The first round impacts of COVID-19 for rural tourism in South Africa

Although the impacts of COVID-19 have been extensively debated there is only limited writings and research on the geographical implications of the pandemic. The aim is to investigate the immediate or ‘first round’ impacts of COVID-19 on the South African tourism space economy with specific focus directed at its ramifications for small town and rural tourism. The study utilises a local tourism data base which tracks information concerning the tourism performance of all local municipal authorities in the country. The results reveal that during 2020 a noticeable change emerged in the spatial patterns of tourism. The trend for the concentration of tourism development upon the country’s leading cities was halted and seemingly put in reverse by the impacts of COVID-19. Evidence exists of a weakening of the previously dominant position of (in particular) the major metropolitan areas in South Africa’s tourism economy. Instead, there is recorded a relative upturn in the fortunes of tourism in small town and rural areas of South Africa as a whole