COVID-19 has brought to the fore drastic and transformative changes to MICE tourism. The current study therefore sought to examine the adaptive responses employed by the MICE sector of South Africa to survive and maintain business continuity during the COVID-19 pandemic. Adopting a qualitative research design, 19 representatives of various subsectors of the MICE industry (including organisers, suppliers, and associations) were interviewed. The data reveals that the immediate strategies implemented by many MICE organisations involved the reevaluation of their operational costs. Moreover, the study found that the sector has readjusted its business models to include virtual events in order to ensure recovery and resilience in light of the pandemic. The study argues the importance of understanding adaptive strategies as broadening theory on tourism and crises (specifically to the MICE sector) as well as understanding the process of sector resilience post-COVID-19.

The overall purpose of the current study was to investigate the socio-economic contributions made by wildlife tourism in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park to a community living adjacent to the Park. Following a mixed methods approach, the study used Tsabong, a community in Botswana, as the case study area. Interviews were conducted with key tourism stakeholders and semi-structured questionnaires were distributed to the residents involved. The study found that (i) wildlife tourism has contributed to employment creation and economic development in Tsabong, (ii) wildlife tourism has increased the community’s sense of pride in their culture and preservation of local culture because of wildlife tourism, however, also revealed that (iii) local community participation in wildlife tourism and conservation projects of the KTP is generally low and (iv) positive economic benefits of wildlife tourism are not seen by the entire community. The main recommendations of the study centre on facilitating community participation in the collaborative management of the Park.

The purpose of the study is to explore the changing nature of MICE tourism in South Africa due to COVID-19. Based on a series of interviews conducted with representatives of the MICE industry in various sectors, including incentive, conference, and meeting, venues, and associations, the study found that while the shift to virtual events was adopted by many, there are substantial costs involved and significant learning required for their successful execution. Further, the study found venues to be among the most affected owing to the restrictions placed on visitor numbers and the need to adapt to the virtual environment. Moreover, virtual events were perceived as temporary plasters, with live to return once restrictions on the industry are lifted. The study concludes that virtual and hybrid events are valuable in the continuity of MICE tourism during the COVID-19 pandemic. The present research is one of the very few studies examining the impact of COVID-19 on MICE events and reveals the subsequent changes, in theory and practice, to MICE tourism.

This study examines the effect of policies and institutional structures on the ability of communities to participate in wildlife tourism in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park. The research utilized a qualitative approach with two case study sites being Askam (South Africa) and Tsabong (Botswana). The study incorporated 17 semistructured interviews with tourism stakeholders and 2 focus group discussions with members of the 2 communities, all of whom were purposely selected. It was found that although governing policies from the two countries were generally supportive, the specific park policies were seen to limit the contribution of wildlife tourism to communities' livelihood. Additionally, the institutional arrangements present in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park formed some barriers to community participation. Overall, the research provides insight on host community participation in wildlife tourism in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park using a cross-border perspective.

In emerging tourism scholarship around COVID-19 one of the major clusters of research surrounds issues of adaptation. Tourism businesses are compelled to adapt to shifts in consumer demand as well as government regulatory changes. The objective in this paper is to investigate the responses and adaptations to the impacts of COVID-19 of tourism businesses in South Africa’s most tourism-dependent locality. The research reports on 20 qualitative interviews undertaken with a cross-section of tourism enterprises in Bela-Bela Local Municipality, Limpopo province, which is overwhelmingly oriented towards the market of domestic tourism. Major results are local businesses are financially negatively impacted by the subdued nature of domestic leisure travel together with the near total collapse of business travel as well as the imperative to conform to new COVID-19 safety and health protocols. Adaptive responses have included downsizing of businesses, including worker retrenchments, price-cutting, limited initiatives towards product diversification, energetic social media marketing and repurposing of properties. Key challenges for Bela-Bela tourism enterprises relate to immediate financial issues and most especially in the context that minimal support has been provided by national government to assist their business survival. Future business prospects are not viewed favourably such that business closures and a hollowing out of the tourism enterprise base accompanying job losses in tourism appear inevitable.