Tourism has been identified as a priority industry for job creation in South Africa, with President Cyril Ramaphosa emphasising its increasing importance to the South African economy. Prof Berendien Lubbe and Dr Anneli Douglas of the Tourism Management Division within the Department of Marketing Management are currently involved in a research project on behalf of the national Department of Tourism to identify and analyse global shifts and tourism-specific mega trends that will impact the tourism sector in South Africa in the future.
The overall purpose of the study is to develop a framework that will enable the sector to proactively respond to challenges and capitalise on opportunities for future development of sustainable tourism products and services. The researchers are following a Scenario-Planning methodology, conducting in-depth interviews with leaders in tourism, Government and futurists both in South Africa and overseas.
Following this, a structured one-day Tourism Futures Workshop was held at the University of Pretoria on Friday, 12 October 2018. The purpose of the workshop was to develop and gain consensus on a set of future tourism scenarios, which will indicate the possible directions that the tourism industry and sector in South Africa may take, under various circumstances and conditions.
The invitation-only workshop was facilitated by the internationally-renowned Chantell Illbury of "MindofaFox" and was attended by 18 tourism industry leaders. It concluded with four possible scenarios of what the tourism industry could look like in 2030.
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