GGH2606
Assignment 2 Semester 2 2026
Unique number:
Due date: 14 September 2026
CAPE TOWN TOURISM RESOURCES AND TOURISM IMPACTS
1. INTRODUCTION
Cape Town is one of South Africa’s best-known tourism destinations because it
combines natural scenery, cultural heritage, urban attractions and a developed
visitor economy. The city offers famous places such as Table Mountain, Robben
Island, the V&A Waterfront, Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden, Cape Point
and the beaches of the Atlantic Seaboard. These attractions make Cape Town a
useful area for applying tourism resource classification and for examining the
impacts of tourism in a real destination. Tourism resources are important because
they give visitors reasons to travel, but the presence of attractions alone does not
guarantee successful tourism. Accessibility, support services, management and the
wider tourism product also influence whether visitors choose a destination
, CAPE TOWN TOURISM RESOURCES AND TOURISM IMPACTS
1. INTRODUCTION
Cape Town is one of South Africa’s best-known tourism destinations because it
combines natural scenery, cultural heritage, urban attractions and a developed
visitor economy. The city offers famous places such as Table Mountain, Robben
Island, the V&A Waterfront, Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden, Cape Point and
the beaches of the Atlantic Seaboard. These attractions make Cape Town a useful
area for applying tourism resource classification and for examining the impacts of
tourism in a real destination. Tourism resources are important because they give
visitors reasons to travel, but the presence of attractions alone does not guarantee
successful tourism. Accessibility, support services, management and the wider
tourism product also influence whether visitors choose a destination (Moolman,
2017). This report first applies the Clawson and Knetsch classification system to
Cape Town’s tourism resources. It then examines the economic, environmental and
socio-cultural impacts of tourism in the city, using both positive and negative
examples. The purpose is to show how tourism can create opportunities while also
placing pressure on the destination if it is not managed carefully.
2. PART 1: CLASSIFICATION OF TOURISM RESOURCES IN CAPE TOWN
2.1 Purpose of classifying tourism resources
Tourism resource classification helps to organise a large number of attractions into
meaningful groups so that planners can understand what a destination offers and
how those resources should be managed. A classification system also helps with
marketing because it allows a destination to identify the main features that attract
different types of tourists. The GGH2606 material explains that an inventory of
attractions should be followed by analysis through a suitable classification system,
while accessibility, support facilities and favourable conditions for development must
also be considered (Moolman, 2017). For Cape Town, classification is useful
because the city contains very different attractions, from natural landscapes to
museums, shopping areas and heritage sites. These resources do not function in the
same way and they do not attract visitors for the same reasons. Clawson and
Assignment 2 Semester 2 2026
Unique number:
Due date: 14 September 2026
CAPE TOWN TOURISM RESOURCES AND TOURISM IMPACTS
1. INTRODUCTION
Cape Town is one of South Africa’s best-known tourism destinations because it
combines natural scenery, cultural heritage, urban attractions and a developed
visitor economy. The city offers famous places such as Table Mountain, Robben
Island, the V&A Waterfront, Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden, Cape Point
and the beaches of the Atlantic Seaboard. These attractions make Cape Town a
useful area for applying tourism resource classification and for examining the
impacts of tourism in a real destination. Tourism resources are important because
they give visitors reasons to travel, but the presence of attractions alone does not
guarantee successful tourism. Accessibility, support services, management and the
wider tourism product also influence whether visitors choose a destination
, CAPE TOWN TOURISM RESOURCES AND TOURISM IMPACTS
1. INTRODUCTION
Cape Town is one of South Africa’s best-known tourism destinations because it
combines natural scenery, cultural heritage, urban attractions and a developed
visitor economy. The city offers famous places such as Table Mountain, Robben
Island, the V&A Waterfront, Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden, Cape Point and
the beaches of the Atlantic Seaboard. These attractions make Cape Town a useful
area for applying tourism resource classification and for examining the impacts of
tourism in a real destination. Tourism resources are important because they give
visitors reasons to travel, but the presence of attractions alone does not guarantee
successful tourism. Accessibility, support services, management and the wider
tourism product also influence whether visitors choose a destination (Moolman,
2017). This report first applies the Clawson and Knetsch classification system to
Cape Town’s tourism resources. It then examines the economic, environmental and
socio-cultural impacts of tourism in the city, using both positive and negative
examples. The purpose is to show how tourism can create opportunities while also
placing pressure on the destination if it is not managed carefully.
2. PART 1: CLASSIFICATION OF TOURISM RESOURCES IN CAPE TOWN
2.1 Purpose of classifying tourism resources
Tourism resource classification helps to organise a large number of attractions into
meaningful groups so that planners can understand what a destination offers and
how those resources should be managed. A classification system also helps with
marketing because it allows a destination to identify the main features that attract
different types of tourists. The GGH2606 material explains that an inventory of
attractions should be followed by analysis through a suitable classification system,
while accessibility, support facilities and favourable conditions for development must
also be considered (Moolman, 2017). For Cape Town, classification is useful
because the city contains very different attractions, from natural landscapes to
museums, shopping areas and heritage sites. These resources do not function in the
same way and they do not attract visitors for the same reasons. Clawson and
