12 THRIVE Edition 2 broad range of travel-related activities. Accordingly, the tourism sector should be regarded as a widespread and continuously evolving sector. Thus, this research proceeds from macro-scale supply and demand considerations in the tourism sector, focusing on niche tourism and the issues associated with demand and supply for certain types of niche tourism, such as rural tourism. This is because rural tourism stands to be a relatively unexplored and poorly understood form of tourism in the country. Despite this, the form of tourism supports the livelihoods of many Black South Africans in the country and hold the potential for the sector to make a difference in economic transformation in the country. The main objectives of the study are as follows: • To examine the state of niche tourism demand and supply in south africa with respect to one selected form of niche tourism, namely rural tourism. • To nalyse challenges presented by covid-19 on tourism demand and supply with respect to one selected form of niche tourism, namely rural tourism. • To analyse opportunities for leveraging niche tourism demand and supply as part of the tourism sector’s recovery plan post covid-19 with the case of rural tourism • To contribute towards development of a framework for strategic interventions to leverage niche tourism in south africa using the case of rural tourism. To obtain such information, semi-structured interviews were conducted with the owners of these businesses. The project is due to be complete by November 2021.
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