African Journal of Hospitality, Tourism and Leisure (Feb 2019)
Township tourism as an agent for the socio-economic well-being of residents.
Abstract
The development of township tourism has created contradicting views amongst researchers with two different schools of thought emerging (Kieti & Magio, 2013:38; Rogerson, 2015:320; Booyens, 2010:377). One school holds that township tourism exploits the poor and uses their living conditions as a tourist attraction, while the other suggests it is a tool to improve the local economy by combating poverty and encouraging understanding of how other people live (Kieti & Magio, 2013:38; Rogerson, 2015:320; Booyens, 2010:377). In Namibia, the residents are often the objects of tourism development rather than the ones that spearhead the process of tourism development (Saarinen, 2010:722). While the tourists’ motives to visit townships is for the social interaction with the residents in search of authentic experiences (Diekmann & Hannam, 2012:1331), authenticity is often compromised in township tours, where tourists are taken on artificial tours in the townships with little interaction with the residents (Booyens, 2010:277). Mutual respect and understanding between the residents and the tourists will reduce the situation, where residents feel they are the objects of the tourists’ gazes (Frisch, 2012:336). Academic literature has shown that there is a relationship between the residents’ perceived benefits derived from township tourism and their attitudes towards tourism development, where residents will support township tourism if they benefit from it (Kieti & Magio, 2013:39). According to Rogerson (2015:321), most of the academic research on tourism in Africa is focused on rural tourism development and there is a need for further investigation on the subject of township tourism. This paper presents a review of literature on township tourism and sustainable tourism, filling a small gap in the field of township tourism.
