‘Transformation’ and Tourism Small Firm Development in South Africa: Evidence from Eastern Cape Province

Abstract

Since democratic change South Africa has pursued a series of programmes which are targeted at empowering groups and individuals who had been disadvantaged under apartheid. In the tourism sector government initiatives for ‘transformation’ include a commitment to promote new entrepreneurship opportunities for Black-owned small medium or micro-enterprises. This article examines the challenges facing transformation through a study of the constraints operating on Black-owned tourism enterprises in South Africa’s Eastern Cape province. The research is situated within the international literature on small firms in tourism and specifically the challenges of small tourism business development in the Global South. The analysis draws from a survey of 79 Black-owned accommodation establishments as well as semi-structured interviews with tourism entrepreneurs. The results reveal a range of constraints. In this resource-constrained environment several challenges around transformation relate to finance, human resources and knowledge which have been identified as limiting tourism small firm development both in the Global North and South. Other constraints speak to the specificities of the South African experience. Tourism entrepreneurs must confront certain historical legacies of the apartheid past as well as corruption practices which are widespread in the local tourism economy and must be acknowledged as obstacles for the advancement of transformation.