Risk & Crisis Management in Tourism Sector:
Recovery from Crisis
in the OIC Member Countries
102
The Department of Tourism follows the National Tourism Sector Strategy (2011-20) and the
Tourism Strategic Plan (2015-20) to help it meet its objectives.
Around 450 tourism businesses levy a 1% charge on services to their guests and clients to
support South African Tourism’s overseas promotional efforts. This is known as the TOMSA levy
(i.e. ‘TourismMarketing South Africa’) and is channelled to SAT via the TBCSA (Ramawela, pers.
comm., 11 May 2017). This however forms only 6% of SAT’s budget: the remainder is covered
by central government funding.
5.1.2. Crises Affecting the South African Tourism Industry
According to a 2017 report, South Africa is still judged to have significant untapped potential in
terms of development in its tourism industry, but according to a Mintel (2017) report, its
potential is threatened by a number of weaknesses. The principal ongoing challenges can all be
classified as manmade crises rather than natural disasters: indeed David Frost, the head of
SATSA, remarked that South Africa’s tourism industry pain is self-inflicted (Frost, 2017, cited in
Alfred et al, 2017). The main issues are as follows:
 The introduction in 2014 of stringent new visa requirements for visitors from China,
India, Nigeria and other countries. Individuals from these markets are now required to
apply in person for their entry visa rather than a travel agent being able to do so on their
behalf. The introduction of the new rules saw a sharp drop in arrivals from China (down
38% in the first quarter of 2015), India (down 13%) and Nigeria (down 15%) in
2014/15 (England, 2015; Oxford Business Group, 2015). The regulations have since
been relaxed after pressure from the Department of Tourism and the private sector and
there has been some recovery in these markets, but overall the action was indicative of
poor coordination between different government departments and with the private
sector.
 A failure to understand and prepare for the characteristics of specific markets. For
instance, 65% of the Indian market visits South Africa during the southern hemisphere
winter in order to escape the hot season at home. Yet according to one tour operator
“ the SA consulate in Mumbai and High Commission in Delhi are never prepared for the
annual upsurge in visa applications in high season – we warn them about it every year
and they keep doing it” (Groenewald, 2017, cited in Alfred et al, 2017).
 New visa requirements were introduced for visitors from New Zealand in 2017 in an
apparent ‘tit for tat’ retaliation because New Zealand had strengthened visa
requirements for visitors from South Africa. This led to the cancellation of several group
tours (Emmanuel, 2017).
 In addition, in 2015 it became a requirement for all children (under the age of 18)
entering or leaving South Africa to have the written consent of both parents and to be in
possession of an unabridged, original birth certificate at the point of entry – with a
notarised translation into English if the original was in another language. An attempt to
restrict child trafficking, this regulation was introduced without sufficient lead-time or
consultation and caused considerable disruption to families’ travel plans and negative