Who or wat is killing tourism?

It’s worrying that in this difficult time there are senior decision-makers who don’t seem to understand the tourism industry, says

In a recent Sunday newspaper I read that the bottom of the tourism industry is dropping out, with the institutions that rely on international tourism in particular struggling to survive. Unfortunately, this situation won’t soon improve as South Africa is certainly not on the radar of prosperous tourists from the northern hemisphere at the moment. Travel to South Africa declined so sharply that tour operators and tour guides in the broader tourism industry has had to look elsewhere for clientele. Domestic tourism is also struggling to survive, and the damage suffered in 2020 will leave its mark for a long time. Besides the sharp decline in the demand for accommodation, the situation on the supply side is equally dire. That’s because tourism businesses had to close their doors to stop the spread of the virus. Many institutions did have policies that were supposed to protect them against anything that obstructed business operations. Something like a COVID19 pandemic. But guesthouses, hotels and restaurants have been waiting for months already for insurers to pay out their claims from not being allowed to do business during lockdown. THE ORGANISATION Insurance Claims Africa recently released research figures with the help of a highly respected South African economist that shows how insurers laughed all the way to the bank. He found that the undivided profits of short-term insurers increased to a record amount of R53,5 billion in 2020, while the value of unpaid claims increased to R49,4 billion – another record. Further legal action is now being considered to claim damages as the insurers are delaying settling outstanding claims. Initially, insurers argued the financial damage suffered was due to lockdown and not directly as a result of the pandemic. The court, however, found that lockdown and the pandemic go hand in hand. When a business folds, the unskilled workers are the first victims. THE CAMPING INDUSTRY also wasn’t spared, despite research showing that camp breakaways within provincial borders are not the so-called super-spread events the government claimed it was. One can only hope that senior political decision makers in the national and provincial tourism departments understand this. The low risk of camping and the prevention of job losses in rural areas should be the two most important considerations when making decisions about interprovincial camping. Hopefully, the comprehensive documentation sent to the office of the minister and other decision makers in 2020 are simply stuck somewhere and not lying in someone’s bottom drawer. Perhaps the decision makers will then realise that job losses must be combated, especially to protect the future potential of domestic tourism. Agriculture, mining, financial services and domestic tourism will need to anchor the South African economy in the next three to five years against new waves of viruses. However, the ideology behind the disbursements from the National Tourism Support Fund shows that there are still senior decision makers who don’t understand the tourism industry. Camping is a people-driven industry in which those who have jobs support an extensive community. Any decision therefore that harms the growth of domestic tourism in the future must be fought with great zeal. For that, representatives of every form of tourism – from hotel groups to bush-camp operators – need to come together to oppose decisions based on underhanded political ideologies.