Poor planning stifles SA tourism
Lack of a comprehensive approach to tourism planning is holding back SA’s tourism industry, says Unathi Henama, a tourism expert and lecturer at the Tshwane University of Technology.
Lack of a comprehensive approach to tourism planning is holding back SA’s tourism industry, says Unathi Henama, a tourism expert and lecturer at the Tshwane University of Technology.
As a result of poor planning as well as the effect of stringent visa regulations, lower flight frequency and perceptions about crime, the tourism industry is unlikely to grow by more than 5% in 2019, says Henama.
“A [planning] methodology has been presented to the government and there has been intense lobbying to ensure that it becomes part of government policy. I hope that it will find expression in the January statement of the ANC and filter down to the cabinet lekgotla, which will inform government policy,” he says.
This comes as the domestic tourism industry is losing its shine, mainly because of sluggish economic growth.
In the first quarter of 2018, the performance indicators of domestic tourism fell drastically. Bed nights, a measure of occupancy of one person for one night, were down 17%, while the number of tourists who travelled for holiday purposes slumped 34.8%, according to SA Tourism figures.
The number of domestic trips was down 13.5% to 3.8-million, compared with 2017.
Henama says holistic planning, which would entail stateowned companies making meaningful contributions to tourism, could improve the industry’s fortunes. For instance, the mooted bridge on the proposed N2 Wild Coast toll road could include a bungee-jumping facility, he says. However, this would require interdepartmental co-operation and planning.
“If we had a ‘whole of government’ approach to tourism, the department of co-operative governance and traditional affairs would also approach municipalities that have unused airstrips and conclude a 99-year lease agreement with the Airports Company SA (Acsa) to develop those airstrips into secondary airports that would become enablers of domestic aviation and an economic growth point following the example of Lanseria International Airport,” says Henama.
In that scenario, municipalities would continue to receive payments for their assets, while the private sector managed the airports, creating greater frequencies and lower prices for flights. “That will reduce the cost of doing business,” he says.
Henama is critical of domestic aviation, which he says makes the entry of new players unattractive, leading to exorbitant prices for fares when travelling to destinations outside the so-called golden triangle of Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban. This makes the case for regional airports stronger.
Henama is not surprised that domestic tourism is taking strain because it depends on economic growth. The World Bank this week projected that SA’s economy will grow 1.3% in 2019, compared with the 1.8% growth the Bank predicted in June 2018.
He expects Airbnb, the shortterm rental service, to shake up the local hospitality industry in 2019. Airbnb’s growth is likely to spread outside the Western Cape, he says.
He cites Bloemfontein, a city that usually experiences a shortage of accommodation during the annual Mangaung African Cultural Festival. Airbnb is trying to unlock a market in Bloemfontein where accommodation demand surges during the popular festival.
“Airbnb has developed a training school for potential hosts, called the Airbnb Africa Academy, which teaches prospective hosts the art of hosting guests and using the Airbnb technology platform. It has created Airbnb Experiences, where people can curate their own tours, competing with licensed tour guides,” he says.
The academy, a communitybased tourism initiative, has already proved successful in placing hosts in Gugulethu and Khayelitsha (in Cape Town) and Kayamandi in Stellenbosch.
In December, SA Tourism released an analysis of the performance of tourism in 2018, which indicates that the country has yet to recover from the visa regulations debacle created by the department of home affairs.
“We are still recovering from barriers that had affected us in 2017 and the early parts of 2018,” says SA Tourism CEO Sisa Ntshona. “But we are working extremely hard in addressing these challenges.”