Low Density Tourism in the Global South

Abstract

Tourism has grown since the first democratic elections in 1994 in South Africa, which led to the election of Nelson Mandela as President. The high levels of concentration of tourism in major urban centres has limited the developmental potential of tourism. The first type of second home tourism is located in high amenity areas and is dominated by the upper- and middle-class South Africans. The high amenity nature of these localities has led to the emergence of a strong leisure and business component alongside second home tourism. The second home tourism market in South Africa is dominated by working-class South Africans who work in urban centres and have homes in former apartheid-created homelands, where family and extended family reside on ancestral land. These working-class travellers dominate domestic tourism trips and the visiting friends and relatives market in South Africa.