Tourism and President Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation Address

South African President, Cyril Ramaphosa, made a number of key announcements pertinent to the tourism industry during his State of the Nation address on 7th February.

The President stated that he was pleased with progress made in restoring policy certainty on the visa regime.  He also announced that the introduction of e-visas was one of the Government’s highest priorities which when combined with enhanced destination marketing and measures to strengthen tourism safety, will create the conditions for the growth; and the jobs and opportunities that will follow.

“Our concerted efforts to market South Africa as a prime destination for tourists has yielded positive results, with significant annual growth in the number of foreign visitors. In the past year we had 10 million tourists who came to our country. We intend to raise this to 21 million by 2030, targeting, among others, the largest and fastest growing markets of India and China, as well as strong markets on our continent. We will deepen the partnership between government and business to realise this vision” the President said.

At the end of his State of the Nation speech, the President announced that General Elections would be held on 8th May 2019.

This date, which falls in the middle of Africa’s Tourism Indaba due to be held in Durban from 7th to 9th May, has led to South African Tourism announcing that Indaba is to be postponed as the venue is to be used as an election hub for Kwa-Zulu Natal.

At this stage no new date has been announced for the event.