The National Department of Tourism (NDoT) is gearing up to ensure tourism readiness when the international borders eventually open up.
This was highlighted by Minister of Tourism, Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubani, in her Budget Vote yesterday (July 22) where she outlined the department’s priorities for the year ahead during a National Assembly virtual mini-plenary.
She pointed out that her department would work with its sister departments – including Transport and Home Affairs – as well as tourism stakeholders in implementing a set of interventions to ensure a quick recovery.
She said it would include readiness for the roll-out of the e-visa system, resolving the challenges around the issuance of licences for tour operators by the National Public Transport Regulator (NPTR), and ensuring that all the marketing campaigns, globally and domestically and associated partnerships were in place and ready to be rolled out.
“We have also been engaging with global bodies so that we co-ordinate with our partners around the world, especially our source markets, in preparation for the sector recovery,” said Kubayi-Ngubane.
She said the department was finalising the country’s Tourism Recovery Strategy with a view to submitting it to Cabinet next month.
“So far, the indications are that tourism recovery will experience a number of phases, from hyper-local community attractions, through to broader domestic tourism, regional land and air markets and, eventually, resumption of world-wide international travel.”
The tourism department envisages that phase one’s set of interventions will primarily focus on the protection of the domestic supply side of the sector. In phase two, the emphasis will be on managing the reopening of the sector as tourism activities scale up.
Phase three will target factors that can drive long-term growth in tourism supply and demand.
