Survey confirms that Department has wrong approach to Tourism

10 May 2020

The results of a survey conducted for the Tourism Business Council of South Africa (TBCSA) in collaboration with the Tourism Department and the International Finance Corporation released this week shows that the tourism sector has been severely negatively affected by Covid-19 and the measures taken to reduce the spread of it.

Of the respondents that participated in this survey, 99% of them have been affected by the pandemic.

The survey found that due to the lockdown the supply and demand sides of tourism have been obliterated. This means that there have already been substantial job losses in the sector, with the TBCSA indicating more than 160 000 job losses. While in February 79% of tourism-related businesses felt neutral or positive about their business and tourism in South Africa, the April figure had shifted to 78% that now felt negative about the future. There is no doubt that this impact will be felt in the foreseeable future.

The survey further indicates that;

69% of businesses have temporarily closed;

58% of businesses have downscaled;

58% of businesses could not cover debt repayments; and

54% of businesses could not cover their fixed costs.

This survey confirms that all people within this sector, irrespective of race, are suffering extreme hardships and will continue to do so for at least the immediate future as the tourism sector is presently completely inactive.

Tourism Minister Nkhensani Kubayi-Ngubane cannot continue to keep her head in the sand by retaining the racial criteria for the Tourism Relief Fund that cuts off many businesses that are under extreme pressure.

In addition, the tourism recovery plan that the Minister presented to the Portfolio Committee does not take into account the realities that the survey confirms and does not consider a phased approach to opening up the sector. Instead the plan foresees the tourism sector restart only in 12 months’ time. This will only exacerbate the horrifying position that the sector is in already.

The DA will be writing to the minister to review the criteria for the Tourism Relief Fund and will also request that she reconsiders her approach to how tourism will reopen. Unless this is done, the sector will continue to crumble further and more jobs will be lost.

Issued by Manny de Freitas, DA Shadow Minister of Tourism, 10 May 2020