Abstract:
The need to systematically examine emergent literature focusing on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on
South African tourism is prompted by the contributions of tourism to the South African economy. The Preferred
Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA2020) protocols were used to understand
and identify recovery strategies. This systematic review extracted literature from five databases: EBSCOhost,
ProQuest, Sabinet, Scopus, and Web of Science. The sifting of identified literature was conducted with the aid of
Rayyan, a web-based software, while COVID-19 thematic clusters of tourism research, niche tourism and
methodological designs were used to synthesise the literature. Findings revealed disproportionate literature among
three major clusters, with gaps in the South Africa niche tourism research. Based on the dominant adoption of
qualitative designs of the reviewed literature, this study recommends a set of new tourism research agenda that
particularly accentuates tourism recovery and resilience.
