Browsing by Author "Donaldson, Ronnie"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
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    The impact of the Hotel Sector on tourism development in Kigali
    (University of the Western Cape, 2006) Gatsinzi, Josephine; Donaldson, Ronnie
    The potential of tourism to contribute to economic growth in terms of increasing foreign exchange, creating employment opportunities, generation of government revenues, creating incomes, contribution to poverty reduction, acting as a catalyst of economic development and stimulation of investments have been advanced as the reasons for government support for tourism. It is against this background that countries in Africa such as Rwanda have implemented economic reforms such as privatisation and liberalisation in order to improve the investment climate. The main purpose of this study was to provide a detailed literature account of the tourism investment environment in developing countries, to examine opportunities, constraints and challenges of the hotel investors in Kigali, examine the role of government in providing a conducive investment climate for hotel investors in Kigali and to investigate the impact of the hotel sector on tourism development in Kigali, Rwanda. Both qualitative and quantitative research methods were used to collect the data. Data were collected through questionnaires to hotel investors and interviews to government policy makers. Findings suggest that tourism can contribute to economic development of developing countries through its benefits. Much as investing in tourism has positive developmental aspects to developing countries, tourism investment environment in developing countries has been constrained by various reasons such as inadequate financial institutions, constant political instabilities, lack of adequate tourism infrastructure, lack of human resource, small market size, poor tourism planning to mention but a few. Various investment opportunities are available in Rwanda. Progress in economic performance, political stability, recognition of tourism as an engine of Rwanda's economic growth, the geographical location (in the centre) and the fact that tourism is still a virgin industry present important opportunities for potential investors in Rwanda's hotel sector. Despite the existence of investment opportunities, investors in Rwanda's hotel sector have faced problems such as the continued poor image of the country, lack of tourism infrastructure, the nature of the position of the country (land locked) lack of skilled personnel and lack of proper tourism information. The challenge for Rwanda is therefore to improve her image abroad that was formerly tarnished by the 1994 war and . genocide. Improvement in infrastructure, human resource and proper methods of tourism information can also lead to improved investments in the tourism sector. Findings have further suggested that hotels in Kigali have indeed contributed to tourism development. Effects of the hotel sector have been noticed in urban tourism development, development of the tourism infrastructure in Kigali, creation of employment opportunities for the communities, generation of government revenues and contribution to poverty alleviation.
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    Relocation: to be or not to be a black diamond in a South African township?
    (Elsevier, 2013) Donaldson, Ronnie; Mehlomakhulu, Thobeka; Darkey, Dan; Dyssel, Michael; Siyongwana, Pakama
    Beginning in the mid-1990s, South Africa�s geopolitical, social and economic landscapes have been rapidly transforming. Driven primarily by government policy particularly after 1994, these changes have among other effects offered tailor-made opportunities to the educated and resourceful black South Africans (so-called �black diamonds�) in the townships to rise on the socio-economic ladder. The main question this research paper attempts to answer is why only some of black middle-class township dwellers (black diamonds or BDs) do not relocate to former whites-only suburbs? The study, conducted on BDs in the townships of Bloemfontein, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and Pretoria, reveals the role of cultural, social, spatial, political and economic factors in the residential-location decisions of the black middle class. The survey found a duality of social identities emerging within the black middle class which could no longer be perceived as a single cohort. These identities may be categorized as the BDs who live in, educate their children there and are assimilated into the historically white suburb culture and those who are inextricably enmeshed in the townships. This paper also reports that there are other incentives, incorporating unquantifiable socio-economic benefits, that keep BDs �sparkling� in the townships because they may be absent in the former whites-only suburbs. Although their consumption power may be of most interest to economic planners and analysts, their role in the townships transcends economics into some being seen as role models.
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    Small town tourism in South Africa
    (Springer International Publishing, 2018) Donaldson, Ronnie
    This book investigates small town tourism development in South Africa taking into account the most common strategies: branding, promotion, festivals and theming. The contents of the book resonate with the intersection of the power elite and their impacts on small town tourism. Because the book focuses on small town geographies in South Africa, the literature on small town tourism in the country is reviewed in Chapter 2 to provide a contextual background. Each subsequent chapter begins with an overview of international literature to give the conceptual context of the case studies each chapter explores. In Chapter 3 the concept of small town tourism branding is illustrated by an exploration of the Richmond book town. In Chapter 4 the branding theme is probed further in an investigation of two winners of the Kw�la Town of the Year competition namely Fouriesburg and De Rust. Chapter 5 documents the branding of Sedgefield through its proclamation as Africa�s first Cittaslow (slow town), a process driven by the local power elite to the exclusion of town�s poor who have no understanding of the intentions of the Cittaslow movement and its potential benefits for the town. Chapter 6 is a case study of Greyton�s tourism-led rural gentrification by which a small town has transformed in three decades to become a sought after place of residence for elite inmigrants so making the town a jewel tourism destination while reinforcing racial segregation. Because festivals and events - creations of the wealthy - have made significant financial contributions to small towns, Chapter 7 considers festivals and events as strategies to market and brand small towns in a particular way.
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    The �silent� privatisation of urban public space in Cape Town, 1975 � 2004
    (University of the Western Cape, 2005) Spocter, Manfred Aldrin; Donaldson, Ronnie; Faculty of Arts
    South African cities were subjected to artificial, unnatural growth patterns brought about by apartheid planning that legitimated exclusionary practices in the city and which created and maintained racial, social and class differences between people. Post-apartheid South Africa has witnessed processes of urban fortification, barricading and the gating of urban space that are manifested in contemporary urban South Africa. This research shows that the privatisation of urban public space is not solely a postapartheid phenomenon. Closure legislation has been, and still is, used by citizens to remove urban space from the public realm through its privatisation. Closures are largely citizen-driven, either individually or as a collective, and it is small public spaces that are privatised, hence the micro-privatisation of public space that could influence the immediate surroundings and erf-sized living space of individuals. The concerns voiced by closure applicants through their application for closure, reflect personal living space concerns. It is ordinary people, not major real estate companies or corporations that are able to influence the land management processes of the city. A dataset of all closures in the central substructure region of Cape Town between 1975 and 2004 was compiled from Provincial Government Gazettes and supplemented with map and file data from the City of Cape Town�s Land Information Management Department. This allowed for the quantitative analysis and investigation of successful closures using Microsoft Access in order to identify closure trends. A geographic information systems database was created to visually display spatial and temporal closure trends. A qualitative study of written correspondence received from successful closure applicants in two suburbs, Camps Bay and Mitchell�s Plain, was completed in order to establish a profile of applicants, the reasons forwarded for closures and the techniques used by applicants to secure a successful closure. The resultant analysis showed that closures tended to mirror the socio-spatial realities of the apartheid city with a tendency for closures to be concentrated in better-off, previously white suburbs. A dramatic rise in closure numbers from the mid-1980s is testament to the weakening of the grip of the apartheid state on controlling urban areas. Applicants in the two sample suburbs used various techniques in order to procure successful closure of urban public space. A number of different approaches to secure closure were observed in the sample suburbs. Finally, given the rise in private housing estates in a post-apartheid urban milieu a number of recommendations for further research are made with a view to understanding privatisation of the public realm in South African cities.