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Tourism SMME Development on the Urban Fringe:The Case of Parys, South Africa
Source:Springer Link writer:Irma Booyens and Gustav Visser
Abstract :Tourism is increasingly regarded as a viable avenue for local economic development. Small towns on the urban fringe have benefitted from tourism development in South Africa, the town of Parys being one of them. Parys has experienced tourism development over the past few years which has resulted in local economic growth, as especially reflected in the trade industry, amidst the decline of sectors such as manufacturing and mining. The study focusses on the factors that gave rise to the development of tourism in this town, as well as on opportunities and barriers to further development. A profile of tourism, small, medium and micro enterprises, is provided along with other main findings regarding the nature of the tourism industry in the area which includes the unique selling points of the ar
ea, visitor characteristics, demand and target market segments. Strategic development initiatives, in the
light of the findings, recommend for the future development of the tourism industry in the area to include tourism product development focussed on attractions; the identification of key market segments such as budget tourists and the family market; destination and product marketing; investment in tourism infrastructure and ensuring the responsible management of tourism development in the area.
Keywords ParysFree StateSMMESouth AfricaTourismUrban fringe
Introduction
Globally, rural and small town places are experiencing rapid change on a number of fronts Halseth and Meiklejohn 2009: 293. These changes are associated with there structuring of the primary economic functions of these settlements associated with the shift from productivist to post-productivist countrysides Argent 2002; Wilson and Rigg 2003. Similar changes have occurred in South Africa Hoogendoorn et al. 2009, with rural settlements undergoing tremendous socio-spatial, political and economic change, as a result of the demise of apartheid era protectionism leading to the opening up of
the rural and manufacturing economy to international influences and competition Donaldson 2007: 307. While South Africa’s metropolitan areas are increasingly positioning themselves to become globally competitive Rogerson and Kaplan 2007, there are many small towns competing for survival while others have managed to transform themselves Donaldson 2007: 307; Zietsman et al.2006.
A national government policy response to nurture greater economic prosperity and competitiveness in the context of global and local restructuring has seen considerable interest in small, medium and micro enterprise SMME development. Rogerson 2010 highlights that since the shift to democratic governance the promotion of SMMEs has been a particularly strong focus for national government. In a bid to make South Africa ‘an entrepreneurial nation’ the national government has developed a vast arsenal of policy documents, strategies and support programmes including a range of different industry sectors. Among those sectoral foci, interventions aimed at tourism SMME development has ranked high Rogerson, 2008a, b, 2009a, bThe investigation draws on 25 semi-structured interviews with tourism SMMEs in Parys, representing a sample of the 140 establishments in the town, along with ten in-depth interviews with informants representing local government, estate agents, the local development forum and property developers see Table 1. Drawing on this data, it is argued that Free State towns located along the urban fringe of Gauteng? South Africa’s economic heartland?should be included in current debates
concerning tourism in small-town South Africa. Given this contention, the main focus of this investigation is to survey one of the rare tourism development success stories in a small town in the northern Free State?Parys. It is shown that Parys has experienced elevated levels of
tourism development over the past few years which have resulted in local economic growth, as especially reflected in the trade industry, amidst the decline of sectors such as manufacturing and mining. The study focused on the factors that gave rise to the development of tourism and tourism SMMEs in
this town, SMME characteristics, as well as on opportunities and barriers to further development of the tourism sector in general and tourism SMMEs in particular Opportunities for Future Development The respondents also highlighted a number of future opportunities for tourism development. In their view, opportunities exist for the expansion of eco-tourism, as well as adventure and leisure tourism in the locality. Adventure tourism activities are allowed in the conservation area of the Dome, provided that natural resources are exploited in a responsible manner. Cultural, heritage, archaeological and geological resources also exist in the area and have been under-developed as tourism attractions. Various opportunities for educational tours exist in the Vredefort Dome area. Further opportunities exist for the development of the following product offerings: cultural-heritage attractions and events, festivals
and events, attractions providing visitors with something to do, such as activity-based attractions specifically targeting families and budget tourism, for instance, backpacker hostels or budget accommodation and self-drive holidays. Opportunities also exist with regard to improved
partnerships and collaboration towards tourism development in the area. However, as highlighted earlier, many of these niches and potential opportunities are contingent upon local and provincial tiers of government fulfilling their service and management mandates.
Recommendations
南非旅游Recommendations regarding strategic thrusts for the future development of tourism in the area follow. These strategic development thrusts are based on the research findings and constitute priority action areas aimed at the growth of the tourism industry in the locality.
Developing Tourism Attractions
Tourism is driven by attractions since attractions are considered as demand generators Kotzé et al. 2005. The research has indicated that there is a lack of ‘things to do’ in the area. It is recommended that tourism attractions and facilities need to be developed to draw more visitors to the area and conse
quently diversify the tourism product offering in the area. It is recommended that tourism attractions be developed around culture and heritage, as well as nature and leisure. A few specific examples in this regard follow:
& Activity-based attractions aimed at the family market, providing visitors with more things to do, need to be developed.
& Most survey respondents indicated that the tourism industry in Parys will benefit from the hosting of events or festivals.
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