South Africa is entering its peak tourism season, with Cape Town alone expected to receive an average of 35,000 visitors per day. For small, community-based food businesses, this boom is often out of reach.
Most visitors gravitate toward the establishments offering luxury and fine dining, leaving many local entrepreneurs excluded from the growing market.
In response, Unexplored Cape Town is collaborating with key tourism stakeholders, including the Western Cape Department of Economic Development and Tourism, to explore how the City’s booming tourism economy can be reshaped to benefit historically excluded local food entrepreneurs.
In partnership with the Hasso Plattner School of Design Thinking Afrika at the University of Cape Town for its flagship Design Thinking Week programme, Unexplored Cape Town presented two challenge statements to students, encouraging them to apply a design thinking process to explore possible solutions for more sustainable and inclusive tourism in the City.
Food-driven travel and the impact of gentrification
Nowadays, travel choices are influenced by food, with around 80% of travellers researching the culinary landscape before choosing a destination. Despite the sector’s overall growth, the complex realities of gentrification and inequality mean many small, local businesses are being pushed out or left behind. Tourism 2.0 is Unexplored Cape Town’s answer.
A model that demands tourism move beyond consumption and become an enabler of inclusion by embedding principles such as fair revenue distribution, honest storytelling, and long-term community partnerships into every itinerary.
Local government support for inclusive tourism
Solidifying its position as a leading voice in equitable tourism, Unexplored Cape Town was recently invited by the Western Cape Department of Economic Development and Tourism to present its Tourism 2.0 model at the #WCTGWorkshop2025.
The presentation reached over 300 tourism-sector stakeholders, providing practical, actionable recommendations on inclusion and equity in food tourism.
“Tourism 2.0 is a framework of immediate actions for travel operators who are serious about responsible travel,” says Dennis Molewa, founder of Unexplored Cape Town.
“We presented core principles that integrate desirable sustainability initiatives, from inclusive hiring and fair revenue distribution to ensuring heritage preservation and honest storytelling. This approach demands we move past the extractive nature of tourism towards long-term partnerships that include local community food businesses and entrepreneurs.”
Design thinking and student-led innovation
Recognising that meaningful change requires rethinking tourism from multiple perspectives, Unexplored Cape Town recently designed a challenge with Hasso Plattner d-school Afrika at UCT for Design Thinking Week—the dual challenges focused on both the business and customer experience.
Business-focused challenge: How we could redesign the local food tourism experience in Cape Town to be more inclusive for black and brown-owned local and diaspora businesses in a local tourism space that often excludes marginalised food spaces leading to cultural erasure and loss of social heritage.
Customer-focused challenge: How we could redesign the local food tourism experience in Cape Town for residents and visitors so they can discover, connect with and experience local diverse food businesses in a world where mainstream or commercialised offerings often leave these businesses hidden or overlooked.
Student immersion into local food spaces
Taking up this challenge, more than 49 multidisciplinary students immersed themselves in the inner city, visiting various vendors, including a Somali community restaurant, a Senegalese dark kitchen and diaspora-owned kitchens.
The challenge was designed to introduce participants to design thinking mindsets and processes, and to show how these can be applied to the challenge statements and ultimately impact Tourism 2.0.
Throughout the week, students explored the challenges faced by black, brown and diaspora-owned local food businesses. They stepped into real stories, connected with real people and gained a deeper understanding of the lived experiences behind the problem.
From insights to early concepts
This fieldwork initiated a process for students to explore potential directions and early concepts, ranging from digital onboarding tools and QR code systems for small kitchens to ideas for heritage food markets and collaborative food ventures.
“If I learned one thing about design thinking, it’s that there is never just one problem, and never just one solution,” Molewa shares. “The challenge unlocked a process to explore different solutions, which will ultimately help us chart a multidimensional path forward where culture, economy, identity and community intersect.”
African Food Business Fund and future support
These exploratory concepts from the students will contribute to broader thinking that may inform the direction of Unexplored Cape Town’s African Food Business Fund.
This is a newly formed non-profit committed to supporting marginalised, heritage-based African food enterprises in Cape Town through sustainable business development, digital empowerment and community partnerships.
“After the challenge, I joined Unexplored Cape Town for their African Food and Storytelling Experience. I ate with my hands and explored the CBD through the eyes of local business owners.
As an African diaspora, it was truly remarkable to experience the rich history of Cape Town and truly out-of-this-world Pan-African food,” shares Samira Matan, Human-Centred Designer and MSc student at UCT.
“Food tourism is no longer a niche,” says Dennis Molewa, founder of Unexplored Cape Town. “Today, a significant portion of travellers choose where they go based on culinary experiences.
But the real and necessary gains should also reach small, black-and brown-owned businesses. Our goal is to reimagine how visitors and locals alike engage with Cape Town through a model that restores dignity and uplifts communities.”
