Durban - Making it easier to travel between African countries was important if the continent wanted to boost tourism spend.
This was said by Minister of Tourism Patricia de Lille during the official opening of Africa’s Travel Indaba yesterday.
De Lille said there was a need to harmonise the visa regime across countries to boost tourism.
“We have to make it easier to move from country to country. The visa problem is a problem on the continent of Africa. We are going to work with tourism ministers in Africa to address the visa application process and reduce the cost of visas, so there can be more international visitors.”
She added that the benefits of tourism must be distributed equitably and more opportunities needed to be provided to small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs) to market their products and services.
KwaZulu-Natal MEC for Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs, Siboniso Duma, said the province’s tourism industry was bouncing back after the impact of Covid-19.
He said recent figures released by SA Tourism showed that KZN was South Africa’s favourite tourist destination, attracting almost 7.6 million tourists.
He added that KZN attracted almost 9.4% of international visitors to South Africa last year, which provided an economic spend of R4.2 billion.
Renowned CNN business journalist Richard Quest, who moderated a session at the Indaba, spoke to SAfm about the importance of the event, saying it was representative of all of Africa.
“It’s not just South Africa, it’s southern Africa and encompasses many countries, up to 20 different countries. Everybody wants tourism and the money that comes from it.
“But I think what’s now happening is a realisation that you have to put investment into it. People won’t just turn up because you say we have a nice beach, or a few nice casinos.
“Tourism is a complicated, difficult industry and it is important because it allows people at the lower level of income to get into an industry.
“It brings people in and raises them out of poverty, and Indaba is a good example of how you can promote an industry.”
Quest added that the tourism industry had boomed since the Covid-19 pandemic.
He said people were making up for lost time after the pandemic and visiting friends and family and also going to “bucket list” destinations.
“South Africa can look forward to a very strong recovery in tourism over the next year or two if it gets its policies right, its products right and its execution of the products right.”