Inequality of ownership of foreign and local tourism investments and its constraints on implementation of business social responsibility (BSR) in the Western Cape Province, South Africa

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the extent at which inequality of tourism ownership constrains the implementation of business social responsibility (BSR) in the Western Cape tourism industry. A total of 307 different tourism businesses were surveyed using stratified sampling, in which 452 employees were surveyed through purposive sampling. One manager or owner and two general employees were selected. Community organisations and government tourism departments were selected as the key informants. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used for data capturing, both qualitative and quantitative including factor analysis techniques were applied for data analysis. The research findings were further analysed and interpreted using neoliberalism framework. The Western Cape formal tourism business sector was found to be characterised by inequalities in tourism business ownership, with businesses being predominantly foreign-owned. Foreign-owned tourism businesses constituted a small percentage of the total number of tourism businesses surveyed, yet an elite group of large tourism businesses mostly controls this industry. A minority of these foreign-owned tourism businesses still enjoy the most prosperity within the Western Cape tourism industry, though their commitment on BSR is weak and unsustainable. While it is important to put measurements in BSR implementation as a whole, government should work harder to regulate foreign-owned tourism businesses’ BSR activities. Besides this, an intensive training that ensures empowerment on locally-owned tourism businesses is very imperative to allow a fair competition.

Keywords: Business social responsibility, inequality, foreign-owned, local-owned, responsibility