Gauteng MEC for Finance & Economic Development, Mr. Lebogang Maile today Sunday 1st September 2024 addressed members of the media during the province’s official launch of the Gauteng Tourism Month Programme at the Sanctuary Mandela Hotel in Houghton.
The impact of COVID-19 on tourism in Gauteng
Tourism is a crucial sector in the South African and provincial economy and creates a multiplier effect that sees money spent by tourists circulating in the broader economy. It is for this reason that the Gauteng Provincial Government has identified tourism as one of the key sectors in the province and is investing significantly to ensure its growth and sustainability.
The prioritisation of the tourism sector is occurring in a difficult economic environment both locally and globally, with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic still observable. The sector was particularly affected by the said pandemic, which devastated national economies. In Gauteng, we saw the closure of iconic sites such as the SAB World of Beer Museum in Newtown, which is now a funeral parlour. The Sterkfontein caves have still not opened and other important tourism offerings were greatly affected.
In the past financial year, Gauteng faced notable declines in domestic tourism spending. The province’s overnight tourism expenditure plummeted to R18.86 billion, marking a dramatic decrease of 45.8 percent. In addition, holiday spending in Gauteng fell significantly to R7.22 billion, reflecting a sharp drop of 59.2 percent. The substantial decreases in Gauteng’s tourism expenditure underscore a critical need for targeted strategies to invigorate overnight and holiday tourism in the province.
Despite the significant impact of the COVID-19 global pandemic, important lessons were learnt. At the heart of these is the necessity for a resilient and sustainable approach to tourism. Harnessing the full potential of tourism will be crucial to shaping a prosperous and sustainable future, and to balancing economic benefits with environmental, cultural and both global and local considerations. There is no question that tourism is set for significant resurgence and transformation. At the heart of this resurgence should be the inclusion of civil society role-players, integration of the district development model into the tourism ecosystem and ensuring that new frontiers are opened for new players in areas like sports tourism, medical tourism, music tourism, film tourism and gastronomy tourism. All these are part of the fabric and DNA of destination Gauteng.
Tourism priorities and interventions of the Gauteng Provincial Government
In the 7th administration, the Gauteng Province is set to pay special attention to destination marketing and development work to drive increased international arrivals, domestic trips and revenue generated out of the visitor economy as highlighted above. The World Tourism Travel Council projects that South Africa’s travel and tourism sector will play a significant role in driving the nation’s economic recovery, growing at an impressive average annual rate of 7.6 percent over the next decade. Our province will be at the centre of this growth.
Over the medium-term expenditure framework, it is anticipated that the tourism sector in Gauteng will generate over R120 billion from international arrivals revenue and R50 billion from domestic tourism while creating over 10 000 jobs through down and upstream value-chains opportunities in the sector.
To leverage on this potential, the #VisitGAUTENG – Zwakala campaign will be resourced and extended to key source markets. Linked to this work will be the hunting in a pact marketing approach by all destination marketing agencies in the province. By integrating the work done by the Film Commission, the Gauteng Growth and Development Agency and other agencies with tourism, we will be strengthening our offerings and ensuring high impact and better utilisation of our limited resources. The value of our investment thus far is already evident.
By May 2024, Gauteng stood out with an impressive R42.7 billion tourism spend, commanding a dominant 50.7 percent of the total national tourism spend. This substantial expenditure emphasises Gauteng’s pivotal role in South Africa’s tourism economy. Factors such as its status as the economic hub of the country, the presence of major quality tourist attractions, world-class demand generating signature events and leisure and business tourism offerings contributed to Gauteng’s high expenditure.
Since April 2022, as we gravitated towards full operation post the pandemic, Gauteng saw the opening and refurbishment of 9 new hotels including Soshanguve and Orlando hotels, Eyethu and Evaton lifestyle and conference centres, Farmhouse in the Cradle of Humankind, Biblos Café in Katlehong, Spin City in Orange Farm and Formula K in Benoni, amongst others.
These, together with massive rapid urban infrastructure development in all our five developmental corridors and advances in our Special Economic Zones (SEZs) led economic infrastructure drive, bears testament to the fact that Gauteng is open for business. Additionally, infrastructure development-led economic recovery is taking shape. Our townships, informal settlements, hostels, and central business districts are the hotbeds for inclusive growth and sustainable livelihoods.
Of significance to us is that the African continent continues to lead the way in terms of the actual international arrivals into our country. As Gauteng, our tourism, trade, and investment facilitation strategy is premised on Africa first and followed by our other source markets like United States, United Kingdom, Germany, China, India, Middle East, and Brazil. Our approach to tourism, trade, investment facilitation and signature events leveraging is to use the instruments provided for by amongst others the African Continental Free Trade Area to socialise our Growing Gauteng Together vision 2030 blueprint.
Looking ahead, we are committed to propelling industry growth by attracting major events and conferences. This strategy includes offering compelling incentives such as tax breaks, subsidies, and robust marketing support. Strengthening our infrastructure, particularly upgrading transportation networks, remains a priority, ensuring accessible and efficient connections through airports and transportation links. Equally critical is the sustained emphasis on sustainability and green eventing in all our initiatives.
