The main purpose to visit the attraction is to learn about our ancestors. Maropeng means “returning to the place of origin” in Setswana, the main indigenous language in this area of South Africa. Our ancestors have lived in this area for more than 3-million years. Visiting the attraction means visiting the birthplace of humanity. The Cradle’s objective is to make learning fun for children and adults. Positive elements from Maropeng related to staff members who were found to be courteous, helpful and friendly; a lot of information that is provided on displays throughout the attraction although it might be overwhelming so an audio guide might be a good idea to enhance the learning experience. The attraction is very entertaining for children, with interactive displays evident. Some areas that need interventions are that there is no designated picnic area, the curio shop offers a lot of variety, but is quite expensive, especially for the South African market. More negative than positive aspects were identified at Sterkfontein Caves such as limited parking, security guards are not visible, the architecture of the building is not indicative of the area or theme of the attraction, and does not fit into the environment, limited signage throughout the site, and not sufficient benches / resting areas. Show less

The main purpose to visit the attraction is to learn about our ancestors. Maropeng means “returning to the place of origin” in Setswana, the main indigenous language in this area of South Africa. Our ancestors have lived in this area for more than 3-million years. Visiting the attraction means visiting the birthplace of Show more

Destination development is often focussed on major tourist attractions for good reason, as these are generally the drawcards for tourist visits and expenditure. Resources are directed towards the development of these major attractions due to their popularity and revenue potential. Major attractions also form part of tourist itineraries as “must experience” activities, with tourists being highly motivated to go to these attractions. Tourists are drawn to major attractions based on their knowledge or awareness of the attraction and their desire to experience what the attraction offers, either intrinsically or extrinsically. These reasons are investigated in this research, the results of which will partly inform the recommendations relating to strategies for potential interventions. Interventions may also be required on the basis of what is currently being offered in the selected attractions and the extent to which the tourist offerings or products are offering memorable tourist experiences. Show less

Destination development is often focussed on major tourist attractions for good reason, as these are generally the drawcards for tourist visits and expenditure. Resources are directed towards the development of these major attractions due to their popularity and revenue potential. Major attractions also form part of tourist Show more

The concept ‘cultural industries’ refers to a wide variety of cultural activities that are often commercialised. In recent years, an increasing number of exceedingly beneficial linkages have been developing between the cultural industries and the tourism industry. Film tourism is one of the most successful examples of these linkages, and in the context of this study, the film industry as a significant sector within the creative industries will be focused on. Film tourism has in the past few decades become a burgeoning sector in the tourism industry. In fact, it is estimated that the film industry contributes £6 billion a year to the United Kingdom’s (UK) economy when one factors in spin-off benefits such as tourism. South Africa has recently become a popular filming destination as well and could possibly also capitalise on the popularity and growth of film tourism. In fact, the film industry is already showing significant potential in South Africa. The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) estimates that the film industry generates over R5.5 billion in economic activity annually and employs an estimated 30 000 people. The film industry is internationally considered to be a significant creator of employment opportunities and the sector is a prized generator of foreign exchange. Film then clearly emerges as one of the frontrunners within the creative industries, due not only to its massive growth in recent years, but also its abundant economic opportunities. Figure 1 clearly demonstrates this point: the creative industries contribute a total of £84.1 billion to the United Kingdom’s economy annually, and film and television (TV) is the third largest creative industry in the UK, only superseded by IT, software and games and advertising. Show less

The concept ‘cultural industries’ refers to a wide variety of cultural activities that are often commercialised. In recent years, an increasing number of exceedingly beneficial linkages have been developing between the cultural industries and the tourism industry. Film tourism is one of the most successful examples of these Show more

The primary tourist attraction at Augrabies National Park is the Falls and the results show that this is indeed what first comes to mind when tourists think about Augrabies with the beautiful surroundings featuring as the most important motivation to visit, followed by a desire to learn new things. Positive elements from the site observation were the excellent service attitude of staff; good layout of the Park, recycling bins, proper signage and maps and the universally accessibility of the walkways. Less positive observations related to the limited stock in the shop with no unique items or sufficiently available locally produced curios. Show less

The primary tourist attraction at Augrabies National Park is the Falls and the results show that this is indeed what first comes to mind when tourists think about Augrabies with the beautiful surroundings featuring as the most important motivation to visit, followed by a desire to learn new things. Positive elements from the Show more

