Industry left scratching its head by tourism rules

Recent announcements by Department of Tourism Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane sought to explain the risk-adjusted strategy to support the sector under Level 3 lockdown.

But Kubayi-Ngubane’s explanation left more questions than answers. The tourism sector is heavily dependent on human interactions, making it a difficult industry to open up fully to tourists itching to escape their homes.

As such, the department opted to keep leisure travel banned under Level 3. What constitutes leisure travel activities was not elaborated on in Kubayi-Ngubane’s address.

Tourism department communications head Blessing Manale explained to The Citizen that leisure travel is generally seen as the opposite of business travel.

He defined it as “travel for other purposes other than education, business, meetings and conferences. Travellers for leisure travel in which the primary motivation is to take a vacation from everyday life; it includes attending sporting, cultural and religious events or visiting of friends and relatives.”

The professional services of tour guides and operators, nature guides, travel agents and certain accommodation activities may once again resume, provided everyone keeps a safe distance.

Tourists are being encouraged to go on self-drive excursions, and public and private game farms have opened as a result, to accommodate hunting activities.

This implies that the duties performed by tour operators would resume as well, many of which would fall under leisure travel, prompting many to question the apparent contradictions of the department.

To add to the sector’s woes, many public and private game reserves have not yet implemented self-drive options for guests, which would mean that these reserves would have to remain closed until the department consults with them.

This was confirmed by Manale, who said that unless resorts that do not accommodate self-drives are otherwise directed under an enhanced Alert Level 3 or any other level, with mandatory health protocols and any additional measures, they would have to remain closed. 

Kubayi-Ngubane said the push for hunting activities to resume was due to it contributing an estimated R2 billion annually to the tourism sector.

Manale denied a push for the resumption of hunting activities, but said that trophy and biltong hunters did generate a combined R13.6 billion for the economy in the 2016/2017 season. In addition, he said that hunting alone created 31,500 jobs in Limpopo, the Northern Cape and the Free State. 

He added that hunting activities were resuming because it would not be in the interest of the economy to say that if leisure travel is not permitted, no sub-sectors of the tourism industry are. 

“It would… not be in the interest of our continued efforts to open up the sector of the economy if we adopted an attitude that if we can’t open leisure travel , we can’t open up any other sub-sector for its own good or to support other open-up economic activities.

“Typical direct employment sourced from immediate park communities includes guides, professional hunters, skinners, trackers, catering, housekeeping, maintenance, conservation management, anti-poaching and taxidermy, to name a few, most of which should be able to maintain safety protocols,” Manale explained. 

South Africa’s tourism sector contributed R425.8 billion of the country’s economy in 2018, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council.

The sector also contributed to roughly 1.5 million jobs in 2018, and is estimated to contribute 10.1% of South Africa’s gross domestic product (GDP) by 2028.

Although the industry as a whole is critical to the country’s economy, leisure travel spending in 2017 contributed 65.5%, or R186.6 billion of the country’s direct travel and tourism GDP.

In contrast, business travel spending contributed 34.5%, or R98.4 billion, to travel and tourism GDP.

This article has been updated to include responses from the Department of Tourism. 

– Additional reporting Amanda Watson

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