South African Business 2020 edition

FOCUS SPECIAL FEATURE

FOCUS SPECIAL FEATURE Doubling tourist arrivals is a national priority Airports Company South Africa is on a massive spending drive. More than twice as many foreign tourists will visit South Africa in 2030 than is currently the case. President Cyril Ramaphosa has publicly announced that a target of 21-million foreign tourists per year is attainable. What might seem like a lofty goal is given credence by the success of a remarkable Western Cape project to increase the number of seats on routes to and from Cape Town called Cape Town Air Access. It has been spectacularly successful. Direct flights to the city have increased the number of seats available by more than 700 000 since the programme was launched in 2015. Cape Town Air Access is a partnership between Wesgro, the City of Cape Town, the Western Cape Government, Airports Company South Africa, Cape Town Tourism and South African Tourism. The announcement of a new direct flight between New York and Cape Town in July 2019 by United Airlines is significant as it gives direct access to the lucrative United States market. The estimated impact on direct tourism spend is in the region of R283-million (Grant Thornton). South African Tourism believes that revenue from the US could continue to grow at 16%, leading to income for South Africa of SOUTH AFRICAN BUSINESS 2020 32

SPECIAL FEATURE FOCUS MELROSE ARCH The 118-room African Pride Melrose Arch Hotel forms part of a popular mixed-use complex in Johannesburg’s suburbs and recently became part of the Autograph Collection Hotels group. TRAIN ON A BRIDGE A hotel on a train on a bridge in a game reserve. This is not the plot of a children’s story, rather it is the Kruger Shalati Development, Thebe Tourism Group’s latest accommodation offering in the Kruger National Park. R8.6-billion. By way of comparison, spending from the UK currently accounts for R11-billion. Cape Town International Airport has regularly been breaking its own records for passengers, having topped 10-million passengers for the first time in 2016. Airports Company South Africa (ACSA) will spend R150-million every month for the next five years to build a new runway and in creating domestic and international terminals. Similar programmes have been underway at South Africa’s biggest airport, OR Tambo International Airport (ORTIA) for some time, and are continuing. This Johannesburg hub and the airport management at Durban and Port Elizabeth are all exploring ways of introducing some version of the successful Air Access programme at their venues. Success will improve the chances of reaching President Ramaphosa’s ambitious goals. Another way of raising the numbers of visitors is to improve South Africa’s visa and document regime. A decision to demand unabridged birth certificates of travelling children proved damaging but steps have been taken to amend this decision. The Department of Home Affairs has committed to introducing e-visas. Some testing has been done and it is expected to be rolled out in 2020. Another initiative is a private-public data and booking platform to help businesses in the tourism sector to track trends and allow people to connect. The Department of Tourism, Thebe Tourism and Amadeus IT are partners in Jurni. There are 711 745 people employed in the tourism industry, with road transport (29%), food and beverages (20%) and accommodation (19%) absorbing the largest numbers. The sector contributes 9% to South Africa’s gross domestic product (GDP). The R900-million expansion of the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC2) has given the city’s biggest venue additional volume and flexibility. Johannesburg and Durban are the other two South African cities with large MICE sectors, but towns linked to research universities (like Potchefstroom and Stellenbosch) and game and nature reserves are also popular destinations for conferences. Sun City in the North West has a wide range of venues. News THE YACHT CLUB The Yacht Club was launched in Cape Town in 2019. With 170 flats, offices and an AC Hotel by Marriott, the R1.5-billion development by the Amdec Group is near the Cape Town International Convention Centre. Club Med has bought land on the North Coast of KwaZulu-Natal, and according to the Sunday Times, will open a 350-room, 50-villa resort in 2022. A three-billion-year-old micro-fossil found in the Makhonjwa Mountains in Mpumalanga is thought to be the oldest sign of life on the planet. The Makhonjwa Mountains were declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2018. Culture and heritage accounts for 40% of world tourism and is one of the fastest-growing subsectors. In Durban, a joint venture between MSA Cruises SA and Africa 33 SOUTH AFRICAN BUSINESS 2020