Developing polo tourism as a niche market in the western cape province, south africa

The Western Cape Province of South Africa is one of the world’s leading tourism destinations with over half of the population benefiting directly or indirectly from the tourism sector (South Africa, 2017). Within the industry, event tourism has been identified as the fastest growing field (Getz, 2016), extending the tourism season and countering the effects of seasonality. The Province is considered the sport event capital of South Africa, with sporting events occurring throughout the year, which do not only increase visitor numbers, but has also been identified as vehicles to induce community pride and boost the local economy. As competition for the hosting of events has increased, polo tourism and the hosting of polo events in the Western Cape has been identified as a targeted niche market by tourism bodies and destination marketing organisations in the area due to the high-income segment that the sport attracts, and the subsequent development of polo facilities in the Province. Previous research on this niche has shown that growth of the market is slow due to high barriers to participation, including the high costs associated with the sport. Although the number of polo events hosted in the Western Cape annually has increased, the niche market has not been fully exploited from a tourism viewpoint. This study aims to address the considerable gap in research on polo tourism as a niche and to provide guidelines for the sustainable development thereof. Semi structured key informant interviews were conducted with 15 major stakeholders in the polo and tourism industries in the Province during 2018. The semi structured interview schedule which was used consisted of three dimensions: current levels of polo tourism, barriers to development, and recommendations for future growth. Qualitative feedback from the interviews affirmed the fact that polo tourism is an untapped niche because of the lack of knowledge on how to develop the niche sustainably. The data also revealed that the niche is currently focussed on events but that adopting a ground-up approach by increasing the understanding of polo amongst local residents, and changing current perceptions of the sport as being for the wealthy, only will aid in the development of polo tourism, also resulting in job creation in the Province.