The Department of Historical and Heritage Studies (DHHS) at the University of Pretoria (UP) recently co-hosted a tourism research seminar in collaboration with the National Department of Tourism (NDT) and the Tshwane University of Technology (TUT). The University of Pretoria Campus Tours (UPCT) (University of Pretoria, Heritage and Cultural Tourism honours students) 2025 team also acted as guides, ushers, attendants, coordinators and content creators for the event, further exemplifying a culture experiential learning integral to their degree. 

This year’s theme – Advancing tourism growth, development and sustainability through evidence-based research – highlighted the undeniable positive effects that transdisciplinary and multidisciplinary collaborations can have on the advancement and promotion of South Africa’s tourism sector. This seminar was hosted on UP’s picturesque Future Africa Campus, where presenters and students from UP, the University of KwaZulu-Natal, the University of Venda, the University of Johannesburg, TUT, the North-West University, and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, along with industry partners, came together to share their perspectives on current tourism discourses. UP, represented by Professor Karen Harris and C.R. Botha from the DHHS, also presented a paper at this conference entitled, “Optimizing sustainable community-based tourism (CBT): South African scenarios and solutions”.

Between presentation sessions by the various institutions, several postgraduate students from these universities also had the opportunity to present their research in a poster format to the attendees.  Industry professionals and tourism academics alike were encouraged to engage with the students and provided probing, yet enlightening, insights into the many ways in which academic and industry collaborations could improve tourism research. Given the vast nature of tourism as a discipline, it seemed only fitting to have student exhibitions that ranged from dark tourism to nature tourism, covering themes such as Technology, Community-Based Tourism, and Sustainable Tourism. Heritage and Cultural Tourism (HCT) postgraduate students from the DHHS who presented their work on the day included:

A poster on "Tourism Safety and Crime Intelligence" by Sonali Vishnukumar, HCT Honours student

A poster on "Dark Tourism" by Louisa Jordaan, HCT Master’s student

a poster on "Genealogical Tourism" by Kagiso Seichokelo, HCT Honours student

A poster on "Social Media and Communities" by Lona Mfektho, HCT Honours student

An Innovation Hub Exhibition of ArcGIS StoryMaps by Elmien Viktor and Gugulethu Ndhlovu, HCT Master’s students

Additionally, a student-led Innovation Hub presented more creative projects and outputs from postgraduate students. The Hub underscored the theme of “NextGen tourism innovation: Student-driven collaboration towards sustainable development and transformation”. The space allowed delegates and postgraduate students a chance to engage with tourism technologies such as Story Maps, Virtual Reality Goggles, as well as Multi-media Gaming.

The many novel ideas and research approaches presented by students illustrated a creative energy, fit for addressing both current and future tourism issues and transforming South Africa’s tourism sector.