Stakeholder perspectives concerning the progress of South Africa’s urban ecotourism destination

Abstract

South Africa is a leading destination for ecotourism. The establishment of ecotourism projects in South Africa - as is the case with most of the world - has been associated with geographically remote rural spaces located in the peripheral regions of the tourism space economy. This paper directs attention to the progress of an urban ecotourism destination in South Africa, namely Dinokeng in the Tshwane metropolitan area which is centred around the city of Pretoria. Dinokeng is distinguished by the fact that it hosts a Big Five game reserve in a metropolitan area. The research is based on stakeholder interviews conducted with 27 accommodation providers. The present study is original for its subject focus on urban ecotourism and by offering stakeholder perspectives on the emergence, progress and challenges of this ecotourism destination as a vital dimension of tourism change occurring in the Global South.

Educational aspects in mountain tourism – An old or a new paradigm?

“…To emphasize the significance of the three components and the certain involvement of mountain tourism in each of them, we consider important the intuitive/graphical presentation (Figure 3) made by prestigious specialists in the field of pedagogy (Jinga et al, 2006). Tourists are attracted to the mountains for countless reasons, from the climate and clean air, to the beauty of the landscapes, the diversity of landforms and geological phenomena, local traditions and the simplicity of life or even the specific opportunities to practice different sports (Burton and Rogerson, 2023), which has led governments in many countries to be more and more interested in the development of tourism as a tool for the preservation of culture, biodiversity and sustainable development (Herman and Blaga, 2022), but also generating big question marks:…”