African Journal of Hospitality, Tourism and Leisure (Mar 2020)
The prospects of tourism and hospitality industries as drivers of Local Economic Development (LED): The case of Port St Johns (PSJ), Eastern Cape, South Africa
Abstract
Globally, the tourism and hospitality sectors contribute meaningfully to both developing and developed economies. These sectors have been identified as drivers of local economies due to the potential number of jobs they can create. However, Port St Johns (PSJ) remains one of the poorest tourism regions despite the number of tourists that come to the area and the revenue generated through these sectors. Consequently, the paper explores the prospects of tourism and hospitality contribution to local economic development in the context of PSJ. A simple random sampling technique, characterised by face-to-face surveys on the residents in PSJ was utilised to collect data. The findings indicate that the majority (75%) of respondents are aware of tourism development activities that take place in PSJ and the potential to contribute to Local Economic Development (LED). The findings of this paper recommend that PSJ tourism stakeholders (public sector, private sector and local communities) should partner to ensure that tourism development initiatives that take place in the area are optimised. These findings have implications for the stakeholders such as local business, tourism planners, community and the municipality that are responsible to manage the local industry. Furthermore, stakeholders must be part of the development process from the outset. Hence it is recommended that the findings of this paper be utilised as a basis of developing an opposite strategy for tourism and hospitality industries to drive LED.
