Elmarie SlabbertNorth-West University | NWU · Tourism Research in Economic Environs and Society
Elmarie Slabbert
PhD (Tourism Management)
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83
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Citations since 2017
Introduction
Additional affiliations
January 2000 - December 2015
Publications
Publications (83)
Purpose
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic highlights the importance of destination marketing and media profiling to re-engage international tourists. However, potential crisis-induced nation brand (NB) deficits must be addressed to re-ignite tourism demand. The study examines the possible intervening effect of the contemporary NB in the international d...
This research aims to develop an applied framework for conference tourism competitiveness since it is evident that there is a limited view of how conference delegates assess attributes contributing to conference tourism. From the literature and industry stakeholder input, conference competitiveness themes and attributes were identified and included...
Information symmetry is a critical antecedent to tourists’ consumptive decision-making and conative behaviour, especially in times of crisis and uncertainty. The present study is novel in its interrogation of whether COVID-19 induced perceived risk has an intervening effect in the destination media profile - travel intentions nexus of tourists. The...
Domestic tourism is increasingly being propagated as a primer for the global tourism industry’s resuscitation in the era of COVID-19. However, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the challenge for African tourism destinations such as South Africa is predicting domestic tourists’ behavioral and demand responses. The article explores the mediating eff...
Assessing destination competitiveness from a tourist perspective has been limited, especially for distressed destinations such as Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe has been facing ongoing political and economic challenges for more than two decades which puts pressure on the growth of the tourism industry. However, all destinations compete in the same space for to...
The COVID-19 pandemic has heightened the risk associated with tourism and induced a paradigm shift in tourist behaviour. The study explores the nexus between COVID-19 induced perceived risk the subjective safety associated with tourism activity. A cross-sectional deductive study was conducted. Data were generated from a respondent-driven snowball s...
Background: Tourism in Zimbabwe has been affected by politics for more than two decades following the contested land-reform programme that was done in the year 2000. Therefore, understanding the destination competitiveness of Zimbabwean tourism is crucial for optimising tourist arrivals in the country as this industry is still contributing to the e...
This paper explores the influence of country image on the evaluation of a destination’s attributes from the perspective of inbound tourists to South Africa - within the context of both business and medical tourism. Data were generated from a self-administered questionnaire distributed as part of a survey of inbound tourists visiting South Africa’s...
Despite considerable insight into both traditional and social media, the research on these media types is largely mutually exclusive. Consequently, it is largely not known what media tourists use before forming an image of a destination for potential visitation. To provide insight into this phenomena, this study segmented 558 tourists to South Afri...
The impacts of tourism influence residents' attitudes and behaviour towards tourists and tourism-related activities such as festivals. Residents are the primary stakeholders of tourism development, considered as the backbone of the industry. Coastal towns such as Jeffreys Bay in South Africa are natural attractions receiving high numbers of tourist...
The study investigates the travel motivations, satisfaction and loyalty of tourists visiting a destination (under distress). Furthermore, the current study examines the challenges faced by tourists when visiting politically and economically unstable destinations, such as Zimbabwe. Drawing upon a sample of international tourists that visited Zimbabw...
Despite the proliferation of destination branding-related studies, there appears to be a limited academic inquiry into generic place brands and their potential influence on tourist behaviour towards destination countries. More-so within the African context. This paper explores whether there are place brand factors that potentially influence inward...
Regardless of its importance to the global tourism economy, there is still limited academic inquiry relating to Africa within the context of non-traditional tourism typologies, such as medical tourism. This article contributes to the broader understanding of the potential factors influencing medical tourism by extending place branding theory to the...
• There is an inextricable link between South Africa's place brand and tourism.
• Contemporary tourism marketing success is discernibly linked to immigration policy.
• Place brands are a heuristic cue for information symmetry on tourism destinations.
• Place brands are an influential marketing axiom in tourism.
Repeat tourism represents a viable source market that provides a steady source of income for tourism managers. Specifically, only those destinations can rely on repeat tourism to survive in potentially difficult political, environmental or economic conditions who were classed as mature by Richard Butler in his concept of tourism areas cycle (TALC)...
The aim of the study was twofold, firstly to determine the destination attractiveness of Zimbabwe as a tourist destination that would enable a stronger position post-political changes; and secondly, it sought to analyse the influence of socio-demographic characteristics on tourists’ perceptions of Zimbabwe’s attractiveness as a tourist destination....
Purpose-The success of tourism destinations is in many cases measured from a competitive advantage perspective, not from a collaborative advantage perspective, which limits the possibilities of destination marketing in a collaborative cross-border context. Currently, the marketing efforts of Victoria Falls are highly fragmented as each country prom...
Orientation: This study investigates and analyses the perceptions of soccer club managers based on spectators’ loyalty factors, values and challenges concerning soccer clubs in South Africa.
