Noting the latest tourism statistics from the Tourism Satellite Account,  Minister of Tourism, Patricia De Lille, has applauded the sector for its continued commitment to recovery.

The Tourism Satellite Account for 2020 statistics reflects the devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. “A strategic pillar of South Africa’s economy, tourism has the potential to address the triple challenges of unemployment, poverty and inequality through the creation of decent jobs. Apart from generating revenue, it provides the economic opportunities for women and youth, and supports the development of SMMEs through enterprise development,” said De Lille.

According to her, by these means, economic inclusion is achieved by creating viable tourism businesses that create sustainable jobs and contributes to the economic development.

The latest statistics highlight just how vulnerable the sector during the COVID 19 pandemic. The impact could be seen in most of the tourism-related industries that are operating within the tourism value chain at a global and national level.

This was evident when key indicators used to monitor the performance of the tourism sector were analysed. The tourism sector directly employed 459 533 persons in 2020 which was a decrease of 41.1% (or 320 563 employees) compared with 2019. Thus, during 2020, only one out of 32 employees in South Africa were working within the tourism sector.

Furthermore, direct contribution of tourism to the GDP decreased from over R208million (€12.2m) in 2019 to R123.6million (€7.2m) in 2020, which was a decrease of 40.7%. The percentage contribution to GDP also decreased from 3.7% in 2019 to 2.2% in 2020.

Summary of key indicators compared with 2019:

• Tourism exports (inbound tourism expenditure) decreased by 70.5%.

• Tourism imports (outbound tourism expenditure) decreased by 70.6%.

• Domestic tourism expenditure decreased by 32.8% to R224.5 million (€13.1m).

• Total number of foreign visitors to the country (same day visitors and overnight visitors or tourists) went down from 14.8 million in 2019 to 3.9 million in 2020 which was a decline of about 73.6%.

• From the total number of visitors arriving to the country in 2020 (3.9 million), a total of 2.8 million were overnight visitors/tourists, which was a decline of 72.6% compared with the total number of tourists recorded in 2019 (10 228 593)

• Using Stats SA domestic Tourism results, domestic tourism day and overnight trips went down from 43.2 million and 35.5 million in 2019 to 12.4 million and 7.5 million respectively in 2020.

• Although spend from domestic visitors went down in 2020, its contribution to the total spend within the country went up from 73% in 2019 to 86% in 2020. Inbound spend from foreign visitors went down from a share of 27% in 2019 to a share of 14% in 2020.

In response, the Department of Tourism, working together with the industry, developed a Tourism Sector Recovery Plan which is an integral part of the South Africa’s Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa in October 2020.

The plan outlines a set of interventions to ignite the recovery of the tourism sector and to place it on a path to long-term sustainability.

De Lille said: “Given the devastation of the COVID-19 pandemic across the world, the figures are not unexpected but headway is already being made since sectors started increasing operations in 2021 and 2022.

“The efforts by stakeholders in the tourism sector are notable, with recovery already well under way. This is evident in the fact that tourist arrival numbers between January and December 2022 reached 5.7million from 2.25 arrivals between January and December 2021.This represents an increase of 152.6% from January to December 2021.”

Editor’s note: The Tourism Satellite Account (TSA) for South Africa report, released annually, draws from a range of data sources, from national accounts to surveys of international and domestic visitors, visitor arrival statistics, tourist accommodation data, and figures from the restaurant, fast-food and catering industry. Together, these provide insight into the role that tourism plays in the South African economy.

Download the Tourism Satellite Account for South Africa report here.