Creative Industries and Urban Tourism:

South African Perspectives

Christian M. Rogerson

INTRODUCTION

Richards and Wilson (2006a) categorise under four major headings the mul-
tiple different strategies used by cities in "developing distinction in tourism".
First, is the construction of major new landmarks or flagship developments that
aim to become symbolic icons for a city's identity (Evans, 2003). Alongside such
international examples as Bilbao's Guggerheim Museum, African illustrations
would include the Nelson Mandela Bridge in Johannesburg and the proposed
Mandela "Liberty" statue at Port Elizabeth harbour. Second, is the attraction of
mega-events or expositions, which is now a standard strategy that many cities
compete fiercely to employ (Garcia, 2004; Kurtzman, 2005; Richards and Wil-
son, 2006a), including also developing world cities such as Cape Town
(Padayachee, 1997; Hiller, 2000; Hal1, 2004). "Thematisation" is viewed as the
third basis for strategies for urban regeneration and involves cities seeking to
distinguish themselves by focussing on a specific theme, such as culture, sport,
arts or entertainment and marketing themselves variously as "cultural capital" or
"24 hour cities" (Law, 1992, 1993; Swarbrooke, 1999, 2000; McCarthy, 2002).
The final category is that of "heritage mining" through which cities attempt "to
re-develop themselves through the revalorisation of cultural heritage, usually with
an emphasis on the built heritage" (Richards and Wilson, 2006a). In the develop-
ing world, Havana provides one of best examples of this strategy for urban tour-
ism promotion (Colantonio and Potter, 2006).
The success of these various different approaches towards tourism-led urban
regeneration has been observed to be both spatially and temporally uneven, with
some cities enjoying periods ofrevitalisation, which are often followed, however,
by a need for further re-invention or refreshment through the development of
newer tourism products. At the heart of the difficulty of applying tourism-led
regeneration strategies is that "nothing succeeds like success" (Richards and
Wilson, 2006a). As a consequence, there is a common and ever-increasing ten-

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150 URBAN FORUM

dency for cities to borrow, adapt and copy regeneration ideas from other success-
ful cities (Harvey, 1989). Thus, as more and more cities compete in producing
and reproducing themselves as spaces for tourism consumption, tourism-led strat-
egies of regeneration tend to employ "the same formulaic mechanisms" which in
turn leads to the serial reproduction of culture (Richards and Wilson, 2006a).
Accordingly, as culture is utilised as a means of social and economic regenera-
tion, the cultural tourism market becomes flooded with "identikit" new cultural
attractions and heritage centres (Smith, 2005a; Richards and Wilson, 2006b).
In addressing this dilemma of the serial reproduction of culture and of the
need for developing new urban tourism products, one of the most fashionable
approaches is viewed as via the encouragement and nurturing of "creativity",
"creative industries" and "creative tourism" in cities (Smith, 2005a, 2005b;
Richards and Wilson, 2006a, 2006b). As Smith (2005b: 23) reflects, creative
industries are used increasingly "as tools for the regeneration and transfiguration
of urban spaces of consumption". The aim in this discussion is to profile the
emerging relationship between urban tourism and creative industries in Africa
through the experience of Johannesburg, South Africa's leading economic city.
Two sections of material are presented. First, the current debates taking place in
the developed world are explored around the linkages between "creative indus-
tries" and urban tourism. Against this backcloth, attention moves to introduce a
perspective from South Africa, in particular through the record of Johannesburg.

