4s OPEN AFRICA

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Local is lekker: The industry should focus on Southern African tourists PHoro:ANDHEWzAlouNrls

Woothelocals, notthe

with fistsful of dollals 1

The tourism industry should not
rely on foreign visitors, but look to
the local market. Eddie Koch
and David Grossman report
is a mindset in the tourism
which says foreign people
carrying fistsful of dollars into our
wildemess areas are the solution to
South Africa s mral poverty.
"Prepare to meet the boom," Environment
and Tourism Minister Dawie de Villiers said in
a recent speech. "Forex earnings from foreign
visitors will in future exceed those fiom gold
mining," adds a major tour company's report.
Is there any truth in these rosy predictions?
A plethora of studies show ttrat foreign travel to
relatively undisfurbed wildiife areas is a pot of
gold at the end of the tourism industry's rain-
bow.
One projection has it that annual revenues
for $obal nature-oriented travel will amount to
RgoO-billion in 1996. Another study says there
will be 500-million travellers seeking wilder-
ness experiences by thatyear.
Statistics need to be handled with care, but
there is no doubt that ecotourism is the fastest
grcwing sector of the world's fastest growing
industry. "Gone are the days when tourists
were content only to pack a suitcase and head
for the newest, shiniest tropical resort," says
one commentator.
"Now trendy travellers are bringing along
more than just their luggage These intema-
I
I
i
'\vhite" section of the population. t
'After the April elections new cohorts of black (
politicians and administrators will also move t
into a higtfincome bracket. In the process a (
black executive class, and with it a new leisure I
traveller, is being created overnight," says a
new edition of the F-conomist krtelligence Unit's l
Travel and Tourism Analyst. t
Even the upmarket lodges in South Africa /
which pitch themselves at the lucrative over- I
seas market, charging Rl 000 and more for f
each day on the private game farm, flirt with t
the local market when it suits them. In the low i
season, when bookings are down, they dis- l
count their prices artd offer a range of"specials" t
designed to lure homeboys into their beds. I
I f anv analvsis say developing countries c
I
.[Yl *ll :ffi :"""ffion tr":"m*:mry;
domestic instead of I
far better if they relied
fickle foreign travellers. Advantages ofdoing so a
include:
OForeign travel is notoriously labile. It
responds dramatically to international and S
local upheavals, disease, variations in market a
fads and seasonal changes in climate. (
Olnternational tourism flows often fail to o
generate foreign exchange eamings because r.
vast amounts of revenue "leak" out of the host e
country to developed nations that dominate the a
airline and travel agents business. The World c
Bank, for example, estimates 55 percent of h
tourist spending in developing cor.tntries even- il
tually seeps back to developed countries. c
Olocal tourists can have greater empathy fi
 r\uw Ltctruy
more than just their luggage These intema- Olocal tourists can have greater empathy fi
tional tor.rrists packing a conscience as well as with cr-rltural and ecological sensitivities of the a
a keen desire to learn about and experience the region being visited. This can help downplay \i
exotic natural wonders of the world." the cultural voyeurism that bedevils many
But there are signs that nature-travel entre- countries i.vho rely on huge flows of overseas 1(
preneurs in South Africa, infatuated with visitors to their shores. (See PAGE 6s.) r1
.l
seductive messages from overseas, have OIt is easier for local entrepreneurs to build 1li

neglected their local suitors. and manage facilities aimed at domestic trav-
Studies conducted by the South African ellers. This can ensure that the travel industry "l I

Tourism Board (Satour) show that 60 percent
of total tourist revenues in South Africa origi-
nated from domestic travel. In 1989 an esti-
mated lO-million travellers went on holiday
locally, injecting about R2,B-billion into the
national economy.
In the late 1980s some 700 000 risited the
Kmger National Park, helping to make it an
anchor in the re$onal economy of the Eastem
Transvaal Lowveld. Only one in every 10 of
these travellers carne from overseas. The locals
is locally owned which, in tum, prevents the iq
erport of profits out of rural areas. A 1989 sur- ol
vey showed black travellers in South Africa r$
were willing to risk more discomfort on holiday si
and are, therefore, more likely to visit places ,l
where new enterprises have starled up. br
The reconstruction and development pro- d.
grarnme states, in its section on the tourism r(
industry, that tor.rrism has been developed on a tli
racial basis in this country, catering mainly for
white entrepreneurs and holiday makers. Edu- C,i

tend to stay for a week, the foreigners lbr an caUon, access to credit and training for black adl
average of 1,5 days. entrepreneurs can help correct this imbalance. o:
Hotels around the country fllled 85 percent It is possible for a marriage between nature N
of their beds, on avera€ie, with local bodies and and travel to redistribute wealth in the coun- T
only 15 percentwith foreigrers and thatwas try. But if the tourism industry remains fi,
-
at a time when the local market was oriented obsessed with foreigners from overseas it is ti
overwhelmingly toward the high-income likely to be jilted at the altar. d

TOURr$Afi"

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