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The Portfolio Committee on Tourism welcomed the White Paper for the development and promotion of tourism in South Africa and the department’s tourism masterplan, saying they are a step in the right direction. However, the committee was baffled that it has taken the department almost three decades to review the Tourism White Paper of 1996.
 
Briefing the committee today on the policy review process, the department was led by Deputy Minister Ms Makhotso Magdeline Sotyu. Ms Sotyu said the tourism White Paper was approved by Cabinet on 18 September 2024 and gazetted on 4 October 2024.
 
The department indicated that it had embarked on a long overdue process to review the overarching policy framework guiding the tourism sector in the country, as among other things, the 1996 policy did not respond to the latest technological developments. South Africa’s tourism economy is yet to fully exploit its potential, despite the significant contribution it makes to gross domestic product since the 1996 Tourism White Paper.
 
The committee also heard that the National Treasury and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s economic survey of South Africa had noted that the tourism sector lags relative to its potential and considerable resources. Furthermore, the Revised Growth Strategy for Tourism of 2022 produced by the Tourism Business Council of South Africa and Public Private Growth Initiative noted that tourism in South Africa underperforms relative to its comparator countries, despite its huge potential.
 
The department indicated that the White Paper seeks to, among other things, facilitate growth and transformation in order to increase tourism’s contribution to the broader economy through a geographic, year-round spread of visitor volumes and revenue. It also seeks to drive increased employment and entrepreneurship as an integral part of growth efforts, with particular focus on women and youth.
 
The White Paper further seeks to provide for the sector’s enhanced resilience and ability to respond to economic, health and other crises through risk mitigation innovation and improve the capacity for research and targeted data gathering to understand, leverage, and cater for the domestic and regional markets. Furthermore, the policy seeks to contribute to community engagement and ownership of the sector, while promoting a more inclusive sector through increased skills development and financial support. The White Paper also seeks to create an enabling regulatory environment for the present and future, especially with regards to technological developments and to attract further tourism investment and develop supportive tourism infrastructure, especially to drive innovation in experience delivery.
 
The department indicated that the next step on the approved Tourism White Paper includes awareness creation to ensure alignment between national, provincial and local levels of government, the tourism industry and the relevant department. Furthermore, the department said the Tourism Act of 2014 and the National Tourism Sector Strategy 2016-2026 will also need to be amended and reviewed to align with the policy.
 
On the department’s masterplan, the committee was told that a three-year Tourism Sector Recovery Plan (TSRP) was developed to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on the travel and tourism sector. The plan was approved by Cabinet for implementation in April 2021 and was anchored to three pillars with seven strategic interventions, along with a set of key identified enablers to ensure that recovery is supported.
 
The department indicated that the plan is aligned to the Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan with the potential to contribute to infrastructure development, mass public employment, green economy interventions, the inclusion of women and youth, and skills development.
 
The department said that implementation of the TSRP commenced in the 2021/22 financial year and continued until 2023/24. It has yielded positive outcomes, as full recovery to pre-COVID-19 performance levels has occurred more in some sectors than in others.
 
The committee welcomed the presentations saying they are clear on what is going to happen. The department will be required to update the committee regularly on progress in implementing the plan. The committee also called on the department to ensure that the policing strategy is prioritised, as tourism season has already started. The committee further urged the department to attend to the red tape that hinders locals from accessing funding.

Issued by the Parliamentary Communication Services on behalf of the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Tourism, Lungi Mnganga-Gcabashe