The spatial economic impact of an airport migration on the business services sector

Abstract

The movement of a major industry to, from or within a region has always had an impact on the overall spatial economy of a region. We study the impact from the perspective of related service-oriented business that form part of this spatial economy. This study specifically considers the impact that the movement of a regional airport in South Africa has on the ability of the business services sector to grow its contribution to GDP. We examines if the movement of the airport to another location has had an impact on GDP growth within sub-regions around the old and new location, as well as what underlying economic factors may contribute most to growing the sectors contribution to GDP