South Africa is seeking to attract 15.6-million foreign tourists a year by 2030, but industry leaders say the tourism sector has some work to do to achieve this.
This week, the Tourism Business Council of South Africa held its annual leadership conference at Sun City in North West, where more than 300 delegates gathered to find ways to make South Africa a leading travel destination.
According to the department of tourism, international tourist arrivals from January to March 2024 hit 2.4-million, showing a 15.4% increase compared with the same period in 2023. In total, 8.5-million international tourists landed on our shores last year.
Tourism contributed 8.2% to the country’s GDP in 2023. According to the tourism department, its contribution is expected to increase to 8.8% by the end of 2024 and reach 10.4% by 2030.
TBCSA chair Jerry Mabena said improvements in the ease with which visa processes are handled, visa waivers, and air access will help bring more travellers into the country.
“I’m still not comfortable with where aviation sits, I think we could do more there in terms of increasing airlift. If we want to get a certain number of people in the country, we need to get more airlines and more slots,” he said.
South African Airways COO Tebogo Tsimane said increasing flights from South Africa to other parts of the continent would help increase tourism numbers and get closer to the arrivals target.
“There’s opportunity for growth in the continent and the aviation industry has a role to play in that. For SAA, our core focus is on the region,” said Tsimane.
Rampa Rammopo, Lanseria International Airport’s CEO, said there was still room to increase the capacity of airports to help alleviate the demand challenges.
“The country could benefit from secondary airports, or the refurbishment of existing municipal airports.”
The country could benefit from secondary airports, or the refurbishment of existing municipal airports
The home affairs department said it was working to reduce the visa backlog while finding ways to digitise its systems for easy access.
Yusuf Simon, Western Cape provincial manager at home affairs, said the Trusted Tour Operator Scheme (TTOS) for China and India was among the department’s efforts to enhance the efficiency of the visa process.
The scheme, which is designed to simplify the visa process for large tour groups from India and China, was announced by the department this month.
“The goal here is to start small and then expand the programme to other places, but this is a good step in boosting tourism,” Simon said.
He said while bilateral discussions were ongoing, allowing visa-free access to more countries would not happen overnight as this was a delicate process that could be rushed.
“We have to look at development in those countries, and conduct threat and risk assessments. So the process is not as easy as we might think.”
South Africa signed a visa waiver agreement with Ghana in November 2023, bringing the number of countries participating in the scheme to 132, with engagements in place to extend the waiver to 10 other countries.
This led to an increase in the number of people travelling from Ghana to South Africa. Between January and March, there were 7,904 arrivals from the West African nation.
Simon said the visa waiver agreement is reciprocal and requires willingness from the prospective countries to participate.
“We have had initial discussions with some countries in the EU on information sharing and operations, but visa waivers were not part of those discussions.”
He said the remote work visa that is set to take effect in January 2025 would also attract more visitors from abroad. This visa will allow people employed and paid by foreign companies to live in South Africa and work remotely.
“It will allow them to come spend their money here, and should they decide to stay longer than six months they should register with the South African Revenue Service and pay tax, which is another benefit for the country.”
For those providing accommodation to tourists, poor infrastructure was identified as one of the biggest hindrances.
Graham Wood, COO at Sun International, said roads leading to some destinations have deteriorated, making it difficult for tourists to traverse the country.
“We have to address the deprivation of our infrastructure. It’s nothing new but if you drive down the R556 road to get to Sun City, you see how the road is deteriorating. This is a problem because this road is the gateway into North West tourism.”
Wood urged more investment in tourism and ramping up partnerships between the public and private sectors.
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