Size matters in the African hotel industry: The case of South Africa

Abstract

The hotel industry in Africa has been investigated mostly from a hospitality management as opposed to a tourism perspective. Using a tourism perspective this article focuses on the changing size distribution of hotels and shifting spatial patterns of different size hotels in South Africa. Source material is the use of comprehensive data sets of national hotels in South Africa which were prepared for 1990 and 2010. In the changing structure of the national hotel industry between 1990 and 2010 the role of small hotels is affected by the closure of many old forms of liquor-dominated hotels and the appearance of new market segments, most notably boutique hotels. The period 1990 to 2010 reveals marked expansion in the numbers of medium-sized hotels and steady growth in the category of large hotel establishments. Geographical changes are evident in size distributions of hotels in South Africa at both the inter-urban and intra-urban scales of analysis.

Keywords: Hotels, size structure, South Africa.