With just two days to go before President Cyril Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation Address (Sona) 2022, the tourism industry is hopeful that it will get more than a “five-second mention between TVs and SOEs” – as one industry member anonymously pointed out after last year’s speech.
Radisson Hotel Group Senior Area Vice-President, Tim Cordon, was quoted by IOL as saying: “We hope that this year’s Sona will outline more support to this critical job-creating sector.”
‘Progressive policies’
Also emphasising the sector’s contribution to economic growth and job creation, CEO of the Tourism Business Council of South Africa, Tshifhiwa Tshivhengwa, told Tourism Update he wanted to see government moving beyond containment (lockdowns, harsh restrictions and regulations) into mitigation measures.
“We need to recognise that COVID-19 is here to stay and find a way to live with it that doesn’t curb personal and economic freedoms,” he said, noting that this meant implementing progressive policies that allowed for ease of travel.
This includes scrapping PCR tests for fully vaccinated travellers, opening up for sports events, for entertainment and for larger industry events.
Tshivhengwa added that government needed to make it policy for government officials to travel to meetings and events around the country and kick-start recovery for the business travel sector.
Outbound industry association, Asata, added its voice to the call for the scrapping of PCR tests for fully vaccinated travellers. “Asata would welcome an announcement during Sona that vaccination certificates replace PCR tests in the arrival screening process, including for returning South African travellers,” said the association’s CEO, Otto de Vries.
He added: “It is our further hope that President Ramaphosa will remove the National State of Disaster that has been in place since March 2020, so that we remove knee-jerk reactions that prevent travel, tourism and hospitality businesses from operating.”
eVisas need to be fast-tracked
Tshivhengwa said eVisa systems needed to be implemented as soon as possible. “There are clear signs of tourism recovery but we need to look at how do we fast-track that recovery? And enable tourists – from Africa and the rest of the world – to get here in the most cost-effective, efficient way possible.”
Rosemary Anderson, National Chair of FEDHASA, agreed, noting that it was vital to improve South Africa’s accessibility to the inbound international source markets through a proper eVisa system.
“Temporary waivers should be considered for key markets and segments and a best-of-breed world-class fully automated eVisa should be instituted to replace the manual processing that currently takes place, otherwise we will fall further behind our competitors. It is far too difficult for some of our key source markets to get visas,” she said.
Destination marketing is key
Tshivhengwa pointed out that marketing South Africa as a destination – both for domestic and international tourists – was also crucial, which meant the tourism budget could not be reduced.
“The low exchange rate already cuts significantly the value of the budget in key overseas source markets,” he cautioned.
Anderson pointed out that the small window of opportunity to raise the profile of destination South Africa was closing, with Australia – South Africa’s largest long-haul competitor – announcing it would reopen borders soon.
“South Africa’s tourism marketing budget was reduced during COVID and compares poorly with the tourism budgets of competitor destinations. Additional funds for tourism marketing would help to some extent to undo some of the destination reputation damage caused by Omicron in 2021.”
Other quick wins
Anderson noted that there were several other quick wins that would allow tourism to bounce back faster: most notably fixing the dysfunctional tourism vehicle licensing process, which has been delayed for several years, and resolving the liquor boards stalemate that has caused liquor licensing issues.
“Red tape and dysfunctional institutions need to be transformed into agile, professionally run entities that create an enabling environment for tourism and hospitality to do what it does best, create jobs. These measures will go some way to help tourism deliver on its promise as South Africa’s new gold, Mr President,” Anderson concluded.
What’s on your Sona 2022 wish list? Let us know by emailing adelem@nowmedia.co.za
