Table Mountain is one of South Africa’s most popular tourist attractions – both with locals and international visitors. Picture: Henk Kruger African News Agency (ANA).
South Africa’s economic salvation may yet come from the travel and tourism sector, which was projected to grow at an average rate of 7.6 percent annually over the next decade, a report by the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) released yesterday found.
This significantly outstrips the 1.8 percent growth rate of the country’s overall economy.
The forecast from the WTTC’s Economic Impact Report shows the South African travel and tourism sector’s contribution to gross domestic product (GDP) by 2032 could reach more than R554.6 billion, or 7.4 percent, of the total economy, injecting nearly R287bn into the national economy.
The sector is also expected to create more than 800 000 jobs over the next decade, to reach more than 1.9 million by 2032.
WTTC president and chief executive Julia Simpson said: “Although the future looks bright for the South African travel and tourism sector, the recovery this year will be slower than expected. Knee-jerk travel restrictions imposed over South Africa and other African destinations were impulsive and unjustified.
“Instead of punishing (them), these countries should have been praised for discovering the (Covid) variant early. However, with GDP contribution and jobs on the rise, the long-term forecast looks very positive,” she said.
By the end of this year, travel and tourism’s contribution to GDP was expected to grow 37.2 percent year on year, to nearly R268bn, or 4.3 percent, of the total economy. Employment in the sector is set to grow by 3.8 percent to reach more than 1.1 million jobs.
The South African Tourism Services Association (Satsa) said yesterday that it agreed with the forecast by the WTTC and was seeing a strong recovery, but this was soured by the government’s ineptitude to facilitate the industry.
Satsa’s national deputy chairperson, Oupa Pilane, said the potential was sullied by long delays in the issuing of operator licences for tour operator vehicles, inefficient visa application systems and poor tourism roads, among other things, which affected accommodation, fuel stations, attraction spots, restaurants and jobs in the sector.
“Let us call it a wicked name, let us not sugar-coat it and make it look nice. The inefficiency is appalling, people are not doing their work. How can they fail to process an operator licence application over five years when it should take just 60 days? Even that is too long,” Pilane said.
He said it was the government’s desire to regulate tour operators, which the industry was fine with, but then the same system failed to process licences on time, leading to a backlog currently of more than 1200 operators, about 250 of whom had waited more than five years while 900 were newer, but had still been delayed.
banele.ginindza@inl.co.za
BUSINESS REPORT ONLINE