As a new phenomenon, geotourism research is on the rise. Although South Africa has some interesting geoheritage sites, not much has been done to investigate the potential contribution of geotourism to the tourism sector, the protection of natural resources and employment generation, let alone the challenges that may be experienced in promoting geotourism. Therefore, this paper aims to describe the concept of geotourism and to identify the challenges of geotourism. It achieves this by looking at the case of the Kruger National Park, one of the largest game reserves in Africa, containing an abundance of geotourism sites. This research adopted a qualitative approach, with data collection involving semi-structured interviews with sixteen key informants to understand the challenges of geotourism. Manual content analysis was employed for analysing the data. A significant finding was that there were seven potential challenges in promoting and developing geotourism in the Kruger National Park: (1) a lack of packaging and marketing; (2) a lack of infrastructure; (3) security and access to geoheritage sites by tourists; (4) access to finance and markets; (5) destruction of geoheritage sites; (6) social challenges and (7) regulatory challenges. The results indicated that these challenges of geotourism can lead to negative perceptions about geotourism and can negatively impact the potential for geotourism development towards effective local social sustainability, especially for communities abutting the KNP. The major contribution of this study is its expansion of the geotourism academic literature through newly generated data on the challenges of geotourism in South Africa. Furthermore, this study theoretically contributes to the body of knowledge on geotourism and its challenges in Africa, particularly regarding the Kruger National Park.

Due to many abandoned mines that are not rehabilitated, there will be illegal mining. Although the mining industry and government continue to prevent illegal gold mining in abandoned mines by sealing open shafts, it is not possible to close all the shafts at once due to limited resources. Furthermore, after sealing the shafts, illegal miners often create alternative openings to enter underground workings while little or nothing is being done to stop the surface illegal gold mining. As long as illegal gold mining is there, disasters associated with illegal mining are prevalent. Effective disaster preparedness and response requires a competent strategy. The purpose of this study was to develop a strategy that can be used for emergency preparation and rescue efforts associated with disasters caused by abandoned mines and illegal gold mining. In this qualitative study, semi-structured interviews were held with officials and experts on disaster management from the Council for Geoscience and the City of Ekurhuleni. This study indicates that the safety of illegal miners and communities near abandoned mines depends on several factors including the ability to identify and respond to a disaster. The study identified three interlinked themes within the report as strategies for dealing with disasters related to abandoned mines and illegal gold mining. These themes included emergency countermeasures and short-term measures, roles and responsibilities and communication. These interlinked themes should be validated through further research that involves input from the national disaster response community at large. This study will serve as a model that can be implemented in other areas impacted by illegal mining in South Africa.

The uniqueness and potential of South African geoheritage to contribute to sustainable development is undoubtedly unmatched. However, little is known about the geoheritage threats in South Africa because geoheritage research is geographically skewed to the global North, while little focus is given to the global South. This study characterises the geoheritage threats in South Africa through a qualitative method design. This involved qualitative semi-structured interviews with 16 key informants (from the South African National Parks, national government, local communities as well tour operators, and tourism agencies). Consequently, qualitative content analysis was performed to outline geoheritage threats in South African national parks. The study concludes that the construct of geoheritage threats consists of human- and nature-induced threats. The identified human-induced geoheritage threats include mining, damage to heritage, and loss of biodiversity due to overcrowding. Furthermore, results showed that incorrect management of geoheritage has the potential to cause community conflicts, which can lead to a decrease in tourists visiting the destination. The identified nature-induced geoheritage threats are climate change, floods, and fires. These results suggest the need for the immediate protection of geoheritage sites within and outside protected area in South Africa. Thus, it is necessary to develop protection strategies to conserve South African geoheritage for current and future generations that involve protection areas managers, local communities, government departments and agencies, and academia.

Acta Commercii is a journal that seeks to promote research within the ambit of management and related disciplines. As such, the Journal endeavors to serve as a platform for refreshingly new and invigorating approaches to, and findings of, research relating to management and associated disciplines. It includes disciplinary, multi-disciplinary and problem orientated work.