​​​​​​​​​​RESEARCH REPORTS

The overall aim of the study is to explore the impact of COVID-19 on the Tourism-Transport Interface in South Africa with a view to proposing a scenario where this relationship might create opportunities for tourism to prosper post COVID-19. The research followed a three-step process beginning with a systematic description, based on literature and secondary data, of the overall tourism/transport interface and the modes of transport, with particular reference to air and road transport. Thereafter interviews with senior stakeholders in the airline, bus/coach and car rental industries were conducted. The third step in the research method was to conduct scenario planning workshops with leaders in the aviation (completed), car rental (completed) and coach/bus travel (pending) sectors. While history has had a strong influence on modal choice for tourism purposes in South Africa, current pre-COVID challenges in the transport sector such as consumer behavior, transport policies and regulations, infrastructure and resource limitations are affecting international, regional and domestic tourism.

In South Africa, the contribution of the public sector to economic growth cannot be understated. The contribution can take place through several channels, including via the tourism sector. The chained- tourism activities that result from direct government expenditures are characterised in this report as consisting of the public sector-generated tourism value chain. The chained-tourism activities are triggered when a meeting, conference or event requires government personnel to be away from their usual environment for at least 24 hours. Such absence requires that transport and accommodation, as well as food and beverages, be both organised and paid for. Certain suppliers benefit from the government expenditures incurred by providing transport, accommodation, food and beverages, or other services to the travelling government personnel within the value chain. The amended Tourism B-BBEE Sector Code gazetted by the Department of Trade and Industry in November 2015 seeks to ensure that the economic benefits of the booming tourism sector accrue to previously disadvantaged races as well as to the more traditionally privileged. Using government expenditures on tourism-related activities between 2013/14 and 2017/18, and the suppliers registered with the National Treasury, the study examines the value chain of the tourism sector generated from the public expenditures, and it attempts to determine the type of enterprises that benefit from within the value chain. The findings of the study are earmarked to produce policy recommendations that will aid the promotion of economic transformation that are set to enable the participation of previously disadvantaged races in the tourism value chain, particularly in terms of improving access to the procurement channels involved.

A major policy challenge in South Africa is for achieving greater ‘inclusion’ in the tourism industry and especially the provision of opportunities for formerly disadvantaged communities to benefit from sector growth. The National Tourism Sector Strategy calls for a broadening of the economic beneficiaries of tourism development and in particular calls for programmes to attract more black entrepreneurs into the tourism sector and to own and operate tourism SMMEs. One aspect of transformation and for expanding inclusivity in South Africa’s tourism economy is through the promotion of SMME development and especially of new entrepreneurship opportunities for Black-owned SMMEs. This can include both direct involvement of black entrepreneurs in tourism or of encouraging preferential usage of Black owned suppliers and the inclusion of SMMEs within supply chains. Overall the challenge of inclusive tourism requires that greater benefits flow to local (black) communities as well as other groups (especially women and the disabled) that formerly remained largely outside of the mainstream of the country’s tourism economy. This said, a 2018 report issued in 2018 by the Department of Tourism concerning the state of transformation in the South African tourism sector suggested that the pace of change is ‘slow’ and ‘concerning’.

New trends, opportunities and challenges form part of Tourism as a rapidly growing globalised industry. In the midst of these is an increasing need for product diversification and global competitiveness.1 This study explores some of these new trends and challenges in the form of relatively recent concepts in tourism literature, namely: “Cross-border tourism”; “Route tourism”, “Special interest / Niche tourism” and “tourist experiences”.

In recent years storytelling has gained increasing attention as a global marketing trend and development tool in the tourism industry. Studies have shown that a “real” or “fictive” story associated with a destination or its peoples has the distinct ability to give the specific area an advantage over its competitors, while still simultaneously providing the tourist with a more valuable and “unique” experience.1 This essentially means marketing domestic and international tourist destinations as “storyscapes” which creates a “commercial environment” for stories to be narrated, co-produced, shaped and transformed. It occurs through the interaction between all stakeholders, including story tellers, tourist guides and tourists. This process and newly found interest in storytelling as an essential tool, has allowed destinations (and their peoples) to more competitively compete within the “experience economy” of the tourism industry. This capitalises on the tourist’s adherent need for a more authentic story behind the tourism product, along with the tourist’s interest of how this “unique” story was acquired, created and then ultimately conveyed in an understandable and meaningful way.2 It allows tourists to basically become “co-producers” of their own memorable experience through their own personal interactions with tangible and intangible objects within a specific setting.3