We plan to anchor our domestic marketing work and campaigns around the #GautengEats #MusicalGP #SportingGP and shopping offerings for our local, interprovincial, and regional markets. Lifestyle markets, such as Makhelwane festival, Hammanskraal family market and iconic signature events such as the DStv Delicious International Food & Music Festival, Standard Bank Joy of Jazz, Ultra, Spring Fiesta, 947 Ride Joburg, 702 Walk-The-Talk, Joburg Pride Month, Soweto Marathon, and Soccer Derby, continue to be the key drivers of increased visitation and tourism revenue in the province.
Overlaying these platforms and others have been the dedicated deals driven campaign such as Spring to Summer and Festive Summer with tailored offerings, price points, distribution channels, booking engines and on-the-ground end-to-end services.
Nelson Mandela Liberation & Heritage Sites
Ladies and gentlemen, we are delighted by the confirmation of the declaration of a set of Nelson Mandela Liberation & Heritage Sites as part of the collective Nelson Mandela Legacy Sites in Gauteng as the golden province’s 2nd World Heritage Sites. These sites include Constitution Hill in Johannesburg; the Union Buildings in Tshwane; the Sharpeville Massacre Site, Police Station, Sharpeville Memorial Garden and, Sharpeville Grave Site in Sedibeng; Liliesleaf Farm, June 16 Memorial, Streets of Orlando West, and Walter Sisulu Freedom Square, also in Johannesburg.
The declaration of these South African sites associated with the country’s liberation struggle and human rights crusader President Nelson Mandela into the UNESCO World Heritage List, mark a historic and joyous moment for the country and Gauteng province in particular. Accordingly, Gauteng houses a lion share of these sites through its world-class museums, iconic streets and heritage sites associated with this great stateman and freedom fighter.
As the Gauteng provincial government, we are excited and accept this declaration with humility and great appreciation to UNESCO committee and all the participating members. We will continue to preserve, promote, and share this important route and sites with the people of the world in recognition of the great journey we have traversed over the years.
Gauteng Air Access and Lift
Destination Gauteng, like many other destinations in the world, experienced severe loss of airlift and new routes development work at the height of the COVID-19 global pandemic. Together with our marketing partners, we have implemented a protracted programme of air routes development, aggressive recruitment of new airline routes into the destination’s main international airports and support for freight, cargo and film crews, private charters, and medical rescue services.
We are heavily indebted to the Tourism Business Council of South Africa (TBCSA) which supported this targeted work by Gauteng in improving airlift capacity in the province. With their R5million injection, we managed to power our marketing and coordination work resulting in the province welcoming new routes from Sao Paulo in Brazil, Abidjan in Ivory Coast, Lusaka in Zambia, Perth in Australia, eSwatini Airways, Qantas Airline and now Munich in Germany.
It gives me great pleasure to announce that the inaugural Lufthansa direct flight from Munich to Johannesburg is scheduled to land this Tuesday, the 3rd of September 2024, early in the morning. This inaugural flight from Munich Germany to Johannesburg supports the key levers of the province’s trade, investment, and tourism strategy. With this daily flight, we will be able to support major German companies like BMW and Siemens housed in our province with their parts and components needs overnight.
Similarly, we are working hard to conclude urgently the Cathey Pacific/SAA Hong Kong to Joburg direct flight, Male to Joburg flight with Maldivian Airlines, AFRI Jet from Liberia to Joburg, Air Tanzania Dar Es Salaam to Joburg and increased frequency by Qatar Airways from Doha to Johannesburg. We note with interest the announcement by Qatar Airways of acquiring a stake in the regional carrier SA Link. This we think will boost regional air connectivity and further cement Gauteng as a leading regional air connectivity hub thus boosting our trade, tourism promotion and ease of doing business.
While we are happy that OR Tambo International Airport is almost at 90% of its previous airlift capacity, much more work needs to be done to get to 100% and further attract new routes for both cargo, passengers, and special crews. We remain worried with the progress recorded at Lanseria International Airport especially regarding regional and domestic air connectivity.
Crime prevention and fighting to strengthen tourism
It is important to touch on an important issue that the Gauteng Province is confronted with, and to share the planned interventions of the Gauteng Provincial Government. Gauteng continues to battle with perceptions and realities of an unsafe destination. The recently released crime statistics indicate that while there has been an overall decrease in cases of serious crime, the Gauteng Province had the highest number of reported cases.
While such news do not bode well for our tourism industry, the Gauteng Provincial Government is not sitting idle. Our approach to safety and security looks after residents and visitors alike. As such, we welcome to appointment and deployment in our province of 100 tourism safety monitors this month by the National Department of Tourism.
Supporting these monitors will be a strong 400 tourism ambassadors from the city of Johannesburg and our overall crime prevention capacity in the form of the crime prevention wardens, the Gauteng traffic police, various metro’s police departments and the specialised units of the South African Police Services. In the deployment of this capacity, we will prioritise key hot spots, tourism hubs, township tourism experiences and significant events as part of the overall visible policing and multidisciplinary approach to combating crime and creation of a visitable and better Gauteng we all want.
Conclusion
As we officially kickstart the Gauteng Tourism Month, we pledge to continue creating an enabling environment, co-designed with you. We commit to removing the red tape and to roll-out the red carpet for tourists – both domestic and international. The Gauteng Provincial Government will continue to find better ways of combining our financial and non-financial resources to impactfully invest as we march together to build our own sustainable visitor economy.
Resource: https://www.gauteng.net/mec-maile-launches-gauteng-tourism-month-2024/
