Department of Tourism Annual report 2020/2021
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Date
2021
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National Department of Tourism, South Africa
Abstract
The tourism sector has in recent times become the new gold, having surpassed many sectors such as mining and manufacturing in terms of job creation and contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). According to an annual review by the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) in 2019, our country’s tourism sector created 1.5 million jobs and contributed R425.8 billion to the GDP. This is a sector that also represents 8.6 % of all economic activity in the country, while our country is the largest tourism economy in Africa.
South Africa’s tourism industry prides itself in its unique and vast offerings. The advantage of this industry is that it is versatile, and able to overlap across various industries. What makes the country’s tourism sector remain above the rest is its ability to offer bush, leisure, blue flag beaches and accommodation, amongst the others.
While the sector has been doing its bit to grow the economy over the years, the emergence of Novel COVID-19 pandemic has had dire socio-economic effects on the sector. This led to the threat of job losses and strained livelihoods of tourism employees, and other stakeholders. As a result, various COVID-19 mitigations were implemented in a phased approach to counter the effect of COVID-19 on the sector. These were put in place and tabled to the government by the Department in collaboration with other sectors. On the other hand, SMME’s and big sub-sectors in the tourism industry adapted their business models and maintained a presence through innovative ways of operating. This reflected the great potential and opportunity for the tourism industry to operate in an unconventional way in the COVID-19 operating environment.
The Department embarked on a process to review the current tourism policies and develop a new policy direction for the tourism sector. The Advisory Panel appointed in October 2020 commenced with its work in November 2020 with the review of the White Paper on the Development and Promotion of Tourism in South (1996). The Panel has held preliminary consultations with organised tourism, business formations, labour union, youth and transformation bodies within the tourism sector. The reviewed Tourism White Paper is expected to provide a framework for the next phase of tourism development in the country ...
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Keywords
Annual reports, South Africa, South African tourism