In a bid to reposition South Africa as COVID-19 safe destination and dispel damaging narratives currently associated with South Africa, South African Tourism (SA Tourism) and the Tourism Business Council of South Africa (TBCSA), are launching a global public relations and communications Tourism Advocacy Programme.

This forms part of the ’Tourism Road to Recovery Plan’, which was recently adopted by national government and the tourism sector. While South Africa as a tourism destination, has over the years, enjoyed positive competitive brand strength in key source markets globally, it has also – like many other global destinations –  it has been heavily impacted by the pandemic.

This isolation is evident through, amongst others:

· travel bans of South Africans traveling to global destinations;

· negative travel advisories:  governments advising their citizens not to travel to South Africa;

· adverse global media reports labelling South Africa as unsafe, from a COVID-19 standpoint; and

· the intensification of adverse reporting around the B.1.351 variant which has been inaccurately dubbed the ‘South African COVID-19 variant’.

This is despite globally acclaimed accolades of how the South African government and citizens have managed the destination through the pandemic. In December 2020, South Africa’s top adviser on COVID-19, Professor Salim Abdool Karim, and his counterpart in the United States, Dr Anthony Fauci, were jointly awarded the John Maddox Prize for ‘standing up for science’ during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The John Maddox Prize recognises the work of people around the world who promote science on a matter of public interest, facing difficulty or hostility in doing so. “South Africa, like many other countries, is seeking ways to rebuild its tourism sector and economic contribution,” said Acting CEO of SA Tourism, Sthembiso Dlamini.

“It is for this reason that South African Tourism is taking this as a unique opportunity to reposition South Africa (the brand) to the rest of the world by developing and implementing a global advocacy programme with the aim to re-ignite the South African brand, particularly at the back of the damage caused by the COVID19 pandemic and the inaccurate labelling of the B.1.351 variant.”

She added that the persistent negative global narrative in the Red List casts SA in a negative light in terms of how the country is handling the pandemic, and this has a negative effect on tourism attractiveness.

Comprehensive approach

“This partnership between TBCSA and SA Tourism and the consequent global advocacy programme will assist in cementing the tourism recovery plan and will as a result revive the tourism sector,” highlighted TBCSA, CEO Tshifhiwa Tshivhengwa, adding that the programme would be comprehensive in its approach/

Firstly, across all key source markets, it will focus on the causal issues for adverse travel positioning in each source market ranging from policy, trade, commercial, media, influential voices and social media dynamics.

Secondly, from a South Africa Inc. standpoint, it will address issues around messaging cohesion, dynamism, responsiveness, issue management and immediacy of crisis response protocols in tourism.

 Thirdly, it will critically assess the supply-side visitor experience dynamics leveraging positivity and highlighting the gaps that the tourism sector may need to address in order to meet demand when markets mutually reopen with South Africa.

Lastly, there has been much innovation during the travel lockdown in the tourism sector. New experiences and products have developed, which the world tourism markets may not be aware of, said Tshivhengwa.

“This programme seeks to find market access channels for these new products and experiences as part of projecting a confident proposition to the world.”