Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Creative Tourism in Cape Town: An Innovation Perspective

  • Published:
Urban Forum Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Creative tourism is a growing field of inquiry in tourism studies and engages creative industry, creative city and urban regeneration debates. This research identifies creative experience-based tourism as an example of novel tourism product innovation in Cape Town. Creative spectacles and creative spaces in the Cape Town context are also investigated. Key findings are that creative experience-based tourism is a small, but emerging urban tourism niche market with considerable growth potential in Cape Town; creative events are well developed currently in Cape Town but as yet poorly integrated with the wider tourism destination mix as well as creative industry initiatives, and whilst creative clusters are emerging in Cape Town, minimal development of creative urban spaces for tourism purposes is evident. Critical policy issues emerging from this analysis surround recommendations for fostering creative networks, stimulating demand for creative tourism, developing a comprehensive creative tourism product mix, planning for creative precinct development, and integrating creative tourism into the Cape Town destination image.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. One exception is The Fringe, an initiative to develop an innovation hub for design, media and ICT firms in the Cape Town inner city.

  2. The creative firms were selected from business listings found on a 2013 walking map of the area.

References

  • Alsos, G. A., Eide, D., & Madsen, E. L. (2014). Innovation in tourism industries. In G. A. Alsos, D. Eide, & E. L. Madson (Eds.), Handbook of research on innovation in tourism industries (pp. 1–26). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.

    Google Scholar 

  • Andres, L., & Chapain, C. (2013). The integration of cultural and creative industries into local and regional development strategies in Birmingham and Marseille: towards an inclusive and collaborative governance? Regional Studies, 47(2), 161–182.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bialk-Wolf, A., Pechlander, H., & Nordhorn, C. (2013). The role of culture in building regional innovation systems and its impact on business tourism: the case of the Nuremberg Metropolitan Region. Poznan University of Economics Review, 13(4), 111–129.

    Google Scholar 

  • Booyens, I. (2012). Creative industries, inequality and social development: developments, impacts and challenges in Cape Town. Urban Forum, 23, 43–60.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Booyens, I. (2015). Innovation and networking in tourism for the competitiveness of the Western Cape regional tourism economy. PhD thesis, University of Johannesburg.

  • Booyens, I., Molotja, N., & Phiri, M. Z. (2013). Innovation in high-technology SMMEs: the case of the new media sector in Cape Town. Urban Forum, 24, 289–306.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Borraine, A. (2010). Cape Town central city strategy. In E. Pieterse (Ed.), Counter Currents: Experiments in Sustainability in the Cape Town Region (pp. 114–121). Cape Town: African Centre for Cities, University of Cape Town.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brouder, P. (2012). Creative outposts: tourism’s place in rural innovation. Tourism Planning and Development, 9(4), 383–396.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brouder, P., & Eriksson, R. H. (2013). Tourism evolution: on the synergies of tourism studies and evolutionary economic geography. Annals of Tourism Research, 43, 370–389.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brouder, P., & Ioannides, D. (2014). Urban tourism and evolutionary economic geography: complexity and co-evolution in contested spaces. Urban Forum, 25(4), 419–430.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cape Town Partnership & City of Cape Town (2007). Central City Development Strategy. www.capetownpartnership.co.za/programmes/strategy/. Accessed 23 September 2010.

  • Chathoth, P. K., Ungson, G. R., Altinay, L., Chan, E. S. W., Harrington, R., & Okumus, F. (2014). Barriers affecting organisational adoption of higher order customer engagement in tourism service interactions. Tourism Management, 42, 181–193.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • City of Cape Town (2010a). Draft analysis of the Cape Town spatial economy: Implications for spatial planning. http://www.capetown.gov.za/en/sdf/Documents/Nov2010/AnalysisOfSpatialEconomyS.pdf. Accessed 05 Oct 2011.

  • City of Cape Town. (2010b). Cape Town spatial development framework: Technical report. Cape Town: City of Cape Town.

    Google Scholar 

  • City of Cape Town (2012). Cape town spatial development framework: Statutory report. https://www.capetown.gov.za/en/sdf/Documents/Cape_Town_SDF_Report_2012.pdf. Accessed 18 June 014.

  • City of Cape Town (2013a). Draft tourism development framework 2013–2017. http://www.capetown.gov.za/en/PublicParticipation/Documents/HYS_Tourism_Development_Framework_March_2013_Main_Report_new.pdf. Accessed 28 October 2013.

