Open data accessibility mechanisms for tourism development in South Africa

Abstract

Across the world, governments and local authorities are releasing open data with the conviction that the action of publishing open data may result in a new untapped asset that can promote positive social change and economic gains. In South Africa, data produced by public entities in large quantities using public funds remains inaccessible even though the data can be anonymised and made available for use and reuse for scientific and socioeconomic purposes. Moreover, an evidence-based understanding of what supports the access and use of open data in the South African tourism sector is lacking. In response to this problem this research study was guided by the main research question: What are the causal mechanisms that influence open data digital platforms in the South African tourism sector? This exploratory qualitative case study research serves as one of the few, if any, studies that attempt to contribute to advancing knowledge on open data access and use in the tourism sector. Critical realism (CR) is used as the guiding philosophy and methodology. The study adopted affordance theory as a lens for gaining a non-deterministic view of the action possibilities and constraints between actor–artefact interactions for identifying mechanisms. Gauteng province, as an economic hub with the largest internet penetration of 85.2% in South Africa, was selected as the application context for this study. Data collection was conducted using semi-structured interviews with a total of 25 participants from both the public (municipalities) and private (mobile app development start-up companies) sectors as potential open data providers and users, respectively. For phase one of the analysis, Atlas.ti software was used for thematic analysis. In phase two of the analysis, a stepwise framework for critical realist data analysis was engaged to analyse qualitative data in this study. A limitation of the study was the small number of mobile application development companies (start-ups) with travel and tourism related mobile applications with South African content on the public domain Google Play Store, as well as the geographical limitation in relation to municipalities within the Gauteng province context. Based on the analyses and an examination of the interplay between human, social and technical elements that produce contingent observed events such as the development of open data driven digital platforms in the South African tourism sector, potential causal mechanisms are proposed as the theoretical contribution of this study. The practical contribution is an improved understanding of open data components and structures in terms of causal powers that can be leveraged by both public and private sector open data practitioners to drive sustainable tourism development.