Travel costs stunting Eastern Cape tourism growth

September is Tourism Month in SA and the best possible news was delivered by communications minister Nomvula Mokonyane, who declared that the government had committed to a complete overhaul of the visa system to support the tourism sector.

This news was music to my ears because the tourism industry has been negatively impacted by the introduction of the visa regulations implemented on June 1 2015.

SA needs more tourism, and the Eastern Cape must increase its share of both domestic and international tourists.

I had the pleasure of visiting the Province of Legends at the weekend and I was asking myself what the major red tape hampering the growth of tourism to the Eastern Cape was and the answer was the transport costs.

The beauty of the Eastern Cape is unmatched and the people show their warmth with each smile.

I made my booking a day before my departure and the price of a return flight was steep, to say the least.

I realised that if I added an additional R5,000 to that fare, it would have been equivalent to a return flight to Thailand.

Therefore, the cost of travel is expensive.

The price I paid could have catered for two adults on a return flight on the tourism triangle which includes Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban.

This means that the tourism economy of the Eastern Cape suffers from a price disadvantage, because of high travel costs.

The high cost of airline tickets can be reduced by attracting other smaller airlines such as CemAir, whose entry on the Bloemfontein-Johannesburg route has reduced fares and increased frequencies.

However, the major legislative challenge is that to own a domestic airline, the airline must be 75% owned by South Africans.

This draconian law, the Domestic Air Services Regulations, has limited investment in the domestic air services, as an investment would relegate the investor into a minority shareholder.

When 1Time ceased operations, Fastjet tried to buy out 1Time and these regulations became the stumbling block for the buyout and therefore the investment.

Fastjet shelved its plans to invest in SA.

Investment could have saved a plethora of jobs linked to the 1Time value chain.

This policy was used when FlySafair was interdicted from operating because of lack of a 75% local ownership, leading to Safair restructuring its shareholding via an employee share ownership scheme.

Today, Safair operates flights to Port Elizabeth and East London, and this has increased frequencies.

When I fly to the Eastern Cape, I must hire a car and then drive to my rural hinterlands in Cofimvaba and Cathcart.

Considering the vastness of the Eastern Cape province, I always scratch my bald head about the absence of a fully functional airport in Komani (Queenstown). It would be important for the office of the premier in the Eastern Cape to contract a reputable research agency to conduct a feasibility study on an airport for Komani.

Komani, located on the N6, also receives traffic from the N1.

Since my rural hinterlands are located around Komani, I am then forced to drive for nearly two hours by rental car from East London.

The steep costs of travelling to the Eastern Cape limits the amount available to spend within the province as the major cost is for travel.

Therefore, reducing the cost of travel to the Eastern Cape is a business and tourism imperative.

I am aware that there is an airstrip in Komani and this can perhaps be developed through a 99-year lease and possibly a public-private partnership.

Lanseria International Airport on the outskirts of Pretoria and Roodepoort has become a major growth point for the West Rand region of Gauteng.

Lanseria has directed traffic from O R Tambo International Airport and its growth has caught the attention of the Gauteng provincial government, which has ensured that the new Gautrain tracks will service Lanseria.

This will be a major boost for the airport, which will achieve a new growth trajectory even if it remains without an international flights licence, because of a cabinet decision that there must only be one international airport in each province in SA.

Airports are a major growth point for cities, and they attract investments and increase the productivity of commerce and industry.

The Eastern Cape, which will participate in the investment summits organised by President Cyril Ramaphosa, must attend with an investment case and also highlight pieces of legislation that stifle the growth of the Eastern Cape.

But as patriots, our primary role is to love our people by lobbying for legislative changes that will ignite economic growth and create jobs for the thousands who are unemployed and destitute.

● Unathi Sonwabile Henama is an academic sangoma from the Tshwane University of Technology.