Identifying tourism cluster characteristics on the central Namibian coast: policy implications

Abstract

A rise in adventure travel in the early 1990s has boosted the growth of tourism in Namibia’s coastal town, Swakopmund. This has led to the concentration of tourism SMEs. This research aims to investigate whether this concentration of SMEs has the qualities of a tourism cluster, delineate inter-industry linkages and measure interdependencies to identify levels of collaborative and competitive behaviours. Using an exploratory mixed-method design joining agglomeration literature, personal interviews, a business count, and a questionnaire survey, the local tourism industry in Swakopmund was confirmed to exhibit tourism cluster characteristics. The results exposed strong interdependencies of cooperative behaviour and coopetition between tourism and tourism-dependent firms, despite motivational responses uncovering destructive business methods of aggressive commission actions and intellectual property theft. This research underscores the significance of understanding a tourism cluster’s structure and history in conjunction with uncovering industry strengths and weaknesses to establish policies in support of SME growth.