CREATIVITY, CREATIVE TOURISM AND CREATIVE INDUSTRIES

In a recent international survey of tourism, culture and urban regeneration,

Smith (2005b: 33) asserts that "the role of creativity in the development of cities
and tourist spaces is of increasing importance". Within a wider setting, it was
observed that "the theme of creativity is currently of great significance, not just
for tourism and leisure, but in terms of social and cultural development more
generally" (Smith, 2005a: 3).
The term "creative tourism" has been increasingly applied as an extension of
"cultural tourism" (Richards, 2005; Richards and Wilson, 2006a, 2006b). It was
defined by Richards and Raymond (2000:18) as "tourism which offers visitors
the opportunity to develop their creative potential through active participation in
courses and learning experiences which are characteristic of the holiday destina-
tion where they are undertaken". The emergence of creative tourism is viewed
sometimes as, in part, a reaction to dissatisfaction with cultural tourism products
in recent years (Smith, 2005a). In particular, such disappointments concern "the
lack of involvement and participation available to tourists and the relatively
Creative Industries and Urban Tourism 151

standardised nature of the product" (Richards, 2005: 15). Creative tourism is

"active rather than passive, about learning rather than looking, about self-devel-
opment as well as economic development" (Richards, 2005:17-18). The activity
of creative tourism potentially can draw upon local skills, expertise, traditions
and the uniqueness of places (Binkhorst, 2005; Richards and Wilson, 2006a).
Beyond the well-known creative tourism experiences of gastronomy and wine
holidays, the creative tourist can learn through participation also about arts and
crafts, design, health, languages or sport (Meethan and Beer, 2005; Richards,
2005). Above all, the essential foundation for developing creative tourism "is to
identify those activities that are closely linked to a specific region" (Richards,
2005:19). As has been demonstrated by the experience of Nelson, New Zealand,
the growth of creative tourism can be forged through linkages made with local
"creative industries" (especially arts and crafts) and assisted by support from
local government as part of destination management initiatives (Zahra, 2005).
The concept of "creative industries" represents "a quite recent category in
academic, policy and industry discourse" (Cunningham, 2003: 1). It has been
argued that the formal origins of the concept can be found in the Blair Labour
Government's establishment of a Creative Industries Task Force (CITF) after its
election in Britain in 1997 (Flew, 2002). The Creative Industries Mapping Docu-
ment, which was prepared by the newly constituted Department of Culture, Me-
dia and Sport (1998), defined creative industries "as those activities which have
their origin in individual creativity, skill and talent and which have the potential
for wealth and job creation through generation and exploitation of intellectual
property". The boundaries of"creative industries" are not always tightly defined.
Wood and Taylor (2004: 389) go so far as to argue that defining creative indus-
tries "is a task fraught with methodological and semantic challenges". The UK
CITF identified as many as thirteen different sectors that were to be encom-
passed within the framework of"creative industries" (Table 1).

Table 1
Creative Industries in the United Kingdom
• Advertising • Interactive Leisure Software
• Architecture • Music
• Arts and Antique Markets • Television and radio
• Crafts • Performing Arts
• Design • Publishing
• Designer Fashion • Software
• Film
Source: Department of Culture, Media and Sport, UK, 1998
152 URBAN FORUM

As Flew (2002: 5) asserts, "such listings inherently carry an ad hoc and prag-
matic element to them". Likewise, Cunningham (2003: 1) criticises the CITF
listing as "eclectic". In a more analytical fashion, the economist Caves (2000: 1)
sought to define creative industries in the following terms: "Creative industries
supply goods and services that we broadly associate with cultural, artistic, or
simply entertainment value. They include book and magazine publishing, the
visual arts (painting and sculpture), the performing arts (theatre, opera, concerts,
dance), sound recordings, cinema and TV films, even fashion and toys and games".
Since 2000, several other researchers have sought to modify these definitions
and offer varying sectoral listings of creative industries; most frequently, these
lists include film and television, arts, crafts, music, media, and designer fashion;
sometimes, they extend to include even the activity of tourism as a whole rather
than just "creative tourism" (Evans, 2005).
The scholarship on creative industries essentially builds upon earlier thinking
on "cultural industries" (Flew, 2002) and in particular of the challenges raised by
Richard Florida's (2002) book, The Rise o f the Creative Class. The major contri-
bution of Florida (2002) was to unsettle conventional notions of culture and cre-
ativity "as frivolous and derivative, as something that is nice to have, but not
important to nuts and bolts economic development" (Leslie, 2005: 403). Indeed,
Florida's work (2002) demonstrates that creativity and culture can have economic
benefits and that creativity and economy are inextricably woven together. In re-
cent years, research interest concerning the development of creative industries
has burgeoned and a vibrant set of debates has emerged particularly around cre-
ativity, clusters and industrial districts (Landry and Bianchini, 1995; Scott, 1996;
Caves, 2000; de Berranger and Meldrum, 2000; Hall, 2000; Bilton and Leary,
2002; Florida, 2002; Santagata, 2002; Caves, 2003; Flew, 2003; Turok, 2003;
Brecknock, 2004; Santagata, 2004). In particular, Scott (2004: 463) draws atten-
tion to the growth of the new creative economy and of rising levels of optimism
surrounding "cultural-industrial districts" as "drivers of local economic develop-
ment at selected locations, above all in large cosmopolitan cities, but also in
many other kinds of geographical contexts". Creative industries are characterised
by, inter alia, extensive networking, self-help and collaboration, "flat hierarchies"
and partnerships, and the domination of small and micro-enterprise (Evans, 2005;
Meethan and Beer, 2005). Another common feature is a locational preference
among certain segments of creative industries for central or inner-city locations
rather than peripheral areas (Newton, 2003).
Despite definitional controversy, over the last few years creative industries
and creative districts, undoubtedly, "have become a major new consideration in
urban economics and city politics" (Brecknock, 2004: 1). At a national level, the
Creative Industries and Urban Tourism 153

