The Film Industry and South African Urban Change

Internationally there has been considerable discussion on the role that creative industries play as a strategy by which post-Fordist cities can revive stagnant urban economies. Among those sectors of the economy that form part of the creative industries, the filming sector counts as one. On the whole, these debates have been conducted with reference to the post-industrial cities of the north. Little attention has been placed on the role of the filming sector in the developing south generally, its spatial distribution, and its relationship to other economic and social geographies in those urban places. The paper provides a spatial analysis of the filming industry in urban South Africa and relates it to general economic and social geographies in two South African cities that have identified the filming industry as a key development strategy. In addition, an agenda for future research, in particular pertaining to urban South Africa is outlined. It is concluded that there is a broader urban planning and geography project at hand. Questions need to be asked about how the filming industry interacts with other government programmes and the ongoing transformation of physical and symbolic spaces in urban South Africa.     

African Urbanism: the Geography of Urban Greenery

Whilst the issue of urban greenery has received considerable research attention in many individual African countries in recent years, little has been done to explore and document the influence and the management implications of urbanisation on urban greenery across Africa. To address this gap, this paper reviews the state of urban greenery across African cities by analysing urbanisation pressures on the preservation and management of urban greenery. Drawing from published literature, policy documents and international reports, the study findings indicate an increasing depletion of urban greenery across major cities in Africa owing to urbanisation-induced anthropogenic influences. This paper advocates for an urban resilience model to management of urban greenery.     

The Limits of Urban Heritage Tourism in South Africa: The Case of Constitution Hill, Johannesburg

Heritage tourism is a significant contemporary feature in many developing countries, particularly in Africa, and fast growing in popularity in South Africa. As many heritage sites are located in cities, heritage tourism is a potential growth segment for urban tourism. This paper analyses strategic policy and interest in heritage tourism for the South African tourism economy. The case of Constitution Hill in Johannesburg is examined as a case study to elucidate the limits of urban heritage tourism. It is argued this iconic heritage attraction is seemingly failing to attract many local visitors or tourists despite its important national heritage status. Using structured interviews with stakeholders and questionnaires with visitors and local residents, the research critically explores their understanding of heritage tourism as well as their perceptions of its influence on the physical landscape as a driver for local development.     

From Liquor to Leisure: The Changing South African Hotel Industry 1928–1968

Historical scholarship in tourism studies is relatively limited, mainly focused on North America and Western Europe. The aim in this article is to examine one neglected facet of the historical development of urban tourism in South Africa. Specifically, the focus is on the changing nature of South African hotels and of the hotel industry during the period of 1928–1968. During this period, a transformation occurred in the nature of the hotel sector ‘from liquor to leisure’. This change shifted the trajectory of hotel developments in South Africa and laid the essential foundations for the beginnings of an internationally competitive tourism industry. An understanding of developments taking place in the hotel industry through this formative period of 1928–1968 is essential for interpreting the evolution of the modern South African hotel industry.     

Conference and exhibition tourism in the developing world: The South African experience

Conclusion Tourism scholarship concerning conferences and exhibitions is dominated by writings concerned with developed countries. An examination of the South African experience, therefore, provides a useful complement to the existing writings and reveals certain parallel themes, particularly concerning issues of local development. Historically, in the apartheid period the market for conference and exhibition tourism was based upon domestic demand. After the democratic transition, however, it is evident that new opportunities were opened for the attraction of international conferences and exhibitions to South Africa. Undoubtedly, a watershed event in the development of South African participation in the global market for conferences was the successful hosting in Johannesburg during 2002 of the World Summit on Sustainable Development. The positive local development impacts of the attraction of such conferences have been the essential catalyst for the development and continuous upgrading of three international quality convention centres in the country. These three major convention facilities represent the apex of an estimated 1700 conference and exhibition centres that currently exist across South Africa and serve both domestic and international MICE markets. With heightened levels of competition for the conference and exhibition market—both domestic and international—uncertainty surrounds the long-term prospects of many of these facilities. The task of monitoring the progress, dynamics and changing fortunes of conference and exhibition tourism merits a place on the research agenda of urban tourism studies in South Africa over the next decade.     

Are South Africa’s cities too small?

