Researchers in Geography & Environmental Studies

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Activity-based market segmentation of visitors to thermal spring resorts in the Western Cape Province, South Africa: Assessing the potential for health tourism development
(University of the Western Cape, Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, 2013) Boekstein, Mark; Spencer, John
There are eight thermal spring resorts in the Western Cape. Only one of these resorts has a focus on health and wellness, with the others functioning primarilyas family leisure resorts. Considering apparent domestic and international preferences, it would seem that a potentially valuable natural resource, that is, mineral-rich thermal spring water, is not being optimally utilized as a tourist attraction in the Western Cape. This research set out to assess the potential for health tourism development of thermal springs in the Western Cape. A questionnaire-based survey was undertaken, involving 383 respondents at six resorts, and activity-based market segmentation was carried out using k-means cluster analysis. A four-segment typology of current visitors, based on activity preferences, was compiled. It was found that the main divisions between visitors are, firstly, between �active� visitors who generally desire and make use of facilities and organised entertainment, and �passive� visitors, who make little to no use of facilities and organised entertainment; and secondly, between visitors who choose activities mainly for themselves, and those who choose activities for both themselves and their children. One of the four segments appears to show particular interest in both medical and wellness health tourism activities. However, most visitors, through their choice of activities, are able to gain considerable health benefits from their stays at thermal spring resorts, but they do so in different ways, and this is reflected in various combinations of active and passive activities.
African Migrants, Xenophobia and Urban Violence in Post-apartheid South Africa
(University of the Western Cape, Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, 2013) Tevera, Daniel
The urban space in South Africa is increasingly becoming a troubled terrain of xenophobic violence. In recent years xenophobia has emerged as one of the major contributing factors to urban violence in several African countries and the phenomenon is becoming an urban management challenge that deserves academic inquiry and policy attention. Yet most of the academic research into the incidence and causes of xenophobic violence has not explored the connections between urbanity and xenophobia. This article aims to contribute to the debate by examining the broader relationship between xenophobia and urban violence in South African cities and by pulling together the latest literature into creating a better understanding of xenophobia in urban spaces. This article provides an assessment of xenophobia in contemporary South Africa within the context of the on-going and important debate regarding the extent to which poverty and poor service delivery are determinants of urban violence. In addition, it argues that debates surrounding the complex spaces of deprivation in urban areas, citizenship and belonging should be central to the discourses on violence in South Africa�s cities, which in many ways are still struggling to erase the imprint of apartheid. Xenophobic violence in cities is a phenomenon that deserves policy attention and direct intervention by central government, local authorities and community leaders.
Cape Town as Africa's gateway for tourism to Antarctica - development potential and need for regulation
(2014) Boekstein, Mark
Cape Town is one of the five Antarctic gateway cities from which ships and aircraft travel to and from various parts of Antarctica and the sub-Antarctic islands. Gateway cities are used by government scientific expeditions, as well as for tourism. While tourism to Antarctica is increasing rapidly, most of it occurs from the South American gateways of Ushuaia and Punta Arenas, and to a lesser extent from Christchurch (New Zealand) and Hobart (Australia). The Cape Town-Antarctica tourism industry is relatively undeveloped in comparison to other gateway cities, mainly because the distance to Antarctica from the South American gateways is considerably less than from Cape Town. In 2009 the City of Cape Town signed the Southern Rim Gateway Cities Agreement, joining the other gateway cities in an agreement to cooperate on issues such as science, education, logistics, business opportunities and tourism. Tourism to Antarctica and the sub-Antarctic islands, and the regulation thereof, is discussed in the light of the fact that South Africa, unlike countries like Australia, does not have any specific policy to develop or regulate tourism to Antarctica, neither to its own bases, nor to other parts of Antarctica accessible from Cape Town by ship or air. This paper considers the development potential of Cape Town as a gateway for tourism to Antarctica and the sub-Antarctic islands, with recommendations for particular types of tourism development, in specific locations, and suggestions for both growing and regulating the industry.
Community as utopia: Reflections on De Waterkant
(Springer, 2008) Rink, Bradley M.
This paper will reflect on research currently in progress in Cape Town's De Waterkant neighbourhood�an area also known as Cape Town's 'gay village'. This paper engages the literature of utopia as a framework of analysis for interrogating the performance of community�while at the same time problematising the terms "community" and "utopia" upon which much geographical description of the area is based. This research argues that both 'comforting' and 'unsettling' relational achievements amongst the human and non-human actors in De Waterkant function as building blocks of real or imagined community and further recognises multiple tensions that affect the formation of community and the pursuit of utopia in the South African urban context.
