Overtourism in Cape Town: Local Stakeholder Perspectives

Jessa, Sirhan and Rogerson, Jayne M. (2025) Overtourism in Cape Town: Local Stakeholder Perspectives. MODERN GEOGRÁFIA, 20 (4). pp. 117-140. ISSN 2062-1655

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Abstract

Over the past three decades tourism geographers have engaged increasingly with issues of urban tourism and overtourism. The mass of urban tourism scholarship and writings about overtourism concerns cities in the Global North. The novel contribution of this study is documenting evidence of emergent overtourism and the rise of resident discontent in the context of a major urban tourism destination in the Global South, namely Cape Town. The case study scrutinized is of tourism impacts and stakeholder perspectives of the historic inner-city neighbourhood of Bo-Kaap where 22 detailed stakeholder interviews were conducted. The Bo-Kaap manifests the hallmarks of overtourism as documented in several European cities. Touristification is modifying the local residential and business landscape for tourist consumption with the consequence that residents of the neighbourhood are alienated as the space becomes difficult to live in. The findings reveal significant levels of anti-tourist sentiment in the Bo-Kaap which stem from concerns about the local nuisances of tourism expansion and perceived lack of benefits for the neighbourhood. Arguably, critical policy and management challenges confront the City of Cape Town in respect of current directions of tourism development in the Bo-Kaap neighbourhood.

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