As thousands gather at Africa’s Travel Indaba this week, it’s time for a frank assessment of South Africa’s tourism recovery, which, if the plethora of articles are to be believed, has been very bullish.
Numbers don’t lie, however. And as a trained economist, I am always drawn to data and statistics, and the truth is that our performance has been lacklustre at best. Reaching only 80% of our non-African pre-COVID arrivals from key source markets is not a cause for celebration. Rather, a wake-up call for urgent action.
When regional competitors like Kenya and Tanzania are surging ahead with arrivals exceeding 2019 levels, we cannot afford to pat ourselves on the back for mediocre results. It’s time to face reality and change course to accelerate our tourism growth.
I attempt to do just that by offering some humble (and by no means exhaustive) thoughts on how ‘we’ (the emphasis on the tourism collective) can achieve this together. Actions we can take as an industry, not…
