Food for body and soul: tourism development opportunities in the Western Cape

Abstract

This article applies spatial multiple criteria evaluation (MCE) by weighted linear combination of factor layers in a computerised geographical information system (GIS) to aid development of spatial policy and planning of cultural and food and wine tourism in the Western Cape. It explains spatial tourism development policy, tourism marketing and expressed tourist preferences that translate into suitability indicators or attraction features for capture in a spatial resource database. Two sets of tourism attractions are conceptually defined, captured in spatial format as mapped variables and statistically weighted for MCE modelling. The fine-scale outcomes in map format allow comparisons to be made of the effects of variable MCE execution rules for the two products. The application can be replicated for entrepreneurial and regulatory planning.