The sustainability of pink tourism businesses in Cape Town: transitions to the mainstream leisure market

Abstract

The lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) tourism market, also known as ‘pink tourism’, had developed into a niche market in Cape Town. With the adoption of a new Constitution, the rights of all South African citizens were recognised, including gay rights. South Africa hosted the World Cup soccer tournament in 2010, thrusting the city into the international tourism market. The recognition of the economic contribution by the South African Department of Tourism resulted in the development of a tourism framework to guide the industry. The Western Cape developed a tourism framework to grow the economy and create jobs in different niches. Within the niches, pink tourism emerged as a niche in an area called De Waterkant in Cape Town. This became known as the gay village in Cape Town, a first for the African continent. The gay village flourished, with bars, clubs’, restaurants, guest houses and saunas attracting locals and tourists from all over the world. Events supporting this niche were the Mother City Queer Project, Out in Africa film festival, Mr Gay World, and the Gay and Lesbian Travel symposium. As the niche became saturated, change saw gay tourists holidaying elsewhere and the gentrification of the gay village. Businesses closed and some moved; however, those that remained have had to review their business strategies for sustainability. The research explores how tourism businesses within the pink niche might had transitioned to compete in the mainstream leisure market. The aim of the study is to explore how the pink tourism business sector can diversify and expand its niche product offering to transition into the mainstream leisure market for long-term sustainability. The transition may be evidenced by changes in the marketing mix through product, price, place and promotion that appeal to the LGBT individual and broader mainstream leisure market. The researcher conducted a qualitative study through a purposive sample method with twelve pink businesses in the De Waterkant and Atlantic seaboard area in Cape Town. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with owners or management. The findings revealed that most businesses had transitioned to the mainstream leisure market, with a few that continue to operate within the pink and mainstream market simultaneously. In terms of implications, this study provided confirmation that there is a need for gay leisure spaces, whether exclusively gay or gay friendly, with some outside the general borders of a gay village defined as businesses serving the LGBT sector which are gay or not gay owned. It was able to describe the current state of the pink niche and its transition to the mainstream market. It was further able to illustrate government and regulatory bodies could engage with the business environment to better understand the niche and what planning is required to bring the niche into the tourism industry to work as a collective. The key findings of the study not only advances the understanding of the state of the pink niche and the possibility of growth as an forgotten tourism niche market, it also makes recommendations that a combined approach of business and regulatory bodies would be important to re-establish relationships to market the pink tourism and mainstream sector effectively. This would provide direction for future research for long-term case studies of pink niche businesses that have transitioned or are in the state of transition and an opportunity to research the demand-side perspectives of pink niche transitioning from the perspective of travellers. In closing the gap of knowledge, this study contributes to the future development and sustainability of the industry, resulting in South Africa remaining competitive as a destination of choice for the local and international market.