creative industry of designer fashion came under the spotlight in both the United
Kingdom and New Zealand during the 1990s. Unprecedented attention was ac-
corded to designer fashion by the media and national government in campaigns
such as "Cool Britannia". Moreover, it has been observed that fashion was as-
signed "the dual tasks of economic development and re-branding New Zealand
as a creative talented nation" (Bill, 2005: 7). For some scholars, whole cities are
now called upon to re-invent themselves as "creative cities" (Landry, 2000). In
particular, the English town of Huddersfield, a former woollen mill town, has sought
to transform itself through its Creative Town Initiative (Wood and Taylor, 2004).
Policy initiatives to support or nurture the category of creative industries have
been launched by several cities including Brisbane, Berlin, Barcelona, Dublin,
Helsinki, Manchester, Milan, Tilburg and Toronto (Hall, 2000; Flew, 2002;
Cunningham, 2003; Scott, 2004; Leslie, 2005). In addition, the Canadian city of
Montreal aims to position itself as "a design metropole" (Leslie, 2005). Many
cities plan strategically to enhance the growth and development within cities of
"creative spaces" (Dabinett, 2004; Scott, 2004; Evans, 2005). It has been pointed
out, however, that some of the most well-known creative districts--such as SoHo
in New York City or Montmartre in Paris--were never planned; rather "they
emerged spontaneously from currents of dissent, conflict and collision present in
cities of disorder" (Leslie, 2005: 405).
A critical set of international debates are beginning to surface concerning the
"local conditions" which facilitate the development of "creative clusters" and of
"creative cities" (Landry and Bianchini, 1995; Hall, 2000; Landry, 2000; Bell
and Jayne, 2003; Brecknock, 2004; Masters et al., 2005). In an important contri-
bution, Pratt (2004) argues that creative clusters are formally a set of business
clusters. Internationally, Evans (2005) considers that creative industries are now
identified as an economic cluster. For localities that host significant concentra-
tions of these creative industries, Wu (2005: 3) stresses that the "beneficial im-
pacts are tremendous" especially in respect of local growth potential. Commonly,
creative industries are added to a list of"leading edge" or "growth sectors" such
as financial services, ICT or high technology, which signals the strength and
potential of a local economy (Evans, 2005).
Several factors are identified as important influences upon the emergence of
dynamic creative clusters, including local innovation capacity, availability of ven-
ture capital, the role of institutions in mediating collaboration, an appropriate
skills and knowledge base, and targeted public policies (Wu, 2005). For Meethan
and Beer (2005) creative industries thrive on innovation, mobility and flexibility.
The growth of"creative spaces" and "creative industries" is also viewed as linked
critically to the factor of market demand. Sustaining the development of creative
154 URBAN FORUM

