Briefing the Portfolio Committee on Tourism today, the leadership of South African Tourism (SAT) assured MPs that plans are underway to arrest the drop in international arrivals in the country.

The entity was briefing the committee on its performance for the fourth quarter of the 2023/2024 and the first quarter of the 2024/2025 financial year. Presenting the figures, SAT CEO, Ms Nombulelo Guliwe, said that international tourist arrivals in 2023 fell 17% below the 2019 arrival figures and 12% below the global average.

This prompted questions from several committee members on what is being done to mitigate this, the plans to increase flights to South Africa and how the entity will further boost domestic tourism numbers.

Responding to the committee’s concern over the decline in international arrivals, she said the key reasons are linked to ease of access challenges and safety and security. ‘Airlift is a material issue when it comes to conversions to arrivals in South Africa and that is why it is being addres
sed at the highest levels.’ She said SAT, led by the Minister of Tourism, Ms Patricia de Lille, and the Deputy Minister, Ms Maggie Sotyu, is engaging with airlines.

‘We also have air access provincial committees in provinces where we have international airports. We engage with them about route development to get more tourists into South Africa.’ She said they will work with the aviation sector to get more airlines into South Africa.

Ms Guliwe also told the committee the safety and security challenges are receiving attention with significant investments in tourism safety monitors. ‘We are aware that we do not have full coverage yet, but we will increase numbers in major tourist attractions subject to funding.’

According to SAT figures for 2023, ‘the most tourist total foreign direct spend exceeded 2019 levels by 17.3%, reaching R95 billion compared to R81 billion in 2019’. ‘Africa was the top-performing region with a R38 billion spend, followed by Europe with R32 billion.’

The figures presented also showed
a ‘robust resurgence in the consumption of domestic tourism’. In 2023, there was a total of 38 million domestic overnight trips taken by South African residents. This marked an increase of 11.3% over the 2022 overnight trips, which stood at 34%. Bed nights, or the number of nights spent away from home by domestic tourists in 2023, were 133 million, which soared by 12.1% over the previous year’s performance, the figures showed.

Committee members asked for more detail on the economic impact and contribution of tourism and tourism revenue to job creation and how townships and disadvantaged areas benefit and are included in SAT programmes. Members also asked if SAT had measured the successes of the Sho’t Left campaign and if it was money well spent. Ms Guliwe undertook to provide a more comprehensive report on this to the committee.

The Chairperson of the committee, Ms Lungi Mnganga-Gcabashe, thanked the delegation for the presentation and input. ‘Let us all be tourists in our own country whenever we can and ex
plore the natural beauty of Mzanzi’s villages, townships and small dorpies in support of the work done by South African Tourism, the entity of the Department of Tourism,’ she said.

Source: Parliament of South Africa