The recovery of the tourism sector in South Africa needs a greater partnership between government and the private sector. That’s according to the Tourism Business Council South Africa, which hosted the Tourism Leadership Conference in the North West. The sector presented a growth strategy, setting a target to attract 21-million visitors by 2030, with September being Tourism month. Tourism is one of the sectors that the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the most, with more than 400-thousand job losses.
The country’s tourism industry status has been revised downwards. Its annual target for 21-million international tourist arrivals will move to 15,6million by the year 2030. This is after the COVID-19 pandemic caused devastation in the sector. The inaugural Tourism Leadership Conference 2022 was held under the theme “Tourism – the Engine of Growth”.
Tshifhiwa Tshivhengwa, Chief Executive Officer at the Tourism Business Council of South Africa says, the impact of the pandemic is estimated to have cost the sector R54,2billion in revenue between mid-March 2020 and the end of May 2021.
“We need to do decide how we are going to work together as the private sector and government. How do we forge a partnership that will help us achievement the 2030 tourism growth strategy that we set for ourselves. Its 15.6 million tourism arrivals by 2030. Public and private partnership is important to achieve that. How do we work well with small business. We discussed destination marketing. How do we market SA better and together”
Tourism Minister Lindiwe Sisulu says the sector is in recovery, 1 Sepember 2022:
Tshivhengwa says, despite the massive job losses, recovery has started in the sector.
“We do know that many people lost their jobs, about 400 thousand. But we are recovering fast and many people are coming back to work. According to the world travel council, last 20 thousand people came back to work and this year it will be even more. In terms of the devastation, its a lot of money that we lost. We used to contribute about 6 percent to GDP, we lost half. We are rebuilding”
Chairperson of the Federated Hospitality Association of Southern Africa – Rosemary Anderson – says, government should get rid of the red tape that is preventing the creation of jobs in the sector.
“The whole industry, regardless of what sector you come in with tourism shared similar points with government in terms of the constraints and problems in the industry that can be freed up if government does certain things. Government has undertaken to receive the list of problems we have that inhibits growth and job creation. It’s red tape and legislation when departments don’t do what they should be doing. Licences for tour operators, liquor licenses which can take 2 years”
Anderson says, an aggressive marketing campaign targeting an influx of international tourists, will help the South African tourism sector to recover from the devastating impact of the pandemic.
“International tourism can solve our big unemployment problems in SA. We could double the number of people that come into the country and therefore double employment. Currently we employ 1.5 million people. We really need to put pressure on government to implement what they promised to implement. We cannot do this without them. If we were involved with marketing of SA, we could market it like its never been marketed before and bring so many more tourists to our shores.”
The Deputy Tourism Minister, Fish Mahlalela, says that South Africa has continued to struggle with growth barriers, including poor road infrastructure, the closure of airlines and stringent immigration regulations.
North West Province launch their tourism month a Vredefort Dome, 17 September 2022:
