Sun international: The making of a South African tourismus multinational

Sun International is a tourism multinational corporation (MNC) based in South Africa. The aim is to examine the formation and geographical spread of activities of this South African MNC engaged in casino-resort development and luxury tourism. Within the geographical literature on MNCs the study of Sun International underlines both the importance of country of origin as a factor in interpreting the heterogenous character of MNCs and of the distinctiveness of South African MNCs. The spatial scope of Sun International (including its ancestor, Southern Sun) operations was influenced by the enterprise's association with apartheid. Despite several efforts to mask its South African origin through restrictive corporate disclosure and corporate camouflage, planned international expansion was continually frustrated by the stigma of apartheid. Sun International was confined in its international operations to those African states which either were economic or political satellites of South Africa or to the group of 'independent' Bantustans, which were creations of apartheid.