We must make travel to SA easier

If we are serious about attracting more foreign tourists to our shores, more needs to be done.

That’s according to the Southern Africa Tourism Services Association (Satsa), who spoke out this week after Statistics SA noted a 2% decline in the arrival of foreign travellers to our country yearon-year for October.

It’s been two years of negative growth or decline in the foreign market, both African and overseas.

While the figure is not that large, Satsa says it still equates to 146,000 tourists during that period. Those are people that would have spent money in South Africa, and in the process boosted our tourism. SA relies on tourism for income and employment opportunities.

The scrapping of the unabridged birth certificate for foreigners is a start, but visa difficulties persist. We need to make SA the preferred destination for tourists.

“It is important to view tourist arrival statistics over a period of time, not only on month-to-month and in terms of past performance, but also looking at future bookings, so that one gets a full and accurate picture of the situation,” said Satsa spokesperson Natalia Rosa.

“That bigger picture shows that several of South Africa’s top international source markets are down yearto-date, but we do see some markets showing growth, albeit small, like the UK, India and Italy.”

In his State of the Nation address earlier this year President Cyril Ramaphosa stressed the need to improve international tourism. He said government aimed to double international visitors to 21 million by 2030. That target looks a way off, unless things change.

A global economic downturn has not helped tourism, while crime and safety concerns need to be addressed. Xenophobia has certainly had a negative impact on the African market.

It’s simple: making travel easier attracts foreign visitors.

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