Being near the action: bed and breakfast and guesthouse entrepreneurs and the hosting of black South African domestic tourists in the Cape Town townships

Katrina T. Greene

Mobilities, 2023, vol. 18, issue 1, 54-69

Abstract: This article examines how black female bed and breakfast (B&B) and guesthouse entrepreneurs in the black townships of Cape Town, South Africa were providing accommodations to black South African domestic tourists that allowed these tourists to ‘be near the action’ in the townships. ‘Being near the action’ refers to being able to conveniently attend various life-cycle events, such as weddings, funerals, and circumcision celebrations that involve friends and/or family, or engage in work, business, and other activities in the townships. This research contributes to tourism mobilities studies by explaining how these entrepreneurs impacted and were being impacted by domestic tourism and how the social spaces or ‘moorings’ of the entrepreneurs’ accommodations produced and reproduced social and cultural life. In addition, this study provides an understanding of tourism in Africa, and specifically domestic tourism in South Africa, related to the discretionary mobilities of a growing population of middle-class black South Africans. For this study, data was collected through semi-structured interviews conducted with black female B&Bs and guesthouse entrepreneurs in the townships of Langa, Gugulethu, and Khayelitsha. The article also includes a discussion of the possible implications of the COVID-19 pandemic’s halting of travel mobilities on the economic sustainability of these entrepreneurs.

Date: 2023
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/17450101.2022.2082883 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:rmobxx:v:18:y:2023:i:1:p:54-69

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/rmob20

DOI: 10.1080/17450101.2022.2082883

Access Statistics for this article

Mobilities is currently edited by Professor Kevin Hannam, Professor Mimi Sheller and Professor John Urry

More articles in Mobilities from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().