Tourism Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane on Friday said the Department of Tourism was ready to deliver a three-pillar plan of economic recovery to Cabinet.

She told the media during a briefing that the plan was aimed at helping the sector recover following the significant losses suffered as a result of Covid-19.

“Over the past three months of consultation with various stakeholders, we started working on a draft plan which we released for public comment from the first to the fifteenth of August.

"After incorporating all the valuable comments, we are almost ready to submit the plan to Cabinet for approval. We have a firm belief that tourism will be one of the fastest growing sectors in the recovery period and it will be one of the key sectors that will drive the overall economic recovery,” she commented.

The Minister pointed out that the plan was anchored on three pillars. The first would involve protecting and rejuvenating supply, focusing on business continuity risks, aligning the value-chain to new biosecurity standards and preserving air access, as well as investment facilitation and market access.

The second would focus on reigniting demand, which would require a robust domestic marketing strategy, the agility to respond decisively to an uncertain global environment and responsiveness to changes in consumer preference.

Lastly, the sector must strengthen its enabling capacity by implementing mechanisms to increase ease of travel through activities such as the piloting and roll-out of a proposed e-visa system.

“This plan had envisaged a scenario in which virus spread stabilises by September and we are quite happy that our plan was not off the mark," Kubayi-Ngubane commented.

She noted that, since the country moved to an Alert Level 2 lockdown, there has been an upsurge in demand among domestic travellers.

“We believe that, with proper messaging and targeted marketing, the domestic demand can reignite the sector and put the tourism industry on a growth trajectory and put our recovery on firm footing.”

The Minister added that the tourism sector was working towards the reopening of international travel.

“We are monitoring the risk of the virus spread and we are satisfied that the current downward trend of new infections, if sustained, can fast-track the reopening of regional borders soon.

"In this way, through coordination with our regional partners, we could create a regional travel bubble."

She stated that the rise in domestic tourism, together with regional travel, would help build confidence for global travellers wanting to visit the country in future.