The Safety of Township Tourists in Cape Town, South Africa: A Customer Orientation Approach
Abstract
Townships have turned out to be places of leisure consumption. However, personal safety has been a major concern in South Africa. It is the aim of this paper, using a customer orientation approach, to explore township tourists’ perceptions in terms of their safety while visiting Cape Town (Gugulethu, Khayelitsha and Nyanga townships) in South Africa. This research used a quantitative method (questionnaire survey) to collected data from 171 respondents (tourists) in Cape Town Townships. Data were analysed using inferential statistics (correlation test and regression analysis), and Cronbach Alpha’s coefficients were used to test reliability of the multivariate data. This research found that in general, tourists are mostly satisfied and hold positive perception of Cape Town townships, although the study unearthed certain safety issues. Tourists’ knowledge of their contribution to the economic development of the study areas encourage them to revisit. This study recommends to Cape Town Tourism to inform tourists about safety issues in townships prior to visiting Cape Town townships. This will enable tourists to be more vigilant. It is also suggested by this study that tourists use tour guides who are familiar with these townships, during their visit.
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Booyens, I. (2010). Rethinking township tourism: towards responsible tourism development in South African townships. Development Southern Africa, 27(2):273-287.
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Chew, E.Y.T. and Jahari, S. A. (2014). Destination image as a mediator between perceived risks and revisit intention: a case of post-disaster Japan. Tourism Management, 40:382-393.
Chili, N.S. (2018). The impact of safety and security on the behaviour of consumers and tourism demand in South African townships. African Journal of Hospitality, Tourism and Leisure, 7(4):1-14.
Creswell, J.W. (2016). A concise introduction to mixed methods research. California: Sage.
Dusek, G.A, Ruppel, C.P, Yurova, Y and Clarke, R. (2014). The role of employee service orientation in turnover in the U.S. hotel industry. Journal of Organizational Culture, Communication and Conflict, 18(2):87-104.
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Ford, R.C., Sturman, M.C and Heaton, C.P. (2012). Managing quality service in hospitality: how organisations achieve excellence in the guest experience. New York: Delmar Cengage Learning.
George, D., and Mallery, P. (2003). SPSS for Windows step by step: A simple guide and reference. 11.0 update. 4th Ed. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
George, R., and Booyens, I. (2014). Township tourism demand: tourists’ perceptions of safety and security. Urban Forum, 25:449-467.
Kapuscinski, G., and Richards, B. (2016). News framing effects on destination risk perception. Tourism Management, 57:234-244.
Kiliçlar, A., Uşakli, A., and Tayfun, A. (2017). Terrorism prevention in tourism destinations: security forces vs. civil authority perspectives. Journal of Destination Marketing & Management, 8:232-246.
Li, X, Sanders, K. and Frenkel, S. (2012). How leader-member exchange, work engagement and
HRM consistency explain Chinese luxury hotel employee’s job performance. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 31:1059-1066.
Lisowska, A. (2017). Crime in tourism destinations: research review. Tourism, 31-39.
Liu, B., Schroeder, A., Pennington-Gray, L., and Farajat, A.D. (2016). Source market perceptions: how risky is Jordan to travel to? Journal of Destination Marketing & Management, 5:294-304.
Map of Cape Town, including the regions of the six clubs, Nyanga, Khayelitsha, Mitchell Plains and Gugulethu. (2009). http://www.worldfootynews.com/article.php/20090905171220333 [27 September 2019].
Mehmood, S., Ahmad, Z., and Khan, A. A. (2016). Dynamic relationships between tourist arrivals, immigrants, and crimes in the United States. Tourism Management, 54:383-392.
Moswete, N., Saarinen, J. and Monare, M.J. (2015). Perspectives on Cultural Tourism: a case study of Bahurutshe Cultural Village for tourism in Botswana. Nordic Journal of African Studies, 24(3&4):279-300.
Oki, E. U. (2014). The impact of employee retention a customer satisfaction in the Nigerian service organisations: a study of some selected hotels in JOS, Plateau State. International Journal of managerial studies and research, 2(9):140-154.
