Rural Tourism and Inclusive Development in Port St. Johns - South Africa

The purpose of this study was to explore ways of achieving an inclusive approach to tourism development in rural communities. Although tourism has generally been recommended as a means of orchestrating development in rural communities, achieving this laudable goal has often been illusive due to the fragmented approach adopted by tourism stakeholders. An exploratory quantitative research approach was adopted by using a structured survey instrument to generate 307 valid responses from community members in Port St. John in the Eastern Cape Province (ECP) of South Africa. Results obtained reveal similarities and some differences based on demographic characteristics with regards to the benefits of rural tourism to the community. Importantly, the study illuminates the fragmented way in which residents perceive tourism benefits, both from a gender perspective and personal benefit versus community dichotomy. The paper discusses policy as well as practical local economic development implications.

The Importance of Service Attributes between Low-cost and Full-service Carrier Customers: A case of Airline Type Hybridisation

This study sought to assess if the importance attached by customers to the airline service attributes differed across low-cost and full-service airline models. A Mann-Whitney U Test was used to assess the difference between the two models. However, before subjecting the data to differential tests, an exploratory factor analysis (maximum likelihood) was performed on the fifty-five items of service attributes, reducing them into forty-two items retained into ten latent factors (airline service attributes). The results of the revealed a significant difference in the importance attached to staff competence, courtesy and responsiveness only. Such findings suggest that the positioning of airlines into binary (FSC - LCC) models could be a waste of effort and resources since airlines seem to be converging.

Responses and Impacts of COVID-19 on East Africa’s Tourism Industry

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected all economies and life support systems world-wide. Owing to the pandemic's unpredictable nature, experts and policymakers struggle to find a headway to slow infections and further economic deterioration. The purpose of this study is to assess East African Community (EAC) states’ early responses and the pandemic’s impacts on the tourism industry. Data were collected through a review of secondary data, including academic and media reports. Special attention was paid to respective policy responses during the early stages of the pandemic outbreak. Findings show that Kenya, Uganda, and Rwanda employed more robust measures to curb the spread of COVID-19, whereas Tanzania and Burundi resorted to censorship and protectionism. The EAC should quickly learn from the current crisis and devise strategies to handle future shocks to the tourism-system. The states should prioritize economic diversification, retraining of the workforce, global engagement, and collaborative management.

Quality Reporting of Mixed Methods Research in Tourism-Related Studies

The aim of this study is to gain scientific insight into internationally-accepted criteria for quality reporting of mixed methods research (MMR). Articles published post-2012 in a particular journal, which referred to “mixed methods” and “tourism”, and reported that qualitative and quantitative data were collected, were drawn from Google Scholar and Scopus. The reporting quality of these studies was analysed according to the GRAMMS framework (Good Reporting of a Mixed Methods Study). Most of the articles in the data set did not report on all the elements embedded in GRAMMS. It must not be seen as a reflection of the quality of the MMR design itself, nor is the study flawed. It indicates gaps in the reporting of important MMR elements that could be addressed in future research. Exemplars were identified that could serve as case studies for researchers in terms of the quality of reporting on MMR. Editorial boards should adopt guidelines on how MMR could be presented in articles submitted to their journals. These guidelines could assist authors in preparing their articles to conform to international standards on the reporting of MMR studies. Peer reviewers should use the guidelines to judge the quality of reporting on MMR methodology in articles under review. This study could also serve as a future reference for researchers, postgraduate students and supervisors who aim to incorporate MMR in their research.

A Critical Review of Environmental Governance, Land Restitution, and Tourism in Protected Areas

Natural areas, when protected, conserve the natural environment and function as social spaces in which tourism brings increased income, employment, and financial support for conservation. The inclusion of local community members in the planning and management of protected areas has been on the rise since the early 1900s. Tourism has been advocated as a strategy that can help in achieving economic development, especially in rural areas. However, governance issues and potential negative impacts of tourism development have been under inspection. Conservation efforts in Southern Africa especially in the late 1800s and early 1900s had negative impacts on the local communities since this led to many communities being displaced or having limited access to these protected areas. This has seen the need for ways and efforts to get local community members' despondency and attitudes towards protected areas change such that in the 20th century, there were efforts to use conservation models that included community members in the decision-making and benefit-sharing process to garner their support for protected areas. This paper reviews literature on environmental governance, land restitution in protected areas, tourism in protected areas, co-management, and the importance of community participation. These concepts are reviewed using Manyeleti Game Reserve as a case study.