  • City of Cape Town. (2013b). Urban design policy. Cape Town: City of Cape Town.

    Google Scholar 

  • City of Cape Town. (2014). Draft arts, culture and creative industries policy. Cape Town: City of Cape Town.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clausen, T. H., & Madsen, E. L. (2014). Innovations, their knowledge sources and their effects in experience-base tourism. In G. A. Alsos, D. Eide, & E. L. Madson (Eds.), Handbook of research on innovation in tourism industries (pp. 113–131). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.

    Google Scholar 

  • Collis, C., Felton, E., & Graham, P. (2013). Beyond the inner city: Real and imagined places in creative place policy and practice. In T. Flew (Ed.), Creative industries and urban development: Creative cities in the 21st century (pp. 15–23). Oxford: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Comunian, R. (2011). Rethinking the creative city: The role of complexity, networks and interactions in the urban creative economy. Urban Studies, 48, 1157–1179.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Creative Cape Town (2009). The design sector in Cape Town. www.creativecapetown.net/design-in-the-central-city/the-design-sector-in-cape-town/. Accessed 23 September 2010.

  • Dogan, E. (2010). Reimaging the city: Istanbul towards globalization and commodification. Journal of Tourism and Cultural Heritage (PASOS), 8(3), 7–16.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fernandes, C. (2011). Cultural planning and creative tourism in an emerging tourist destination. International Journal of Management Cases, 13, 629–636.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Flew, T. (2013). Creative industries and cities. In T. Flew (Ed.), Creative industries and urban development: Creative cities in the 21st century (pp. 1–14). Oxford: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Flew, T., & Cunningham, S. (2013). Creative industries after the first decade of debate. In T. Flew (Ed.), Creative industries and urban development: Creative cities in the 21st century (pp. 68–78). Oxford: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Florida, R. (2002). The rise of the creative class. New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Garside, J. (1993). Inner city gentrification in South Africa: The case of Woodstock, Cape Town. GeoJournal, 30(1), 29–35.

    Google Scholar 

  • George, R., & Booyens, I. (2014). Township tourism demand: Tourists’ perceptions of safety and security. Urban Forum, 25(4), 449–467.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grodach, C. (2013). Cultural economy and planning in creative cities: Discourse and practice. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 37(5), 1747–1765.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hung, W.-L., Lee, Y.-J., & Huang, P.-S. (2014). Creative experiences, memorability and revisit intention in creative tourism. Current Issues in Tourism. doi:10.1080/13683500.2013.877422.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ingle, M. K. (2010). A ‘creative class’ in South Africa’s arid Karoo area. Urban Forum, 21(2), 405–423.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jelincic, D. A., & Zuvela, A. (2012). Facing the challenge?—Creative tourism in Croatia. Journal of Tourism Consumption and Practice, 4(2), 78–90.

    Google Scholar 

  • Joffe, A. & Newton, M. (2007). The creative industries in South Africa. http://www.labour.gov.za/downloads/documents/research-documents/Creative%20Industries_DoL_Report.pdf. Accessed 31 August 2010.

  • Jooste, B. (2011). Revival plan for flagging tourism. http://www.iol.co.za/travel/travel-news/revival-planfor-flagging-tourism-1.1088397#.UFcpZVFcidU. Accessed 20 September 2012.

  • Lee, M. L., Olson, D. L., & Trimi, S. (2012). Co-innovation: Convergenomics, collaboration, and co-creation for organizational values. Management Decision, 50(5), 817–831.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lemanski, C. (2007). Global cities in the south: Deepening social and spatial polarisation in Cape Town. Cities, 24, 448–461.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lewis, N. M., & Donald, B. (2010). A new rubric for ‘creative city’ potential in Canada’s smaller cities. Urban Studies, 47(1), 29–54.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marques, L. & Richards, G. (Eds). (2014). Creative districts around the world. http://creativedistricts.imem.nl/. Accessed 21 May 2014.

  • Martin, R. (2013). Differentiated knowledge bases and the nature of innovation networks. European Planning Studies, 21(9), 1418–1436.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Miles, I., & Green, L. (2010). Innovation in creative services. In F. Gallouj & F. Djellal (Eds.), The handbook of innovation in services: A multi-disciplinary perspective (pp. 178–196). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.

