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Sustainable Tourism Research in South Africa: In Search of a Place for Work and the Workplace

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Sustainable Human Resource Management in Tourism

Part of the book series: Geographies of Tourism and Global Change ((GTGC))

Abstract

An analysis is undertaken of existing literature on sustainable tourism in South Africa in order to isolate the relative importance of research concerning tourism and work. It is argued that since 2000 sustainable tourism scholarship has clustered around eight knowledge domains. Most sustainable tourism scholarship concentrates around the themes of responsible tourism, pro-poor tourism, local economic development and small enterprise development. Other rising issues are tourism infrastructure, the uneven space economy of tourism and climate change impacts. In common with international trends in South Africa only limited forays have been undertaken so far into tourism work and the workplace which is disclosed as the most weakly established knowledge domain in extant local scholarship.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Theme issues on tourism in Development Southern Africa appeared in 2002, 2007 and 2015.

  2. 2.

    Theme issues on urban tourism in Africa which contain articles addressing sustainability issues in South Africa appeared in 2004 and 2014.

  3. 3.

    Theme issues on tourism in South Africa were published by Tourism Review International both in 2011 and 2017 and by Tourism—An Interdisciplinary Journal in 2016.

  4. 4.

    Of special note are theme issues on tourism in South Africa published by GeoJournal in 2004 and South African Geographical Journal in 2015.

  5. 5.

    No comprehensive review of research on sustainable tourism in South Africa currently exists. Based upon a Google Scholar search it is estimated that since 2000 at least 300–400 relevant articles have been published which address different dimensions of sustainable tourism in South Africa. The scope of this chapter and space limitations allow here only a selective presentation of this literature to illustrate the nature of various themes which are represented in extant scholarship. The preparation of a comprehensive overview on sustainable tourism research on South Africa is merited.

  6. 6.

    In several analyses, human resource development for the tourism industry is also viewed as a component of tourism infrastructure. In this discussion, the theme of human resource development in tourism is treated as part of the emerging knowledge domain of tourism and work.

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Acknowledgements

An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Workshop on Sustainable Tourism in Africa held at the University of Johannesburg in September 2017. Thanks to inputs received from workshop participants and to Arabella Rogerson for preparing Fig. 4.1. Usual disclaimers apply.

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  1. School of Tourism & Hospitality, College of Business & Economics, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa

    Christian M. Rogerson

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  1. Department of Human Resource Management, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK

    Tom Baum

  2. Department of Human Resource Management, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK

    Ann Ndiuini

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Rogerson, C.M. (2020). Sustainable Tourism Research in South Africa: In Search of a Place for Work and the Workplace. In: Baum, T., Ndiuini, A. (eds) Sustainable Human Resource Management in Tourism. Geographies of Tourism and Global Change. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41735-2_4

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