Visas killed SA’s tourism industry

The destructive effect of government’s visa regulations was evident this week in the latest tourism figures, which show a sharp decline.

Of the top 10 countries from which tourists come to South Africa, seven have shown a marked decline, numbers released by Stats SA show. In particular, Australian (-11%), Chinese (-10%) and German (-6.67%) tourists stayed away in the period between August 2018 and August 2019.

Visitors from these countries comprise more than 73% of tourists who visit on an annual basis.

Although visa regulations are finally being relaxed, Christelle Grohmann, director of BDO’s tourism unit, said the situation would not be turned around within the next six months. Stats SA’s figures show that only Italian, Indian and American visitor counts increased slightly in the past year.

The number of tourists from Britain, France, the Netherlands, Spain and other African countries also declined.

When figures from January to August were compared with the same period in the previous year, tourism numbers had fallen by 1.5%. During this period, there were 3.4% fewer visitors from Europe, with the numbers for Germany (-7.4%) and France (-8.7%) showing the sharpest decrease.

Grohmann said international tourism was on the rise and South Africa couldn’t blame a weak world economy for the numbers. Tourism is one of the most important economic sectors in the country and is estimated to account for more than 9% of total employment.

Among other things, the decline in tourism figures may be ascribed to the regulations implemented by former home affairs minister Malusi Gigaba. The regulations made it impossible for children to travel to South Africa without unabridged birth certificates. President Cyril Ramaphosa has reportedly called for the birth certificate regulations to be recalled, but the damage will likely remain for some time.

Grohmann said it was a perfect storm for tourism.

“Every government decision, every xenophobic attack has an effect on the tourism and hospitality industry. We sometimes forget how many people from Africa live in the US, Europe and other big tourist markets around the world.”

She said while the recent xenophobic attacks may not have been directed at tourists, they would still be something people would find disturbing and a knock-on effect may well lead to fewer tourists visiting the country over the holidays.

Earlier this year, Ramaphosa said government planned to attract 21 million tourists by 2030.

“That’s double the number of tourists who were in the country at the beginning of the year … but the latest decline shows how far we are from reaching this target,” she said.

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