Deputy Minister of Tourism Fish Mahlalela said yesterday that South Africa continued to struggle with numerous barriers to tourism growth, including poor road infrastructure between major cities, limited airlift and stringent immigration regulations. Photo: Supplied
South Africa’s tourism industry has revised downwards its annual target for 21 million international tourist arrivals and 2 million jobs in the country by 2030 after the Covid-19 pandemic shaved off at more than two years of activity.
Tourism Business Council South Africa (TBCSA) chief executive Tshifhiwa Tshivhengwa yesterday said this.
In 2018, the tourism industry presented a 20-page growth strategy setting ambitious milestones to attract at least 21 million visitors and create two million additional jobs by 2030.
However, Tshivhengwa said that the landscape had since changed because of the Covid-19 pandemic and the difficult two-and-a-half years that the industry has gone through.
“So we do acknowledge that we are not going to get 21 million travellers by 2030. That’s not practically possible given the conditions that we are in, however, our mindset should always be on 21 million,” Tshivhengwa said.
“After we and independent analysts crunched the numbers, we realised that the standard deviation is not that great, meaning that we are close to each other.
“As I have said, we are not going to reach 21 million tourists by 2030, but we must and we cannot fail to reach 15.6 million tourists by 2030.
“And more importantly than anything else, we will be able to add about 800 to 900 000 youth employment within South Africa. But overall jobs will be around 1.3 million that we are going to add if we reach the 15.6 million travellers.
“We all agree between ourselves as a private sector and South African tourism, that this is the new target. Only by 2035 we believe we can reach 20 million, but there are certain things that need to happen right.”
Tshivhengwa was speaking at the opening of the inaugural Tourism Leadership Conference 2022 under the theme “Tourism – the Engine of Growth” at Sun City Resort yesterday.
Tourism, according to the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), directly contributes 3.2 percent in 2021 to South Africa’s GDP, more than agriculture, utilities and construction.
The impact of Covid-19 pandemic is estimated to have cost the tourism sector R54.2 billion in income between mid-March 2020 and the end of May 2021.
Tshivhengwa said the industry needed to focus on reviving ties with its key markets such as China, India, the US, Europe and defend the markets that have been performing well such as domestic tourism.
“China is very important. You can’t have a market that has 154.5 million outbound travellers in 20109 and we, as a tourism industry, are getting 93 000. We need to do more,” he said.
“Europe is quite important. It’s our bread and butter, and we need to continue to make sure that those markets perform as they are performing.
“Domestic travel is very important but we need to make sure that this market is protected and in groups.”
Deputy Minister of Tourism Fish Mahlalela said South Africa continued to struggle with numerous barriers to tourism growth, including poor road infrastructure between major cities, limited airlift and stringent immigration regulations.
“We are acutely aware of the potential revenue opportunities lost due to these barriers and are engaging with related departments to address these challenges as we work towards our sector’s recovery.
“The Department of Tourism is working with the Department of Home Affairs and Department of Transport with a view to facilitate ease of access. There are some positive developments in the area of visa notwithstanding the challenges.”
BUSINESS REPORT