The potential of space technology for sustainable tourism development in Zululand, KwaZulu-Natal

Space technology has a huge potential to provide valuable support through applications and satellite communication, reliable data and accurate information for informed decision making with respect to sustainable tourism especially around fragile world heritage sites and ecotourism potential. Earth observation from space is a cost-effective way of obtaining unbiased and essential data on the physical world and will allow decision-makers to use this information to understand trends, evaluate needs, and create sustainable development policies and programmes for society. This study is therefore aimed at assessing efforts by various stakeholders in space technology and tourism sectors for communities to yield the benefits of this integration. This study adopted a qualitative and quantitative approach, and it was sampled from 150 stakeholders and commuters within the Zululand District Municipality. The study discovered that there are little to no efforts made to integrate space technology to achieve sustainable tourism in the district. These findings necessitate reasonable interventions to achieve the desired outcomes. Therefore, several recommendations accompanied by a model were made. This model can be used to align and integrate the relationship between space technology and tourism sectors to create tourism sustainability in Zululand. It will add to the body of literature on the potential of space technology that could assist public private sector in developing better initiatives for tourism sustainability.