Post-pandemic Resilience Strategies for Cultural Festival Tourism: Insights from the Royal Reed Dance Ceremony in South Africa

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic exposed structural fragilities in community-based cultural tourism systems. This study explores stakeholder views on socio-cultural and socio-economic effects of the cancellation of the annual Royal Reed Dance ceremony in KwaNongoma, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, and proposes resilience strategies for recurring cultural festival contexts. Following a hermeneutic phenomenological design, fourteen semi-structured interviews were conducted with organisers, maidens, residents, and service providers. Data were thematically analysed in NVivo. The analysis reveals that the cancellation disrupted cultural transmission, weakened community identity, and eliminated seasonal livelihood opportunities. The interviewees identified three interrelated resilience pillars for recurring cultural festivals: diversification of event formats and income streams, community co-ownership of planning and benefits, and risk-sensitive planning through health protocols, contingency systems, stakeholder coordination, and transparent communication. The study contributes to research on resilience-oriented event tourism from a developing-country perspective, demonstrating how culturally-embedded festivals can be better prepared for future shocks to protect heritage values and local livelihood systems, offering practical pathways for safeguarding authentic indigenous ceremonies.