SA tourism faces tough competition on its road to recovery

The global experts are saying that tourism – and the airline business – will be getting back to pre-2019 levels of activity during the course of next year.

And the predictions are, thank goodness, similar for South Africa. Covid-19 hammered our travel and tourism sector particularly hard.

In 2020, the volume of tourists in South Africa decreased by 72.6%, from 10.2 million in 2019 to 2.8 million.

Foreign arrivals decreased by 82.1%, from 1.5 million in December 2019 to 279,539 in December 2020, while only 26,880 were from Europe, compared to 163,335 in December 2019.

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There are signs our recovery is already underway.

Foreigners, most bringing with them strong currencies, are a major lifeline for our tourist business.

However, in Covid times, some places only stayed open because of the support they got from local tourists.

So, let’s hope once things get back to normal, businesses in the sector don’t drop locals for the allure of foreign gold.

There are still some doubts about whether the world will ever go back completely to the way it was.

Covid deterred many travellers – and continues to do so, despite worst of the pandemic now being over.

At the same time, the global tourist business – which accounts for 10% of world gross domestic product and the same proportion of jobs – is also changing.

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There are many more destinations for foreigners to consider and competition will be tough for South Africa.

Foreigners are particularly sensitive to perceived instability in any country and have many alternatives to choose from.

Currently, South Africa is not doing too well in the attractiveness stakes.

Our prices are rocketing, as is crime, and nobody wants to have their holiday spoiled through constant blackouts.

A well-run country is attractive for tourists – and not too bad for locals, either…