THRIVE: 06 Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), which showed that the industry will in the next 10 years drive the national recovery of South Africa’s economic growth. Our job at the TBCSA is to showcase the above-stated importance of the sector and to lobby the government on interventions that we believe will help deliver the full economic and social impact of tourism. It is our considered view that for the sector to thrive, we as the private sector working alongside our public sector colleagues, should focus on the following 10 interventions: ◼ ◼ A real fully automated worldclass e-Visa with improved airport e-infrastructure ◼ ◼ Waive visas for more source markets ◼ ◼ Introduce critical skills visas, temporary work visas ◼ ◼ Vehicle licensing backlogs must be addressed ◼ ◼ Reduce or fix other red-tape issues holding back growth ◼ ◼ Destination readiness – faster reaction to new opportunities ◼ ◼ Additional funds for tourism marketing ◼ ◼ Private-Public Partnerships to radically improve and implement marketing – especially in key growth markets ◼ ◼ Air liberalisation and a national air access initiative (not just provincially focused) ◼ ◼ Investment incentives Visas are an important factor for the recovery of the sector. We revised our growth strategy figures at our recent September conference and part of this revision not only includes reducing the number of expected international visitors to 15.3 million by 2030. This should also take onboard amuch sharper focus on the African continent and India as source markets. It is important to add, that aswegoout to promote South Africa to these markets, we also have assurance of government that their entry into our country will be seamless. This can be done through e-visas as mentioned above. The ease of using these e-visas will allow us to attract critical skills and tourists to the country, to fast-track the recovery of the sector, and foreshadowing a future which will see our regional neighbours enter South Africa visa-free. The pandemic as we all know changed the way we do business and a trend that has emerged from this is that of people choosing the world as their office. President Ramaphosa promised that the country would start offering visas for these kinds of travellers, otherwise known as nomads (in the tourism language). We need to see this be implemented sooner rather than later. Markets such as our neighbour, Namibia, have started issuing nomad visas and we need to make sure we are not left behind. By achieving the 10 interventions stated previously, the tourism sector has the potential to create 1.3 million employment opportunities. Our industry has often bragged that it is one of the largest and most diverse sectors, and that it is capable of offering jobs to low and semi-skilled young people. It is wonderful to see that the sector’s potential is taken seriously by institutions such as my alma mater, the University of Johannesburg (UJ), to offer those wanting to work in the sector, the required basic and upskilling opportunities through the courses that they offer. Finally, none of these interventions required to make the sector thrive will work without partnership between (the private sector) and the public sector. It was assuring therefore, to hear the Deputy Minister of Tourism, Fish Mahlalela, telling us as a sector at our conference that government is committed to creating an enabling environment for us in the tourism value chain. Anecdotal evidence also reflects an industry that is on the upward trajectory albeit from a low base O p i n i o n image source: pexels.com
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