Growing the number of inbound seats through a national Air Access strategy is next on the agenda to grow tourism in South Africa, according to Minister of Tourism Patricia de Lille. To this end, she will soon submit the Air Access tourism marketing strategy to Cabinet for approval.

Speaking during a press conference to mark her first 100 days in office for the current term last week, De Lille said one of the key priorities of the National Development Plan and the Government of National Unity (GNU) is to “grow the number of direct flights to and from South Africa by establishing an Air Access tourism marketing arm within South African Tourism as mandated by Cabinet in November 2023”.

De Lille said Air Access, which has not yet recovered to 2019 levels, is important to grow tourism.

“Before COVID-19, we had about 59 000 filled seats coming to our country. We are currently just over 51 000 so there is a gap. We need to return to the pre-COVID figures so my Cabinet memo deals with a strategy for that gap.”

For the sector to deliver on GNU priorities of inclusive growth and job creation, she said: “We must create conducive conditions.

“We finally have a Minister of Home Affairs who understands the impact and value of tourism so we are sorting out the visa problems and we have started with India and China.”

De Lille will be visiting India in December to engage with the government and private-sector tourism stakeholders to grow tourism between the two countries.

“We will use the engagements to market South Africa and all our many diverse offerings in all nine provinces and work with tour operators to ensure they sell packages for travellers to visit different parts of the country.”

With the Trusted Tour Operator Scheme set to remove some of the key obstacles for travellers from India and China, De Lille said the next step in growing tourism will be improving technology to move away from the country’s mostly manual visa systems.

“The more visas we can issue, the better for tourism.”

South Africa has set a target of 15 million tourist arrivals by 2030. It reached 8.4 million in December 2023, which is still lower than the 10.2 million received in 2019. Between January and August this year, 5.8 million international arrivals were recorded – up 7% from the same period last year.

De Lille said South Africa will also use its G20 chairmanship from December to sell the country. Her department will host three meetings next year, culminating in a meeting with tourism ministers from G20 countries in September 2025.

“We are going to use the opportunity to sell the beauty of South Africa to all G20 delegates by offering packages and support encouraging them to stay longer and enjoy more of South Africa.”