Researching the contribution of foreign tourists to the economy of the Cape Town Metropole

ArticleThe aim of this paper is to investigate to what extent tourists, whether from overseas or from other African countries, contribute towards the economy while visiting Cape Town and the Western Cape. As many of these tourists have different purposes for visiting, they will spend money on different things. However, in the literature review, the researcher states that the main purpose for travel to the Western Cape is for holidaying and to visit friends and relatives, a result which emerges from the responses of the research population. The researcher discusses various issues relating to who benefits from tourism and what can be done to generate tourism revenue to improve the standard of living of those less-fortunate individuals living in the poorer communities. Here the researcher will also raise issues as to what the government is doing regarding local communities, and if the benefits are filtering through to these communities. In the literature, the researcher discusses certain projects that have been implemented, such as job creation initiatives. However, this paper questions whether these objectives will be realised, and whether the disadvantaged communities will benefit from the local economic development projects. The paper will also examine opportunities for outsourcing and business linkage development in South Africa’s tourism economy