Food for the urban poor: safety nets and food-based social protection in Manzini, Swaziland
(Springer, 2014) Tevera, Daniel; Simelane, Nomcebo
This paper aims to contribute to the urban food security debate by exploring the role of informal safety nets and formal food-based social protection in addressing food insecurity challenges facing low-income urban households in Manzini. The empirical data used in this paper came from two surveys: the first involved 500 households and was undertaken in three low-income areas of Manzini. The second involved a series of in-depth interviews with senior staff at supermarkets and spaza shops. The results reveal that food security challenges are considerable in the low-income areas of Manzini and that, at the same time, various forms of community and intra-household food sharing are an important food source for a minority of poor households in the city. In this regard, the national government needs to consider strengthening food-based social safety net programmes that assist poor and vulnerable groups.
Food security in Southern African cities: the place of urban agriculture
(Sage Publications, 2011) Crush, Jonathan; Hovorka, Alice; Tevera, Daniel
Several decades of research on �urban agriculture� have led to markedly different conclusions about the actual and potential role of household food production in African cities. In the context of rapid urbanization, urban agriculture is, once again, being advocated as a means to mitigate the growing food insecurity of the urban poor. This article examines the contemporary importance of household food production in poor urban communities in 11 different Southern African Development Community (SADC) cities. It shows that urban food production is not particularly significant in most communities and that many more households rely on supermarkets and the informal sector to access food. Even fewer households derive income from the sale of produce. This picture varies considerably, however, from city to city, for reasons that require further research and explanation.
From illness to wellness-has thermal spring health tourism reached a new turning point?
(University of the Western Cape, Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, 2014) Boekstein, Mark
Thermal spring health resorts around the world are repositioning themselves by moving away from medical treatments, and moving towards fitness and wellness, often accompanied by an increase in facilities for recreation. It is suggested in this paper that this represents a turning point for the thermal spring health tourism product, with the focus changing from using thermal water primarily for the treatment of illnesses, to helping already healthy people become even healthier. In the light of current developments, the historical development and geographical distribution of thermal spring tourism is discussed, with new developments highlighted, particularly those involving local communities. A historical overview of thermal spring health tourism is provided, starting with the ancient Greeks and their belief in the healing powers of water, and Roman bathing culture, where a symbiotic relationship between health and recreation developed. Recent trends in thermal spring tourism in most parts of the world, including sub-Saharan Africa, are explained. It is concluded that thermal spring health tourism has indeed turned a corner, and a new kind of product has emerged, where the medicinal properties of thermal waters are now being successfully used for wellness treatments. It is recommended that developing counties create thermal spring tourism products that combine thermal water resources with location-specific healing methods and remedies, but are extended to encompass surrounding natural and cultural attractions, and where possible, involve and benefit local communities.
International trends in health tourism: Implications for thermal spring tourism in the Western Cape Province of South Africa
(University of the Western Cape, Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, 2013) Boekstein, Mark; Spencer, John
Travel to thermal springs for the sake of health and healing can be traced at least as far back as the ancient Greeks and Romans, with the earliest forms of tourism being based on apparent curative powers of mineral-rich thermal waters. There are 11 thermal springs in the Western Cape, seven of which have been developed into a total of eight resorts. Only one of these resorts has a focus on health, with appropriate facilities, the others functioning primarily as family leisure resorts. Internationally there has been a move by traditional thermal spring resorts to offer a combination of health (medical and wellness) services in combination with leisure activities. In the light of the rapidly growing demand for healthy holidays in other parts of the world, it may be that a potentially lucrative natural resource, mineral-rich thermal water with a long tradition of healing, is not being adequately utilized as part of the Western Cape�s tourism offering. This literature-based article traces the development of thermal spring health tourism internationally, and questions why such an industry is not being developed in South Africa, and in the Western Cape in particular, given the excellent resources currently available. Recommendations are made for location-specific medical and wellness thermal spring tourism product development in the Western Cape that focus on the utilisation of locally available natural resources and benefit local communities.
Neoliberalism, regime rurvival, and the environment: economic reform and agricultural transformation in Zimbabwe in the 1990s
(Taylor & Francis, 2001) Logan, B. Ikubolajeh; Tevera, Daniel
Economic reform in Zimbabwe under the auspices of the Bank World Bank and IMF began in 1991. The first phase of program, called structural economic adjustment program (ESAP ) lasted from 1991 to 1996. The second phase, the Transformation Agenda social and economic development of Zimbabwe (ZIMPREST) should go until at least 2002. Much of the debate about the performance of reform in Zimbabwe revolves around three main actors: Government of Zimbabwe ( GOZ ) , international financial institutions (IFIs) and the environment, particularly droughts 1991-92. This paper contributes to a broader discussion on the reform Economic Zimbabwe in three ways : first, by describing the outline of its economy, chronologically and structurally politically , the second , by assessing its impact on production agricultural , and the third , evaluating its impact on security food of a neglected set of actors, the urban poor . The article concludes that agricultural reform failed to reallocate productive resources , to reorganize the spatial distribution of production and increase access various social classes to food. Moreover, this failure can be attributed to a combination of factors including the post- colonial political economy dynamics orchestrated by ZANU (PF) is not reduced. [Note: translated from French]
Performing cities: Engaging the high-tech fl�neur
(The Forum on Education Abroad, 2011) Rodr�guez, Karen; Rink, Bradley M.
