Tourism is decimated
There is no doubt that the global Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic has decimated the tourism sector in Mpumalanga and South Africa in general, according to Kruger Lowveld Tourism’s latest newsletter.
MBOMBELA - There is no doubt that the global Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic has decimated the tourism sector in Mpumalanga and South Africa in general, according to Kruger Lowveld Tourism’s latest newsletter.
The provincial tourism sector employs approximately 80 000 people and contributes more than R10,5 billion annually to the GDP of Mpumalanga. The industry is “one of the hardest-hit by the outbreak of Covid-19” as lockdown has all but ground the sector to a halt.
Despite the slow opening up of tourism under level 3, and the planned increased operating opportunities announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa on June 17, the industry remains extremely vulnerable. Focusing on domestic market tourism traffic might be well and good, but until interprovincial travel is permitted and international travel resumes, occupancies are likely to remain low in general and most tourism businesses will remain marginal at best. Best-case scenario is that tourism turnovers will show only small increases, but that this will be insufficient to carry all pre-Covid-19 workers. Some 30 000 jobs are likely to be lost in the province over the next few months. This will all take place in an environment of low to medium demand for products and experiences.
There are multiple challenges faced by tourism businesses (in particular small ones). Most obviously, these include lack of funds to gear up to reopen in a lowdemand environment and an inability to employ pre-Covid-19 staff numbers. Oupa Pilane, president of Kruger Lowveld Business Chamber and Tourism, reiterated his earlier call that urgent intervention is needed to save the sector in Mpumalanga, and every sphere of government, including Eskom, needs to come to the party.
“The sector needs government grants to assist businesses to open. The current R200 million has not benefited the sector in the province. We need municipalities not to switch off utilities as this will hamper the reopening of small businesses. We call on Eskom to halt charging municipalities exorbitant interest on their accounts as this is putting pressure on their ability to provide services, and service their Eskom debts.
“The Covid-19 health and safety protocols require further investments from the small businesses that have not been earning an income. We therefore call on government to assist small businesses to acquire the Covid-19 safety equipment and the training of the sector regarding this pandemic,” said Pilane.
“We welcome the relaxed measures by the president on the sector, including the reopening of restaurants and beauty spas, but this will mean nothing if the movement of people and leisure tourism continue to be restricted in any way, other than observing the Covid-19 safety protocols. We will expect that people should be allowed to visit tourist attractions in the province as most of them are outdoors, making it easy to maintain social distancing. We will continue to make presentations to the government to further ease interprovincial travel, especially to provinces with low infection rates. We will lobby on measures of opening international travel as soon as possible.”
At the same time, Pilane stressed that issues facing the sector pre-Covid-19 should not be put on the back-burner. These include a decline in tourism numbers due to safety concerns, dilapidated state of governmentowned and -operated tourism attractions and crumbling road infrastructure. If these issues are not addressed, the industry stands to lose more than the 30 000 already anticipated jobs due to the pandemic.
Oupa Pilane reiterated his earlier call that urgent intervention is needed to save the sector in Mpumalanga, and every sphere of government, including Eskom, needs to come to the party