South African Tourism - Casual Merchants Want Help, Not Extra Pink Tape

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South Africa is a lovely vacationer vacation spot for overseas travellers on the African continent. It ranks twenty seventh out of 128 international locations on this planet on the subject of customer arrivals.

Its prime points of interest are its wildlife and immersive cultural experiences, the place vacationers interact with the traditions, historical past and lifestyle of communities in vibrant city hubs like Cape City and Soweto.

Between 2000 and 2018 the variety of vacationer arrivals climbed from 491,439 to almost 6 million. The COVID pandemic put this pattern into reverse. In 2019 over 10 million vacationers arrived within the nation. In 2021 the quantity fell to simply over 3 million. There have been indicators of restoration in 2022 when the quantity went again as much as 5.6 million.

There was some restoration, however to not pre-pandemic ranges. This has been devastating for the nation. The tourism business has been a constant driver of financial progress for the final 30 years. Final 12 months it contributed 3.7% to GDP.

One group of people that have been among the many hardest hit are the nation’s casual merchants. They’re main beneficiaries of the tourism sector.

Tens of 1000’s of South Africans depend on tourism for his or her livelihoods. The drop in overseas tourism numbers affected the livelihoods of people, households and communities.

We performed analysis to know the impression of tourism numbers on casual merchants. It is significantly necessary given the excessive unemployment price of 32.6% within the nation and the sluggish financial progress price.

Our examine ran over two years in Cape City, certainly one of South Africa’s premier vacationer locations. The examine concerned 10 qualitative interviews in 2021 and 9 follow-up interviews in 2022.

The findings paint a sombre image of the challenges going through casual merchants within the metropolis. We made plenty of suggestions based mostly on our findings. These embody supporting casual merchants, however in a method that does not burden them with paperwork and pink tape.

Merchants and tourism in Cape City

Casual merchants in Cape City provide an array of distinctive tourism merchandise akin to arts, crafts and leather-based items. Within the examine, males made up 60% and ladies 40%. The ages of the merchants ranged extensively. Some adopted in a household custom, whereas others noticed buying and selling as their ticket out of financial hardship.

A number of themes emerged: vacationer dependency; vacationer spending energy; a pivot to the native market; and resilience.

Vacationer dependency: There was a heavy reliance on vacationers for clientele and income. Some merchants relied on vacationers for as a lot of 95% of their enterprise and turnover. The autumn in tourism numbers led to a pointy decline in gross sales.

Vacationer spending energy: Merchants mentioned that their turnover had not recovered to pre-pandemic ranges. One of many merchants expressed in comply with up interviews in 2022 that her weekly gross sales have been between R5,000 and R6,000 earlier than COVID, however “now typically making even R1,000 per week is a battle”.

Hyperlink to native market: The merchants had little alternative however to pivot in the direction of merchandise interesting to the native market. General, the merchants demonstrated resilience by adapting to native calls for. Some offered their private possessions to outlive whereas others switched to promoting important gadgets like garments and meals.

The return of the vacationers: Merchants firmly believed that the return of the worldwide vacationers was the one answer for the long run sustainability of their casual micro-enterprises.

Subsequent steps

Our examine was designed to look particularly on the impact of COVID on the livelihoods of casual merchants. This was a very laborious time for a lot of. Nonetheless, the insights we gained present worthwhile insights into the vulnerabilities of casual merchants depending on tourism past the fast results, and aftermath, of the pandemic.

We conclude from our findings that there is a must revitalise South Africa’s tourism sector as a complete, with a selected concentrate on the sustainability of the sector and never merely a return to the established order.

Some interventions we advocate embody:

entry to sources and coaching
insurance policies that assist the contributions of casual merchants
entry to markets, probably through an internet presence and partnerships with established companies – the chance to discover new avenues with out the burden of complicated enterprise plans and pointless pink tape
secure and reasonably priced in a single day storage for merchandise
sustaining legislation and order – the current taxi violence in Cape City was a reminder that casual commerce and the tourism sector rely on the standard of formal establishments
decisive measures to rebuild South Africa’s repute, combating labels akin to “harmful”.