Bulletin of Geography. Socio-economic Series

Title:
The making of the South African timeshare industry: spatial structure and development challenges

Authors

Wayde R. Pandy - University of Johannesburg, School of Tourism and Hospitality, Faculty of Management, Johannesburg, South Africa; e-mail: wayde360@gmail.com (corresponding author)

Christian M. Rogerson - University of Johannesburg, School of Tourism and Hospitality, Faculty of Management, Johannesburg, South Africa; e-mail: crogerson@uj.ac.za

Keywords
timeshare, industry development; spatial patterns; South Africa

Abstract
Research on the accommodation sector attracts only a small fraction of contemporary tourism scholarship relating to sub-Saharan Africa. This paper contributes to this expanding literature on segmentation and the accommodation sector in South Africa. Specifically, it examines the establishment and making of the timeshare industry as a distinctive form of accommodation within the national tourism economy. The timeshare industry in South Africa is the largest and most mature in sub-Saharan Africa and among the most important in the developing world. The analysis uses a longitudinal perspective in order to interpret the emerging spatial organisation and evolving structural issues that impacted upon the development of the timeshare industry in its formative years from 1978 to 2002. The study addresses a knowledge gap around the minimal pursuit of historical research within the existing international literature about timeshare.

Pages:
183-201

DOI:
10.2478/bog-2014-0053

BGSS No. 26 (2014)