Accommodation is one of the largest components of the tourism sector (Deng, Yeh, and Sung 2013). The increasing competition in the accommodation sector has meant that establishments have started focusing a lot on improving customer satisfaction with a view to retain existing and attract new customers. Consequently, a number of studies have been carried out to assess customer satisfaction and its determinants in several sectors, including accommodation. Several of such research investigates the relationship between various service quality dimensions and overall customer satisfaction. For example, The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), established in 1994 and inspired by the Swedish Customer Satisfaction Barometer (SCSB) (Fornell et al., 1996), contains sets of causal relationship between the antecedents (e.g. customer expectations, perceived service quality and perceived value) and the consequences (e.g. customer complaints and customer loyalty) of customer satisfaction. Such studies are based on the premise that service quality influences customer satisfaction which in turn influences customer behavioural intention (i.e. their intention to return to the same accommodation again or complaints behaviour) (Kang, Okamoto, and Donovan, 2004). The latter empirically reported that increased customer satisfaction in the accommodation sector led to positive behavioural intention, prevented customer defection, and lowered marking costs of the organisations. There is also considerable evidence to suggest that service quality and perceive value with a product or service are associated with customer satisfaction (Brady, Robertson, and Cronin, 2001). Show less

Accommodation is one of the largest components of the tourism sector (Deng, Yeh, and Sung 2013). The increasing competition in the accommodation sector has meant that establishments have started focusing a lot on improving customer satisfaction with a view to retain existing and attract new customers. Consequently, a number of Show more

The main objective of this study was to determine how event tourism can be used to promote local economic development in South Africa by drawing lessons from case studies on events taking place in the Limpopo Province. Tourism sector development is regarded as a key ingredient for local economic development (LED) by both the National Development Plan (NDP) and the National Tourism Sector Strategy (NTSS). The hosting of events, commonly known as event tourism, is an important tourism sub-sector that can be used as a tool for promoting LED. Event tourism is concerned with the roles that festivals and special events can play in destination development and the maximisation of an event’s attractiveness to tourists. Destinations hosting events of cultural significance such as religious gatherings have the potential to adopt event tourism as a development strategy. As events grow in scope and scale they tend to attract more attention in terms of tourism, the media, infrastructure development and economic investment which in turn contribute to employment and income generation at national, provincial and municipal levels. Over the past three years, the University of Venda (Univen) research team has studied two types of events: a sporting event and two religious events. Based on the experience of studying these events, the National Department of Tourism (NDT) tasked the Univen team to identify key success factors in hosting of events, and make recommendations on how events can be used as a broader strategy for municipalities to develop local economies. The study was designed to capture Public-Private Partnership (PPP) in event organisation and management, within the framework of sustainable local economic development proposed by Forum for the Future (1998). In line with this study design, a compilation of nearly all private and public events taking place in the five districts of the Limpopo Province was undertaken to develop a database. Data used for the analysis in this study therefore included data on the events (religious and sporting) that have already been researched by the Univen team, as well as data collected on selected private and public events from the developed database which included; the annual Kremetart Cycling race in Louis Trichardt (private), the annual Makhado Local Municipality Agricultural show (public), the annual Waterberg District Municipality tourism summit, career expos and tourism road show (public),and the annual Tzaneen Local Municipality Agricultural Expo (public). Interviews were held with organisers of these events as well as with local municipal officers, who are responsible in providing support structures or take advantage of the private events so that the local jurisdiction could benefit. The study further requested and downloaded Integrated Development Plans (IDPs) of the municipalities in the province. The idea was to scan all these to check if they have tourism (and or events) as a strategy The findings of the study begins with a summary of the local economic development lessons identified in the three previous studies that were done by Univen. We then follow this up by presenting a combination of results from different interviews held with event organisers and/or municipal officials responsible for events. Five propositions emanating from the findings were developed and together were used by the authors to devise and propose a strategy for using events for local economic development. The major lessons drawn for other municipalities are presented in a 10-step lesson checklist as follows: (1) there are advantages of planning very well for events; (2) events should be advertised and promoted; (3) events should be evaluated to provide information on how to improve participants’ experiences; (4) a deliberate transformation process to aid Local Economic Development should be made; (5) events, in addition to natural landmarks, must be recognized as a tourist attraction source; (6) price discrimination should be practiced based on the type of participants; (7) events may be combined to create differentiation, greater value and enhance participation; (8) events may be designed to provide both education and entertainment; (9) the stakeholder participation is important; and (10) events could be institutionalised. Show less

The main objective of this study was to determine how event tourism can be used to promote local economic development in South Africa by drawing lessons from case studies on events taking place in the Limpopo Province. Tourism sector development is regarded as a key ingredient for local economic development (LED) by both the Show more

