Intra-urban spatial differentiation of tourism: Evidence from Johannesburg, South Africa

Abstract

Urban tourism is a growing focus for research in cities of the Global South. It is argued that the challenges of managing urban tourism require an improved understanding of the spatial structuring of tourism and tourist flows within the city context. The specific task in this article is to analyse changing intra-urban flows of tourism in Johannesburg, South Africa's most important city. The results show that different kinds of urban tourists engage with different urban spaces in the city. The Johannesburg study reveals that, although the spaces of leisure and business travellers to the city are closely intertwined, the flows of visiting friends and relatives are markedly different. Likewise, the spaces of international tourists are markedly different from those of domestic travellers to Johannesburg. One striking observation concerns Soweto, an iconic attraction for international tourists visiting Johannesburg, which is dominated by domestic travellers mainly engaged in visiting friends and relatives. From a comparative international perspective, the spatial patterns of tourism flows in Johannesburg exhibit marked differences from those of urban tourism destinations in the Global North, with the most striking difference being that of the limited and weakened role of the inner city for tourism in Johannesburg.