Jayne M. Rogerson

Local economic development in Africa: Global context and research directions

This paper locates local economic development research and practice in Africa in a global context. It provides an overview of the international development of local economic development (LED), of its contested definitions and theoretical status, and of existing scholarship on the topic of LED policy and practice specifically across sub-Saharan Africa. Currently there is much more LED research available for South Africa than for the other sub-Saharan African countries. The paper highlights the need for this imbalance to be redressed.

Tourism research within the Southern African development community: production and consumption in academic journals, 2000-2010.

The production and consumption of tourism knowledge has emerged as a vibrant research focus. This article extends this body of research by analysis of the production and consumption of tourism knowledge across the 15 countries of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) for the period 2000-2010. Issues of concern in the production of tourism research are patterns of publishing, nature of journals (tourism vs. nontourism), and extent of local versus nonlocal scholarship. Using Google Scholar citations the consumption of tourism research discloses the most cited articles published in the period 2000-2010, most cited as published 2006-2010, and most cited for each country. In relation to international tourism scholarship as a whole, a key finding from the SADC is that the majority of tourism research is published outside of tourism-focused journals. This suggests that bibliometric studies that track tourism scholarship based only on the contents of major tourism journals fail to capture a key segment of tourism scholarship.

The changing all-suite hotel in South Africa: from "extended stay" to African "condo hotel".

Despite a growth of scholarship in African tourism only limited work has been pursued on the accommodation sector in general and the hotel industry in Africa in particular. This article examines the phenomenon of the all-suite hotel. Against the backdrop of a review of the international development of the all-suite hotel, the article analyzes the growth and characteristics of all-suite hotels in South Africa. It is argued that while the trajectory of all-suite hotel development in South Africa exhibits certain common features with the US, Western Europe, and Australia, there are also certain distinctive local trends in the evolving all-suite sector.

Johannesburg 2030: The Economic Contours of a “Linking Global City”

Despite Johannesburg’s importance in urban Africa, the city is relatively neglected by urban researchers. Within the global network of cities, Johannesburg assumes a critical role of linking city and articulating the development of the capitalist economy of Southern Africa. Johannesburg’s future will be associated with addressing the multiple challenges of urban growth, management, and absorption. Arguably, the most important single challenge is that of achieving sustained economic growth as well as the creation of new employment and livelihood opportunities for the city’s growing population. Johannesburg’s economic prospects are inseparable from those of South Africa as a whole. Over the past 5 years, in response to the global crisis, the national government has launched a number of long-term development plans that seek to unlock South Africa’s economic constraints in the form of the New Growth Path, initiatives for reindustrialization, and the National Development Plan 2030. It is contended that the economic contours of Johannesburg 2030, to a large extent, will be determined by its role as linking city and by the impacts of these large-scale strategic policy interventions as mediated through metropolitan-level policy.

Hotel location in Africa’s world class city: The case of Johannesburg, South Africa

Abstract Urban tourism is of rising importance for economic and tourism geographers. One of the most important elements for urban tourism is the hotel economy. Against a backdrop of international debates around the location of hotels in cities in both developed and developing countries this article unpacks the changing geography of hotels in South Africa’s largest city, Johannesburg for the period 1990 to 2010. Johannesburg is one of the leading and growing destinations for urban tourism in South Africa. Its hotel scape has been radically transformed in the past two decades. It is shown that the shifting geography of hotel development in Johannesburg reveals a complex pattern of disinvestment in certain city spaces and subsequent reinvestment and re-vitalization of those spaces as well the changing patterns of hotel investment towards the new successful nodes of business and leisure tourism in the city.

Improving the local business environment of Johannesburg

Analysis of local business environments is an emerging theme in scholarship on local economic development (LED). South Africas national LED framework urges local governments to foster conditions that stimulate and enable the general environment in which business is done. This article analyses findings from recent interviews conducted with 100 foreign investors and 10 business chambers on the topic of constraints to private investment in the business environment of Johannesburg. It concludes that city authorities must address a range of issues in order to enhance the local business environment. Key themes are crime and safety and security, infrastructure, the rising costs of doing business, skills shortages, and limited working relationships between city authorities and local investors.

Agritourism and local economic development in South Africa.

Abstract The role of tourism for local economic development (LED) is a topic of critical importance for geographers. In the case of South Africa tourism is a priority sector for national economic development. The significance of research issues around tourism and LED is underlined by the ‘developmental’ mandate of local governments. Although tourism has received attention in a growing body of LED writings on South Africa issues around agritourism so far have been overlooked. Agritourism represents an evolving form of rural tourism which is targeted at mainly urban consumers. Against the background of a review of international scholarship on agritourism this article explores its potential implications for LED planning in South Africa. A national audit of agritourism is presented which shows its uneven geographical distribution. Agritourism is of special significance for small town economic development in South Africa’s intermediate tourism spaces. Policy suggestions are offered for strengthening agritourism as a driver for LED in South Africa.

City Tourism in South Africa: Diversity and Change

City tourism is a complex phenomenon and expanding in significance within the international tourism economy. Within the context of a vibrant and challenging global scholarship around cities as tourism destinations this article interrogates the development and trajectories of city tourism destinations in South Africa. Attention centers on unpacking the differential performance of the countrys eight metropolitan areas and its network of 22 secondary cities. This analysis confirms that cities are important multimotivated tourism destinations because people travel to them for several different purposes including for business, leisure and entertainment, to visit friends and relatives, or for health or religious reasons. It is revealed that the countrys 30 cities are key nodes in the national tourism space economy particularly for tourism spend. Evidence is shown of considerable diversity between city destinations with sharp contrasts between the patterns of tourism observed in the metropolitan areas as opposed to the secondary cities. Further differentiation is demonstrated at the level of individual city destinations in respect of different origins, purposes of travel, and relative contribution of tourism to local economic development.

Green commercial property development in urban South Africa: emerging trends, emerging geographies

Abstract Within sub-Saharan Africa South Africa is one of the leaders in greening and initiatives for sustainable urban development. Notwithstanding the central role of climate change impacts and of the green challenge for the future, the greening of urban development has not been a major focus in local geographical research. The task in this paper is to investigate one aspect of reorienting the economy towards a pathway of low carbon growth and of addressing the green urban challenge. Specifically, issues around the greening of commercial property developments in South Africa are explored. Under the ratings of the Green Building Council of South Africa 50 green buildings existed by early 2014. Geographically these properties cluster in South Africa’s major cities, in particular Johannesburg, the country’s economic powerhouse and centre for corporate headquarters, and Pretoria, the administrative capital. New proposals for building retrofitting may result in a greater spatial spread of green buildings in the near future.

Integrated reporting vs. sustainability reporting for corporate responsibility in South Africa

Abstract Large corporates have come under increasing pressure to conduct their business in a more transparent and responsible manner. In order for business to fulfil its obligations under the ethic of accountability stakeholders must be given relevant, timely, and understandable information about their activities through corporate reports. The conventional company reports on annual financial performance, sustainability and governance disclosures often fail to make the connection between the organisation’s strategy, its financial results and performance on environmental, social and governance issues. Recognising the inherent shortcomings of existing reporting models, there is a growing trend to move towards integrated reporting. South Africa has been one of the most innovative countries in terms of integrated corporate reporting. Since 2010 companies primarily listed on the country’s major stock exchange have been required to produce an integrated report as opposed to the former sustainability report. The aim in this study is to review the development of integrated reporting by large corporates in South Africa and assess the impact of the required transition from sustainability reporting to integrated reporting on non-financial disclosure of eight South African corporates using content analysis of annual reports.