Tourism development and growth is guided by the National Tourism Sector Strategy, 2016-26. The Strategy aims to promote rapid and inclusive tourism development, focusing on South Africa’s competitive edge in nature, culture, and heritage, underpinned by Ubuntu and supported by innovation and service excellence. The plan sets out clear targets for 2026 and key economic performance indicators, which are: increase direct tourism GDP to ZAR 302 billion; increase total (direct and indirect) contribution to GDP to ZAR 941 billion; increase the number of direct jobs supported by the sector to 1 million jobs; increase the number of total jobs supported by the sector to 2.2 million jobs; increase tourism export earnings to ZAR 359 billion and increase in capital investment to ZAR 148 billion for international, regional and domestic tourism.
To support the Strategy after the COVID-19 pandemic, the Tourism Sector Master Plan was launched in September 2023. The Master Plan adjusts the Tourism Sector Recovery Plan timeframes and seeks to continue to monitor the implementation of strategic interventions until 2026.
The Master Plan is anchored on three interlinked strategic themes: protect and rejuvenate supply, reignite demand and strengthen enabling capability for long term sustainability. Within these pillars, there are seven strategic interventions that address key areas of focus. These interventions include: enhancing education and skills development, promoting entrepreneurship and economic growth, improving infrastructure and connectivity, fostering social cohesion and well-being, preserving the environment and natural resources, strengthening governance and institutions, and promoting regional co-operation.
The Master Plan is aligned to the country’s broader Economic Recovery and Reconstruction Plan, contributing to the infrastructure development, mass public employment, green economy interventions, the inclusion of women and youth, and skills development. An annual performance statement is conducted to measure the Master Plan’s progress.
Various policies and programmes directly contribute to the tourism recovery in South Africa. These include:
Infrastructure programme: South Africa implements infrastructure maintenance and renovation projects in several provinces, particularly in provincial and national parks. These seek to ensure maintenance of tourism infrastructure to provide quality services to visitors. As part of route development, community-based tourism projects have been implemented to ensure inclusivity and promote transformation of the tourism sector in South Africa. There are 29 community tourism projects currently being implemented as part of destination enhancement and route development to diversify tourism offerings and visitor experience in identified priority areas. The projects contribute to uplifting rural communities, grow domestic tourism, job creation and small medium, and micro-enterprise development.
Capacity building programme: South Africa implements a large-scale skills development programme where especially women and young people are trained in various skills initiatives which include professional cookery; recognition of prior learning for chefs; sommelier and wine service training; food safety assurers; hospitality service training; resource efficiency; safety monitors programme; National Tourism Career Expo and the executive development programme for women. These initiatives aim to ensure the workforce skills are aligned with the industry’s needs. Most of the programmes are funded through the Expanded Public Works Programme of government, which supports employment and job creation interventions. At least 4 000 participants are targeted for these initiatives on an annual basis.
Incentives: Under the broader Tourism Incentive Programme, which has a budget allocation of ZAR 225.7 million for the 2023/24 financial year, financial incentive and support programmes are offered to stimulate sector transformation, enterprise growth, operational sustainability, job creation and an enhanced visitor experience. Targeted multi-year programmes include the Market Access Support Programme to expose small tourism enterprises at international, regional and domestic trade platforms; the Tourism Grading Support Programme to encourage participation in the country’s tourism grading system; the Green Tourism Incentive Programme to encourage investment in more energy and water efficiency systems to facilitate more sustainable operations; and the Tourism Equity Fund and Tourism Transformation Fund as two blended finance support mechanisms to encourage capital investment that will stimulate sector transformation through more inclusive enterprise ownership.