Are South African cities to small? Given the history of South Africa’s spatial development, one might expect that South African cities might be under-sized, and not over-sized as in many other developing countries. It is found that the rank-size distribution explains the sizes of South Africa’s cities but that Zipf’s Law does not hold for the country’s cities. The so-called q-coefficient was found to be equal to −0.75 for the 123 places with population in excess of 100 000. It was also found that urbanisation in South Africa over the past decade seems to have taken the form of the parallel (slow, 1.04%) growth of five large cities. Finally, calculating the “H-measure” for 19 metropolitan areas in South Africa yields an inverse H-measure of 11.3. This suggests a reasonable degree of dispersal, which would only be consistent with optimal city size if transport costs were low and manufacturing not in need of scale economies; two conditions unlikely to apply to South Africa. Finally, the primacy ratio for South Africa’s largest urban agglomeration was found to be 38%. This suggests that the size of the Johannesburg-East Rand urban agglomeration (the primate city) may be relatively too large, whereas more efficient growth may come from larger harbour cities.     

More than twenty years after the repeal of the Group Areas Act: housing, spatial planning and urban development in post-apartheid South Africa

More than twenty years after the repeal of the Group Areas Act, South Africa is facing a number of challenges with regards to housing, spatial planning and urban development. Government institutions, scholars, NGO’s and local communities have been looking for innovative ways to improve the housing conditions of all South Africans. With this special issue, we aim to demonstrate that international insights cannot only be relevant to understand and enrich South African cases, but that an in-depth analysis of the South African experiments can also be meaningful for academic analyses and political decisions in other parts of the world. In order to stimulate such a cross-fertilization, this article will briefly summarize the current situation in South Africa in the public housing sector, the private housing sector and the self-help approach. We will also introduce the eight papers of this special issue.     

The Economic Geography of South Africa’s Hotel Industry 1990–2010

Hotels are a neglected facet in economic and tourism geography as the majority of scholarship on hotels is produced from the perspective of hospitality management. This article examines the changing geography of hotels in South Africa during the period 1990–2010 as part of the country’s expanding tourism economy. The analysis confirms the importance of several locational influences, which have been isolated in existing literature, in particular the significance of spatial patterns of market demand related to international leisure travel, domestic business tourism, and of the hosting of mega-events. Since 1990, the South African hotel industry necessarily has adjusted to new market demands related to the vibrancy of international tourism growth as well as an expansion of domestic tourism including of a new black leisure and business tourism market. By 2010, the hotel industry and its spatial distribution reflects the enormous changes, which have take out place in the South African tourism sector since democratic change. The transformed geography of the hotel industry is a response to changing demands associated with South Africa’s rise as an emerging international leisure and business tourism destination, including for regional visitors from sub-Saharan Africa, the expansion of domestic business tourism, and the shifting domestic leisure tourism market, which incorporates an increasing share of black South African tourists     

Informal Sector Business Tourism in the Global South: Evidence from Maseru, Lesotho

Domestic tourism is a neglected theme within tourism scholarship about the global South. This article addresses informal sector domestic tourism and is anchored upon the typology of tourism by Gladstone (2005) in which distinctions are drawn between international and domestic tourism and formal and informal sector tourism. The specific focus is informal sector business tourism, the nature of which challenges Western definitions of business tourism. The study reports findings from 52 interviews conducted with informal business tourists and accommodation providers in Maseru, Lesotho’s capital city. It is revealed the nature of low-income informal sector business tourism in the global South is radically different to that of conventional business tourism in terms of its organisation, characteristics of business tourists, and impacts. Arguably, informal sector business tourism is inherently pro-poor in its local impacts. Further comparative research work is required concerning these forms of ‘invisible’ tourists in African cities.     

Conceptualizing ‘the Urban’ Through the Lens of Durban,South Africa

Contemporary urban theory raises many questions about how ‘the urban’ is being conceptualized in a fast changing world that is approaching an urban epoch. Evolving debates about what it means to be urban, including the similarities and differences between so-called northern and southern cities, the future of cities, the way to manage and sustain cities, and cities’ relationships to the new Urban Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals, reveal the need for urban theory that can explain and provide insights into contemporary urban governance, processes, and outcomes. This special issue uses Durban as a lens to provide insight into the changing nature of cities in the Global South and Africa in particular, which encapsulate and reflect both formality and informality; tradition and modernity; uneven and unequal growth and social transformation; environmental crises and ‘resilience and sustainability’. This paper reflects on the dominant processes shaping the development of the city, revealing the challenges, tensions, and opportunities that emerge as the city assembles new ways of being urban, through the rationalities, knowledge, experiences, practices and actions of the state, citizens, and the private sector.     