    Google Scholar 

  • O’Connor, J., & Gu, X. (2013). Developing a creative cluster in a post-industrial city: CIDS and Manchester. In T. Flew (Ed.), Creative industries and urban development: Creative cities in the 21st century (pp. 43–55). Oxford: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • OECD. (2008). OECD territorial reviews: Cape Town. South Africa: OECD.

    Google Scholar 

  • OECD. (2013). Delivering local development: New growth and investment strategies. Paris: OECD.

    Google Scholar 

  • OECD. (2014). Tourism and the creative economy. Paris: OECD.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Pappalepore, I., Maitland, R., & Smith, A. (2014). Prosuming creative urban areas: Evidence from East London. Annals of Tourism Research, 44, 227–240.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pechlaner, H., Fischer, E., & Hammann, E. M. (2006). Leadership and innovation processes—Development of products and services based on core competencies. Journal of Quality Assurance in Hospitality and Tourism, 6(3&4), 31–57.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pirie, G. (2007). Reanimating a comatose goddess: Reconfiguring central Cape Town. Urban Forum, 18(3), 125–151.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pirie, G. (2010). Trajectories of the north–south inter-relations: Johannesburg and Cape Town, 1994–2007. Urban Studies, 47(9), 1985–2002.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pratt, A. C. (2009). Urban regeneration: From the arts ‘feel good’ factor to the cultural economy: A case study of Hoxton London. Urban Studies, 46, 1041–1059.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Prebensen, N. K. (2014). Facilitating for enhanced experience value. In G. A. Alsos, D. Eide, & E. L. Madson (Eds.), Handbook of research on innovation in tourism industries (pp. 154–180). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.

    Google Scholar 

  • Richards, G. (2010). Tourism development trajectories: From culture to creativity? Tourism and Management Studies, 6, 9–15.

    Google Scholar 

  • Richards, G. (2011a). Creativity and tourism: The state of the art. Annals of Tourism Research, 38(4), 1225–1253.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Richards, G. (2011b). Cultural tourism. Paper presented at the I Congresso Internacional da Rota do Românico, Lousada, Portugal

  • Richards, G. (2012). Tourism, creativity and creative industries. Paper presented at the conference: Creativity and creative industries in challenging times, Tilburg, Tilburg University.

  • Richards, G. (2013). Cultural tourism. In T. Blackshaw (Ed.) Routledge handbook of leisure studies (pp. 483–492). Abingdon: Routledge

  • Richards, G. & Bartos, P. (2014). Creative economy and tourism: Developing effective cooperation. Report on a workshop organised in the context of the OECD Conference on Tourism and the Creative Economy. Linz, 5 September 2014

  • Richards, G., & Marques, L. (2012). Exploring creative tourism. Journal of Tourism Consumption and Practice, 4(2), 1–11.

    Google Scholar 

  • Richards, G., & Raymond, C. (2000). Creative tourism. ATLAS News, 23, 16–20.

    Google Scholar 

  • Richards, G., & Wilson, J. (2006). Developing creativity in tourist experiences: A solution to the serial reproduction of culture. Tourism Management, 27, 1209–1223.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rodriguez, I., Williams, A. & Hall, C. M. (2014). Tourism innovation policy: Implementation and outcomes. Annals of Tourism Research, 49, 76–93.

  • Rogerson, C. M. (2006). Creative industries and urban tourism: South African perspectives. Urban Forum, 17, 149–166.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rogerson, J. M. (2012). The changing location of hotels in South Africa’s coastal cities. Urban Forum, 23(1), 73–91.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rogerson, C. M. (2013). Urban tourism, economic regeneration and inclusion: Evidence from South Africa. Local Economy, 28(2), 188–202.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rogerson, C. M., & Rogerson, J. M. (2014). Urban tourism destinations in South Africa: Divergent Trajectories 2001–2012. Urbani Izziv, 25, S189–S203.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rogerson, C. M., & Visser, G. E. (2011). Rethinking South African urban tourism research. Tourism Review International, 15, 77–90.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rogerson, C. M., & Visser, G. E. (2014). A decade of progress in African urban tourism scholarship. Urban Forum, 25(4), 407–417.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ronningen, M., & Lien, G. (2014). The importance of systemic features for innovation orientation in tourism firms. In G. A. Alsos, D. Eide, & E. L. Madson (Eds.), Handbook of research on innovation in tourism industries (pp. 27–55). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.

