When I read that hospitality businesses in several popular seaside towns in Spain were reporting a 20% decline in customers — and begging tourists to come back — I couldn’t help but LOL.
Who can forget visuals of those smug locals in Malaga, Mallorca, San Sebastian, Valencia and Barcelona screaming at tourists and telling them to “go home”. Some even sprayed the bewildered folks with water pistols.
They didn’t really go home, por favor, señor. They just took their fat wallets to more welcoming destinations.
Spain’s Costa towns are popular with Brits, who love escaping their miserable island to catch the sun in Benidorm, Marbella or Barcelona, and digging into their wallets full of pounds.
Attracting too many tourists can never be a bad thing.
Protesters in Spain complained about foreign visitors, blaming them for worsening housing shortages, driving up rents through short-term rentals such as Airbnb, straining the environment, and overcrowding public spaces.
Look, I won’t downplay those concerns; they are serious. Similar issues are raised in Cape Town, where tourists are blamed for pushing property prices through the roof, surging rentals, or — inconceivably — clogging popular beaches, restaurants and night spots. It’s incredibly daft and shortsighted.
Countries generally don’t have big enough local markets to sustain their hospitality sectors. Even China and India — with populations of more than a billion — need leisure and business tourism to keep their hospitality sectors afloat.
Empty restaurants and hotels offer no benefit to local communities. Since they typically hire local staff, a downturn in customers often leads to retrenchments.
Accountants and economists use the concept of the “multiplier effect” to measure the broader economic impact of an activity. It refers to how an initial injection of spending generates additional economic benefits. And, when it comes to tourism, this is remarkable — dollars spent by tourists generate multiple jobs, and boost GDP.
The tourism minister has abused her powers by repeatedly interfering in the governance of the entity, removing at will boards that seek to hold rogue officials accountable
In South Africa, tourism contributes an estimated 9.5% to GDP — buoyed (last year) by almost 9-million international arrivals, supporting 1.8-million jobs. Two jobs are created for every 12 tourists that touch down on our shores.
Given this big contribution, what Patricia de Lille is doing at South African Tourism — the flagship organisation tasked with marketing the country at home and abroad — makes absolutely no sense.
The tourism minister has abused her powers by repeatedly interfering in the governance of the entity, removing at will boards that seek to hold rogue officials accountable. Some members of the last board she shafted were emotional when they appeared before a parliamentary committee, recounting how difficult she made their tenure.
We’re talking about astute individuals with impressive CVs and vast experience, not just in the sector but in all aspects of corporate governance — from audit and risk to finance, HR, organisational design, marketing and operations. These include esteemed business moguls such as Judi Nokwedi, director of the successful Tourvest Holdings, and Oupa Pilane, director and founder of Graskop Gorge Lift Company, a popular bungee-jumping spot in Mpumalanga.
Does De Lille really expect us to believe that people who spent their entire lives building successful businesses would sit in a room and choose to ruin their reputations — and risk being declared delinquent directors — by taking “unlawful decisions”, as she has repeatedly said?
The minister couldn’t even articulate a coherent response when asked to substantiate these libellous claims.
What’s worse is the chair and deputy chair of the South African Tourism board that served before this one, produced a damning report on the competence — or lack thereof — of Nombulelo Guliwe, the CEO De Lille has broken an entire organisation to protect.
Their assessment of her performance found Guliwe had failed to set and communicate a clear strategic vision for South African Tourism. According to the report, “this lack of direction resulted in misaligned priorities and confusion among staff and senior management.”
But the board were just getting warmed up. Guliwe’s management style was described as reactive, instead of her anticipating challenges and planning accordingly. “This approach led to perpetual crisis management rather than proactive leadership. The CEO has overseen poor planning processes, resulting in late and incomplete submissions to the board. This inefficiency compromises the board’s ability to make informed decisions and places South African Tourism at risk.”
That’s where it should have ended, with the board presenting a separation letter to this lady. But no, instead of letting the board perform its fiduciary duties, De Lille interfered, and accused its members of holding too many meetings. They resigned in protest.
Spanish locals placed their hotels, Airbnbs and restaurants at risk by hurling insults and squirting water pistols at cash-flush tourists. We put our own tourism sector at risk each day an unfit and vindictive De Lille holds office.
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