Virtual Reality: Saving Tourism in South Africa?

Q2 Social Sciences

African Journal of Hospitality, Tourism and Leisure Pub Date : 2022-02-28 DOI:10.46222/ajhtl.19770720.225

Victoria Verkerk

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引用次数: 1

Abstract

At the end of 2019, a new crisis emerged in the world - COVID-19 - which literally devastated the tourism industry worldwide. In order to try to minimise the spread of COVID-19, the government implemented a strict national lockdown, but this unfortunately had a negative impact on many sectors within the tourism industry. In the light of this, many scholars argued that technology such as virtual reality (VR), would contribute to the recovery of tourism. This article considers this phenomenon by filling a gap in the literature regarding the role of VR in the tourism industry in the global South by focusing on South Africa. The key question that arises, namely can VR save tourism in South Africa in the wake of COVID-19? To address this question, the study uses three methodological approaches: case studies, a conceptual research method and open-ended interviews. The results from the study showed that VR offers tourism numerous benefits, but at the same time poses a threat to the industry. Despite this, the study concludes that VR cannot save the tourism industry in South Africa currently as it faces certain critical obstacles in this context.

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虚拟现实:拯救南非旅游业?

2019年底，世界上出现了一场新的危机——COVID-19，这场危机彻底摧毁了全球旅游业。为了尽量减少COVID-19的传播，政府实施了严格的全国封锁，但不幸的是，这对旅游业的许多部门产生了负面影响。有鉴于此，许多学者认为虚拟现实(VR)等技术将有助于旅游业的复苏。本文通过关注南非，填补了关于VR在全球南方旅游业中的作用的文献空白，从而考虑了这一现象。由此产生的关键问题是，VR能否在2019冠状病毒病之后拯救南非的旅游业?为了解决这个问题，本研究使用了三种方法:案例研究、概念研究方法和开放式访谈。研究结果表明，虚拟现实为旅游业带来了许多好处，但同时也对该行业构成了威胁。尽管如此，该研究得出的结论是，VR目前无法拯救南非的旅游业，因为它在这方面面临着某些关键障碍。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

African Journal of Hospitality, Tourism and Leisure Social Sciences-Geography, Planning and Development

CiteScore

2.70

自引率

0.00%

发文量

审稿时长

8 weeks

期刊介绍： AJHTL is a proudly African, independent, privately owned multidisciplinary peer-reviewed journal, not aligned to any institution which is published quarterly. We encourage academic debate and are fully electronic and dedicated to increasing the depth of research across a range of related disciplines with the primary objective of promoting research. New researchers are especially welcome to submit articles to us for consideration. Our articles are read by scholars, students and industry globally. Only authors may submit a paper for review and only original research is considered for publication. Articles that have been either published elsewhere or which are currently considered for publication elsewhere, must not be submitted for reviewing. A journal publication might take from about one month up to one nine months to appear. The reviewing process is competitive with less than 69% of papers considered finally being accepted for publication. Authors must be certain that their paper meets the academic standards of rigorous scholarly research. Authors must have reviewed and cited the critical and recent English references that relate to the research paper. Where other language references are used these must be translated. Articles must be English language edited by authors prior to submission to the journal.