Complete Grade 10 Tourism study guide in English, aligned to the CAPS curriculum. 16 chapters with explanations, worked examples, exercises with solutions, and original practice papers with memos.

Chapters

Chapter 1. Introduction to Tourism: What Tourism Is and Why It Matters FREE

Every December, the N3 highway between Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal fills with families driving to the coast for the holidays. A guesthouse in Clarens charges around R1 200 a night, a guide at the Cradle of Humankind earns a wage from the visitors he walks through the caves, and a curio seller at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town sells beadwork to a tourist from Germany. All of these people are part of tourism. In South Africa tourism contributes billions of rands to the economy each year and supports more than one and a half million jobs, which is why the government treats it as one of the country main growth industries. This chapter explains what tourism actually is, who a tourist is, and why tourism matters so much to a country like ours.

1.1 What tourism means

Tourism is the activity of people travelling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year, for leisure, business or other purposes. The key idea is that a person leaves home, goes somewhere different, and then returns. A tourist is a visitor who stays at least one night at the destination, while a same-day visitor (or excursionist) travels and returns on the same day without staying overnight. A learner from Polokwane who spends a weekend in the Kruger National Park is a tourist; a family who drives from Pretoria to the Hartbeespoort Dam for a picnic and drives home before dark is a same-day visitor.

A destination is the place a tourist travels to, and the journey for pleasure, rest or adventure is often called a holiday or a trip. Not all travel is tourism. Travelling to your permanent job in the same town, or moving to a new city to live there forever, is not tourism, because tourism always involves a temporary stay away from your usual environment.

Example: Decide whether each person is a tourist or a same-day visitor. (1) Thabo flies from Durban to Cape Town for a three-night business conference. (2) Mrs Naidoo drives from Pietermaritzburg to Durban beachfront in the morning and returns home at night. Step 1: Check who stays overnight. Thabo stays three nights, so he is a tourist. Step 2: Mrs Naidoo returns the same day with no overnight stay, so she is a same-day visitor.

1.2 Reasons people travel

People become tourists for many different reasons. The main purposes of travel are usually grouped as:

Leisure and recreation — holidays, relaxing at the beach, hiking the Drakensberg, or visiting a game reserve.
Business — attending meetings, conferences and exhibitions, such as the Mining Indaba in Cape Town.
Visiting friends and relatives (VFR) — travelling home for a family wedding or a December reunion.
Cultural and heritage — visiting Robben Island or the Apartheid Museum to learn about history.
Health and wellness — visiting a spa or travelling for medical treatment.
Religious and sport — pilgrimages, or following the Springboks to a rugby match.

1.3 Why tourism matters

Tourism matters because it brings money and jobs to communities that might otherwise have few other industries. When a visitor spends money on accommodation, food, transport, souvenirs and entrance fees, that money flows to many local people. This is called the multiplier effect: one tourist rand is spent again and again as it moves through the economy. A tourist who pays R800 for a night at a lodge helps to pay the salaries of cleaners, chefs, drivers and the farmer who supplied the vegetables.

Tourism is also a major earner of foreign exchange, which is the foreign money that overseas visitors bring into the country, helping South Africa to pay for goods it imports. Because tourism creates work for people with many different skill levels, from highly trained tour operators to entry-level cleaners and waiters, it is especially valuable in a country with high unemployment.

Example: A small town hosts a music festival that attracts 5 000 visitors. Each visitor spends an average of R600 in the town on tickets, food and accommodation. Estimate the direct spending. Step 1: Multiply visitors by average spend: \( 5\,000 \times \text{R}600 = \text{R}3\,000\,000 \). Step 2: This R3 million flows to guesthouses, food stalls and shops, and through the multiplier effect it is re-spent locally, supporting even more jobs.

1.4 Domestic and international tourists

Tourists are also classified by where they come from. A domestic tourist travels within their own country, like a Capetonian visiting the Kruger Park. An international (foreign) tourist travels from another country, like a visitor from the United Kingdom coming to South Africa. South Africa relies on both: domestic tourists keep the industry busy throughout the year, while international tourists bring in valuable foreign exchange. Understanding these basic ideas prepares you to study the different tourism sectors, role players and travel skills in the chapters that follow.