Expensive flights and visa rules limit tourism

Source: by Gavin Keeton – Business Day Live, 20/07/2015

THE government`s seeming indifference to the negative effect of
recently introduced visa regulations on the country`s tourism industry
is in conflict with its professed desire to create jobs and to promote
the growth of small businesses.
A visit to Crete, the largest of Greece`s many islands, provided an
eye-opener for how much more might be achieved in SA if we made the
promotion of mass foreign tourism a priority.
Last year, 3.6-million tourists visited Crete. This is six visitors
for every resident, contributing about 40% of gross domestic product
and providing employment for more than 100,000 people.
Tourism has grown significantly over the past few decades and, in
recent years, increasing numbers of tourists from central Europe and
Russia have started holidaying in Crete.
Many factors have contributed to Crete`s attractiveness as a tourist
destination, including its wonderful summer climate; long coastline
with crystal-clear and warm water and the island`s astonishingly long
archaeological history.
But other factors were also necessary to make this potential for
tourism a reality.
The first is the recognition that it is private individuals who create
the businesses and the jobs that provide the services that tourists
demand.
The government`s role in attracting tourists is to provide the
enabling environment within which such businesses can flourish. Part
of this is allowing easy access to airports so that budget airlines
from all over Europe can fly visitors into Crete at very low cost.
If there are zoning regulations in Crete, they are seemingly not
enforced as agriculture, commercial activity and housing exist side by
side.
Thousands of small service enterprises — mainly family-owned
restaurants, supermarkets, car-hire businesses, bus tour operators,
curio shops and providers of water sports and recreational attractions
— are to be found everywhere.
Many families live above their businesses and much of their labour is
provided by family members.
Use of family workers is important as it allows firms to adapt swiftly
to the fluctuations in their labour needs caused by the dramatic
summer influx of tourists. The people in these businesses work
extraordinarily hard.
In season, businesses remain open until very late at night and there
is a fierce pride in providing good service and hospitality.
Waiters, mainly family members, serve 10-15 tables simultaneously. In
restaurants, it is common to hear the same person addressing patrons
in three or four languages.
Tour guides switch flawlessly between several languages. Everyone can
speak English.
Because competition is fierce between so many rival businesses
providing similar services in close proximity, prices are much lower
than in most parts of Europe.
For SA to replicate Crete`s success in promoting mass tourism would
require a significant change in the current policy.
So long as travel costs to SA continue to be inflated by limiting the
access for low-cost airlines to our airports in order to protect the
national carrier, the creation of a low-budget, mass tourism industry
will not be possible.
No matter how spectacular and abundant our natural and cultural
attractions, and despite the low cost of our services for foreigners
because of the weak rand exchange rate, if we do not reduce flight
costs here, we will never attract the required volumes of foreign
tourists to create a mass tourism industry.
The current restrictions limit potential tourism to a much smaller,
richer sector of the global market. These tourists demand
accommodation in five-star hotels and visit upmarket, private game lodges.
They do bring in useful foreign exchange but the potential spin-offs
for small businesses are much reduced.
Most important, the smaller number of such visitors means job creation
is far below what is possible.
Yet even this segment of the tourism market is threatened by our new
visa regulations for children travelling to and from this country.
The new documentary requirements for children to travel are a major
hassle factor for families and for airlines, which are obliged to help
administer them.
This makes us even less attractive to the budget market.
We need to get serious about creating jobs. Determined efforts to
boost tourism would be a good place to start.