Urban cultural tourism in the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality and its potential benefits to economic growth

Abstract

Cultural tourism is considered to be one of the largest and fastest growing types of global tourism markets. Culture is increasingly being used to promote destinations and enhance their attractiveness and competitiveness. Many cities are now actively developing their cultural assets as a way of developing comparative advantages over others in the tourism marketplace. In the light of this, there is need to diversify the tourism economy of the City of Johannesburg by strengthening the Cultural tourism aspect. Despite the fact that Greater Johannesburg Metropolitan Area has a good cultural infrastructure which includes a number of theatres, museums and art galleries, cultural tourism is one of the underdeveloped aspects of the local tourism economy. The main focus of the research was to identify ways to diversify the tourism economy of the City of Johannesburg by anchoring it on cultural products and activities, thereby improving the cultural image and competitiveness of Johannesburg as an urban cultural city destination in Africa.