Benefits for inbound tourism businesses that were expected to accompany a weakening rand are being dampened by misconceptions of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa and the introduction of new visa regulations in South Africa, industry says. 

Michael Tollman, CEO of Cullinan Holdings, told Tourism Update: “Normally with this kind of rand weakening, business would be surging ahead but because of Ebola and new visa regulations business has been down, both domestically and from key source markets.”

“The visa regulations have really put a major dampener on key markets such as China and India, which have been severely down 70% to 90%. Ebola we see as transitory and starting to recover. We see interest coming back but we remain highly concerned about the impact that the visa regulations are having,” Tollman said.

Frank Glettenberg, CEO of Private Safaris, said there had been a massive drop in bookings from the United States and central European markets, especially for first-time travellers, due to the misconception that Ebola affects the whole of Africa. “With the more seasoned traveller who has been to Africa before, we don’t see much impact, but with those who are travelling for the first time we see a resistance to book and you can’t counter that with a better exchange rate.”

Martin Wiest, CEO of Tourvest Destination Management, said tourism businesses had anticipated growth with the weakening rand. “We expected growth, we budgeted for growth, but this is currently not forthcoming. We’re not working in a distressed environment but we’re certainly not working in a buoyant environment.”

Tollman added that, despite business being down, Cullinan would continue to invest in its inbound tourism businesses. “We believe that tourism over the next five to ten years is going to grow in Southern Africa.

“We’ve spent about R90 million last year on upgrading our coach fleet and we’re doing about R70 million this year and we’ve just put in new IT systems. So we are investing in tourism and we’re confident about it,” he said.

Peter Schoeman, Divisional Director, Sales and Marketing of City Lodge Hotel Group said there were other factors that also needed to be taken into consideration when looking at the impact of a weaker rand. “For international tourists, South Africa is a long-haul destination, which has to be taken into account. While the rand has weakened, this should not be seen in isolation. The euro recently hit nine-year lows against the dollar and there are economic uncertainties in many countries around the world, which affects global travel patterns.”