industries, Evans (2005: 7) argues, requires a growing local economy, affluence

and investor confidence. From the international experience it is contended that
"cities need to build institutional and political mechanisms that nurture creativ-
ity and channel innovation" in order to sustain creative clusters (Wu, 2005: 7). In
addition, considerable significance is attached also to the imperative for increased
collaboration between the different creative industries sectors. Nevertheless, it is
recognised that the greatest scope for growth and innovation exists between cre-
ative industries and other sectors, including tourism (Evans, 2005: 7). It is against
this backcloth that the discussion turns to review the South African record.

CREATIVE INDUSTRIES IN THE D E V E L O P I N G W O R L D :

SOUTH AFRICAN EXPERIENCE

Tourism is one of two sectors with the highest strategic priority for economic
development planning in contemporary South Africa (Mlambo-Ngcuka, 2006).
Recent national level investigations have disclosed, however, that the long-term
competitiveness of South Africa's tourism economy is contingent upon address-
ing several barriers to innovation in the industry as well as the imperative for
identifying new drivers for growth, particularly as regards new product develop-
ment and enhancement of current products (Monitor, 2004; Department of Trade
and Industry, 2005a). It can be argued that for South Africa one source for poten-
tial innovation in tourism products, as yet untapped, is through the making of
stronger linkages between tourism and local creative industries. This section re-
views national and local policy initiatives towards creative industries.

The Record of Policy Debates in South Africa

The terminology of the "creative city" was first introduced into the lexicon of
South African development scholarship by Dirsuweit (1999) in her work on cul-
ture and economic development in Johannesburg. Nevertheless, by 2005 it could
be observed that the term "creative industries" had been little utilised in national
level policy debates on South African economic development. One possible rea-
son for neglect was suggested by Minty (2005: 5) as a consequence of the fact
that "the creative industry in South Africa--and thus to a large extent the sym-
bolic economy--is the least transformed in the country". Moreover, at present,
there exists little systematic published research on the organisation or workings
of so-termed "creative industries" in South Africa. Indeed, there has been no real
parallel in South Africa to the British Creative Industries Task Force, or to the
emergence of the sorts of vibrant discussions that operate at national level in
Creative Industries and Urban Tourism 155

Australia, New Zealand or the UK about harnessing the developmental potential

of creative industries.
That said, what has emerged in post-apartheid South Africa is a growing rec-
ognition of the significance of the parallel (and sometimes overlapping) notion
of"cultural industries" (Dirsuweit, 1999; Minty, 2005). The importance of pro-
moting cultural industries in South Africa and their potential for economic devel-
opment was signalled in 1998 by the appearance of a series of reports produced
by the Cultural Strategy Group (1998a, 1998b) for the (former) Department of
Arts, Culture, Science and Technology. The category of "cultural industries" was
defined broadly to incorporate music, the visual arts, the publishing sector based
on creative writing of literature, the audio-visual and media sector, performing
arts, the craft sector (including traditional African art, designer goods and souve-
nirs); cultural tourism, and, the cultural heritage sector. In addition, the Cultural
Strategy Group (1998a) also included within cultural industries the sectors of
design and fashion, which were seen as "sectors where creative input is a second-
ary but critical means of enhancing the value of other products whose market-
ability and effectiveness would otherwise be lessened".
The series of research reports generated by the Cultural Strategy Group are
highly relevant for the creative industries. The core objective of the Cultural In-
dustries Growth Strategy (CIGS) was of "integrating arts and culture into all
aspects of socio-economic development" (Newton, 2003: 25) in South Africa. In
particular, the Cultural Strategy Group produced detailed reports and recom-
mendations for supporting the craft (Cultural Strategy Group, 1998b), film and
video (Cultural Strategy Group, 1998c), music (Cultural Strategy Group, 1998d),
and publishing (Cultural Strategy Group, 1998e) industries. Taken together, this
body of research identified major problems currently facing the development of
the core segments of South African cultural industries. Key cross-cutting issues
for enterprise growth were recognised as a lack of adequate skills, difficulty of
market access, and a lack of innovative product development (Create SA, 2005).
While differentiated for the various sectors under investigation, the major sug-
gested strategic interventions included:

