‘TOURISM AGENT OF RECOVERY POST-COVID-19’

MBABANE – Tourism has been identified as an agent of economic recovery for countries in Southern Africa that include Eswatini.

Tourism is said to be contributing about five per cent of the country’s gross domestic product. According to a report from the Future Directions International, Southern Africa countries are clearly blessed with a range of visitor attractions and, prior to the pandemic, many had long-standing, successful tourism industries.

“As a source of jobs, foreign exchange and contribution to GDP, tourism has the potential to be a catalyst for recovery across much of the region,” reads the report.
In almost all of the Southern Africa countries, prior to the pandemic, the travel and tourism sector made a significant contribution to national GDP.

Employment

As might be expected from such figures, the industry is a significant provider of employment in many of the Southern African Development Community countries.
“As much of the world cautiously opens up again, one way to do that could be for SADC to revive its own, largely defunct, tourism marketing body, the Regional Tourism Organisation of Southern Africa (RETOSA).

“During the period when it was adequately funded, RETOSA was charged with encouraging tourism among SADC states and promoting the region to overseas travellers as a unique and varied destination.

“With funding restored, either RETOSA or the SADC Secretariat’s Tourism Unit could be an ideal vehicle for working with member governments, airlines, accommodation providers, tour operators and local industry representatives to craft marketing strategies for visitors from suitably low-risk countries to individual SADC countries, or one or more sub-regional groupings; for instance, a South African or Botswanan safari in combination with a visit to Victoria Falls, the deserts of Namibia, or further afield to one or more of the Indian Ocean islands,” reads the report.

Need

According to the report, the need to fund any such campaigns, including the need to restore funding to RETOSA, if it is to be the lead agency, may present a challenge.

“A possible solution may be the imposition of a small levy on accommodation bookings for non-SADC nationals.
Also needing to be addressed in any regional tourism promotion campaign is the health aspect of travel. Airlines are at pains to reassure passengers that air travel in the COVID-19 era is safe and that their hospital-standard aircraft filtration systems do not spread the virus.

Traveller

“Once a traveller has made peace with again being in aeroplane and airport environments, there remains the possibility of contracting COVID-19 while in Southern Africa. Although the relatively low incidence of cases across the region is, in most countries, largely due to low rates of testing, the likes of Mauritius, Seychelles, Botswana and Namibia have thus far contained the spread of the virus quite successfully.

The favourable geography of those countries, as far-flung islands or sparsely populated, wide-open spaces, could certainly be used as a selling feature.
If done well, the potential is there for the SADC, via RETOSA, to reaffirm its value by leading a concerted regional effort to utilise the tourism sector as an agent of economic recovery.

The travel and tourism industry cannot offer an across-the-board panacea but, with suitable marketing and measures taken to address potential challenges, it can offer the hope of an economic lifeline,” highlighted the report.
 

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