Delineating the place brand factors influencing South Africa as an emerging business tourism destination

Abstract

The proliferation of place brands within the global tourism market has resulted in the need for emerging business tourism markets such as South Africa to better understand their potential influence on tourists‟ decision-making. The aim of the study was to delineate the place brand factors influencing business tourism to South Africa and explore the nexus between South Africa‟s place brand and business tourism. Quantitative data was generated from a convenient sample of n=233 inbound tourists to South Africa. Exploratory Factor Analysis and Multiple Regression Analysis were employed, utilising the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS 25.0) to analyse the data. The study found evidence of a statistically significant relationships between South Africa‟s Socio-cultural and Tourism place brand aspects, and business tourism to the country. These findings suggest that South Africa‟s place brand is an inferential heuristic cue that may have a halo effect on the predilections of business-oriented tourists.