Level 2 – Mpumalanga Tourism Challenges Linger

  • August 18th, 2020

Press Release

For immediate release – 18 August 2020

Mpumalanga Tourism Challenges Linger

The Mpumalanga tourism industry has noted with some excitement and relief the announcement made by President Cyril Ramaphosa to move the country to level 2, thus allowing for inter-provincial travel for leisure. While this will not save an industry heavily reliant on international visitors, the small reprieve is most welcome. Mpumalanga looks forward to welcoming domestic tourists back to its accommodation establishments, nature and game reserves and many outdoor attractions and activities. 

Of some concern however, is that Mpumalanga saw domestic travel fall by 12,5% (in terms of domestic trips taken) in 2019 against a backdrop of a 61.3% increase countrywide. Although this measure is historically volatile, this loss of domestic market share does not bode well for provincial tourism recovery in the short term.

Under the current Covid-19 circumstances, many factors necessary for tourism recovery remain out of the control of the industry and the government agencies and departments. However, there are a number of issues (many of which have been on the agenda for some years, but have not been adequately addressed), that could have laid a solid foundation for tourism recovery had they been addressed timeously by provincial government. These lingering issues and ongoing failures include:  

  • The poor road conditions on popular tourist routes
  • Lack of general maintenance and very overdue and necessary improvements at government owned and controlled tourism attractions
  • Inadequate budget allocation and inefficient allocation of that budget to tourism marketing and development
  • Tourism safety and security   
  • Lack of meaningful engagements with the private sector
  • Lack of any urgency or capacity by government to implement tourism resolutions

“With the decimation of the industry over the past 5 months due to Covid-19, coupled with the lower domestic market numbers of 2019 and remaining unattended above-mentioned problems facing the province, one has to wonder  about the extent to which tourism in Mpumalanga can bounce back quickly. Coupled with a complete lack of any obvious, formalised and funded tourism recovery plan from the government or any financial support forthcoming for industry, tourism in Mpumalanga remains rudderless.  The only saving grace is the unbelievable resilience and innovation of the private sector which keeps on finding new and out-of-the-box ways to continue operating.” says Oupa Pilane, KLCBT President.

“While similar issues might be faced in many towns and regions throughout the country, this does not justify the lack of commitment and urgency to address these issues by the Mpumalanga government.   In the early days of lockdown, it was the private sector that made all the running, conducted industry research and made recommendations to feed to government for the purposes of building a recovery plan.  During that time, we are not sure what the government did other than call Zoom meetings. And in 2018 and 2019, following many engagements with government, including a provincial tourism summit, a number of agreements were made between government and private sector. And yet, we are still waiting to see any meaningful intervention being made.” Pilane continued.

“The tourism industry calls on the Mpumalanga Government to convince us that they are serious about the recovery of tourism in the province, that they are serious about their commitments made to the industry in 2018 and 2019, and that they are serious about efforts to maintain employment (let alone creating jobs) in one of the province’s most important economic sectors. We urge the government to move immediately to address the finalization and implementation of the tourism recovery plan, including the resolution of the long-outstanding impediments to tourism growth.” concludes Pilane.

Issued by KLCBT President: Mr Oupa Pilane

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