Research purpose: These results could assist managers of soccer clubs to be able to manage these aspects in order to sustain a competitive advantage.
Motivat...
It is a fact that tourism endeavours require the backing of the residents of the communities where it takes place to be sustainable. To date, most social impact studies measure a single instance of residents’ tourism social impact perceptions. However, the literature reveals that residents’ perceptions might change over time, and therefore a panel...
Orientation: Tourism growth is not just about numbers anymore; it is about utilising the economic potential of every tourist visiting South Africa. This country needs to target the most lucrative markets to benefit economic growth.
Research purpose: This article aims to identify the big spenders with reference to demographic characteristics and to...
Service quality is a key factor in the success or failure of tourism products such as festivals. The intangible nature of some elements of service quality creates challenges in the measurement thereof. This study measured service quality at the Innibos National Arts Festival in June 2013, using a multicriteria model based on fuzzy numbers. This met...
Residents living in communities with tourism activities form a vital part of the tourism industry; without their support, the industry will likely fail. It is the understanding of the Social Exchange Theory that residents should receive a form of physical award for accepting visitors into their environment, however, with the case of South Africa, t...
Marketing is a core management function for any business, but smaller tourism businesses seem to underestimate the value of effective marketing and handle marketing in a more informal and
unstructured manner. This can decrease their effectiveness in attracting tourists and influence the success of their businesses. The purpose of this study was to...
The South African game-farming industry holds significant potential for all consumers. This industry should not only be associated with those who hunt annually, however; the potential for the utilisation of game meat should be better exploited for all South Africans and Africans. It is time that game meat becomes as popular as other meat sources an...
South Africa remains a developing country which is known to have one of the most unequal distributions of income in the world, as well as continued cultural, political and economic restraints. As a result of these constraints, community residents do not derive a significant number of tangible social impacts (such as job creation or higher income) f...
Accommodation plays such an important role in the tourist’s experience that one would imagine that many studies concerning this topic have been conducted. However, surprisingly, very few studies have focused on this subject despite the growth in both demand and supply. This gap or lack of research led to the present exploratory study that addressed...
This research attempts to provide guidelines for the management of the Klein Karoo National Arts Festival by determining factors and identifying the determinants of value for money for this unique tourism product. A survey was conducted during the duration of the festival that was held from 31 March 2012 to 7 April 2012. Seven hundred questionnaire...
With the growth in the tourism industry, it is a priority of government to develop quality Learnerships and Internships in South Africa to improve skills and the qualifications of the tourism workforce. Employers are increasingly conscious of the value for money from their investments in training and are demanding that training be more deliberately...
This study focused on determining the cognitive, affective and conative images for festivals and identifying aspects influencing these images. The global growth of festivals and level of competitiveness between festivals urge the use of image as a means of diversification to remain relevant and preferred by
visitors. Descriptive research, following...
Orientation: Tourism employees are trained by various higher education institutions, yet industry still voices its concern regarding the readiness of potential employees entering the tourism industry.Research purpose: This article aims to critically assess the key competencies and personal characteristics needed by accommodation managers in the Sou...
Urban ecotourism has been identified as a method of sustainable tourism that is expected to subsidise to both conservation and development in urban areas. This requires input and cooperation from various stakeholders. One of the most important stakeholders in this process is the local community. Thus, when there is collaboration with host communiti...
Tourists today are more value conscious, which creates challenges for tourism products to keep up with what tourists want and how they perceive certain experiences. Perceived tourism value can be seen as the value that tourists experience and can be defined from separate perspectives, such as money, quality, benefits, and social aspects. The purpos...
(http://www.iol.co.za/business/opinion/visa-rules-poorly-implemented-1.1902824#.VliWKL93Eks)
The purpose of this study was to compare the travel behaviour of tourism students from
three universities situated on three continents: South America (Mexico), Africa (South Africa)
and Australia (New Zealand). The three-university, three country approach with the same
questionnaire is unique and provide insight to travel behaviour of a lucrative m...
(http://theconversation.com/south-africas-new-visa-rules-sound-idea-but-badly-executed-46145)
In the light of the issue of declining government funding of South African National Parks (SANParks), as well as the negative influence of the poor service levels in shops, restaurants and eating facilities in these parks on visitor spending, SANParks needs to improve the retail and dining experiences at these facilities. This research attempts to...
(http://citizen.co.za/374827/the-growing-financial-impact-of-festivals-on-sas-economy/)
Most tourism social impact studies emphasise tangible social impacts such as economic improvement. In developing countries such as South Africa, a small percentage of tangible benefits filter down to community level. This creates a problem as various studies revealed the importance of community support for the sustainability of the tourism industry...