Urban Tourism in Bloemfontein: Current Dynamics,Immediate Challenges and Future Prospects

In South Africa, there is a paucity of research focused on urban tourism. The small body of research focused on South Africa’s urban places as tourist destinations is mainly concerned with urban tourism in the country’s metropolitan areas. Secondary cities, such as Bloemfontein, have received scant research attention. In the context of such research neglect, the paper focuses on the urban tourism system of Bloemfontein. Drawing on both survey material and secondary data sources, the investigation provides an outline of the Bloemfontein tourism economy. Particular attention is given to different tourism types and their spatial distribution. Thereafter, an overview of obstacles to various tourism development as experienced by product providers is given and potential support mechanisms detailed. Finally, a tourism development strategy is set out.

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Shaken,shrinking, hot,impoverished and informal: Emerging research agendas in planning

This is the second of two special issues in Progress in Planning exploring emerging research agendas in planning. It brings together scholars from diverse schools working on new areas of research and application in urban design and planning. Emergent research agendas include both novel areas of research and important shifts in the direction of a research area. The challenge for planning schools is to reflect critically on these changes and develop long-term research agendas that can better position our field in society and academia, and provide a basis from which to assess our academic programmes. The chapters in this issue display the different scales and fields of planning, including planning for: disaster recovery; climate change, especially opportunities for mitigation; shrinking cities in the First World; and rapidly urbanising informal and impoverished cities in the global South. At the same time, the chapters identify research areas that respond to major social and environmental changes. Olshansky and Chang highlight the increasing losses from catastrophic disasters, and address the need for disaster recovery planning. Wheeler, Randolph and London focus on climate change, and, noting the urgency of action now, their research agenda emphasises opportunities for planners to develop research and policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Hollander, Pallagst, Schwarz and Popper look at increasing economic and population trends in many First World cities that result in city ‘shrinkage’. They present new opportunities for improving cities’ green space networks and natural features, and for research. The trebling of urban population in African cities by 2050, in conditions of poverty and informality, is the major trend driving Parnell, Pietriese and Watson's chapter. They present an agenda for new planning theories and for supporting empirical research to address the actual conditions of African cities.     

Africa’s Urban Food Deserts

Since the mid-1990s, the concept of the ‘urban food desert’ has been extensively applied to deprived neighbourhoods in European and North American cities. Food deserts are usually characterised as economically-disadvantaged areas where there is relatively poor access to healthy and affordable food because of the absence of modern retail outlets (such as supermarkets). This idea has not been applied in any systematic way to cities of the Global South and African cities in particular. Yet African cities contain many poor neighbourhoods whose residents are far more food insecure and malnourished than their counterparts in the North. This paper reviews some of the challenges and difficulties of conceiving of highly food insecure areas of African cities as conventional food deserts. At the same time, it argues that the concept, appropriately reformulated to fit African realities of rapid urbanisation and multiple food procurement systems, is a useful analytical tool for African urban researchers and policy-makers. Although supermarkets are becoming an important element of the food environment in African cities, a simple focus on modern retail does not adequately capture complexity of the African food desert. In the African context, the food deserts concept requires a much more sophisticated understanding of over-lapping market and non-market food sources, of the nature and dynamism of the informal food economy, of the inter-household differences that lead to different experiences of food insecurity and of the Africa-specific conditions that lead to compromised diets, undernutrition and social exclusion. The papers in this special issue explore these different aspects of African food deserts defined as poor, often informal, urban neighbourhoods characterised by high food insecurity and low dietary diversity, with multiple market and non-market food sources but variable household access to food.     

The Limited Service Hotel in South Africa: The Growth of City Lodge

A critical competitive strategy for the growth and expansion of large hotel chains is the pursuit of market segmentation. This article investigates one aspect of market segmentation and the restructuring of the South Africa hotel sector, namely the emergence of the limited service hotel. The growth of the limited service hotel segment of the South African hotel industry is analysed through a case study of the strategic development and evolution of City Lodge Hotels which pioneered this market niche in Africa. Close linkages are disclosed between the limited service segment and the growth of business tourism in South Africa’s major urban centres.     

