The South African travel and tourism industry welcomed Patricia de Lille as the country’s new minister of tourism on March 6. De Lille replaces outgoing minister Lindiwe Sisulu in a cabinet reshuffle.

De Lille, who previously served as the country’s public works and infrastructure minister, said her main focus in her new role is to drive
greater implementation of the Tourism Sector Recovery Plan, to drive
destination development and marketing and accelerate efforts on all
fronts to help the sector create more jobs. “There is so much untapped
potential in our country, and we will be working harder to see more
travelers visit our shores,” she said.

In a statement, Tourism Business Council of South Africa charmain Blacky Komani said that he would like to see the minister place a heavy focus on the following key objectives that will help the country achieve its stated targets of 21 million arrivals by 2030:

• Create a  fully automated, world-class e-visa with improved airport e-infrastructure.
• Expand visa waivers for more source markets.
• Introduce critical skills visas and temporary work visas.
• Address vehicle licensing backlogs.
• Provide additional funds for tourism marketing.
• Create private-public partnerships to radically improve and implement marketing – especially in key growth markets.
• Establish investment incentives.

In welcoming de Lille’s appointment, Rosemary Anderson, national chair for the hospitality association Fedhasa, said: “We look forward to working with her and unlocking the enormous potential that tourism holds for South Africa.

“We trust that minister de Lille’s appointment will be a catalyst for change, moving tourism forward by overcoming the current stumbling blocks and facilitating new opportunities for growth, such as the provision of digital nomad visas and the long-awaited eVisa system.”

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