It’s no secret – improve air and land access and tourism destinations boom. In Southern Africa, much effort has gone into doing just that.
Making it easy for a traveller to reach a destination is, however, only part of the solution.
“Flights are essential to boosting tourism to the region,” says Henk Graaff, Managing Director of SW Africa. “We have definitely seen great improvements, with good air services in the region connecting all major destinations with each other, but although airlift is improving, the truth is that prices are still prohibitively expensive.”
Affordability is crucial, he stresses. “International travellers don’t necessarily want top of the range and will travel on low-cost carriers or local airlines as long as safety is not compromised in any way,” says Graaff.
Natalie Tenzer-Silva, Director of Dana Tours, says there is a definite need for more low-cost carriers and better flight connections on a regional level.“We should be able to have a morning walk at Victoria Falls and a sunset cocktail on the beach at Benguerra Island [on the same day],” she says. “Domestically, we need to connect the north and the south of Mozambique. We should be able to give travellers an experience in old town on Ilha de Mocambique in the morning and in the evening, go on a game drive at Muzima.”
Tenzer-Silva says air travel remains very expensive in Southern Africa and is still at times unreliable. “Often also the timetables of domestic airlines simply do not serve the leisure industry, road distances are enormous and road conditions are not always that good.”
According to Christiaan Steyn, Marketing Manager at Drifters Adventours, a division of Tourvest, the more airlines that can offer direct flights to main hubs in Southern Africa, the better. “With limited time for holidays, guests are hesitant to choose destinations that will require long overnight flights with stopovers. This cuts into time that can be spent on the ground. With more flight options, guests can make the best of their limited time.”
This includes, says Stephanie von Allmen, GM of Dana Tours, addressing delays. “We need reliable airlines with on-time departures and good airfares.”
According to Murray Gardiner, Co-owner and Financial Director at Giltedge, seamless connections and direct flights mean that guests do not have to transit or change aircraft, making for a far better experience.
“Direct flights from Kruger to Maun or Kasane to combine a visit to Kruger with Botswana would be a great offering, but it would require better air accessibility,” says Gardiner, giving an example. At present travellers wanting to do this have to fly from Nelspruit to Livingstone in Zambia and from there transfer to Botswana or overnight in Johannesburg which is a major cost in time.
Vernon Wait, Marketing Director at Lalibela Game Reserve, believes one of the biggest challenges to date has been the lack of an open-skies policy. “We are in the situation where we have an ailing national airline that regularly needs intensive care treatment, at huge cost to the taxpayer. Furthermore, the way it deals with competition is to limit access to our market. If I had one tourism wish, it would be that we disband our national carrier and that we completely open up our skies – internally and externally. I predict foreign air arrivals would double within five years if this is done.”
According to Graaff better air access is required, in particular in Namibia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. Also, roads need to be addressed, says Gardiner. Namibia’s accessibility needs to improve, its roads aren’t being graded properly or regularly, and journeys are taking longer than expected. “We are now advising that clients book off-road cars.”
In South Africa, says Janine Bünsow, Tourvest DMC Market Manager for Germany, Switzerland and Austria, most regions are easily accessible, except more remote regions like the Northern and Eastern Cape. However, improved air accessibility would help to boost visitors to this region.
“The general road conditions in Southern Africa are good but once tours go off the beaten track, infrastructure becomes less and accessibility becomes more challenging. Destinations like the Wild Coast in South Africa lose out on visitors due to difficulty in accessibility.”
Improving air access has become a focus for various government organisations. Ethiopian Airlines has been on a drive to improve its connectivity, as has Kenya Airways. In Cape Town, South African Tourism has added its voice to the Western Cape’s highly successful Air Access team that achieved nearly 30% growth in international passenger traffic in 2016.
According to Wesgro CEO, Tim Harris, international passenger traffic to Cape Town grew by 27% between January and June 2017 alone – an increase he attributes directly to the work of the Air Access team in the province.
New flight and route expansions to the Cape during 2017 added some 130 000 international seats to the destination.