The aim of this article is to determine the push and pull motives of beach visitors to six South African beaches in the Margate area. The survey was conducted from 28 March to 8 April 2013 over the Easter weekend. A self-administered questionnaire was distributed and 572 usable questionnaires were collected. The profile of beach visitors was determ...
Orientation: Owing to the nature of the tourism industry, which is highly service orientated, employees should possess certain skills such as self-reliance, people and certain specialist skills, and general employability when working in this industry. However, it seems that employees are not well enough prepared and equipped with these skills to sa...
With more than 400 annual festivals in South Africa to choose from, arts festival patrons are becoming more selective in their purchase behaviour, resulting in declining festival attendee numbers and tickets sales for some festivals. A better understanding of the influences on ticket purchase behaviour is necessary for the future development of a S...
In recent years, protected areas have come under pressure due to the budget cuts of government. As a
result, national parks have had to devise strategies by means of which they are able to generate
additional revenue, in order to remain competitive. Such a strategy is the introduction of public-private
partnerships, which allows the private sector...
This study analysed the motivations for visiting South Africa‘s Kruger National Park, with the aim of identifying similarities and differences between tourists‘ motives and those of people living near the Park. A factor analysis of the findings revealed five motives: education and learning, relaxation, photography, activities and destination attrib...
The rapid growth of arts festivals has led to increased competition resulting in festivals competing for visitors‟ money and leisure time. The aim of this article is to determine the importance of motivational push and/or pull factors of festival goers with regard to two national arts festivals in South Africa. Not only were the relevance and impor...
In South Africa, scuba diving as a sport is growing significantly. One of the most sought after scuba diving destinations is Sodwana Bay, situated on the northern coast of KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa). The market is rapidly expanding, thus creating competition among the different dive operations. Understanding the travel motives of scuba divers wil...
Festivals in South Africa contribute greatly to the economic and social well-being of communities and offer various benefits. The host community is considered to be one of the key role players in tourism and therefore relations between the festivals and the host communities play an important role in understanding the social impact of an event. The...
In South Africa scuba diving as a sport continues to gain more interest. One of the most sought after scuba diving destinations is Sodwana Bay, situated on the northern coast of KwaZulu-Natal. The market is rapidly expanding, creating competition between different dive operations. Identifying the travel motives will be beneficial for improving prod...
Competition in the South African arts festival market is an evident problem and is associated with changes in ticket purchase behaviour among performing arts patrons and declining ticket sales. This holds a negative implication for arts festivals, since visitors who purchase tickets tend to stay for longer periods and spend more than visitors not i...
One of the fastest growing segments of tourism globally is that of events and festivals. In the South African arena alone, there are more than 300 annual festivals of which arts festivals especially have grown significantly. These arts festivals aim to provide unique experiences to both tourists and residents. The communities act as the hosts, and...
Nature-based tourism products in Africa, especially South Africa, are playing an important role in attracting visitors. It is therefore essential to understand travel behaviour and the factors influencing the behaviour of visitors, as such knowledge can influence future park visits, park development and target marketing strategies for nature-based...
The sustainability of an event depends on the support of the local community. Currently, community instruments do not measure perceptions of the impacts of events in an integrated manner. This paper is the first step in developing such an instrument for events in South Africa. Seventy-five community impact items were identified through a literature...
Events are one of the fastest growing tourism
attractions in South Africa. This has various
implications for the role players involved in hosting
the event, especially the community. It is important
to obtain the support and loyalty of residents so that
potential conflicts can be avoided. However,
residents are not always involved in the planning
a...
Tourism has experiencd growing internationalisation and much closer attention is now paid to the cultural characteristics of tourists and visitors and the influence thereof on the tourism industry. Culture affects travel motivation and behaviour and a better understanding of the cultural composition of tourists will enable the tourism industry to b...
Travel behaviour refers to the way in which tourists behave according to their attitudes before, during and after travelling. Knowledge regarding travel behaviour can assist in marketing and product planning and development which can increase the number of visitors to tourism products such as resorts. However it was found that very little research...
Arts festivals in South Africa are growing tremendously and it has become more important for these types of tourism products to position themselves competitively. Branding plays a major role in positioning and the associations made with the brand. It is necessary to understand these associations as well as factors influencing the associations. Ther...
Competition in the festival market has important implications for South African arts/cultural festivals. To assist a festival to remain sustainable, market segmentation is an effective tool to divide existing and potential markets into homogenous groups based on meaningful characteristics. The aim of this article is to segment visitors (by using vi...
South Africa's national parks are one of South Africa's major attractions. Since visitors are among the most important role players in the sustainability of these parks, and in-depth research is needed to understand them, this article analyses the push and pull factors that bring them to the parks. The study used a structured questionnaire to colle...
When developing and managing tourism products, understanding the travel behaviour of niche markets, such as students can create a competitive advantage for tourism products. The purpose of this research was to determine the travel behaviour of tourism students in South Africa. Surveys were conducted at eight Tertiary Education Institutions offering...
