Weak rand gives tourism wings
THE tourism sector is banking on the weak rand, the stabilisation of Ebola and the relaxing of the country’s onerous visa regulations to offset some of the headwinds it is facing.
AFTER a turbulent 2015, SA’s R111bn tourism sector has started the year on a better footing.
The tourism industry has been identified as a key job creator in the National Development Plan.
In 2014, the sector contributed 2.9% to gross domestic product and employed 680,817 people directly, representing 4.5% of the total share of jobs.
The sector is banking on the weak rand, the stabilisation of West Africa’s Ebola outbreak and the relaxing of the country’s onerous visa regulations to offset some of the headwinds it is facing.
Tourism Business Council of SA CEO Mmatšatši Ramawela said: “We started 2016 on a good note,” she said in reference to the 11% rise in tourist arrivals in January.
A total of 1,558,854 people visited the country in January this year, compared to 1,399,328 for the same period in 2015.
This week, Statistics SA released data that showed there were 1,285,698 arrivals in February this year, a 13.4% increase from the 1,133,411 documented over the period in 2015.
“We are beginning to recover from a drop in tourism from key markets like China.
“We hope the recovery continues and that the industry returns to levels it operated at before it was hit by the Ebola scare and local immigration laws,” said Ms Ramawela.
The Department of Tourism expects the sector to grow 2% this year, almost double the rate of the rest of the economy, largely on the back of foreign travellers taking advantage of the weak rand.
The next challenge is the impending winter chill, which might take a bite out of foreign visitor numbers.
On the domestic front, the government, from which the industry derives its biggest chunk of revenue, has set about an exercise in belt-tightening that will have implications for the sector.
Corporate and leisure travel are also likely to suffer in the low economic growth climate.
Southern Africa Tourism Services Association CEO David Frost said the country should not rely on the exchange rate alone for growth. Mr Frost pointed to Australia, also a long-haul destination, receiving 7.4-million foreign visitors last year compared to SA’s 2.14-million.
This was despite the rand losing 36% against the dollar versus Australia’s 10.7% decline, he said.
“We need to start a different conversation about what makes SA competitive and this involves relooking the silos of placing Home Affairs in the security cluster and the Tourism Department in the economic cluster,” said Mr Frost.