A weak rand and a government U-turn on restrictive visa rules are helping South Africa’s tourism sector to stage a strong recovery after a shaky year last year.
However, a ban affecting the nation’s international sports teams over their failure to field more black players risks setting the industry — an increasingly vital cog in a struggling economy — back again.
Foreign visitors dropped nearly 7 percent last year, partly due to new visa regulations requiring children to travel with full birth certificates and visitors from some nations, including China, to appear in person at a South African embassy, often requiring lengthy journeys.
The government relaxed those rules in October last year, and South African Minister of Tourism Derek Hanekom on Tuesday said that the industry, which was also hit by health fears sparked by an Ebola outbreak in West Africa last spring, was on the mend.
“More than ever before, governments around the world are looking to tourism for economic growth. South Africa is no different,” Hanekom said. “Tourism is recovering rapidly from last year’s decline [and] 2016 promises to be a year of strong growth.”
More than 1 million tourists arrived in South Africa in January, up 15 percent year on year, and the increase was 18 percent in February. Arrivals from China, where authorities now let agencies apply for visas on behalf of travelers, doubled over the period.
In 2013, tourism’s direct contribution to South Africa’s now ailing economy was 104 billion rand (US$7 billion at current exchange rates), about 2.9 percent of GDP.
The sector now accounts for more than 9 percent of economic output and supports more than 1.5 million jobs, and the World Travel and Tourism Council estimates it is to contribute more than 380 billion rand this year.
A 25 percent fall in the rand last year has also helped this process.
South Africa’s tourism capital, Cape Town, is the lowest-priced of 32 long haul destinations surveyed in this year’s UK Post Office Holiday Money Report, and the third-cheapest overall for British tourists.
The favorable finances helped lure hundreds of cricket fans to the city at the end of last year to support the touring English team.
“This ‘Barmy Army’ highlighted how much sport events and tournaments can boost tourism in the short term,” Cape Town tourism chief executive officer Enver Duminy said. “This fan ‘invasion’ coincided with the drop in the exchange rate, so it was a surprise benefit to those traveling at the time.”
However, in a nation that often punches above its weight on the international sporting stage, administrators are worried that politics might compromise their ability to stage major events in future.
South African Minister of Sport and Recreation Fikile Mbalula on April 25 said that, because their teams remain largely white more than two decades after the end of apartheid, the nation’s cricket, rugby, athletics and netball federations would not be allowed to bid for international tournaments.
The ban could scupper South Africa’s hopes of hosting the 2023 Rugby World Cup.
The Tourism Business Council said that, while redressing imbalances created by decades of segregation under apartheid is important, this should not be at the expense of an economy seen growing just 0.9 percent this year.
“Whilst we … respect the minister’s prerogative to take such a stance, we remain concerned about the unintended consequences this may have on inbound tourism to South Africa and the broader economy,” Tourism Business Council chief executive officer Mmatsatsi Ramawela said in a statement.
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