• Education and training to improve skill levels

• Market development and facilitation of market access
•Co-ordination of government initiatives
• The development of partnerships at all levels to implement joint projects; and,
• Advocacy for cultural industries (Newton, 2003)

Overall, the so-termed "Creative South Africa" initiative sought to introduce

and demarcate "cultural industries as an important sector in its own right" (Cul-
156 URBAN FOR UM

tural Strategy Group, 1998a: 7) in terms of national policy debates. The results of
this project were directed explicitly at the national government and sought to
forge awareness within government about the potential of cultural industries for
growth, job creation and enterprise development. Since 1998 it must be observed
that there has occurred little movement in terms of national support initiatives
for so-termed cultural industries. In large measure this is because core responsi-
bility has rested with the little-resourced Department of Arts and Culture (DAC).
The limited available support from DAC has been channelled towards develop-
ing public-private partnerships and initiatives using culture as a tool for urban
regeneration with a special poverty relief allocation which seeks at "providing
access to skills and markets as a tool for urban regeneration, rural development,
and job creation" (Department of Arts and Culture, 2004: 4).
The greatest success of the Creative South Africa initiative has been recorded
in terms of strategic awareness-raising among policy-makers within national
government. In 2002 the Integrated Manufacturing Strategy (IMS) was issued by
South Africa's Department of Trade and Industry (DTI). The IMS constitutes a
collective government position aimed to coordinate a set of actions across gov-
ernment and geared primarily at improving competitiveness across the national
economy. The IMS takes offfrom the government's Microeconomic Reform Strat-
egy which set forth a vision for a restructured and adaptive economy characterised
by growth, employment equity, built upon the full potential of persons, commu-
nities and geographic areas (Machaka and Roberts, 2003). Of greatest signifi-
cance is that the DTI identified a cluster of nine "priority sectors" for accelerated
development. These nine sectors were selected on the basis of their potential
contribution to the economy in terms of growth, equity and employment cre-
ation. It is significant that cultural industries was identified as a priority eco-
nomic sector alongside, inter alia, agro-processing, business process outsourcing
and information technology enabled services; chemical and allied industries; cloth-
ing, textiles, leather and footwear; information and communication technolo-
gies; electronics; tourism; and, transport industries (automotive, aerospace, marine
and rail).
In December 2005 government issued a significant discussion document on
developing a national shared growth initiative, titled the Accelerated and Shared
Growth--South Africa (ASGISA) (Department of Trade and Industry, 2005b).
This initiative seeks to boost national growth rate for the period 2004-2014 to at
least 6 percent as well as to enhance "the environment and opportunities for
more labour-absorbing economic activities" (Mlambo-Ngcuka, 2006). Among
the several dimensions of this initiative, designed to achieve balanced and sus-
tainable growth for the period 2004-2014, is the identification, once again, of
Creative Industries and Urban Tourism 157

priority sectors. These are viewed as those sectors in which the country "has a
range of comparative economic advantages which, if fully exploited, would lend
themselves to higher rates of economic growth" (Department of Trade and In-
dustry, 2005b). One of the nine sectors, seen as "medium-term priority" is that of
creative industries (Mlambo-Ngcuka, 2006). Within "creative industries" exist-
ing policy thinking currently is directed towards two loci: (1) supporting greater
linkages of the craft industry with tourism, and (2) supporting the film and tele-
vision production industry (Department of Trade and Industry, 2005b).
By end-2005, however, only limited progress regarding actual policy initia-
tives for direct support of cultural industries (or the creative sector) could be
observed. Of striking concern was the minimal progress made for direct national
government support interventions for business development among cultural in-
dustry entrepreneurs through the national institutional framework for small busi-
ness development (Newton, 2003). Indeed, the most progress in terms of
implementation was recorded not at national level but at certain provincial and
local tiers of government in South Africa. For example, Western Cape Province
and the City of Cape Town have taken certain pro-active initiatives in support of
the cultural sector as a vehicle for local economic development, albeit the ap-
proach so far adopted has been criticised as so far"relatively unsophisticated and
piecemeal" (Minty, 2005: 6). In addition, within Cape Town, South Africa's lead-
ing centre for international tourism, few linkages seemingly have been made
between the cultural and creative sector and new tourism product innovation.

