional economic development in South Africa: Conceptualising the ‘region’ associated with economic development through the Durban Aerotropolis

Urbani izziv ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol Supplement (30) ◽  
pp. 194-211
Author(s):  
Nomkhosi Luthuli ◽  
Jennifer HOUGHTON Houghton
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Economic Development ◽  
Economic Activity ◽  
Local Economic Development ◽  
Regional Economic Development ◽  
Development Planning ◽  
Development Project ◽  
Development Projects ◽  
Regional Economic ◽  
The Social

This paper critically considers the conceptualization of the ‘region’ in regional economic development. It utilizes the Durban Aerotropolis in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa as a case of reference through which the conceptualization and underpinnings of ‘region’ associated with economic development are understood. This exercise is prompted by the nomenclatural shifts in local government from local economic development to regional economic development which is causing shifts in approaches to the implementation of economic development projects. The findings presented in this paper show that in the conceptualisation of the region in the instance of the Durban Aerotropolis, understanding the function, form and scale of a regional economic development project becomes pertinent to the social construction of the region with consequences for the project focus and implementation. In the discussion, function is examined as the purpose of a regional economic development project, form refers to the kind of economic development mechanism or strategy which could assist in fulfilling that purpose and scale speaks to the extent, reach and magnitude of the project, without which the implications are challenging practical enactment or implementation of regional economic development projects. The social constructions of region outlined in this paper thereby attest to the multiplicity of definitions which are typically based on the context in which the concept is being used and thus shows the ‘region’ inherent in regional economic development as produced through, and for, an assemblage of economic activity in space. From this we understand the region in regional economic development to be a social construct which presents itself as an assemblage of economic activity in space. Although we understand regions as spatially contingent, the theoretical and empirical conceptualisation of regions within regional economic development planning, policy–making and practice must draw on the specifics of contextuality to ensure its utility to economic development.

scholarly journals Power laws, demography and entrepreneurship in selected South African regions

2018 ◽  
Vol 114 (5/6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Daan Toerien
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Economic Development ◽  
South African ◽  
Local Economic Development ◽  
Power Laws ◽  
Development Planning ◽  
Size Distributions ◽  
Skewed Distributions ◽  
Enterprise Growth ◽  
Different Parts

Statistically significant Pareto-like log-log rank-size distributions were recorded for population and enterprise agglomeration in the towns of three different regions of South Africa, and are indicative of skewed distributions of population and enterprise numbers in regional towns. There were no distinct differences between groups of towns of regions from different parts of the country. However, the regional agglomerations differed from those of groups of towns randomly selected from a database. Regions, therefore, appear to have some uniqueness regarding such agglomerations. The identification of Zipf-like links between population and enterprise growth in regional towns still does not fully explain why some towns grow large and others stay small and there is a need to further explore these issues. The extreme skewness in population and enterprise numbers of different towns’ distributions should, however, be considered in local economic development planning and execution.

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