International Tourism and Economic Growth: Empirical Evidence from BRICS Countries

The aim of the study was to examine the tourism-growth nexus in the context of BRICS nations. For this purpose, the augmented neo-classical growth framework has been employed a panel data model approach over the sample period spanning from 1995 to 2019. The estimation was conducted using PMG based ARDL regression. The results lend support to the tourism-led growth hypothesis when the capital formation and human development exert a positive impact on the long-run real economic growth in BRICS economies. So, the policies meant for tourism sector development can contribute to long-run economic growth through an increase in the share of gross capital formation in the gross domestic product and with the help of improved human development. Therefore, the policy focus should be on infrastructure development, the promotion of investment opportunities, and the development of healthcare and education in BRICS countries. The use of a macroeconomic framework in the analysis is the novelty of this study.

Assessing the Pro-environmental Behaviour Associated with Small-scale Sport Tourism Events

This study examined the pro-environmental behaviour that is associated with small-scale sporting events in the context of South Africa. To achieve this aim, the study employed a mixed-method research strategy, wherein face-to-face questionnaire surveys (n=316) were conducted with small-scale sporting event attendees. These were complemented by in-depth, semi-structured interviews with key informants who are involved in the organisation and management of such events (n=9). The key findings indicated that small-scale sport event attendees are environmentally conscious and practice pro-environmental behaviour at small-scale sport events to a large extent. However, the study observed certain nuances relating to behavioural differences at different events, with regards to environmental management. Moreover, there seemed to be a misalignment of environmental management from the event organisers and environmental behaviour by the attendees of small-scale sporting events, especially when looking into intended future behaviour at the events. The study advocates for a more comprehensive planning and management approach for small-scale events, particularly from the viewpoint of the organisers in order to promote responsible behaviour by attendees of the events going forward.

The Fear of COVID-19 Pandemic in Triggering Tourists' Material Deprivation, Social Rights, Social Participation, and Cultural Integration: The Mediating Role of Bullying

The paper investigated the impact of the fear of the COVID-19 pandemic on tourists' social exclusion in terms of material deprivation, social rights, social participation, and cultural/normative integration, through the mediating role of bullying, in the early days of COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on social exclusion theory, we adopted a quantitative approach and an integrative model to collect data from 473 tourists through a web-based survey from 5th March to 17th June 2020. The results demonstrated that the fear of COVID-19 has a significant influence on tourists’ social exclusion, and in turn, has led to bullying. Besides, bullying has a significant influence on material deprivation, social rights, social participation, and cultural/normative integration of social participation. In addition, this study determined that the effect of the fear of COVID-19 on tourists' social exclusion is partially mediated by bullying. This study also draws attention to the importance of upholding the values of humanity and positive human transactions in times of crisis and pandemics.

Hotel Booking Website Quality, Travel Agent Satisfaction and Purchase Intention

Website quality is one of the features that organisations increasingly use to maintain a competitive advantage. In the hospitality sector in particular, the growing use of a website as a sales channel has necessitated that hotel distribution companies understand the influence of website quality on their customers’ purchase behaviour. The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of Business-to-Business (B2B) third-party hotel booking website quality features on travel agents’ satisfaction, and their subsequent purchase intention. Quantitative data was collected from South African travel agents using an online survey. Three website quality dimensions namely ease of use, information quality and visual appearance, as well as customer satisfaction and purchase intention were measured. Results indicate that there is a positive relationship between website quality and customer satisfaction, and between customer satisfaction and purchase intention. Information quality appears to have the strongest relationship with customer satisfaction. Regression analyses revealed that the relationship between website quality and purchase intention is mediated by customer satisfaction. The study makes a predominantly empirical contribution as there does not appear to be a similar study conducted within an African context. From a practical contribution perspective, the findings may assist third-party hotel distribution companies with meeting the demands of travel agents, and thereby improve their overall business performance.

A Critical Review of Success Factors for Sustainable Agritourism Development

Sustainable agritourism development is at the apex of contemporary discussions on sustainable tourism development as evidenced by enormous studies being done on this tourism concept. This review paper discussed the contributions of one hundred and five (105) research articles that were published in several tourism journals. The main objective of this paper was to establish the current state of literature on Success Factors (SFs) for sustainable agritourism development, identify research gaps, suggest areas of future study and draw lessons that are of importance to the development of agritourism in Zimbabwe. Statistical analysis was employed in order to establish the distribution of the sampled research articles over time, by continent, distribution by research method, distribution by research approach and distribution by research themes. The results of this study revealed that research on agritourism development is biased towards the developed countries, most of the research used qualitative research with focus more on the supply side and little has been done to establish the requirements and CSFs for the development of this tourism concept. The findings of this study provide a baseline upon which future studies in agritourism, could be build.