Creative Industries: The Johannesburg Experience

The Economic Development Unit of the City of Johannesburg has recognised

officially the role and potential of creative industries for contributing towards the
goals of Joburg 2030, the city's blueprint for economic development over the
next three decades (Rogerson, 2005). Indeed, it is significant that the terminol-
ogy of "creative industries" is now used widely in planning documents issued by
the city and its associated development agencies (see e.g., City of Johannesburg,
2005a; Johannesburg Development Agency, 2005).
The recognition of creative industries is the latest step in the implementation
of Joburg 2030, one important element of which includes support for targeted
strategic sectors of the urban economy (Rogerson, 2005). During 2005, along-
side new support programmes for business process outsourcing call centres, ICT,
freight and logistics, and sport, it was announced that the Economic Develop-
ment Unit of Johannesburg would support actively also the sector of "creative
industries". A Sector Development Programme would be prepared for creative
158 URBAN F O R U M

industries and focused on sector clustering and support. The Sector Develop-
ment Programme is a vital component of Joburg 2030 and is aimed at the re-
moval of constraints and inefficiencies and the harnessing of opportunities in the
targeted sectors as well as provision of relevant information to sector partici-
pants. The overall goal of the Programme is to enhance the competitiveness of
the sectors and attracting and retaining investment in these sectors, thereby growing
the city's economy as a whole (Rogerson, 2005).
The background to this announcement of support was the undertaking during
2003 of a series of scoping studies that linked to the key potential sectors for
future development that had been identified in the Joburg 2030 analysis. Nine
sectors were looked at in detail, viz.,

• Financial and business services;

• Information and Communications Technology;
• Retail and wholesale trade;
• Professional equipment manufacture;
• Other Equipment manufacture;
• Food and Beverages;
• Biotechnology;
• Automotive Parts; and
• Creative Industries

The Creative Industries Sector scoping study for Johannesburg built upon the
foundations of the national cultural industry study of the Cultural Strategy Group
(Newton, 2003). Essentially, the definitions used by the Cultural Strategy Group
(1998a, 1998b) were applied to re-name the sector in Johannesburg as "creative
industries". The focus of the scoping investigation was thus primarily upon the
segments of TV and film--in which (along with Cape Town) Johannesburg is the
major national centre--music, performing arts, visual arts, crafts, and design.
Critically, the research highlighted that the "Johannesburg creative industries sector
dominates the national profile" (Newton, 2003: 42) and that the sub-sectors that
dominate the local landscape are "craft, performing arts, visual arts, music and
film" (Newton, 2003: 47).
In common with the emerging national picture of cultural industries, it was
demonstrated that the sector of creative industries in Johannesburg is characterised
by a high level of small and micro-enterprises, "the sole proprietors of which are
predominantly the producers of creative products or content" (Newton, 2003:
33). In the majority of cases, particularly in micro-enterprise, the proprietor ful-
fils a set of multi-tasking roles as producer, agent, marketer and retailer. The
products of the Johannesburg creative industries economy are overwhelmingly
Creative Industries and Urban Tour&m 159