Tourism is a Morden-day engine for growth and is one of the largest industries globally. Being a labour intensive industry with a supply chain that links across many sectors, tourism is a priority sector in the government’s planning and policy frameworks. However, the involvement of community members in a project is often dependent upon the associated project benefits that can provide for the community, such as physical development of the area, the inclusion of community requests in project planning and development and the economic returns from the project for community members. To understand the impact of community based tourism projects in KwaZulu Natal, the research used a multi-pronged approach by applying naturalistic enquiry principles. Two case studies were selected for this study namely, Ugu District Municipality and Ethekwini Municipality. The former was chosen because of its potential to provide best practices whilst the later provided a broader perspective due to the number of tourists received by the City annually. Focus group discussions, in- depth interviews and researcher administered questionnaires formed the core data collection approaches. In total 154 people participated in the study of which 135 were community members, 3 representatives from Municipalities and 16 CBT representatives. The results of the study show that CBT projects have a potential to uplift the community’s livelihoods. Although a number of community benefits were realised, the viability of CBTs is affected by other variables. Despite increasing the community’s standard of living and creating employment opportunities, collective benefits are usually not enough to cater for all the needs of the community members. Furthermore, the study also revealed that there are some conflicts arising from managing these projects. Most community members have no training to manage profitable tourism enterprises. Therefore, meaningful participation should enable stakeholders, among them the local communities who are often the intended beneficiaries to influence and share control over development initiatives, decisions and resources which affect them. CBT projects however cannot be a panacea to unemployment and poverty in the surrounding local communities but should be used as an alternative livelihood option to complement other sectors. The study notes the challenges of CBTs and recommendations are made on the future direction of CBTs. Show less

Tourism is a Morden-day engine for growth and is one of the largest industries globally. Being a labour intensive industry with a supply chain that links across many sectors, tourism is a priority sector in the government’s planning and policy frameworks. However, the involvement of community members in a project is often Show more

Tourism is one of the fastest-growing industries in the world today. Modern tourism is closely linked to development and is often a main income source for developing countries. In fact, the business volume of tourism often equals or exceeds that of oil exports, food products or automobiles. This growth goes hand in hand with an increasing diversification and competition amongst destinations. The tourism industry is also associated with the phenomenon of globalization. This is particularly relevant within the context of cross-border tourism. Moreover, international tourists who are long-haul travellers visit a country or a region to see as many sites and areas as possible. A well-developed cross-border tourism The program will therefore increase a region’s competitiveness in the international domain. The creation of tourism routes across international borders has been established in regions such as Europe and the Baltic states. The former has begun the management of the training of tourist guides in order for them to obtain regional capacity – meaning they are allowed to accompany tour groups to sites in multiple countries. Show less

Tourism is one of the fastest-growing industries in the world today. Modern tourism is closely linked to development and is often a main income source for developing countries. In fact, the business volume of tourism often equals or exceeds that of oil exports, food products or automobiles. This growth goes hand in hand with Show more

Service quality is an essential component contributing to the success and/or failure of tourism destinations. The study of tourism attractions in the context of service delivery and customer satisfaction is a useful exercise that can help the industry and the government to appreciate the country’s competitive position. The National Tourism Sector Strategy (NTSS, 2011) emphasises this concern by focusing on issues related to delivering a world-class visitor experience and positioning South Africa as a globally recognised tourism destination brand. Research has already documented the existence of inconsistencies of service levels in the South African destination offerings (i.e. poor culture of service, lack of service ethos and skills, inconsistent customer service delivery, and poor leadership). Production and consumption of a service are often inseparable (the quality of the production and consumption of each service depends on the type of interaction created between an employee and customer with the customer having an active part driving inputs that can uniquely modify the final service outcomes). Each of these factors affects both the interaction and final quality perceived to have been experienced of a service/product delivered by employees, for the customer. Managing both the employee and customer intangible contributions to what represents an acceptable service process, are then pivotal to what constitutes a successful outcome in service interactions. This research study concentrates on evaluating five tourism attractions in South Africa assessing customer satisfaction with the services, facilities and ‘experiences offered’ by tourism attractions and the perceptions of managers and employees at these attractions of what service quality they are delivering. Show less

Service quality is an essential component contributing to the success and/or failure of tourism destinations. The study of tourism attractions in the context of service delivery and customer satisfaction is a useful exercise that can help the industry and the government to appreciate the country’s competitive position. The Show more

The overall aim of the study was to develop a model to assess provincial competitiveness and apply the model to selected provinces in South Africa. The study was conducted from an emerging domestic market viewpoint, based on selected sub-segments. The study is based on the premise that factors and indicators that are relevant to different regions must be identified, both those that are relevant for any destination, as well as those that are specific to particular destinations. Factors and indicators were identified and validated empirically though focus groups and a sample of emerging tourists in all provinces in the country. Factor analysis was used to create the dimensionality of factors under which the indicators could be grouped, the outcome of which was the so-called Tourism and Travel Market Indicators Index. Show less

The overall aim of the study was to develop a model to assess provincial competitiveness and apply the model to selected provinces in South Africa. The study was conducted from an emerging domestic market viewpoint, based on selected sub-segments. The study is based on the premise that factors and indicators that are Show more