The South African Adventure Tourism Economy: An urban phenomenon

Abstract

Abstract. The international adventure tourism literature is remarkably silent on the geographical nature of the industry. This study seeks to provide a geographical analysis of the sector within the context of South Africa. The spatial analysis was undertaken by metropolitan area, secondary towns and small towns, using a dataset of adventure tourism enterprises. It was found that the sector is spatially concentrated and highly urbanised, despite the perception that adventure tourism requires 'wild' and outdoor spaces. With many adventure tourism enterprises located in South Africa's metropolitan areas, it is a hither too unknown sub-sector of the South African urban tourism market. Urban settlements with large populations and a strong general tourism sector form a significant support base for adventure tourism operators. Cape Town is the dominant adventure tourism destination, making it the adventure capital of South Africa. A few small settlements were found to be highly dependent upon the sector for survival.

historical perspective on niche tourism: recreational trout fishing in South Africa

“…Importantly, niche tourism products offer a counterweight to mass tourism products which involve large numbers of tourists and occur in staged settings (Novelli, 2018). Distinctions are drawn in the literature between 'macro-niches' which include culture and heritage, business, and sport and adventure, and then further segmented into 'microniches' such as gastronomy, cycling or astro-tourism (Novelli, 2005).. Over the past two decades there has occurred the burgeoning of niche tourism offerings in both urban and rural spaces (McKay, 2014(McKay, , 2017Mitura et al, 2017;Rogerson & Rogerson, 2021a;Novelli et al, 2022;Kosmaczewska, 2024). Further, in the COVID-19 environment the tourism sector experienced shifts in patterns of mobilities and in consumer demands which have boosted interest in niche tourism products and driven by the confidence of travelling in smaller groups and a less riskprone environment (Rogerson & Rogerson, 2021b, 2021c.…”

“…With the rising importance of niche tourism there has occurred a growth of writings on different facets of niche tourism and with contributions to the literature from both the contexts of the Global North and Global South (McKay, 2017;Agarwal et al, 2018;Novelli, 2018;Pforr et al, 2021;Rogerson & Rogerson, 2021a, 2021b, 2021cNovelli et al, 2022;Sousa et al, 2022;Rodrigues & Carvalho, 2023). Although the international literature on niche tourism is relatively recent in origin it must be appreciated that niche tourism is not a new phenomenon.…”