A systematic review of gated communities and the challenge of urban transformation in African cities

Globalization and the spread of neo-liberal models of urban restructuring have resulted in the rise in gated communities worldwide, including in Africa. The on-going scholarly debate revolves around the drivers of gated communities, their impacts and implications on the planning and management of cities. To contribute to and advance scholarly debate on gated communities and the challenge of urban transformation, we used standard systematic procedures to synthesize findings from 31 peer reviewed journal articles from 1990 to 2020, that examine the phenomenon of gated communities in African cities. Despite the differences in study settings, key findings emerge from gated community studies in Africa. Majority of the reviewed studies attribute the emergence of gated communities to the rise in crime and the search for good quality living environment. Globalization also plays an important role in facilitating new market-oriented gated communities. The globalization of lifestyles of the urban elite has also found expression in African cities. Reviewed studies are critical of gated communities for promoting spatial fragmentation, privatization of public space and local governance and for propagating socio-economic inequality and urban segregation. These issues have implications for the planning and management of cities; in terms of balancing between the need for secure neighbourhoods and promoting inclusive urban societies. The systematic review makes a case for re-thinking urban models that inform the production of new urban spaces; with a view to balance between private capital interests and the need for spatial justice.

     

The Changing Location of Hotels in South Africa’s Coastal Cities, 1990–2010

Hotel developments are the most significant expression of tourism growth. In the extensive international literature on urban restructuring and spatial change, the accommodation sector in general and hotels in particular are overlooked as compared to other urban functions. Only a limited amount of debate and empirical work surrounds the location of hotels. This article contributes to the sparse scholarship on spatial patterns of hotel development and location change within the urban developing world. An analysis is undertaken of the locational distribution of hotels in three urban tourism destinations, Cape Town, Durban and Port Elizabeth, which have benefited from the post-apartheid expansion of tourism. Spatial change in hotels is examined between 1990 and 2010 in terms of numbers of hotel establishments, the size and quality of hotel stock. Contrasts and similarities are highlighted between observed patterns of hotels in South Africa’s coastal cities as compared with other international research.     

Homing in(n) on the Economic Benefits of 2010 FIFA World Cup: Opportunities for and Misgivings of Bed-and-Breakfast Operators in Gauteng, South Africa

This study examines the perceived potential benefits of the 2010 Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) World Cup Football Tournament for bed-and-breakfast (B&B) establishments—an integral part of the tourism accommodation sector in South Africa. From responses to a questionnaire sent to a sample of B&B proprietors in Gauteng, the major centre for the tournament, it is clear that they have serious reservations. The basis for their misgivings appears to be the manner in which FIFA has managed accommodation–provision agreements and the role played by South African government agencies, the Local Organising Committee and the tourism sector.     

Slum Tourism and Urban Regeneration: Touring Inner Johannesburg

Much attention has been paid to township tourism in South Africa, a practice of tourism that emerged in Apartheid South Africa with different organised tours catering for governmental officials, faith-based groups and anti-apartheid activists. In democratic South Africa, township tourism has developed into a mainstream tourism activity, and operators now offer township tours, township stays and other tourist activities in townships across rural and urban South Africa. Township tourism has also been one central empirical pillar of the relatively new research area of slum tourism, addressing tourism in slums and areas of relative urban poverty across the globe. Based on recent preliminary empirical research in Johannesburg, this paper shows that slum tourism can now also be observed in areas other than townships in South Africa, including perceived ‘no-go areas’ in inner-city Johannesburg. The expansion of slum tourism beyond townships in Johannesburg points to an increasingly complex picture of urban poverty in South Africa. It also allows reflections on the role of slum tourism in poverty alleviation and urban regeneration, responding to and addressing ‘territorial stigma’ and other related symbolic aspects of poverty. Analysing the motivations and perspectives of tour operators of some of these new tours, the paper finds that the new slum tourism in South Africa is pursued in order to serve as an urban development and regeneration tool from below. It responds to an absence of action or perceived failure to respond to poverty by urban policy, and its potential lies in particular in addressing invisibility, overcoming territorial stigma and empowerment of the urban poor.     

Urban Volunteer Tourism: Orphanages in Johannesburg

Volunteer tourism is one of the most vibrant forms of alternative tourism and a particular focus in Africa. Despite a growing stream of international volunteer tourists, African scholarship is undeveloped. South Africa offers the largest range of different volunteer tourism opportunities in Africa which includes work in community welfare projects such as orphanages. This research opens up debates around urban volunteer tourism in South Africa. The investigation is a case study of international volunteer tourists at orphanages in Johannesburg, South Africa’s largest city. The aim was to understand the volunteer tourism channel to Johannesburg and reflect upon the impacts of this controversial form of volunteer tourism. The findings point to the strongly positive benefits of these volunteers for the orphanages and the children in Johannesburg. Among possible explanations is that ‘place matters’ and that volunteers choosing to work in the orphanages of South Africa’s business capital, a city that has a fearful reputation in respect of crime and safety of visitors, are committed to ‘making a difference’ in their volunteer work.