Tourism is growing despite government

THE Tourism Minister, Lindiwe Sisulu, called a media conference last week to brag about how well our tourism sector is recovering.

Indeed, this is good news. However, I was shocked to hear that Minister Sisulu was taking credit for this improvement.

In the first six months of this year, tourism has grown 147% internationally, which translates into a remarkable over 2.2 million international arrivals. South Africans also ensured that they too enjoyed our beautiful country as

domestic tourism increased by 23.8% (or 15.2 million trips) compared with the same period last year. I find it astonishing that Minister Sisulu is taking credit for the bounce-back in tourism. The truth is that tourism and its allied sectors are improving despite this government, not because of it. It is thanks to the private sector and their resilience and determination that this growth has been ensured.

I find it amazing that the Ramaphosa government thinks the public has already forgotten how it was this government that decimated the tourism, travel, entertainment and hospitality sectors. South Africans have not forgotten how in the first year alone of the job-killing lockdown, at least 500 000 jobs were shed in these sectors. We have not forgotten the illogical regulations and extended travel bans imposed domestically and internationally while other countries were opening up their tourism sector.

This government’s uncertain and constant changes to its illogical regulations ensured that we remained on the red list for months of our biggest tourism markets. In March, when the Tourism Business Council of South Africa addressed the Tourism Portfolio Committee in Parliament, they quite rightly bemoaned the fact that antigen tests were still mandatory when most countries had forgotten about them.

To this day, the National Public Transport Regulator has not issued permits for years now; as a result, a substantial number of people have been forced to leave the tourism sector because of this fact alone.

Sports lovers haven’t forgotten that not even six months ago, we could not watch sports live in a stadium.

Air licensing remains backlogged and, thanks to Sisulu and her colleagues, Comair has had to close shop. All this is just the tip of the iceberg. MANNY DE FREITAS | DA tourism spokesperson