The Minister of Tourism, Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane, today hosted a media briefing to unpack the Tourism Sector Recovery Plan which was recently approved by Cabinet. This Plan represents the tourism industry’s collective response to the devastation brought by the COVID-19 pandemic on the sector. It is a product of extensive industry consultation and reflects the industry’s commitment to deep and intensive collaboration around a set of clearly defined and specific areas of cooperation.
Tourism is an important contributor to the South African economy. The COVID-19 pandemic has plunged the sector into an unprecedented crisis, both locally and globally, as the sector continues to shed jobs with tourism enterprises in distress and small and medium enterprises being the worse affected and many facing the possibility of permanent closures.
In response, the Department of Tourism, working together with the industry, developed a Tourism Sector Recovery Plan. This Plan outlines a set of interventions to ignite the recovery of the tourism sector and to place it on a path to long-term sustainability.
“Noting the tourism sector’s impact on the wider economy, the Tourism Sector Recovery Plan is aligned to the Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan (ERRP), in particular to the ERRP’s priorities in the areas of employment creation; infrastructure investment; green economy or sustainability interventions; inclusion of women and youth; as well as skills development,” stated Minister Kubayi-Ngubane.
The ERRP identifies priority interventions to drive the reconstruction and recovery of the South African economy. Besides the revival of the tourism sector itself, the outline the sector’s contribution to the following priorities of the ERRP: infrastructure, mass public employment; the green economy or sustainability interventions; and the inclusion of women and youth; as well as skills development.
“The Tourism Sector Recovery Plan contains a set of interventions to protect and rejuvenate supply, reignite demand and strengthen enabling capability to support the sector’s recovery. The goal is to preserve jobs and livelihoods within the sector, facilitate the creation of new job opportunities, match demand and supply as well as strengthen transformation in the sector including empowerment of women, youth and people with disabilities in the sector,” said Minister Kubayi-Ngubane.
The Plan also identifies specific enablers as well as the activities linked to them, their timeframes for implementation and the lines of accountability and its successful implementation will, in part, depend on a set of enablers is beyond the immediate mandate Department of Tourism and the tourism industry in general.
The effective implementation of the Plan will be anchored on seven strategic Interventions supported by catalytic programmes with specific actions, time-frames and an indication of those responsible for the implementation of each strategic intervention.
“We anticipate that the interventions and enablers outlined in the Tourism Sector Recovery Plan will facilitate the preservation of R189 billion of value and recover the tourism sector to its 2019 output, and employment levels by 2023. Additionally, it will position the sector for long-term sustainable growth,” stated Minister Kubayi-Ngubane
The pandemic has reinforced the interdependence among a broad range of stakeholders and the Tourism Sector Recovery Plan recognises the need to continue working together with relevant sector departments to build on efforts already undertaken to stimulate tourism as an integral part of the economic reconstruction and recovery effort.
The Department of Tourism in conjunction with its marketing entity; the South African Tourism, will lead, coordinate and support the implementation of the Plan through the reprioritisation of current resource allocation.
The Minister expressed her gratitude for the successful collaboration between all role-players that resulted in this robust plan to save the sector.
Enquiries:
Mr Blessing Manale
Chief Director: Communications
Department of Tourism
Tel: +27 (0) 12 444 6607
Cell: +27 (0) 66 487 8867
Email: bmanale@tourism.gov.za