    Google Scholar 

  • Salman, D. (2010). Rethinking of cities, cultures and tourism within a creative perspective. Journal of Tourism and Cultural Heritage (PASOS), 8(3), 1–5.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shin, H., & Stevens, Q. (2013). How culture and economy meet in South Korea: The politics of cultural economy in culture-led urban regeneration. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 37(5), 1707–1723.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sorensen, F., & Sundbo, J. (2014). Potentials of user-based innovation in tourism: The example of GPS tracking of attraction visitors. In G. A. Alsos, D. Eide, & E. L. Madson (Eds.), Handbook of research on innovation in tourism industries (pp. 132–153). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stamboulis, Y., & Skayannis, P. (2003). Innovation strategies and technology for experience-based tourism. Tourism Management, 24, 35–43.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tafel-Viia, K., Viia, A., Terk, E., & Lassur, S. (2014). Urban policies for the creative industries: A European Comparison. European Planning Studies, 22(4), 796–815.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tan, S., Luh, D., & Kung, S. (2014). A taxonomy of creative tourism in creative tourism. Tourism Management, 42, 248–259.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tan, S., Tan, S.-H., Luh, D.-B., & Kung, S.-F. (2015). Understanding tourist perspectives in creative tourism. Current Issues in Tourism. doi:10.1080/13683500.2015.1008427.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thomas, R., & Wood, E. (2014). Innovation in tourism: Re-conceptualising and measuring the absorptive capacity of the hotel sector. Tourism Management, 45, 39–48.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • UNCTAD. (2010). Creative economy report 2010: A feasible development option. Geneva: United Nations.

    Google Scholar 

  • UNCTAD. (2013). Creative economy report 2013, special edition: Widening local economic pathways. Geneva: United Nations.

    Google Scholar 

  • UNESCO (2006). Discussion Report of the Planning Meeting for 2006 International Conference on Creative Tourism. Santa Fe.

  • Van Geenhuizen, M., & Soetanto, D. P. (2013). Benefitting from learning networks in “open innovation”: Spin-off firms in contrasting city regions. European Planning Studies, 21(5), 666–682.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Visser, G. E. (2007). Festival tourism in Urban Africa: The case of South Africa. In C. M. Rogerson & G. E. Visser (Eds.), Urban tourism in the developing world: The South African experience (pp. 101–126). New Brunswick: Transaction.

    Google Scholar 

  • Visser, G. E. (2014). The film industry and South African urban change. Urban Forum, 25, 13–34.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vissers, G., & Dankbaar, B. (2013). Knowledge and proximity. European Planning Studies, 21(5), 700–721.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Waitt, G., & Gibson, C. (2014). Tourism and creative economies. In A. A. Lew, C. M. Hall, & A. M. Williams (Eds.), The Wiley Blackwell companion to tourism (pp. 230–239). Chichester: Wiley Blackwell.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Walker, M. (2010). Cities as creative spaces for cultural tourism: A plea for the consideration of history. Journal of Tourism and Cultural Heritage (PASOS,), 8(3), 17–28.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wattanacharoensil, W., & Schuckert, M. (2014). Reviewing Thailand’s master plans and policies: Implications for creative tourism. Current Issues in Tourism. doi:10.1080/13683500.2014.882295.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wenz, L. (2009). The rise of the creative economy in Cape Town and its implications for urban development. http://www.uni-leipzig.de/∼ecas2009/index2.php?option0com_docman&task0doc_view&gid01332&Itemid024. Accessed 24 August 2011.

  • Western Cape Provincial Government & The Cape Craft & Design Institute. (2013). Western Cape design strategy. Cape Town: Western Cape Provincial Government.

    Google Scholar 

  • Williams, A. M. (2014). Tourism innovation: Products, processes and people. In A. A. Lew, C. M. Hall, & A. M. Williams (Eds.), The Wiley Blackwell companion to tourism (pp. 168–177). Chichester: Wiley Blackwell.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Tourism & Hospitality, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa

    Irma Booyens & Christian M. Rogerson

Authors
  1. Irma Booyens
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Christian M. Rogerson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Christian M. Rogerson.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Booyens, I., Rogerson, C.M. Creative Tourism in Cape Town: An Innovation Perspective. Urban Forum 26, 405–424 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12132-015-9251-y

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12132-015-9251-y

Keywords

Search

Navigation