targeted at local markets. Indeed, the majority of products and services were
consumed within the creative sector itself. None the less, mirroring the strategic
position of creative industries in the value chains of other sectors, it was recorded
that "the major private sector markets for creative industry products are the tour-
ism, services and retail sectors" (Newton, 2003:51).
The creative industries sector was found to exhibit signs of growth in terms of
new business start-ups and by a profile of enterprises that was dominated by
business start-ups occurring after South Africa's 1994 democratic transition (New-
ton, 2003: 44). A significant finding across creative industries as a whole was
that their estimated annual turnover figure of R50 000 indicated that the sector
contains a large element of what would be described as "survivalist" enterprises.
Moreover, the survey of creative industries in Johannesburg disclosed that 51
percent of enterprises reported they worked across between 2 to 5 of the different
spectrum of activities that comprise the "sector" of creative industries. In com-
mon with the earlier work of Dirsuweit (1999), it was shown that creative indus-
tries exhibited a locational tendency towards geographical clustering in parts of
the city. Finally, whilst white-ownership was strong in the "commanding heights"
of the sector--in terms of the largest and dominant enterprises--it was observed
that in Johannesburg, black economic empowerment was advancing in creative in-
dustries, unlike the laggard situation as recently reported in Cape Town (Minty, 2005).
The scoping study made a series of recommendations to Council for develop-
ment of the sector. The most significant recommendations were as follows:

• Branding an image for Johannesburg's creative industries so that additional de-

mand is generated;
• Addressing the chronic skills shortages in the sector;
• Enhancing networks and alliances such that the capacity of the cluster is strength-
ened to rapidly respond to new demands;
• Developing a strong business development infrastructure in terms of providing a
business-friendly foundation of physical space, telecommunications, policy sup-
port and funding mechanisms; and,
• Dealing with the high levels of crime and urban decay in the inner city, which act
as deterrents to tourists and the audiences of creative industries.

The City of Johannesburg's creative industries consolidated sector support ini-

tiative was announced by the Economic Development Unit in 2005 (City of
Johannesburg, 2005a). The central goal is described as "to support both cultural
workers with talent but limited institutional support, as well as emerging compa-
nies with an entertainment industry focus" (City of Johannesburg, 2005a). There
are four elements that comprise the support initiative.
160 URBAN F OR U M

• First, is the establishment of an innovative project styled the Johannesburg Art

Bank, which draws upon parallel models already successfully operating in Canada
and Australia (City of Johannesburg, 2005b). The objective of this project is to
furnish support and supplement the income of Johannesburg-based contempo-
rary artists by creating a market for their work over a five-year period (City of
Johannesburg, 2005b). The bank functions by purchasing visual art works from
local artists and then leases these to companies "who can refresh their office
displays every two years at a fraction of the full cost of buying new art" (City of
Johannesburg, 2005a).
• Second, the city has launched a Creative Industries Seed Fund which will "pro-
vide support to promising creative industries that could benefit both from the
provision of business skills and up-front financial assistance to take a viable cre-
ative industry business-plan into implementation". This project operates as a com-
petition amongst learners who recently have completed learnerships in craft
operations management, music business management or cultural entrepreneurship.
• Third, the Economic Development Unit has initiated support for a facility that is
targeted "to incubate start-up filmmakers" (City of Johannesburg, 2005a). More
specifically, the Film and Video Incubator is aimed at support of new entrepre-
neurs in the film industry. The project is anchored upon a "dedicated facility
where start-up filmmakers are provided with office space, office infrastructure
and specialised equipment at subsidised rentals for approximately 18-24 months"
(City of Johannesburg, 2005a).
• Finally, the City is funding a Johannesburg National Arts Festival Fringe Project
as a basis for defining appropriate support for a performing arts incubator. This
initiative supports selected performing arts companies that have already put on
productions at the annual national arts festival (held at Grahamstown) to perform
these shows in Johannesburg, thus helping them gain national exposure as well as
deepening local demand for quality productions (City of Johannesburg, 2005a).

Although the Sector Development Programme for creative industries repre-

sents the first co-ordinated explicit support from the city for creative industries,
it must be recognised that other significant support interventions have been in-
troduced outside of the Programme. Three developments are o f special note.