Prayag, G., Hosany, S., Muskat, B. and Chiappa, G.D. 2015. Understanding the Relationships between Tourists’ Emotional Experiences, Perceived Overall Image, Satisfaction and Intention to Recommend. Journal of Travel Research, 56(1):1-48.
Quinlan, C. (2011). Business research methods. Hampshire: South Western Cengage Learning.
Ragavan, N. A., Subramonian, H. and Sharif, S.P. (2014). Tourists’ perceptions of destination travel attributes: an application to International tourists to Kuala Lumpur, 5th Asia Euro Conference. Procedia-Social and Behavioural Sciences, 144:403-411.
Ramseook-Munhurruna, P., Seebalucka, V.N. and Naidoo, P. (2015). Examining the structural relationships of destination image, perceived value, tourist satisfaction and loyalty: case of Mauritius. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 175:252 – 259.
Rogerson, C. and Mthombeni, T. (2015). From slum tourism to slum tourists: township resident mobilities in South Africa. Nordic Journal of African Studies, 24(3&4):319-338.
Rogerson, C.M. (2004). Urban tourism & small tourism enterprise development in Johannesburg: the case of township tourism. Geo Journal, 60:249-257.
Rueedi, F. (2015). ‘Siyayinyova!’: patterns of violence in the African Townships of the Vaal Triangle, South Africa, 1980-86. Africa, 83(2):395-416.
Saarinen, J. and Rogerson, C.M. (2015). Setting cultural tourism in Southern Africa. Nordic Journal of African Studies, 24(3&4):207- 220.
Schroeder, A., Pennington-Gray, L., Kaplanidou, K. and Zhan, F. (2013). Destination risk perceptions among U.S. residents for London as the host city of the 2012 Summer Olympic Games. Tourism Management, 38:107-119.
Seedat, M., Van Niekerk, A., Jewkers, R., Suffla, S. and Ratele, K. (2009). Violence and injuries in South Africa: prioritizing an agenda for prevention. September 19. Health in South Africa 5, 374:1011-1022.
Sharpley, R. (2014). Host perceptions of tourism: progress in tourism management. Tourism Management, 42:37- 49.
Shavanddasht, M. and Allan, M. (2018). First-time versus repeat tourists: level of satisfaction, emotional involvement, and loyalty at hot spring. An International Journal of Tourism and Hospitality Research, 1-14.
South African History Online. (2011). June 16 Soweto Youth Uprising timeline 1976-1986. 20 March. https://www.sahistory.org.za/topic/june-16-soweto-youth-uprising-timeline-1976-1986 [16 June 2019].
StataCorp. (2017). Stata Statistical Software: Release 15. College Station, TX: StataCorp LLC.
Statistics South Africa. (2013/14). Victims of Crime Survey. www.statsa.gov.za [22 January 2018].
Veal, A. J. (2011). Research methods for leisure and tourism: a practical guide. 4th ed. Essex: Pearson.
WESGRO (2016). Project Khulisa Mid-term report back wesgro presentation. https://www.westerncape.gov.za/assets/departments/economic-development-tourism/project_khulisa_mid-term_report_back_wesgro_presentation.pdf [Accessed the 3rd of March 2018, 16:45]
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Yee, R. W.Y., Yeung, A. C.L. and Cheng, T.C.E. (2011). The service-profit chain: an empirical analysis in high-contact service industries. International Journal of Production Economics, 130:236-245.
Yoshida, K., Bui, H. T and Lee, T. J. (2016). Does tourism illuminate the darkness of Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Journal of Destination Marketing & Management, 5:333-340.
Zhang, H., Fu, X., Cai, L. A. and Lu, L. (2014). Destination image and tourist loyalty: A meta-analysis. Tourism Management, 40: 213-223.
Published
2021-05-07
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Ezeuduji, I., & Mbane, T. (2021). The Safety of Township Tourists in Cape Town, South Africa: A Customer Orientation Approach: Array. EuroEconomica, 40(1). Retrieved from https://dj.univ-danubius.ro/index.php/EE/article/view/987
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