A LOCAL PERSPECTIVE

South Africa’s post-Covid tourism recovery

The South African government needs to ease its visa entry requirements and be more welcoming of all travellers, particularly those looking for longer workation stays, if it wants to regain tourism’s place as a key driver of economic growth.

Social media marketing campaigns that educate domestic and foreign travellers need to be prioritsed alongside the vaccination of frontline tourism workers and industry transformation to ensure that we weather the storm, writes Jabulani Debedu, senior consultant at BDO South Africa.

South Africa’s tourism sector is an important driver of economic growth and has immense potential to kickstart our economic recovery. Yet, even though the sector contributed 8.6 per cent to our GDP (R430-billion) and supported 1.5 million direct jobs prior to the pandemic, it was barely mentioned in the State of the Nation address (SONA) and Budget Speech. After being a priority economic sector for the last decade, this omission reveals that tourism has lost its place in the pecking order of government’s priority sectors and projects. The government seems to have pinned its hopes on the private sector solving this problem.

Frontline tourism workers prioritised

Internationally benchmarked hygiene, health and safety protocols will be prerequisites to give the travel market confidence to travel again. While tourism minister Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane indicated that frontline tourism workers would be prioritised during phase two of our vaccine rollout, our national vaccine rollout needs to be on par with vaccination rollouts in our tourist source markets, as even vaccinated travellers will not travel to countries that have only vaccinated a small percentage of its population or do not yet have herd immunity.

Welcome all travellers

Government should make South Africa more (not less) accessible to tourists and business travellers, instead of restricting who we allow into the country via stringent visa requirements. Other African source markets have been largely underplayed for years – especially as we tend to perceive most African visitors as business travellers or job seekers – this despite the continent being a huge growth market for our tourism sector. The Africa Free Trade Agreement alongside regional and international bilateral visa agreements should be capitalised in our favour. Through online and straight-forward e-visa applications we are able to build stronger relationships with our neighbours and encourage their citizens to experience our melting pot of history, culture, food and religion that is right on their doorstep.

With the rise of remote working and the gig economy that has been further fuelled by the pandemic, South Africa is primed to be an affordable long-term bleisure destination. South Africa is an ideal hub for workations similar to what we’ve seen in Thailand, Bali and Medellin, in recent years, especially if we ease visa requirements for long-term stays.

South Africa has many competitive advantages in this regard, such as affordability, the weather which enables outdoor activities, and being a lowdensity destination. Our country is well positioned, given our vastness, open spaces and geographic spread of tourist attractions. We need to showcase our beaches, UNESCO World Heritage Sites and remote destinations, such as the Northern Cape, Eastern Cape and Free State. Marketing our National Parks is also a good start and I foresee the safari becoming the new cruise.

We’re open for business

Our marketing strategies should tell the world that we’re open for business. Allocating our marketing spend to our key overseas markets – namely USA, UK, Germany, Italy and France – will result in the greatest short-term benefits.

However, we should also focus on secondary and emerging tourist markets, such as China, India, Brazil, Nigeria and countries in the Far East where South Africa is under-represented, despite great potential. It’s also our responsibility to adequately educate our markets during these times. The media should be encouraged to refer to scientific Covid-19 variant numbers (20H/501Y.V2 or B.1.351) rather than geography-specific variants (South African variant), as these are harmful to our current and future tourism potential. Recent studies have shown that people infected with the B.1.351 variant have better immunity to other mutations of the virus, which is a hopeful step towards controlling the pandemic. There is also great potential to utilise learnings from Cape Town’s water crisis and how the announcement of Day Zero negatively impacted tourism.

Let our people tell authentic stories

We should leverage our domestic tourism market to help tell South Africa’s story via social media. Recent years have seen a global trend towards authentic tourism experiences because tourists are keen to do what locals do. It is a cost-effective marketing strategy that has greater reach and impact than putting up an impersonal advert in the London underground.

Transformation through the Tourism Equity Fund (TEF)

Globally, tourism is seen as a high-risk industry that is subject to external conditions beyond the business owner’s control. Funders generally do not want to fund more than 60% and want the balance in equity. The TEF’s objective is to support the equity component that previously-disadvantaged entrepreneurs need to acquire, or develop tourism products and services to build meaningful ownership.

While the Tourism Equity Fund has been long overdue as mid-sized tourism businesses – such as hotels, lodges, tour operators and transportation businesses – have largely remained untransformed, the timing is strategic as many assets are being sold by distressed owners. Over the next three years, the R1.2 billion Tourism Equity Fund will see R540 million from the Department of Tourism, R120 million from Sefa and R594 million from participating commercial banks.

If I were on a Presidential tourism advisory panel, I would recommend that we sustain our tourism products and services for when international tourism returns. I recognise that our government does not have much money, which is why it should provide guarantees for banks to offer working capital in order to ensure that the hospitality sector keeps its doors open.

Future predictions

With time we will see domestic tourists travelling further away from home and an increasing demand for exclusive-use houses instead of tourist establishments.

By late 2021 and early 2022 we will see trickles of foreign tourist enquiries from younger, vaccinated, intrepid travellers. We’ll surely see a return of swallows, who have houses in South Africa but live overseas. As of late 2022 and early 2023 we will slowly see an improvement towards pre-Covid tourist numbers.

What is inspiring is how tourism products and services have reinvented themselves during these times, from hotel kitchens being rented out by restaurateurs as ghost kitchens for food deliveries and residential rentals to accredited quarantine hotels and workation stays as well as remote working spaces. Various other tourism businesses have waived single supplements, offered parking space rentals and self-storage units or sectioned off hotel wings to create self-isolation bubbles for sports team.

Who is Jabulani Debedu?

Jabulani Debedu

Jabulani Debedu is a senior consultant with experience in tourism and hospitality, property and infrastructure advisory. Jabulani conducts feasibility studies, strategies, economic impact studies, financial assessments and market research assignments. Mr Debedu has presented at various tourism events including the African Tourism Leadership Forum, local government tourism and the small towns conferences.