Author(s):
Gijsbert Hoogendoorn* - School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies. University of the Witwatersrand
Gustav Visser - Department of Geography, University of the Free State, South Africa
Abstract:
It has been 10 years since second home tourism emerged as a topic of investigation within South Africa. A number of book chapters, articles, masters and PhD thesis' have appeared focussing on the economic, social and environmental impacts of second home tourism. From these core investigations, new themes have emerged such as methodological challenges, the consequences of second home tourism for town-and-regional planning and lastly, second homes' place in the South African post-productivist countryside. Issues relating to personal mobility and (inter)-national migration of different population groups across varied income levels have also been scrutinised. This paper therefore aims to use Koselleck's futures-past to investigate the successes and failures of this on-going research project and will point to both new and important themes of investigation. Despite a decade of dedicated inquiry, much research is still required to understand this phenomenon fully. Furthermore, the South African government and the tourism industry at large need to acknowledge second home tourism as the backbone of many tourist regions within South Africa.