Events are one of the fastest growing tourism attractions in South Africa. This has various implications for the role players involved in hosting the event, especially the community. It is important to obtain the support and loyalty of residents so that potential conflicts can be avoided. However, residents are not always involved in the planning a...
South Africa is well known for its favourable climate, wildlife and golden beaches. Adding to this, its long summers make its coastline (over 3500 km) even more attractive to tourists around the world, and so are transforming the South African coast into a major marine tourism attraction. Along this lengthy coastline lie numerous marine destination...
The purpose of this article is to analyze the influence of culture on the perceptions of the community regarding the impacts of events in two of the largest arts festivals in South Africa. The data were collected through structured questionnaires completed by community members during the 2007 and 2008 festivals. The samples [Grahamstown (2007), N =...
Leisure and sport activities are thought to be developmentally important because it provides opportunities for skill development and the formation of social relationships during adolescence. Added to this the number and variety of leisure and sport activities create ample opportunities for participation. However, it became evident that leisure beha...
The Grahamstown National Arts Festival is the oldest National Arts Festival in South Africa and was founded in 1974. This celebration of the arts takes place over a period of eleven days with the main festival running over eight days, which also makes it the longest (in terms of number of days) arts festival in the country. The literature review re...
Nature-based products in South Africa are playing an increasingly important role in attracting visitors to the country. It thus becomes more important to understand the travel behaviour of visitors as this can influence future development and marketing strategies to these products. However information in this regard is lacking which creates challen...
Residents are considered key role-players in the tourism industry as tourism happens in and around communities. The success of a mega-event such as the FIFA 2010 World Cup is to a certain extent dependent on the attitudes of residents towards the event. South Africa went to great lengths to create positive attitudes towards the FIFA 2010 World Cup...
Arts festivals are a growing phenomenon in South Africa and there are various festivals to choose from. The aim of these festivals is to provide unique experiences to both tourists and visitors and they should therefore focus on the development and improvement of the festivals. The major arts festivals in South Africa are annual events and therefor...
Various role players have an influence on tourism development and tourism products such as mega events. South Africa hosted the 2010 Soccer World Cup which influenced various communities and the country as a whole. However the perceptions exist that host community residents received more benefits from this event than non-host community residents. T...
The Kruger National Park (KNP) is a well-known, highly successful, international tourist attraction in South Africa. Competition is, however, increasing and it is important for tourism products such as this park to understand its visitors and their specific needs. This will influence growth and long-term sustainability. Tourists visit parks such as...
Increasing levels of competition in the festival market have important implications for the profitability and survival prospects of South African arts/cultural festivals. In order for a festival to be sustainable, market segmentation can be an effective tool to divide existing and potential markets into homogeneous groups based on meaningful charac...
Travel behaviour refers to the way in which tourists behave according to their attitudes before, during and after travelling. Knowledge regarding travel behaviour can assist in marketing, product planning and development which can increase the number of visitors to tourism products such as resorts. However, it was found that very little research ha...
Events are one of the fastest growing tourism attractions in South Africa. This has various implications for the role players involved in hosting the event, especially the community. It is important to obtain the support and loyalty of residents so that potential conflicts can be avoided. However, residents are not always involved in the planning a...
South African National Parks (SANParks) plays a major role in the tourism industry and has three primary functions, namely to conserve biodiversity, to create tourism and recreational opportunities and to build strong community relations. These parks, therefore, have a definite socio-economic impact on adjacent communities, although little is known...
South Africa is not only known for being a wildlife and nature-based destination but
offers a wide variety of marine related tourism products. The latter include scuba
diving, snorkelling, swimming, world class surfing and whale watching. To capitalise
on these assets, marketers clearly state that it is necessary to understand the market
and the re...
Due to shrinking budgets for conservation and an increase in the number of government and privately owned parks, it has become very important for parks to determine who the tourists are who visit one of South Africa’s top tourist attractions. The reason for this is that park management and marketers need to focus their efforts to optimise their lim...
The Pretoria National Zoo is one of the top tourist attractions in South Africa and attracts thousands of visitors each year. Management strives towards improved education, recreation, conservation and preservation in the services delivered. In order to be able to develop the right product for the right markets as well as to promote this facility a...
Projects
Projects (5)
To find what makes troubled destinations competitive and attractive.
Does marketing and branding play any significant role in enhancing these two constructs
The primary aim of the proposed study is to determine whether Brand-SA’s image has an influence on the perceptions held of South Africa as a tourism destination, from the perspective of international tourists. The intended outcome of the study is to determine whether there is a relationship between Brand-SA and how South Africa is perceived as a tourism destination, and if so, which Brand-SA factors may potentially influence international tourist behaviour with regards to engaging in tourism activity in South Africa.