First, is support for the Art City project, which involved a joint initiative by the
Council with a cell phone company to develop art murals on major inner city
buildings. During mid-2002 the inner city of Johannesburg began to be trans-
formed into a large art gallery with nearly 70 large murals displayed on the side
of a range of buildings (Davie, 2002a). The project aimed to showcase the inner
city "as the hub and cultural centre of Africa's world class city" and to further
enhance the role of tourism in the city (Davie, 2002b). The beginning of the dis-
play of art works coincided with the World Summit for Sustainable Development
and ran until the Cricket World Cup held in March 2003.
Creative Industries and Urban Tourism 161

• Second, the Newtown Cultural Precinct is a tourism-related project that was a

joint initiative between the city and the Provincial Government and geared to
promote a cluster of creative industries and more especially cultural industries
that might enhance the area's tourism potential (Dirsuweit, 1999). The planned
cultural district represents a cluster of creative activities, entertainment and re-
lated industries for the promotion of tourism (Blue IQ, 2002). Through the pro-
motion of cultural tourism and the making of a cultural district, this historic area
of Johannesburg, which contains several museums, theatres and heritage sites, is
set to be transformed into "the creative capital of South Africa" (Blue IQ, 2002).
In 2005 the provincial government's involvement for the Newtown project was
terminated with responsibility passed to the Johannesburg DevelopmentAgency
(JDA). The JDA views the re-development of Newtown as a major regeneration
initiative and seeks to galvanise "major investment, particularly in the creative
industries, culture and tourism" (Johannesburg DevelopmentAgency, 2005: 17).
• Finally,assistance has been provided by the Council, through the activities of the
Johannesburg Development Agency, for the development in the inner city of a
"fashion district" (Johannesburg DevelopmentAgency, 2004). This support was
for establishing a hub for fashion design as part of re-invigorating the city's cloth-
ing economy not on the basis of mass produced goods but of individual fashion
items using an African design (Cachalia et al., 2004; Rogerson, 2004). Central to
the vision has been the notion of promoting the "Urban Edge of African Fash-
ion", capturing the spirit and vision of a fashion-oriented, trendsetting and out-
ward looking district (Johannesburg DevelopmentAgency, 2004: 5). In terms of
creative industries, this project is highly significant for it goes beyond the group
of activities that are the targets of support under the Creative Industries Sector
Support Programme.

CONCLUSION: A D E V E L O P I N G NEXUS

In South Africa the strengthening of policy support for creative industries with
new product development and innovation in tourism represents a future chal-
lenge that must be addressed. A first step has been made in the encouraging
strategic policy thinking of national government's Accelerated and Shared Growth
Initiative for South Africa, which contains the important commitment to strengthen
the industry linkages of the craft sector with tourism (Department of Trade and
Industry, 2005b).
Over the past decade, it is evident that a solid foundation for establishing a
nexus between creative industries and tourism has been established. The "discov-
ery" by national government of the economic potential of "cultural industries"
can be attributed mainly to the important advocacy work and research produced
by the Cultural Strategy Group and the Creative South Africa Initiative. Since
2000, however, the major policy innovations for supporting creative industries
162 URBAN FORUM

have been undertaken at provincial and local level as part of wider urban eco-
nomic development initiatives. The City of Johannesburg must be acknowledged
as particularly pro-active in this respect by according recognition and growing
support to the creative industries sector.
Looking ahead, in terms of further development, it can be argued that what is
required is to expand more deeply the linkages between the emerging creative
industries sector and tourism developments taking place in the city. Indeed, the
first signs of this linkage already are in evidence through changes occurring in
urban tourism planning for the city (Monitor, 2005). It is significant that
Johannesburg is beginning to re-position itself for tourism not just as a retail and
business tourism "Mecca" but instead around a cultural theme (ComMark Trust,
2005). The "new" Johannesburg cultural product recognises that alongside the
city's historical, political and entertainment assets and significance in the anti-
apartheid struggle and associated monuments, the city is a cosmopolitan centre
with valuable tourism assets for music, dance, fashion, theatre and the arts (Moni-
tor, 2005). The "creative" city of Johannesburg is beginning on a pathway that
should lead to more significant linkages and synergies forged, over the next de-
cade, between creative industries, tourism and economic regeneration.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thanks are extended to the National Research Foundation, Pretoria for re-
search funding support under Gun Award 205464.

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