South Africa’s inbound travel industry is banding together to counter the negative perceptions of the country that are being created by daily power outages and the related National State of Disaster.
The much-publicised energy crisis and President Cyril Ramaphosa’s subsequent declaration of the State of Disaster have knocked global confidence in the country. But those working in the industry have confirmed that, despite the significant effects that loadshedding is having on South African citizens, the impact on visitors is minimal.
“Since the start of the energy crisis in 2007/2008, the hospitality and tourism industries have been the forerunners in proactively providing alternative energy solutions. Hospitality businesses are generally proficient and have remained agile, adapting to the many challenges they have faced whilst ensuring that the guest experience remains superior and as uncompromised as possible,” FEDHASA Chairperson Rosemary Anderson told Tourism Update.
Anderson stressed that the vast majority of hospitality and tourism businesses had contingency plans in place to protect against loadshedding.
“Most of them now have generators that come on automatically when there is loadshedding, along with alternative energy supplies such as solar, batteries and inverters.”
With the crisis proving devastatingly costly for the industry, the hospitality association is hosting its first Talking Energy with FEDHASA summit in Cape Town on Friday, March 3, bringing industry representatives, energy experts, funders and the public sector together to discuss further solutions.
“FEDHASA will continue to provide key resources, tools and a platform where we equip the industry with a wealth of information, helping to mitigate the risk associated with the Government’s lack of ability to provide us with reliable energy,” said Anderson.
National State of Disaster the solution?
Gazetted on February 27, the National State of Disaster regulations on electricity constraints aim to minimise the impact of loadshedding, improve plant performance of embattled energy provider Eskom, and provide measures to enable the connection of new electricity generation.
The measures include streamlining application and decision-making procedures related to energy generation projects, facilitating the sale of electricity generated by individuals, organs of state or private institutions, and issuing rules or guidelines for licensed distributors to implement nett billing and other mechanisms to facilitate small-scale embedded generation.
“If the National State of Disaster fast-tracks the restoration of a consistent and reliable energy supply in a cost-effective and sustainable manner, then our view would be that there is merit to it being declared,” said Anderson.
“Unfortunately, past experience is front of mind and many will remain sceptical that this is the solution,” Anderson cautioned, adding that the country was still waiting for the appointment of Minister of Electricity in the Presidency, a move announced by President Ramaphosa during his State of the Nation Address on February 9.
Minimal impact on travellers
Speaking to Travel Weekly, Maija de Rijk-Uys, MD of Go2Africa, said although load-shedding could be inconvenient at times for travellers to South Africa, the impact was usually minimal, with the worst of the experiences being an increase in traffic due to no traffic lights, possible limited menus in restaurants and approximately two hours without power if their accommodations had no back-up power source.
Don Scott, owner of Tanda Tula safari camp, said the increased cost of doing business made it more important than ever before to counter the negativity surrounding South Africa.
“Now, more than ever, is the time to support the South African tourism industry and send guests to visit our beautiful country, as having the revenue from international visitors is what makes us able to cover these increases in our fixed operating expenses."
