Profiles of tourists participating in shark cage diving in Gansbaai, South Africa
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Date
2020Author
Mabaleka, Nolwazi
Ntloko, Ncedo J.
Swart, Kamilla
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Coastal and marine tourism is a sector that draws visitors from around the globe to South
Africa. This is largely because of an array of marine wildlife resources found in the country.
Despite this strong pull factor, there is limited information on the economic value of the marine
environment. This article focuses on establishing the profiles of visitors taking part in shark
cage diving in Gansbaai. Such profiling will facilitate the understanding of the potential target
market of CMT visitors to Gansbaai, whilst contributing towards targeted developments in the
area aimed at capturing the economic value of such visitors through the provision of a range
of visitor-specific activities to make the destination more appealing. It will also contribute to
further developments in the area, in providing a wide range of activities to make the destination
more appealing. In ascertaining the profile of visitors, a quantitative research design was
adopted. A total of n = 378 self-administered questionnaires were collected from visitors taking
part in shark cage diving using a face-to-face proportionate sampling technique. The results
revealed that a majority of visitors were drawn to Gansbaai because of shark cage diving and
that a large portion travelled to Gansbaai for holiday purposes. There was a challenge in the
ability of the destination to attract overnight visitors because of a limited product offering in
the area. As a result, minimal spending occurs in Gansbaai as an overwhelming majority of the
visitors are day visitors. These results have implications for tourists, tourism destination
planners, tour operators and tourism establishments in Gansbaai.
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- TD: 2020 Volume 16 [37]