Understanding a tourism culture amongst students to advance domestic tourism in South Africa

This study focuses on higher education institution (HEI) students - with the view to understanding how tourism has evolved over the years and the part played by the youth in consuming domestic tourism in South Africa. The research seeks to determine if there is a tourism culture among young adults. Thus, the aim is to investigate what South African youth regard as do mestic tourism, what type of tourism they consume, possible constraints or elements that motivate youth to travel domestically, and possible reasons youth venture into tourism. Put differently, this paper examines tourism development in South Africa, higher education (HE), youth participation, and domestic tourism. The study employed a quantitative research method. In this regard, a survey was conducted on students attending tourism programmes. The researchers established a lack of substantial information regarding South African youth's participation in the country's domestic youth tourism. This finding prompted further investigation that revealed that youth do have tourism knowledge and provided numerous reasons for their decision to study tourism albeit as a second career choice. Students consume tourism mainly when traveling to VFR, and to reconnect with family. These students indicated that they did not have a culture of travelling. In addition, the results revealed that saving is not a priority for the surveyed students. However, when circumstances change, they will most likely participate in tourism. Various types of tourism were consumed, with most of the land transportation being associated with recreational tourism.