Load shedding and its effect on SA's tourism industry

Last week we announced the city's preparedness for the tourist high season and were discussing looking forward to welcoming some 50,000 travellers from the UK alone over the December 2019 to March 2020 period, an increase of 30% from the same period last year.

While visitors to our city have many attractions they can still enjoy with or without electricity the unexpected news that load shedding had gone up to Stage 6 brought an element of uncertainty to what was meant to be the season when both international visitors and locals were enjoying all that our city has to offer.

By Enver Duminy

12 Dec 2019

41330 via Pixabay

Tourism in South Africa is a perishable commodity and has been reeling from the decline in tourist volumes over the last few years. These lost volumes don’t only mean a decrease in revenues for tourism businesses but result in fewer new jobs being created for ordinary citizens across our amazing country.

When every 12 tourists translate into one new job, we should be fighting to retain every single visitor. All tourists expect us to keep our brand promise to keep them safe and make sure they have a memorable and enjoyable experience. Not being able to meet these expectations will result in fewer visitors, a drop in spending, fewer jobs, and more unemployment.

In this situation, tourism operators are not sure what they can offer visitors and visitors are not sure what to expect. That this is happening during the time of the year when we should be putting our best foot forward as a city and a country is only more troubling.

As Cape Town Tourism we urge all parties involved to resolve this situation with the urgency called for and in the meantime, we will be keeping our members and visitors updated on all developments as and when we receive information from the relevant authorities.