Incentives for tourism industry to go green

The Department of Tourism has introduced an incentive programme to encourage privatelyowned enterprises to move towards cleaner energy sources and more energy efficient operations.

The Green Tourism Incentive Programme (GTIP) is a collaboration with the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) and supports the department's goal of sustainable and inclusive tourism development. It follows the recent handover of a solar photovoltaic mini-grid on Robben Island Museum by the Minister of Tourism Tokozile Xasa.

The programme is managed and administered by the IDC and will provide grant funding on a sliding scale from 30 percent to 90 percent (capped at R1 million) to qualifying small and micro tourism enterprises. They will implement interventions that will improve energy efficiency and reduce operational costs.

“Renewable energy-generating systems should be more accessible to all within the sector,” said Minister Xasa.

“For this reason we have introduced the GTIP. The aim of the programme is to encourage small and micro tourism enterprises to retrofit their facilities with energy efficiency systems using a cost-sharing grant.

“Responsible tourism is everyone's business with an immense potential to increase our country's global competitiveness. I urge the industry to embrace the GTIP and help us build a sustainable and inclusive tourism sector,” Minister Xasa said.

The department and IDC will work closely with the National Cleaner Production Centre of South Africa to conduct energy efficiency audits and determine the best possible solutions to be implemented.

IDC's head of Development Funds Christine Engelbrecht said one of the programme's fundamental criteria is transformation.

“Transformation and ownership are critical dimensions of the IDC's mandate. Enterprises with high levels of compliance in terms of the Tourism B-BBEE Scorecard will be awarded a larger grant,” Engelbrecht said.

Only exempt micro enterprises with a total annual turnover of below R5 million and qualifying small enterprises with the total annual revenue of between R5 million and R45 million will be considered.

The first two-month application window opened on 1 November 2017 and ends on 31 December 2017.