The city as place forms the backdrop to many study abroad experiences. Our sense of place, however, is often fractured by modern mobilities. As Sack (1988) notes, we move from place to place so much that places often begin to appear ever more generic and alike. Or they seem to be �out there,� and we forget that they are humanly constructed. If we now have trouble conceptualizing place, when we turn to cities in particular, we also find that they are being submerged into a discourse of sameness where today�s �global cities� are portrayed as almost cookie-cutter copies of one another in their consumption-based, high tech identities. Yet the culture-neutral character of this discourse about contemporary cities belies the cultural-historical personality that each city retains, and it can obscure or even erase the rich placespecific learning opportunities that each city offers.
Quartering the city in discourse and bricks: Articulating urban change in a South African enclave
(Springer, 2016) Rink, Bradley M.
Focusing on the urban enclave in Cape Town known as De Waterkant, this paper examines the product and process of �quartering� urban space�shaping urban space as the locus for the symbolic framing of culture. This paper advances recent studies of De Waterkant by applying the concept of quartering to understand urban change in an African context. Complicating existing research on De Waterkant, the findings show that the area has witnessed four distinct quartered identities including: an ethnic quartering which was dismantled under apartheid; a Bohemian quartering that changed racial dynamics and improved housing stock; a �gay village� quartering that engaged sexual identity performance as a strategy for place-making; and most recently a consumer lifestyle quartering that exhibited new notions of citizenship and consumption. This paper advances theorization of how quartering as a process is articulated through the application of discursive and material tropes to the urban fabric of the city.
Que(e)rying Cape Town: touring Africa�s gay capital with the pink map
(Centre for Geographical Studies: Lisbon, 2013) Rink, Bradley M.
Since 1999, Cape Town�s Pink Map has attempted to provide local and international visitors alike with a cartographic representation of the city�s queer landscape. This paper engages with the archive provided by more than a decade of the Map to trace the outlines of this �pink� discourse while contributing to debates on the promotion of �pink� tourism and the nature of South African queer communities. This paper will demonstrate that, in addition to being a commercial publication that locates gay- and gay friendly leisure venues, services, and shopping, the Pink Map also engages particular tropes of the body and gender to inscribe sexual and consumer citizenship in the city of Cape Town with specific emphasis on the urban quarter known as De Waterkant. The analysis will show how the journey one takes while holding the Pink Map is illustrative of events taking place on the urban landscape that the Map depicts. In the final analysis, this paper reveals how the Pink Map serves as an archive of a limited notion of queer visibility, new modes of consumption, the queer tourist gaze and the embodied shaping of destination space.
Tourism, health and the changing role of thermal springs - should South Africa reposition its thermal spring tourism product?
(University of the Western Cape, Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, 2014) Boekstein, Mark
Visiting thermal springs for medicinal purposes is one of the oldest forms of tourism in many parts of the world, including South Africa. An overview is provided of the concepts of health tourism, including medical and wellness tourism, as well as spa and thermal spring health tourism. Water-based, treatment-based and recreation-based facilities and services offered at selected international thermal spring resorts are assessed and compared to the thermal spring health tourism product in South Africa, where only three out of more than 20 thermal spring resorts offer sophisticated health treatments. It appears that, internationally, the focus of thermal spring tourism is shifting towards wellness activities, although in South Africa it has shifted further, in the direction of recreation. While the product offerings of thermal spring resorts generally contain elements of water-based, treatment-based as well as recreation-based activities, it is suggested that the main focus should be guided by the activity preferences of current markets, which in the case of South Africa are almost exclusively domestic, and South African domestic visitors have far less interest in health facilities and treatments than their counterparts in Europe, although there is a significant minority that would welcome such services. The question therefore arises as to whether thermal spring resorts in South Africa, especially those that do have health-related services, have shifted their product offerings too far in the direction of recreation, and if so, whether South Africa?s thermal spring tourism product should not be repositioned so as to capture a greater portion of the international, and domestic, health tourism markets.

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