The prospect of the state of disaster being lifted soon has fuelled optimism for recovery in the battered tourism sector after two years of Covid lockdowns.
President Cyril Ramaphosa said in his state of the nation address on Thursday that the state of disaster declared in March 2020 — which hit tourism hard through restrictions on travel, trading hours, alcohol sales and social contact — would end soon.
In November 2021, just as restrictions were relaxed, the UK and other countries placed SA on their so-called red lists after local scientists discovered the Omnicron variant. SA is now off the red lists, but foreign tourist are yet to return in their hordes. Increased domestic travel over the festive season offered a glimmer of hope.
This week, tourism roleplayers met in Cape Town to reignite the sector, led by South African Tourism's acting CEO Themba Khumalo, who says he is certain that 2022 will be the year tourism recovers.
“We are going to drive the recovery not just as SA Tourism which puts out campaigns, but we are moving together with the entire tourism value chain. Because we are moving together as South Africa Inc from a tourism point of view we will succeed.”
Khumalo says the resumption of Emirates flights to SA is a big plus.
If we cannot make this work, I will be very upset. In fact I will leave the industry
— Tourism Business Council of SA CEO Tshifhiwa Tshivhengwa
“The minute the most specialised, the most well run airline in the world, decides to come to your destination, it means they are seeing economic value in your destination. That is an indication the recovery has already started; we have to focus on having a multiplier effect.”
The chair of the Federated Hospitality Association of SA, Rosemary Anderson, doubts that any business in the sector has been left unscathed by the past two years, but says many are seeing green shoots and some are now trading at pre-Covid levels or better.
This is not the case for businesses that rely heavily on international and business travel. “They are still bleeding and struggling to hold on,” Anderson says, adding that some top tier hotels have not reopened since March 2020.
“The cruise line industry is also still experiencing a very difficult time and the current compulsory PCR tests that our government has in place for all travellers entering South Africa is damaging and prohibiting the recovery of this sector and international travel generally.”
She says the government needs to urgently look at removing PCR tests, as well as the other restrictions still in place.
Ramaphosa said SA is modernising the visa application process to make it easier to travel for tourism and business. An e-visa system has been launched in 14 countries, including China, India, Kenya and Nigeria.
Anderson says SA's visa system has been “visitor unfriendly” for many large potential tourist markets, such as India and China.
She says European countries and the US make it easy for travellers by offering an online visa application process that can take minutes, or a few days at most.
“This contrasts with SA, where citizens in these two important markets have to present themselves to our consulates in person, and wait weeks before they can get a visa. This is discouraging these two lucrative markets from visiting SA,” she says.
Tourism Business Council of SA CEO Tshifhiwa Tshivhengwa says the tourism industry lost 470,000 direct and indirect jobs as a result of the pandemic.
“We all have the same goals, whether it is in the private or public sector: we want more tourists, we want more jobs and want to ensure that we prosper,” he says.
Tshivhengwa says of the plans emanating from this week’s meeting: “If we cannot make this work, I will be very upset. In fact I will leave the industry.”
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