Tag: tourism

Pre-COVID-19, travel and tourism contributed 6.9% to South Africa’s gross domestic product, declining to 3.7% in 2020. Similarly, the number of jobs created by the sector dropped by 32.4% from 1.5 million to 987,000. It was, according to Statistics SA, bigger than agriculture, utilities and construction.

Business travellers are adding a leisure component to their trips, as a way to have a holiday whilst working. It also presents a great opportunity for property managers to provide a memorable experience or encourage travellers to join their loyalty programmes, both of which will drive returning customers.

Business travel will have an important role to play as the global economy recovers from the massive knock-on effect of COVID-19. The US and the Eurozone experienced record-breaking declines of 32.9% and 40% in GDP, respectively, in the second quarter. And, although the extent of South Africa’s economic downturn has yet to be established with the official GDP figures only being released in a few weeks, we know the impact in our country has been severe.

The global COVID-19 pandemic has made its presence felt in South African retail and consumer-focused businesses, especially in tourism and hospitality, but the full impact on earnings, cash flow and employment will last far longer than the initial lockdown.

A message from the South African Tourism CEO, Sisa Ntshona, on the current state of the tourism industry in light of the COVID-19 Coronavirus impact on the tourism industry.

In 2018, 1.4 billion people crossed an international border to take a holiday, and this number is set to rise with an estimated 5 billion people travelling internationally by 2050. SA tourism must work to capitalise on the social megatrends that are influencing how and why people travel, and what they look for when they do.

A refreshingly practical guide to evaluating captive wildlife attractions and activities will be unveiled following extensive research undertaken by us, which represents South Africa’s tourism private sector. While the guide is comprehensive in its assessment of animal interactions in the tourism industry, and is the first to pin its approach on a locally-born ethical framework, its utility peaks in an interactive tool – an easy-to-use ‘decision tree’ which will allow tourism bodies, tour operators and tourists to assess animal interaction operations, and make informed decisions to support ethically sound and responsible operators in South Africa.

Little is known about where the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) will take the tourism industry globally, or indeed what the full impact of 4IR will be.

Government published the Tourism Amendment Bill on April 12. If this had happened on April 1, one could have believed that it was an April Fool’s Joke, so comical is the logic underlying the bill. The amendment, once adopted, will mean that all ‘short-term home rentals’ are legislated under the Tourism Act.

There is a humorous saying: 'The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. 'It’s often attributed to Albert Einstein, but he isn’t the one who said it. It isn’t the definition of insanity either—but it does describe a trait we could call crazy. Our species tends to repeat past mistakes hoping our 'good intentions' will be enough to change the results—this time.